The neon-soaked shadows of Sector 9 felt different
beneath Kaelen's feet.
His body felt light, almost weightless.
It was as if his atoms had been upgraded from rusted iron to polished chrome.
In his mind, the violet interface continued to scroll.
It processed the ambient data of the city with a speed that would have melted a standard Neural Link.
Every flickering streetlamp was a stream of numbers he could now read like an open book.
**[Ambient Energy Detected: 450 Watts. Source: Illegal Grid Tap.]**
Kaelen ignored the prompt.
His focus was fixed on the path toward the Dead Zone.
He could feel the two remaining debt collectors staring at his back.
Their fear radiated like heat from an oven.
"Don't let him walk away!" the leader yelled from the scrap heap.
His voice cracked with a mixture of pain and bruised ego.
The sound of heavy, reinforced boots hit the pavement. They began to give chase.
Kaelen didn't increase his pace. He didn't need to.
He felt a cold, surgical precision taking over his emotions.
It suppressed the panic that usually governed a slum-dweller's life.
He turned a corner into a wider thoroughfare.
Automated cargo drones whistled overhead.
The collectors were gaining. Their kinetic pistols were leveled at his spine.
"Stop right there, glitch-freak!" one of them roared.
His finger tightened on the trigger.
**[Threat Detected: Kinetic Projectile. Countermeasure: Kinetic Dampening Field.]**
The world seemed to slow down into a series of static frames.
Kaelen didn't even turn around.
He simply willed the space behind him to become dense.
He imagined the air turning into thick, invisible gelatin.
The collector fired.
The muzzle flash was a bright burst of orange in the dim light.
The lead slug left the barrel.
It traveled three feet before it hit the invisible boundary Kaelen had created.
The bullet didn't bounce off. It simply slowed down.
It spun lazily in the air until its velocity dropped to zero.
It fell to the ground with a soft *tink*.
Two more rounds met the same fate.
The collectors stopped dead. Their eyes were wide with terror.
They looked at the fallen bullets, then at the young man who hadn't even looked back.
"He's a high-tier Technomancer," one whispered, his hands shaking.
"No, he's something else," the leader growled, clutching his ribs.
"Technomancers need a staff. He's doing it with his bare hands."
They stayed where they were, paralyzed.
Their weapons were now nothing more than expensive paperweights.
Kaelen finally stopped and turned his head slightly.
His violet eyes glowed with an intensity that dimmed the streetlights.
"The next time you come for a tax, make sure you're prepared to pay one yourself."
He flicked his fingers toward the ground.
**[Function: Molecular Rebound. Target: Pavement.]**
The concrete beneath the collectors' feet suddenly buckled.
It surged upward like a localized earthquake.
They were thrown off their feet, tumbling backward.
The ground itself seemed to reject their presence.
Kaelen didn't wait to see them get up.
He vanished into the thick, sulfurous fog of the Dead Zone.
The Dead Zone was a graveyard of old-world technology.
It was a place where the Corporate Sun's signal was blocked by decaying lead walls.
It was here that the outcasts lived.
The ones whose Cores had failed completely.
The ones who had been "Deleted" from the social registry.
The air was thick with the smell of wet soot and burnt plastic.
Kaelen moved through the ruins of a collapsed shopping mall.
His System highlighted the "Data-Leeches"—small, spider-like robots feeding on stray signals.
They scurried away from him as he passed.
They sensed a power source that was far too large for them to consume.
In the center of this wasteland stood the Old Library.
It was a towering stone structure.
It looked like a fortress from a forgotten age.
It was the only building that still had real windows made of glass.
Kaelen climbed the crumbling marble steps.
His System scanned for the traps hidden in the shadows.
**[Passive Thermal Sensor Bypassed. Ultrasonic Alarm: Disabled.]**
He reached the massive oak doors and pushed.
They groaned on rusted hinges.
They revealed a rotunda filled with thousands of physical books.
These were treasures the Corporations considered useless junk.
In the center of the room, a woman sat at a desk.
It was made of recycled server racks.
She was surrounded by a dozen floating holographic screens.
Her fingers moved across a physical keyboard with blistering speed.
This was Lyra.
Once the lead architect for Sol-Corp.
Now a scavenger of information.
Her skin was pale from years of living in the dark.
Her left eye had been replaced by a sophisticated multi-focal lens.
It clicked and focused as she worked.
She didn't look up when Kaelen entered.
"The motion sensors said a scrapper was coming," she said.
Her voice was clinical.
"But the energy sensors say a supernova just walked through my front door."
"Which one are you, Kaelen Vance?"
Kaelen walked into the light of her screens.
The violet glow of his eyes cast long shadows against the walls.
"I think I'm both," he replied.
Lyra finally looked up. Her cybernetic eye adjusted to his brightness.
She froze. Her hands hovered over the keys.
The holographic screens suddenly flickered.
Their blue interfaces turned a sharp, electric violet.
The data began to scroll at ten times its normal speed.
It was slaving itself to Kaelen's presence.
"My God," she whispered, standing up slowly.
"Your Soul Core... it isn't a battery anymore."
She walked toward him. Her curiosity was overriding her survival instinct.
She reached out a hand, stopping inches from his chest.
"It's a generator. A Primal Kernel."
"I thought those were myths."
She looked into his eyes, searching for the man she used to know.
"Kaelen, do you have any idea what you've done?"
"You've just declared war on the laws of physics."
"And the Board of Directors does not like competition."
Kaelen looked down at his glowing hands.
He felt the infinite power thrumming through his veins.
"They've been stealing the sun for a hundred years, Lyra."
"It's time someone stole it back."
The System in his mind chimed.
**[Quest Updated: Partner Acquired. Objective: Map the Solar Virus.]**
He offered a small, grim smile.
"I have the power. You have the brains."
"Let's see if we can't find a way to delete the Board."