The descent was not a fall; it was a drowning.
Kai slid down the slick, moss-covered interior of the waste disposal chute, his boots striking sparks against the rusted metal. The air grew heavier with every meter, pressing against his eardrums like deep water. The roar of the Boiler Room explosion had faded, replaced by the wet, rhythmic thump-thump-thump of the Dyson Swarm's gargantuan sewage pumps.
He held Rin tight against his chest, shielding her head from the debris raining down around them. She was awake now, but silent, her single organic hand gripping his coat so hard her knuckles were white.
< BRAKING THRUSTERS REQUIRED. > Cipher noted unhelpfully. < OR A PARACHUTE. WE ARE ACCELERATING AT 9.8 METERS PER SECOND SQUARED. TERMINAL VELOCITY IMMINENT. >
"I know," Kai gritted out.
The red text of the Entropy Sutra overlaid the dark tunnel, mapping the trajectory.
[ SHAFT DEPTH: UNKNOWN ][ OBSTRUCTION DETECTED: 40 METERS ][ COMPOSITION: ORGANIC WASTE MESH ]
"Brace!" Kai yelled.
He twisted his body, taking the brunt of the impact. They slammed into a flexible, net-like barrier made of compacted trash and synthetic vines. It groaned under their weight, dipping dangerously, but it held.
Kai rolled, pulling Rin with him to the edge of the mesh before it could snap back. They tumbled onto a metal platform, slick with condensation.
They were in the Sump.
If the Stack was the slums, the Sump was the graveyard. Here, there was no neon. There were no holographic ads. The only light came from patches of bioluminescent fungi clinging to the walls and the occasional spark of a dying power conduit. The structures here weren't built; they were sediment. Layers of crushed ships, discarded hab-modules, and industrial refuse compacted over centuries into a labyrinth of rust.
Kai scrambled to his feet, ignoring the bruising on his back. He scanned the darkness.
[ LOCATION: SECTOR 99 (THE SUMP) ][ CONNECTIVITY: 0 BARS ][ SYSTEM INFLUENCE: NEGLIGIBLE ][ TOXICITY: HIGH ]
"No signal," Kai whispered, a wave of relief washing over him. "The Firewall can't track us down here. Not easily."
< THEY DON'T NEED A SIGNAL TO TRACK A HEAT SIGNATURE THAT HOT. > Cipher's voice was sharp. < YOU ARE LEAKING QI LIKE A BROKEN REACTOR. THAT LITTLE STUNT WITH THE BOILER OVERCHARGED YOUR CIRCUITS. YOU'RE A BEACON IN THE DARK. >
Kai looked down at himself. Cipher was right. The faint red lines tracing his nervous system weren't fading. They were glowing brighter, pulsing in sync with his erratic heartbeat. He felt feverish, his skin hot to the touch.
"How do I hide it?"
< YOU CAN'T STOP THE PROCESS. YOU HAVE TO COMPLETE THE CYCLE. YOU NEED TO DUMP THE EXCESS ENERGY. OR MASK IT. >
Kai looked at Rin. She was shivering, her eyes wide and unseeing in the gloom.
"We need a safe house," Kai said. "Then I'll deal with the energy."
He helped Rin up. "Can you walk?"
"I... I think so," she stammered, clutching her prosthetic arm. The metal limb was dead weight now, its battery likely drained or shorted by the EMP of the explosion. "Kai, what did you do? The Vipers... Kray..."
"They're gone," Kai said, his voice flat. "We can't go back. Ever."
He led her into the maze.
Moving through the Sump was like navigating the intestines of a mechanical beast. The paths were narrow, blocked by fallen debris or flooded with foul-smelling water.
Kai used the Entropy Sutra not just for navigation, but for survival.
[ WARNING: UNSTABLE FLOOR ][ WARNING: CORROSIVE DRIP ][ WARNING: VERMIN SWARM AHEAD ]
They skirted a nest of "Rat-Kings"—mutated rodents with tails fused together, hissing from the shadows. Kai raised the Plasma-Arc Rod, the blue tip glowing menacingly, and the vermin scattered.
They walked for an hour, putting distance between themselves and the chute. The air grew colder, the humidity clinging to their clothes.
< STOP. > Cipher commanded suddenly.
Kai froze. "What?"
< LOOK UP. >
Kai tilted his head back. Far above, through a gap in the mountains of trash, he saw it.
A drone.
It wasn't one of the cheap surveillance quad-copters used by the gangs. It was a sleek, teardrop-shaped machine, silent and terrifying. It hovered motionless, scanning the abyss with a cone of blue light.
[ OBJECT: HUNTER-KILLER DRONE (CLASS A) ][ FACTION: DIVINE SILICON SECT ][ SENSORS: THERMAL / MAGI-SCOPE ]
"The Sect," Kai breathed. "They sent a Hunter-Killer."
The blue light swept across the Sump, getting closer. It was looking for heat. It was looking for Qi.
"Hide," Kai hissed. He shoved Rin into a crevice between two crushed shipping containers.
"Kai, your skin!" Rin gasped.
Kai looked at his hands. The red lines were flaring. The proximity of the Sect drone seemed to be agitating the Entropy Sutra, like a virus reacting to an antivirus scan.
[ WARNING: RESONANCE DETECTED ][ ENEMY SCAN INBOUND: 10 SECONDS ]
He couldn't hide. He was too hot.
He looked around frantically. He needed something to mask his signature. Something chaotic.
His eyes landed on a massive, rusted pipe running along the ground. It was vibrating.
[ OBJECT: MAIN WASTE LINE ][ CONTENT: TOXIC SLUDGE / BIO-THERMAL DECAY ][ TEMPERATURE: 45°C ]
Thermal decay. Heat.
"Stay here," Kai ordered Rin.
He ran. Not away from the drone, but toward the pipe.
The blue light swept over the area where they had been standing a second ago. It paused, then tracked Kai's movement.
The drone let out a high-pitched chirp and dove.
Kai reached the pipe. It was hot to the touch. He didn't have time to cut it.
He jammed the Plasma-Arc Rod into a rusted seam.
SNAP.
He triggered the plasma blade.
The metal groaned and split.
A torrent of thick, brown sludge erupted from the pipe, steaming in the cold air. It wasn't just sewage; it was chemical runoff from the bio-labs, hot and radioactive.
Kai didn't dodge. He stepped into the flow.
The heat was agonizing. The sludge coated him, burning his skin, soaking his clothes. But as it covered him, the red text in his vision changed.
[ STATUS: CONTAMINATED ][ EXTERNAL TEMPERATURE: 48°C ][ THERMAL SIGNATURE: MASKED ]
He dropped to his knees in the muck, pressing himself against the pipe, blending his body heat with the thermal output of the waste.
The drone swooped down. It hovered directly over him, the blue light washing over his sludge-covered form.
Kai held his breath. He engaged the Entropy Sutra, forcing the energy inside him to circulate internally, locking it down, compressing it into his bone marrow to hide the glow.
[ SYSTEM ALERT: INTERNAL PRESSURE CRITICAL ][ HOLDING... ]
The drone paused. Its sensors whirred. To its logic gates, Kai was just another lump of bio-waste in a river of filth.
After five agonizing seconds, the drone chirped again—a negative tone—and ascended, continuing its sweep pattern.
Kai waited until it was gone before he collapsed, retching.
He dragged himself out of the sludge stream. He was disgusting. He smelled of death and chemicals.
But he was invisible.
He returned to the crevice. Rin recoiled as he approached, covering her nose, but then reached out for him.
"Kai... you smell..."
"Like trash," Kai finished. He wiped sludge from his eyes. "Perfect camouflage."
< INGENIOUS. AND REVOLTING. > Cipher said. < I ADMIRE YOUR COMMITMENT TO NOT DYING. BUT IF YOU DON'T FIND A PLACE TO VENT THAT QI SOON, YOU'RE GOING TO EXPLODE FROM THE INSIDE. >
"I found a place," Kai said.
He pointed past the waste pipe.
In the flash of the drone's light, he had seen something. A structure that didn't fit the chaotic jumble of the Sump.
It was a concrete bunker, half-buried in the debris. The blast doors were sealed, but there was a symbol etched into the stone.
It wasn't a corporate logo. It wasn't a gang tag.
It was a jagged circle with a line through it. The symbol of a power button.
"A Dead Sector," Kai realized.
The bunker was older than the Stack. Maybe older than the Ring itself.
Kai used the last of his battery charge on the Plasma-Arc Rod to fuse the locking mechanism of the blast door, then pried it open with raw strength.
The air that rushed out was stale, dry, and dead.
They stepped inside.
The room was vast, lined with banks of silent, black monoliths—ancient server racks. The floor was covered in a thick layer of dust that had been undisturbed for centuries.
[ LOCATION DISCOVERED: SERVER FARM NODE 004 (ABANDONED) ][ POWER: OFFLINE ][ SECURITY: NONE ]
Kai sealed the door behind them, jamming it shut with a piece of scrap metal.
Silence fell. Real silence. The hum of the Sump was gone.
"It's... quiet," Rin whispered. Her voice echoed.
"It's safe," Kai said. He led her to a corner where the dust was thinnest. He took off his coat, shaking off the worst of the sludge, and laid it on the floor for her. "Sleep. I'll keep watch."
Rin sat down, but she didn't lie down. She looked at him with her milky eyes.
"Kai. Your eyes are glowing."
Kai blinked. He didn't need a mirror to know she was right. The Entropy Sutra was leaking. The energy he had absorbed from the heater, from the battery, from the sheer chaos of the fight—it was boiling over.
He moved away from her, to the center of the room.
"Cipher," Kai said. "How do I process this?"
< YOU CULTIVATE. YOU TAKE THAT RAW, DIRTY ENERGY, AND YOU COMPILE IT INTO SOMETHING STRUCTURED. >
< SIT DOWN. CROSS YOUR LEGS. THE SERVER RACKS... THEY ARE DEAD, BUT THE ARCHITECTURE IS STILL THERE. USE THE ROOM AS A HEATSINK. >
Kai sat. He placed his hands on the cold metal floor.
He closed his eyes.
The red text exploded in his mind.
[ WARNING: QI OVERLOAD ][ INITIATING: COMPILER SEQUENCE ]
He visualized the energy inside him not as a fluid, but as code. Millions of fragmented lines of data, scrolling wildly.
He needed to organize it. He needed to write the program.
He pushed the energy out of his core, cycling it through his limbs. It burned. It felt like his veins were being scoured with steel wool.
< FILTER IT. > Cipher instructed. < SEPARATE THE NOISE FROM THE SIGNAL. >
Kai focused. He pushed the "waste" energy—the radiation, the heat, the static—out of his palms and into the floor.
Hiss.
Frost began to form on the floor around his hands. The concrete cracked.
The remaining energy—the pure Qi—he pulled back into his Dantian. He compressed it. He spun it.
Round and round. A vortex of silver light.
[ COMPILING... 20% ][ COMPILING... 40% ][ COMPILING... 80% ]
It was agonizing. It required a mental discipline Kai didn't know he had. He forced the chaos into order. He forced the glitch to become a feature.
[ COMPILATION COMPLETE. ][ DATABASE UPDATED. ]
Kai gasped, his eyes snapping open. The red glow in his irises faded to a dull, steady simmer.
He felt... solid. The frantic buzzing in his nerves was gone, replaced by a deep, resonant hum. He felt denser. Stronger.
[ STAGE: HARDWARE FORGE (BIT 2) ][ STATS UPDATED: ][ > STRENGTH: 1.8 ][ > AGILITY: 1.6 ][ > DEFENSE: 1.2 ]
He looked at his hands. The skin was pale, clean. The sludge had dried and flaked off during the intense heat cycle of his cultivation.
He stood up. He felt a new sensation in his mind—a connection.
He looked at the silent server racks around him.
Before, they were just metal boxes. Now, he could feel them. He could sense the dormant pathways of gold and silicon inside them.
He walked to the nearest rack and placed his hand on it.
He didn't use electricity. He used his Qi. He pushed a pulse of Code into the machine.
Thrum.
A single green light flickered to life on the server's face.
[ CONNECTION ESTABLISHED ][ HARDWARE DETECTED: STORAGE DRIVE ][ CAPACITY: 500 TERABYTES ][ STATUS: CORRUPTED / RECOVERABLE ]
"I can wake them up," Kai realized.
< YOU CAN DO MORE THAN THAT. > Cipher said. < YOU CAN REWRITE THEM. THIS IS YOUR DOMAIN NOW, HOST. YOUR SECT. >
Kai looked around the vast, dark room. It wasn't a hideout. It was a base.
He walked back to Rin. She had finally fallen asleep on his coat.
He sat beside her, watching the single green light he had activated blinking in the dark. It was a small star in a dead universe.
"We're not running anymore, Rin," he whispered to the sleeping girl. "We're building."
He closed his eyes and brought up the System menu. There was a new tab blinking.
[ SKILL TREE: ACCESSIBLE ][ AVAILABLE POINTS: 1 ]
Kai looked at the options.
> [ OVERCLOCK ] (Temporarily boost speed/strength at cost of health) > [ PACKET SNIFFER ] (Sense enemy Qi/Tech signatures through walls) > [ FIREWALL ] (Create a localized shield of static Qi)
He thought about the drone. He thought about the Vipers' bullets. He thought about Rin, defenseless on the bed.
He selected [ PACKET SNIFFER ].
Information was survival. He needed to see them coming before they saw him.
[ SKILL ACQUIRED: PACKET SNIFFER (LVL 1) ]
Kai's perception shifted. The walls of the bunker seemed to grow thinner. He could sense the faint bio-electric rhythm of the rats scurrying in the vents. He could sense the low-frequency hum of the Dyson Swarm's core, kilometers away.
He settled back against the server rack, the Plasma-Arc Rod across his lap.
Let Prince Aethelgard come. Let the Sect come.
The Glitch was dug in. And he was just getting started.