The silence that followed the violence was heavier than the noise that had preceded it.
In the cramped, flickering interior of Container 1408, Kai stood over the groaning form of Kray. The massive gang leader was clutching his shoulder, his hydraulic arm hanging uselessly like a broken wing. The white mist of coolant fluid swirled in the air, mixing with the metallic tang of blood and the ozone smell of shorted circuits.
Kai's chest heaved. His heart was hammering a frantic rhythm against his ribs—thump-thump, thump-thump—a biological metronome trying to keep pace with the digital chaos firing in his brain.
< COMBAT SUB-ROUTINE: TERMINATED. >< EVALUATION: SLOPPY. INEFFICIENT. YOU WASTED 40% OF YOUR KINETIC ENERGY ON UNNECESSARY MOVEMENT. >
Cipher's voice buzzed in his skull, devoid of empathy. < BUT... SUFFICIENT. FOR NOW. >
Kai ignored the AI. He looked down at his hands. They were shaking, not from fear, but from the aftershocks of the adrenaline and the strange, burning current that had surged through him when he struck. It felt as if his very marrow was vibrating.
The two lackeys were backing away, their shock-batons lowered, eyes wide with a mixture of confusion and terror. They looked from their crippled leader to the skinny, malnourished Null who had just dismantled him with a piece of scrap metal. To them, this was a glitch in reality. Nulls didn't fight back. Nulls broke.
"Take him," Kai said. His voice was low, rasping with a menace he didn't know he possessed. "Take him and go. Before I change my mind."
It was a bluff. His legs felt like jelly. The burst of strength that the Entropy Sutra had provided was fading, replaced by a hollow, gnawing hunger that clawed at his stomach. If they rushed him now, he would fall.
But the lackeys didn't know that. They saw the red text—or perhaps just the cold, dead look in Kai's eyes—and they broke. They scrambled forward, grabbing Kray by his good arm and his belt, dragging him backwards out of the container.
Kray glared at Kai, his face a mask of pain and humiliation. "You're dead, Null," he wheezed, spitting a glob of oil and blood onto the metal grate. "The Vipers... we don't forget. You're dead."
Kai didn't answer. He just watched them retreat into the neon-drenched smog of the walkway until the sound of their boots faded.
Only then did he allow himself to collapse.
He slid down the wall, his tungsten rod clattering to the floor. He gasped for air, clutching his chest. The text in his vision was going haywire, scrolling cascades of error messages.
[ WARNING: SYSTEM INSTABILITY ][ ENERGY RESERVES: CRITICAL (4%) ][ HOST BIOLOGY: SUSTAINING DAMAGE ]
"Kai?"
The weak whimper from the bed cut through the noise. Rin was trying to sit up, her blind eyes searching the darkness.
"It's okay," Kai forced himself to say. He crawled over to her, his movements jerky. "They're gone. It's over."
"I heard... fighting," Rin whispered. Her hand found his arm, gripping it tightly. Her skin was burning up, the fever from the rejection syndrome spiking. "You're hurt."
"I'm fine," Kai lied again. He gently pushed her back down. "Just tired. Listen to me, Rin. I have the credits. I have the core. I'm going to get the medicine now."
"Now?" She looked terrified. "But the Vipers..."
"They won't be back tonight. They're scared," Kai said, smoothing her damp hair. "But I have to go now. If I don't get the stabilizers... your arm..."
He didn't finish the sentence. He didn't have to. The metal prosthetic attached to her left shoulder was twitching rhythmically, the servos whining in a high pitch that set his teeth on edge. The flesh around the port was angry and red, veins of black necrosis beginning to spiderweb outward.
If he didn't get the Neuro-Stabilizers within the next few hours, the interface would burn out her nervous system. She would die screaming.
He stood up, using the wall for support. The hunger was a physical pain now, a void in his gut that demanded to be filled.
< YOU NEED FUEL. > Cipher stated. < REAL FOOD. NOT THAT SYNTHETIC SLUDGE YOU HUMANS CONSUME. AND ENERGY. PURE QI. >
"Shut up," Kai muttered. He grabbed his heavy scavenger's coat and buttoned it to his chin, hiding his face. He checked the Beast Core in his pocket—it was still there, pulsing with that faint, warm rhythm. It was the most valuable thing he had ever touched.
He checked the door lock. The magnetic seal was damaged from the kick, but it would hold against a casual intruder.
"Lock it from the inside," Kai instructed Rin. "Don't open it for anyone but me. I'll knock the code."
"Be careful, Kai," Rin whispered, sinking back into the pillow.
Kai took one last look at her, etching the image into his mind to fuel his resolve. Then, he stepped out into the toxic night of the Stack.
The journey to the Black Market was a descent into hell.
The Stack was divided into layers. The upper levels, where there was occasionally sunlight and filtered air, belonged to the mid-tier gang lieutenants and skilled technicians. The middle levels, where Kai lived, were a warren of the working poor.
But to sell a Beast Core without a license, he had to go down. To the Sump.
The Sump was the bottom of the residential ring, where the gravity generators were oldest and the waste recyclers vented directly into the streets. It was a lawless zone where the corporate Firewall protocols didn't reach, and where the only currency was violence.
Kai took the service elevators as far as they would go, then climbed down the maintenance ladders. The air grew thicker, hotter, and wetter with every meter he descended. It smelled of rotting compost and old coolant.
His vision was still glitching. The Entropy Sutra was trying to interpret the chaotic data of the Sump, throwing up tags faster than he could read them.
[ NPC: SCAVENGER (Infected) ][ THREAT: LOW ][ OBJECT: BROKEN DRONE ][ DETECTED: LOCALIZED RADIATION LEAK ]
He had to focus. He had to push the data to the background, turning it into white noise.
< INTERESTING... > Cipher mused. < THE ARCHITECTURE HERE. IT'S RECYCLED. THAT BEAM... THAT'S FROM A COLONY SHIP. PRE-DYSON ERA. YOUR PEOPLE ARE LIVING IN THEIR OWN HISTORY AND THEY DON'T EVEN KNOW IT. >
"We're living in trash," Kai corrected silently, stepping over a puddle of glowing green sludge.
He kept his hand inside his coat, gripping the tungsten rod. He made himself look small, insignificant. Just another rat in the dark.
He reached the Sump level. The ground here wasn't metal; it was a compacted layer of mud, trash, and debris that had accumulated over centuries. Makeshift stalls lined the narrow, winding streets, lit by burning barrels of chemical waste.
This was the Black Market. You could buy anything here if you had the credits—stolen corporate tech, illegal combat stims, gene-hacked pets, even human organs.
Kai moved toward a structure made from the severed cockpit of a heavy lifter. A neon sign buzzed above it, missing several letters: [ O_D M_N C_O'S ].
Old Man Cho. A fence, a back-alley doctor, and a man who asked no questions.
Kai pushed through the plastic flaps that served as a door.
The interior smelled of antiseptic and stir-fried garlic. Every inch of wall space was covered in shelves, crammed with jars of unidentifiable liquids, robotic parts, and ancient paper books.
Behind a counter made of bulletproof glass sat Cho. He was an ancient, shriveled man with a cybernetic eye that whirred and zoomed as it focused on Kai. He was eating noodles from a styrofoam bowl with a pair of rusty tweezers.
"Shop's closed," Cho grunted, not looking up from his noodles.
"I'm buying," Kai said, his voice raspy. "And selling."
Cho paused. His mechanical eye spun, the aperture narrowing. "You're the Null kid. Kai. Still breathing, huh? I had a bet you'd be recycled by winter."
"Lost your bet," Kai said. He approached the counter. "I need Neuro-Stabilizers. Type-4. Three vials."
Cho laughed, a wet, wheezing sound. "Type-4? That's high-grade chrome-juice, kid. Corporate standard. That's not for slum trash. That's for the corpos in the Ring Sectors."
"Do you have it or not?"
"I have it," Cho said, sucking a noodle into his mouth. "But you can't afford it. Price went up. Supply chain issues with Azure Bio. Fifty credits a vial."
"Fifty?" Kai felt a cold spike of panic. "It was twenty last month!"
"Inflation," Cho shrugged. "Markets fluctuate. The Heaven Server demands its tithe. Get out, kid. Unless you want to trade that kidney of yours. I could use a spare."
Kai gritted his teeth. He didn't have time to haggle. He didn't have time to find another seller.
He reached into his pocket and pulled out the Beast Core.
He slammed it onto the counter.
The blue light pulsed, illuminating the dingy shop, reflecting in Cho's good eye and his mechanical one.
Cho stopped chewing. He slowly put down his tweezers. He reached out a withered hand, but stopped short of touching it.
"Where..." Cho looked at Kai, really looked at him, for the first time. "Where did a Null get a Beast Core?"
"Found it," Kai said. "In the Junkyard."
"Bullshit," Cho whispered. "Scrap-Beasts don't just drop dead. And this..." He pulled a jeweler's loupe from his pocket and inspected the core through the glass. "This is fresh. The Qi signature is still stabilizing. This was harvested less than six hours ago."
He looked up at Kai, suspicion warring with greed in his gaze.
"I want the meds," Kai said firmly. "Three vials. And the rest in credits."
Cho stared at the core. "This is a Low-Grade core. But it's dense. Good purity. I can give you... one hundred and fifty credits. Total."
"It's worth two hundred," Kai countered, though he had no idea. The system tag had said fifty, but that was probably base value. The market value here would be higher.
< ASK FOR THREE HUNDRED. > Cipher interjected. < HE WANTS IT. LOOK AT HIS PUPIL DILATION. HIS HEART RATE INCREASED BY 15 BPM. HE HAS A BUYER LINED UP. >
Kai hesitated. He couldn't risk blowing the deal.
"Two hundred," Kai said. "And throw in a nutrient pack. High-cal."
Cho scoffed. "You got balls, Null. Fine. One-eighty. And the nutrient sludge. That's my final offer. Take it or walk."
Kai watched the man's face. The red text overlay appeared again.
[ TARGET: CHO ][ STATUS: NEGOTIATING ][ DECEPTION DETECTED ][ HIDDEN WEAPON: SHOTGUN UNDER COUNTER. LOADED. ]
"Deal," Kai said.
Cho grunted and swiped the core off the counter, making it vanish into a drawer with practiced speed. He turned and unlocked a heavy safe behind him. He pulled out a small, cold-storage box and retrieved three glass vials filled with a shimmering, silvery liquid.
He slid them across the counter, along with a cred-stick and a foil pouch of nutrient paste.
"One-eighty," Cho said. "And the meds. Don't say I never did you any favors."
Kai grabbed the vials immediately, checking the seals. They were intact. Azure Bio-Systems logos were etched into the glass.
He pocketed the cred-stick and the food. "Thanks."
He turned to leave.
"Hey, kid," Cho called out.
Kai stopped, hand on the door flap.
"Be careful," Cho said, his voice dropping an octave. "Someone killed a Scrap-Beast in Sector 404 today. With a metal bar. The Divine Silicon Sect has drones sweeping the area. They don't like it when rats steal their toys."
Kai froze. The Sect knew already?
"Thanks," Kai said again, and slipped out into the night.
He moved faster on the way back. The vials in his pocket felt heavy, a weight of responsibility.
He tore open the nutrient pouch as he walked, squeezing the brown, tasteless paste into his mouth. It tasted like chalk and old grease, but his stomach roared in gratitude.
< BETTER. > Cipher commented. < BUT INSUFFICIENT. YOU NEED TO START CULTIVATING. THAT CORE... YOU SHOULD HAVE EATEN IT. >
"If I ate it, Rin would die," Kai thought back furiously.
< AND IF YOU DON'T EAT, YOU WILL DIE. AND THEN SHE DIES ANYWAY. DO THE MATH, GLITCH. YOUR ALTRUISM IS A LOGICAL ERROR. >
"It's not an error. It's loyalty."
< LOYALTY IS A VARIABLE FOR DOGS. SURVIVAL IS THE ONLY CONSTANT. >
Kai ignored the voice, focusing on the climb. He was halfway up the maintenance ladder, ascending from the Sump to the lower stacks, when his new instincts screamed.
[ WARNING: THREAT DETECTED ][ PROXIMITY: 15 METERS ][ DIRECTION: ABOVE ]
Kai stopped dead, clinging to the rungs. He looked up.
On the grate platform above him, silhouetted against the flickering lights of the level above, was a figure.
It wasn't a gang member. The silhouette was too sleek, too precise.
It was a drone? No. A person.
The figure leaned over the railing. A red optical sensor glowed in the darkness of their face.
"Subject Zero," a synthesized voice drifted down. It wasn't human. It sounded like wind whistling through a server farm. "Stop."
The Firewall.
Kai's blood ran cold. The government enforcers. They never came this deep into the Stack unless they were hunting something specific.
They were hunting him.
[ TARGET: INQUISITOR DRONE (CLASS 1) ][ ARMAMENT: SHOCK-RIFLE / NET-LAUNCHER ][ THREAT LEVEL: EXTREME ][ ESCAPE PROBABILITY: 12% ]
"Identification scan required," the Inquisitor said, raising a weapon. "Do not move. Compliance is mandatory."
Kai looked down. It was a thirty-meter drop to the trash piles of the Sump.
He looked up. The Inquisitor was blocking the only exit.
< FIGHT OR FLIGHT? > Cipher asked, sounding amused. < NO... FLIGHT IS IMPOSSIBLE. FIGHT IS SUICIDE. OPTION C? >
"Option C?" Kai thought frantically.
< BREAK THE ENVIRONMENT. >
Kai looked at the ladder. It was bolted to a rusted structural support beam. The text overlay flickered over the bolts.
[ OBJECT: SUPPORT BEAM ][ STATUS: CORRODED ][ STRUCTURAL INTEGRITY: 22% ][ CRITICAL WEAK POINT DETECTED ]
Kai didn't hesitate. He didn't climb up. He didn't climb down.
He swung his body, planting his feet against the wall, and pulled the tungsten rod from his coat.
"Scanning..." the Inquisitor droned, aiming the rifle.
Kai jammed the rod into the gap between the ladder and the wall, right where the glowing red text indicated the stress fracture was.
He screamed, pouring every ounce of his meager strength into the lever.
CRACK.
The rusted bolts sheared off. The ladder groaned, detached from the wall, and swung outward into the void, with Kai clinging to it.
The Inquisitor fired. A bolt of blue electricity sizzled through the space where Kai had been a second before.
The ladder swung in a wide arc, carrying Kai away from the platform, out over the abyss of the Sump alleyway.
He held on for dear life, the wind rushing past his ears. He was a pendulum swinging over hell.
At the apex of the swing, the ladder smashed into the walkway on the opposite side of the alley—a different block, a different level.
Kai let go.
He hit the metal grating hard, rolling to absorb the impact. Pain flared in his shoulder, but he scrambled up instantly.
He looked back across the gap. The Inquisitor was standing on the other side, tracking him. It raised its rifle again.
Kai didn't wait. He sprinted into the maze of the adjacent container block, diving into the shadows.
[ ESCAPE SUCCESSFUL ][ ADRENALINE LEVELS: CRITICAL ][ SUGGESTION: HIDE. ]
He ran until his lungs burned. He ran until the red dot of the scanner faded from his mind's eye. He doubled back, took three different elevators, and crossed two sky-bridges before he dared to head back toward Block 7.
When he finally reached Container 1408, he was drenched in sweat, his body trembling violently.
He tapped the code. The door slid open.
Rin was exactly where he left her. She looked up, her eyes wide with fear.
"Kai? I heard... a crash."
"It's okay," Kai gasped, locking the door and engaging the manual deadbolt. He slid down the wall, pulling the vials from his pocket. They were unbroken.
"I got it," he said, holding them up. "I got the medicine."
He crawled to her, his hands shaking as he loaded a vial into the hypospray injector. He pressed it against her neck.
Hiss.
The silver liquid entered her bloodstream.
Almost immediately, the whirring of her mechanical arm quieted. The tension in her face relaxed. The heat radiating from her skin began to cool.
"Better?" Kai asked softly.
"Better," Rin breathed, her voice drowsy. "Thank you, Kai."
She drifted off to sleep within seconds, the stabilizers doing their work.
Kai sat by the bed, watching her chest rise and fall. He was exhausted. He was hunted. He had a gang war on one side and the Firewall on the other.
He looked at his hand. The four black dots of the luck enhancement ritual—or whatever it was—had faded, but the text remained, hovering in his vision, a constant reminder of his new reality.
[ MISSION COMPLETE: ACQUIRE MEDICINE ][ REWARD: SURVIVAL (+1 DAY) ][ NEW OBJECTIVE: CULTIVATE. OR DIE. ]
Kai reached into his pocket and pulled out the nutrient paste. He squeezed the last of it into his mouth.
Then, he sat cross-legged on the floor, just as the memories of the Entropy Sutra instructed.
"Cipher," he whispered.
< I'M HERE, USER. >
"Teach me," Kai said. "Teach me how to crash the server."
< EXCELLENT CHOICE. LET'S BEGIN WITH THE BASICS. CLOSE YOUR EYES. VISUALIZE THE NETWORK... AND FIND THE CRACKS. >
Kai closed his eyes. And for the first time, he didn't see darkness.
He saw the world in lines of green and red code. And he saw the weapon he would forge from it.