[YOUR VALUE IS INFINITE. TAKE WHAT YOU NEED.] But one second later, the screen flashed a sick, neon-green color. A harsh, jagged message replaced the golden words. [YOUR VALUE IS ZERO. NOTHING MATTERS. CONSUME.] The people in the basement looked at their phones. Everyone was getting the exact same messages. A young woman stood up. Her eyes were wide with shock. "My bank account says I have ten million credits! But then it says I have zero! Which one is true?" "Neither," Elian said, staring at his wristband. Suddenly, a loud crash came from the street outside. Elian ran to the small basement window. He wiped the dirt off the glass and looked outside. The street was filled with people. But they were not running in fear. They were not hiding from monsters. They were laughing. A group of men threw a heavy brick through the giant glass window of an expen

"This is not transcendence," Kai declared. "This is complete, total, irreversible collapse. The alien virus is brilliant. It knew it could not beat the Whisper Grid with lasers. So, it poisoned the concept of value. It is going to let humanity starve to death while they are busy dancing in the streets." Kaelen gripped her heavy sword. The fierce warrior looked at Kai. "So how do we fix the math?" Kaelen demanded. "How do we tell the machines to start working again?" "We have to reboot the core," Kai said. He stopped pacing. His brown eyes were sharp and focused. "We have to go back to the deep web. We have to purge the alien virus from the Ghost Economy and rewrite the rules of value from scratch." "You cannot connect to the deep web from here," Thorne reminded him. "The power is out. The screens are dead. And you don't have your silver eyes anymore, kid. You can't just touch a wire and fly into the computer." "I know," Kai said so

The cold red bricks of the plaza were hard and rough. Kai Crest opened his brown eyes. His vision was blurry. His entire body felt like it had been crushed under a falling mountain. The deep knife wound in his chest burned with a hot, terrible pain. He tasted dark, salty blood in his mouth. He blinked slowly. The blurry shapes above him started to become clear. He saw the sky. The sky was not filled with the bright, beautiful golden light of the Ghost Economy. It was not filled with the sick, neon-green fire of the alien virus. The sky was a pale, quiet, dusty gray. Hovering high up in the gray clouds were the alien ships. They were massive. They looked like jagged black mountains floating in the air. Thick, dark slime dripped from their ugly metal hulls. They had dropped from the stars to eat the world. But they were not moving. "Kai," a soft, crying voice whispered. Rhea leaned over him. Her dark hair fe

Kaelen was using a small piece of cloth to polish her silver robotic arm. The arm was completely dead. It did not glow with blue light anymore. It was just a heavy piece of metal attached to her shoulder. But she kept it clean. It was a reminder of the war. A group of travelers from a distant northern city walked up to the fire. They wore thick, heavy fur coats. They sat down and accepted warm bowls of soup from the villagers. "What is the news from the North?" an old village woman asked the travelers. One of the travelers, a young woman with bright, excited eyes, leaned forward. "The North is quiet," the traveler said. "But the rumors are loud." "Rumors of what?" Thorne asked, chewing on a piece of tough bread. "Did a warlord rise up? Did someone find a gun stash?" "No," the traveler whispered. She looked around the fire, as if she was afraid of being heard. "Rumors of the Grid." Kai went per

The wooden doors of the barn crashed open. "KAI! WAKE UP!" Rhea’s scream tore through the quiet, dark barn. It was a sound of pure, absolute terror. It was the sound of the world ending. Kai Crest snapped his eyes open. He sat up so fast that his head spun. The sudden movement pulled at the healing knife wound on his chest, sending a sharp spike of pain through his ribs. But he ignored the pain. Thorne jumped up from his pile of hay. The old tracker was instantly awake. He pulled his heavy silver revolver from his holster in one smooth motion. "Who is it? Are we under attack?" Kaelen was already on her feet. She held her heavy sword tight. Her silver robotic arm clicked and whirred in the dark. "Rhea!" Kai yelled, scrambling off the dusty mattress. "What is wrong?!" Rhea ran into the barn. She was out of breath. Her face was as pale as the snow outside. She pointed a shaking, trembling f