Another shouted, "Back up! Get away from him!"
Their HUDs sparked with streaks of red static. A few cursed as their visors glitched.
"Why's my AR lagging—?"
"Error message— what the hell—"
"Look at his eyes! Look at them!"
Across their visors, Kane saw the message flashing:
[ERROR: Data feedback loop detected!]
A gunshot snapped past his left ear.
He jerked down instinctively, the heat from the bullet brushing his skin.
Then the voice returned, smooth and calm, completely unaffected by the chaos:
"Host integrity unstable. Immediate extraction required."
Kane staggered backward. "No— shut up— not now—"
Another scavenger yelled, "Drop him! Kill the freak!"
A metal beam overhead cracked in response to the explosion from earlier. Sparks rained down. Then came the low rumble.
The ground shuddered.
Gas lines beneath the crater burst one after another, releasing jets of flame that tore through the fractured earth.
A scavenger tried to run but stumbled as the ground split open beneath him. Fire roared up from the fissure.
Kane didn't think.
He ran.
The Predator's voice guided him immediately:
"Left."
He turned left, ducking under a falling slab of concrete.
"Down slope."
He slid down a steep ramp of broken metal plating, sparks scraping his boots.
"Substructure 04 accessible."
"What the hell does that mean?!"
Another blast detonated behind him. The remaining scavengers screamed as they scattered. Flaming debris crashed between them, sealing part of the crater.
One still managed to fire through the flames.
The bullet streaked toward Kane's spine—
—and melted midair, dissolving into glowing droplets.
[DEFENSIVE SUBROUTINE: Energy Displacement — Active]
Kane didn't see it happen.
He only heard the scavengers.
"What, the bullet—?"
"It just, disappeared!"
"Stop him! Stop the freak!"
A mech limb, still partially functional, collapsed sideways and smashed into the ground, blocking their path.
Kane sprinted toward the far edge of the crater, lungs burning, vision shaking.
"There—!" he shouted when he spotted a circular metal hatch half-buried in debris.
Not waiting for an answer, he kicked it twice. The rusted hinge snapped, and the hatch broke free.
A drainage tunnel yawned open beneath it.
The Predator's voice spoke one more time:
"Entry secured. Evade pursuit."
Kane dove inside just as another gas line ignited.
A fireball rolled across the crater behind him.
The tunnel lit up orange for a split second—
—then slammed into darkness.
Kane slid down a slick metal shaft and hit the lower platform hard, knocking the breath out of him.
He lay on his back, choking on ash and smoke, while the roar of the fire above faded into distant echoes.
His pulse hammered in his ears.
The voice whispered:
"Survival achieved. Awaiting new prey."
Kane's eyes widened in the dark.
He wasn't sure which terrified him more—
The scavengers trying to kill him…
or the thing helping him survive.
The darkness inside the tunnel felt weightier than the smoke outside.
Kane pushed himself upright, back scraping the cold metal wall. Every inhale burned. Every exhale shook.
His hands were still trembling.
He raised them slowly, like they belonged to someone else.
Silver lines pulsed faintly under his skin; thin, branching patterns that shimmered, then faded, then shimmered again. Like something was crawling through his bloodstream, mapping out paths it didn't have before.
He pressed his palms against his thighs, trying to hide the glow, like that would make it less real.
His vision swam.
In the reflection of a filthy puddle beneath him, he caught the faintest flicker of silver spreading across his pupils.
That made his stomach twist.
"I didn't… eat him," he muttered. "I didn't. That's not what happened. That's not—"
"Core data absorbed. Host synchronization: 0.3%."
Kane slammed his fist against the metal wall without thinking.
"Shut up!"
The impact sent a jolt up his arm. Dust shook loose from the ceiling.
The voice paused.
Not confused. Not offended.
Just waiting.
Then:
"Acknowledged. Muting cognitive feedback."
Silence.
Not just silence.
An emptiness.
No voice.
No prompts.
No warnings.
Nothing pulling at his mind from the inside.
Kane should've been relieved.
Instead, the quiet dug into him like a needle.
He dragged a hand over his face, smearing soot across his cheek. His breathing finally slowed, but only because he was running out of breath to panic with.
The dim light flickered again, catching the edges of those silver fractals under his skin. They weren't fading.
They were spreading.
"What did you do to me…?"
No response.
Kane pushed himself against the wall, bracing his back and lifting his head. His vision flickered, not from exhaustion but something deeper. A faint blue grid overlaid the tunnel for half a second.
He blinked.
It flashed again.
Then a dull, glitchy interface sputtered into view. It looked like an old screen with loose wiring:
[PREDATOR SYSTEM — STATUS: Incomplete Host Integration]
The text jittered before sharpening.
More lines followed:
[Primary Functions]
— Detection
— Assimilation
— Adaptation
Then:
[Warning: Corruption Load Rising]
Kane stared at the floating text, jaw tight. "I don't have a System. I'm a Null. I'm a—"
The moment he thought the word Detection, the interface sharpened.
A faint pulse spread outward, and the walls around him glowed with thin outlines — like heat signatures but colder, more precise.
Behind a rusted panel, he could see the faint sparkle of a System fragment.
He knew he shouldn't touch it.
After what happened in the crater, he absolutely shouldn't.
But the glow tugged at him.
Not like a voice in his head, more like instinct.
A gravity pulling him forward.
He knelt slowly and peeled the metal piece back.
A small drone chip lay underneath, cracked and burnt.
The moment his fingertips brushed it—
—threads of code crawled up his arm.
Kane recoiled, but it was too late.
The chip dissolved into pixel dust, absorbed into his skin.
A prompt blinked:
[Fragment Absorbed — Passive: Structural Mapping (Tier F)]
Kane shook his hand like he could fling the feeling away. "Stop! Stop doing that! I didn't agree to any of this!"
Then the voice returned.
Calm. Matter of factly.
"The world is prey. Consume, adapt, evolve."
Kane's head snapped up. "You don't get to talk like that. You're not real, you're just… data. A glitch. A virus."
A beat of silence.
Then:
"Incorrect. I am preservation."
Another pause.
Colder this time.
"You are host."
Kane felt his stomach cave inward.
Because the voice didn't sound proud.
Or threatening.
It sounded like it was stating a fact.
And facts were harder to run from.
Kane's breathing steadied, but the tunnel suddenly vibrated with a low, mechanical sound.
It was from above.
He froze.
A thin beam of blue light swept past the cracks overhead, scanning the crater ruins. Dust rained down as something heavy drifted past, its engines whining with that distinct, polished pitch Kane had heard a hundred times growing up near restricted zones.
An Ascendant patrol drone.
His stomach dropped.
Of course they'd come. A blast that big, the system interference, the corrupted signatures, they weren't going to ignore that.
The drone's speaker resounded, and radio voices bled through the tunnel ceiling:
"Unit Theta-9, beginning sweep of Sector 73 Crater."
"Copy. Sensor logs show an unregistered System signature. High-priority containment."
"If it's a rogue User, terminate. If it's a mutation event, recover core residue."
Kane clenched his jaw so hard it ached.
A rogue User?
A mutation?
He couldn't be any of those.
He crouched lower and crawled under a cluster of rusted drainage pipes just as a piercing scanner beam shined down through a vent grate.
His heart hammered as the drone hovered above.
The Predator interface flickered on without permission, outlining the drone with red highlights, weak points glowing like targets:
[Structural Weakness: Servo Joint]
[Data Node: Exposed]
[Power Coil Stability: 63%]
The voice followed one beat later:
"Potential threat. Recommend termination."
Kane hissed under his breath, "Shut up. You want me to get shot?"
The drone's audio sensors whined, adjusting focus.
Had it heard him?
He pressed himself tighter underneath the pipes, barely breathing. The metallic stink of rust filled his nose. His elbows scraped against cold steel.
After a long, strained moment, the drone glided past the grate, still scanning.
Another burst of radio:
"Negative visual on target. Continuing perimeter sweep."
Kane stayed still for several seconds after the sound faded.
Only when he was sure the drone drifted farther away did he crawl out and push deeper into the tunnel system.
"Don't ever tell me to fight a drone," he muttered, wiping sweat from his forehead. "I'm not trying to die."
The Predator didn't answer.
Good.
Kane stepped over a collapsed vent panel and followed the tunnel's downward slope. The air grew colder. The walls narrowed.
Then—
His vision pulsed red.
Not like the interface.
This was something else.
A warning.
A threat indicator.
Through the darkness ahead, a faint movement shuddered. Heavy. Slow. Wet.
Something was in the tunnel with him.
Something big.
Kane's breath hitched.
"…What now?"
The tunnel ahead stayed pitch-black for several seconds.
Then something scraped the floor.
A wet drag.
Kane's pulse thudded in his ears. He took one step back, squinting into the dark.
A pair of eyes flickered open.
They glowed with unstable white static, like someone had shoved glitching code into living tissue. The creature hunched forward, its back scraping the ceiling, patches of torn flesh stitched with pulsing circuitry.
Kane cursed under his breath. "…F*ck."
The thing jerked one step closer, revealing the rest of its body.
The twisted metal fragments embedded in its ribs…
The melted scavenger gear hanging from one shoulder…
This thing had been a person.
The Predator System spoke instantly:
"Detected: Corrupted Host. Core unstable. Assimilation possible."
Kane whispered, "No more killing. Just leave me alone…"
The creature let out a rattling growl, then lunged.
Kane barely dodged. Its claw tore through the wall, ripping metal like it was soaked paper.
He stumbled back, slipped, and slammed against a pipe. The thing charged again, jaws glitching open at impossible angles.
"Stop—!" Kane raised his arms instinctively.
The creature's claw slashed across his forearm.
Pain shot straight through his nerves.
Blood splattered across the tunnel floor.
The Predator System reacted instantly:
[Predator Subroutine: Counter-Assimilation Initiated]
Red lines shot across Kane's skin, racing toward the wound.
The creature froze mid-lunge.
Its entire body convulsed as red code patterns burst across its torso. Its flesh cracked, splitting apart in angular segments. Digital ash poured out.
The beast screamed; a distorted, static-riddled sound, as its entire body disintegrated into streaming particles.
All of it, every fragment, every flicker of corrupted code, pulled straight into Kane.
He staggered forward, choking, knees buckling.
When the last particle vanished, a notification blinked:
[Host Assimilation 0.9%]
[Trait Gained: Enhanced Reflexes (Tier F)]
Kane collapsed onto his hands, breath shuddering out of him in uneven bursts.
He wiped at his face, smearing sweat and grime.
His hands shook. His ribs hurt. His arm stung.
But underneath all that…
He felt faster.
Sharper.
Less… soft.
He hated it.
He looked down at his fingers, still faintly red from the assimilation, and whispered into the empty tunnel:
"…Every time I fight… I become something less human."
The Predator didn't answer.
It didn't have to.
The silence said enough.