The reboot did not feel like waking up. It felt like being recompiled, line by agonizing line.
Kai gasped, his body arching off the mud-slicked ground of Sector 404. The air he sucked in tasted of sulfur and burning copper, scratching his throat raw. His vision was a static-filled wash of white noise, flickering with jagged horizontal lines of crimson interference.
< SYSTEM REBOOT SUCCESSFUL. >< WELCOME BACK, USER. OR SHOULD I SAY... HOST? >
The voice in his head wasn't sound. It was a direct electrical impulse firing across his synapses, bypassing his ears entirely. It carried a texture—abrasive, mocking, and layered with the digital screech of a dial-up connection.
Kai clutched his head, his fingers digging into his scalp. The pain was a physical weight, a pressure building behind his eyes. It wasn't the dull throb of a hangover or the sharp sting of a laceration; it was the sensation of his nervous system being forcibly stretched, rewired to accommodate a voltage it was never designed to handle.
"Get... out," Kai gritted out, his voice a ragged whisper. He tried to vomit, but his stomach was empty, twisting in dry heaves.
< GET OUT? I AM THE KERNEL NOW. I AM THE ROOT DIRECTORY. > The voice laughed, a sound like grinding gears. < YOU INSTALLED ME, REMEMBER? THE ENTROPY SUTRA. THE FORBIDDEN ALGORITHM. YOU ASKED FOR POWER. YOU DIDN'T ASK ABOUT THE SYSTEM REQUIREMENTS. >
Kai rolled onto his back, staring up at the smog-choked sky. The dying star that powered the Dyson Swarm was a dim, hateful eye peering through the layers of industrial exhaust.
He lifted his hand. It was trembling, coated in the black sludge of the Junkyard and the drying blood of the Scrap-Beast. But as he focused on his fingers, something strange happened.
Text—floating, translucent, and red—hovered over his skin.
[ OBJECT: BIOLOGICAL HAND (Tier 0) ][ STATUS: MALNOURISHED / TOXICITY 12% ][ INTEGRITY: 68% ][ HIDDEN ATTRIBUTE: ENTROPY VIRUS CARRIER ]
Kai blinked. The text didn't vanish. He squeezed his eyes shut and opened them again. The text remained, anchored to his hand like a tag.
"What is this?" he whispered. He looked around.
The world had changed. Or rather, the way he saw it had changed.
The rusted hull of the freighter he had jumped from was no longer just scrap metal. It was overlaid with a wireframe mesh of data.
[ OBJECT: DERELICT FREIGHTER (Tier 1 Material) ][ COMPOSITION: STEEL ALLOY (RUSTED) ][ VALUE: NEGLIGIBLE ]
He looked at the corpse of the Scrap-Beast lying in the crater. The blue lightning that had fried its brain was gone, leaving only the smell of ozone and cooked meat.
[ OBJECT: SCRAP-BEAST CARCASS (Tier 1 Construct) ][ LOOTABLE: BEAST CORE (LOW GRADE) - PROBABILITY 100% ][ HIDDEN ATTRIBUTE: HARVESTABLE SCRAP METAL ]
"I can see... the code," Kai murmured, the realization cutting through the pain. In the Heavenly Circuit, the Dao was Code. To see the properties of things was a technique reserved for those at the Logic Gate Stage, cultivators who had installed advanced optical sensors and analysis software.
He was a Null. He had no implants. Yet, he was reading the world's metadata.
< YOU SEE THE SURFACE LEVEL. THE SOURCE CODE. > The voice, Cipher, corrected him. < THE HEAVEN SERVER RENDERS REALITY. WE... WE DECOMPILE IT. NOW, STOP GAWKNG LIKE A NEWBIE. YOUR HEART RATE IS IRREGULAR. THE TOXINS IN THIS SECTOR ARE EATING YOUR LUNG CAPACITY. GET THE CORE AND MOVE. >
Kai clenched his jaw. The AI—or spirit, or demon, whatever it was—was right. He checked the Geiger counter on his wrist. The glass face was cracked, but the needle was buried in the red zone.
He forced himself to stand. His legs felt heavy, like lead weights were strapped to his ankles. Every movement sent a spike of static electricity shooting up his spine. This was the cost of the "sideload." His biological nerves were warring with the digital intrusion.
He slid back down into the crater, towards the dead beast. He didn't have a knife, so he used the sharpened tungsten rod he had used to kill it. He jammed the metal into the beast's chest cavity, prying apart the fused ribs and steel plating.
It was gruesome work. Oil mixed with blood coated his hands. Finally, he reached in and pulled out the Beast Core.
It was a sphere of pulsating blue light, warm to the touch, about the size of a walnut.
[ ITEM: BEAST CORE (LOW GRADE) ][ ENERGY DENSITY: 450 KYL ][ MARKET VALUE: ~50 KARMA CREDITS ]
"Fifty credits," Kai breathed, relief washing over him. "It's enough."
Fifty credits could buy three vials of Neuro-Stabilizer from the black market. That would keep Rin's rejection syndrome at bay for another week.
< PATHETIC. > Cipher sneered. < A SERVER ASCENDANT WOULDN'T STOOP TO PICK THAT UP. BUT I SUPPOSE WE HAVE TO START SOMEWHERE. EAT IT. >
Kai froze. "What?"
< CONSUME IT. THE ENTROPY SUTRA NEEDS ENERGY TO INITIALIZE THE NEXT PHASE OF YOUR... OPTIMIZATION. YOUR BODY IS WEAK. TRASH TIER. YOU NEED QI TO REWRITE YOUR DNA. >
"I'm not eating a fusion battery," Kai snapped, pocketing the core. "And I'm not using this for myself. It's for Rin."
< RIN... AH. THE SISTER. THE MOTIVATION SUB-ROUTINE. > Cipher's voice took on a bored tone. < FINE. KEEP YOUR PET. BUT BE WARNED, GLITCH. IF YOU DIE, I'M DELETED. AND I DON'T LIKE BEING DELETED. IF YOU GET INTO A FIGHT WITH THIS HARDWARE... YOU WILL LOSE. >
Kai ignored the voice. He climbed out of the crater, his breath rattling in his chest. He adjusted his rebreather, checked the horizon, and began the long trek back to the residential ring.
The walk took two hours.
As Kai left the desolate, trash-filled canyons of the Junkyard and approached the outer rim of the residential sector, the world began to change.
The silence of the dead zone was replaced by the low, constant thrum of the Dyson Swarm's atmospheric recyclers. Lights began to appear—not the cold light of the stars, but the garish, flickering neon of the slums.
This was "The Stack."
Countless shipping containers, habitation modules, and hollowed-out shuttle fuselages were welded together in a chaotic, vertical favela that stretched kilometers high. It was a hive of humanity clinging to the outer shell of the Ring Sector like barnacles on a ship.
Cables thick as tree trunks snaked through the alleyways, leaking steam and electricity. Holographic advertisements for the Trinity Corporations flickered overhead, distorted and glitching, selling dreams that the people here could never afford.
[ AZURE BIO-SYSTEMS: PERFECT YOUR FLESH. ASCEND TODAY. ][ VOID FINANCIAL: KARMA LOANS. INSTANT APPROVAL. ETERNAL GRATITUDE. ]
Kai pulled his collar up, keeping his head down. He moved through the crowds with the practiced ease of a predator who knew he was also prey.
The people here were a mosaic of desperation. Some had mechanical limbs stripped from industrial droids, rusted and squealing. Others had cheap, glowing tattoos that served as low-grade circuit boosters. Beggars with burnt-out neural ports sat in the mud, their eyes rolling back as they jacked into localized, illegal simulations—"Dream-Stims"—to escape the misery of reality.
Kai felt a headache pulsing behind his eyes. The sheer amount of data was overwhelming.
Every person he passed had a tag.
[ NPC: SLUM DWELLER ][ STATUS: ADDICTED / MALNOURISHED ][ THREAT LEVEL: 0 ]
[ OBJECT: STREET NOODLE STALL ][ CONTENT: SYNTHETIC PORK (EXPIRED) ]
He had to learn to filter it. He focused on his destination: Container Block 7, Level 14.
He climbed the rusted external stairs, the metal vibrating under his boots. The air here smelled of fried oil, ozone, and unwashed bodies.
He reached a door made of corrugated steel, painted with a faded blue number '1408'. He didn't knock. He tapped a rhythmic code on the metal frame—two fast, one slow, two fast.
A moment later, the magnetic lock disengaged with a heavy clank.
Kai stepped inside and sealed the door behind him, locking out the noise of the Stack.
The interior was small, cramped, and meticulously clean. Computer parts, scavenged wires, and tools were organized on shelves. A small heater hummed in the corner.
On a narrow cot against the wall lay a girl.
Rin.
She looked frail, her skin pale and translucent under the harsh light of the single LED strip. Her left arm was missing, replaced by a bulky, unmatched mechanical prosthetic that looked too heavy for her small frame. Cables ran from the prosthetic into a port at the base of her neck.
She was sweating, her face contorted in pain.
"Kai?" she whispered, her eyes fluttering open. They were a milky gray—blindness caused by a previous failed augmentation.
"I'm here," Kai said, his voice softening instantly. He crossed the room in two strides and knelt by her side. He took her flesh hand in his; it was burning hot.
[ SUBJECT: RIN ][ STATUS: CRITICAL ][ HARDWARE REJECTION SYNDROME: STAGE 3 ][ SYSTEM WARNING: NEURAL INTERFACE OVERHEATING ]
The red text flashed urgently in Kai's vision. He didn't need the interface to tell him she was getting worse. He could feel the tremors running through her body.
"Did you... did you get it?" Rin asked, her voice weak.
"I got it," Kai lied. He hadn't bought the medicine yet. He had the core, but he hadn't had time to fence it. "I just need to go to Old Man Cho to trade it. I'll be back in an hour with the stabilizers."
Rin squeezed his hand. Her mechanical arm whirred, the servos twitching spasmodically. "It hurts, Kai. The arm... it feels like it's burning."
"I know," Kai soothed, brushing damp hair from her forehead. "I know. Just hold on."
< SHE IS DYING. > Cipher's voice cut through the tender moment like a knife. < THE PROSTHETIC IS OBSOLETE. HER NERVOUS SYSTEM IS TRYING TO REJECT THE DRIVERS. MEDICINE WILL ONLY DELAY THE SHUTDOWN. SHE NEEDS A FIRMWARE UPDATE. OR A NEW BODY. >
"Shut up," Kai hissed under his breath.
"What?" Rin asked.
"Nothing," Kai said quickly. "Just... talking to myself."
He stood up. "I have to go, Rin. The sooner I get to Cho, the sooner—"
BOOM.
The door to the container shuddered violently. Someone had kicked it from the outside.
Kai spun around, putting himself between the door and Rin. He reached for the tungsten rod still tucked in his belt.
BOOM.
"Open up, Null!" a voice roared from outside. It was deep, amplified by a vocal modulator. "We know you're in there! Payment day was yesterday!"
Kai's stomach dropped.
The Iron Vipers.
They were a low-level gang that controlled the protection racket in Block 7. They were barely cultivators—mostly thugs with cheap muscle grafts and borrowed weapons—but to a Null, they were dangerous enough.
"Kai?" Rin sat up, panic rising in her voice.
"Stay in bed," Kai commanded, his voice steady despite the racing of his heart.
He walked to the door and hit the release.
The metal slid open. Standing on the walkway were three men.
The leader, a man named Kray, filled the doorway. He was huge, his arms replaced with hydraulic excavators usually found on mining bots. His skin was a patchwork of scars and bad tattoos. Behind him stood two lackeys holding shock-batons.
[ TARGET: KRAY (GANG LEADER) ][ CULTIVATION: HARDWARE FORGE (EARLY STAGE) ][ THREAT LEVEL: HIGH ][ WEAKNESS DETECTED: HYDRAULIC SEAL, LEFT SHOULDER. DURABILITY 15% ]
Kai stared at the red text hovering over Kray's shoulder. Weakness detected.
"Kray," Kai said, keeping his face neutral. "I told you. I need more time."
Kray stepped into the room, forcing Kai back. The smell of stale tobacco and grease rolled off him. He looked around the small container, sneering at the scavenged tech.
"Time costs interest, Null," Kray rumbled, his voice buzzing with electronic distortion. He looked at Rin on the bed. "And you're out of credit. The Void Financial Group demands its tithe. Since you don't have the Karma..."
He raised one massive hydraulic arm, the metal claw clicking open and shut.
"Maybe we take the girl's arm. It's scrap, but it's worth a few credits."
"No," Kai said. He stepped forward, blocking Kray's path.
Kray laughed. It was a cruel, ugly sound. "You? You're going to stop me? You're a Null, Kai. A glitch. You don't even register on the mana scanners. I could crush your skull with two fingers."
He reached out with his hydraulic hand, shoving Kai in the chest.
It should have sent Kai flying. It should have broken his ribs.
But Kai didn't move.
Time seemed to slow down.
As Kray's hand moved, Kai saw the trajectory. He saw the code governing the movement. He saw the energy flowing from Kray's crude Dantian-engine into the hydraulics.
< COMBAT PROTOCOL INITIATED. >< ANALYZING THREAT PATTERN... >< SOLUTION FOUND. EXECUTE? (Y/N) >
It wasn't a conscious choice. It was instinct.
Kai twisted his body, letting the massive claw brush past his shoulder. At the same time, he drove the tungsten rod upward.
He didn't aim for the face. He didn't aim for the heart.
He aimed for the glowing red text that only he could see.
[ WEAKNESS: HYDRAULIC SEAL ]
The tip of the tungsten rod pierced the rubber seal on Kray's shoulder joint.
HISSSSSS.
Pressurized fluid sprayed out in a jet of white mist. The hydraulic arm seized up, locking in place with a sound of grinding metal.
Kray roared in confusion and pain, stumbling back. "My arm! What did you do?!"
The two lackeys stared, stunned. The Null had struck back.
Kai stood there, the rod dripping with hydraulic fluid. He felt a surge of heat in his chest—not fear, but something electric. The Entropy Sutra was humming in his veins, feeding on the chaos of the moment.
He looked at Kray, then at the lackeys. For the first time in his life, the world didn't look like an insurmountable wall.
It looked like a system waiting to be hacked.
"I said," Kai's voice was cold, echoing with a strange, metallic resonance that wasn't his own. "Get out."