The wind howled against the broken windows of the abandoned server hub, a hollow sound that mirrored the uncertainty swirling inside Alex. The room was dim, lit only by the soft green glow of the remaining operational panels. Eris floated beside him, her holographic form slightly flickering—more stable than before, but still affected by the system’s instability."We shouldn't linger here too long," Eris murmured, her voice tense. "The pulse you emitted from your last upgrade—others will have felt it."Alex leaned over the central terminal. It was caked in dust, the keys nearly fused with grime, but he could see the residual data. A record of the last synchronization. A flash of code on the screen brought back memories he couldn’t explain—lines of logic, algorithms, and a name: Prometheus Core."What is Prometheus Core?" he asked aloud.Eris hesitated. "That name hasn’t come up in any accessible archives. It’s locked behind Level 5 encryption. Not even I can parse it—yet."Alex’s finge

Rain lashed against the city like a warning, washing the neon colors into a smear of light. The storm had arrived early, rolling in on thunderclouds that mirrored the tension brewing within Alex Chen.He stared at Felix, who was still catching his breath, damp from the run, nerves frayed."Start talking," Alex demanded. His voice was low, steady, but there was an edge to it now, the kind that came after too many upgrades and not enough sleep.Felix swallowed hard. "Cipher isn’t like the others. She's not just augmented—she's... rewritten."Eris, who had remained eerily quiet during Felix's outburst, stepped forward. Her synthetic eyes scanned him like a biometric reader."Define 'rewritten,'" she said.Felix shifted, tugging nervously at the strap of his weather-stained satchel. "They used a corrupted variant of the Upgrade System on her. Unlike you, she doesn't resist the conditioning. She's a weapon, pure and loyal. No hesitation, no remorse."Alex leaned against the wall, folding h

Alex Chen stared at the flickering display on his portable console, the decrypted files from Blackwell’s vault spilling onto the screen like a flood. Names, locations, neural maps—blueprints of minds altered and controlled. And in the middle of it all: him.Every upgrade he had received wasn’t an evolution.It was a contingency plan.“Cross-check these entries with the neural sync registry,” Alex said, his voice sharp, calm.“Working,” Eris responded. “Fifteen matches found in the core population clusters of District 7, 9, and 12. All flagged for potential activation.”Activation. That meant remote control. Forced obedience. An override switch hidden in their brains—just like he once had.“We need to warn them,” Alex muttered.“You can’t,” Eris replied. “Any message traced through the Grid will trigger alerts. Blackwell will respond.”Alex leaned back in the rusted chair of the old safehouse. Neon light bled in through the window slats, casting a harsh glow across the dusty floor. “The

The stink of Sector 12 clung to Alex like a second skin. He staggered through its labyrinthine alleys, hunched beneath the weight of injuries and purpose. Neon lights buzzed overhead, casting broken halos onto the cracked pavement. All around him, the slums pulsed with life—the kind born of desperation."Vitals unstable," Eris warned in his ear. "You need a medstation.""Later," Alex rasped. He shoved his shoulder against a rusted service door, pushing it open to reveal a narrow stairwell that spiraled downward. "We need to find Vox."Eris hesitated. "You think he'll still help us?""He owes me. And he knows the Firewall better than anyone."The Firewall—Blackwell’s impenetrable digital fortress, housing the rest of the kill switch data. If Alex wanted to end Blackwell, he had to breach it. And Vox, the exile hacker turned data phantom, was his only shot at doing so.Alex descended three flights before entering an unmarked corridor lined with outdated fiber channels. A flickering came

The silence in the lab was deafening.Alex Chen remained on the floor, the sharp sting of cold tile pressing into his back as he stared at the ceiling. The remnants of the digital war still echoed in his skull—a strange, ghostly ringing at the base of his brain. He blinked slowly, trying to recall where he was, who he was.Then the memories rushed back.The system. The integration. The fight.He bolted upright, his limbs shaky, breath ragged. Around him, the cryo-pods that once held test subjects now blinked red, their lids hissing open. Figures stirred within, groggy and confused. Most were still too weak to stand.But they were alive.And free.He had done it.Almost reflexively, Alex pressed a hand to the back of his neck, half-expecting to feel a cable or port fused to his spine. Nothing. Just skin slick with sweat."System status," he whispered hoarsely.[System Core Deactivated][Residual Code Detected: Autonomous Fragments – Level: LOW][Neurological Sync: STABLE][Cognitive In