The System voice rang in Jaylen’s head the morning of his first official U.S. showcase, “Enemy 002 Detected: Selene Rayne – The Illusion Queen. Objective: Survive the Showcase.”Jaylen closed his eyes, feeling the weight of it. He had barely crushed Marcus Slade last night, and already the battlefield shifted. The enemy this time around wasn’t brute bass and monopolized airwaves. It was perception itself.He stood inside Madison Square Garden, staring at the vast arena where he was set to perform that night. Rows of empty seats were lined upward like a cathedral of sound, waiting to be filled with thousands of voices. His crew hustled around, setting cables, testing speakers and programming holograms. Yet, from the first hour of rehearsal, something was off.A pyro cue fired too early, nearly singeing a dancer’s hair. A hologram of Jaylen appeared mid-song, except that the image had distorted into a grotesque caricature. His face was stretched while his jaw drooped like a clown. The

The night air in New York was heavy with low pitch from the MC, neon, and gasoline, but Jaylen didn’t walk the usual boulevards of Manhattan this time. His boots crunched against cracked tiles as he descended into a sealed stairwell behind a derelict convenience store. The System had pulsed once more in his head. Its sharp chime echoed louder than the rumbling subway below.“System Alert: Enemy 003 Detected.DJ Ruckus – Hacker of Sound. Objective: Crush the Underground Syndicate.”Jaylen exhaled, tightening his jacket as the stale underground air rushed into his lungs. “Another one waiting,” he muttered. His path had already drawn blood and humiliation from Marcus Slade and Selene Rayne. But now, whispers told of a dark emperor of beats who never played above the ground. DJ Ruckus, the name alone carried both fear and frenzy in the veins of New York’s nightlife.The deeper Jaylen went, the louder the bass became. It wasn't a normal bass. Each thump carried a coded aftershock effect.

Cameras flashed her face. The media swarmed. Evangeline’s smile never wavered, but a flicker of cold calculation flashed in her eyes.Victor Harland leaned into her ear, whispering something. She laughed softly, raising her glass in a mock toast toward Jaylen.The trap had been set. And Jaylen had walked right into it.The night of the showdown arrived in a wave waiting to break. London’s O2 Arena pulsed with bright lights, the atmosphere simmered with anticipation. Outside, thousands of fans swarmed the gates, some dressed in Evangeline Frost’s platinum-glitter merchandise. Others held hastily made cardboard signs screaming Jaylen’s name.Jaylen stood backstage with headphones around his neck and his heart rose like a steady drum in his chest. He had been here before in smaller venues, tighter crowds but never on a battlefield this rigged. Every whisper in the corridors told the same story, Evangeline’s billionaire sponsor had bought everything that could be bought. Judges were alr

The city was still breathing with the hate of The Ink Syndicate’s slander when Jaylen slipped into the backseat of a dented town car. His hood was up and his face hidden under it's shadows. Even so, he could feel the eyes every glance on the sidewalks carrying that question, “Is that really him? The fraud? The joke?”The system’s interface flared inside his vision, cool and precise.“ALERT: Reputation Integrity at 37%.Warning: Decline beyond 30% may trigger sponsor withdrawal.”Jaylen gritted his teeth. “So this is their play. Break me before I even hit the next stage.”“New Objective Generated: Counterstrike - Turn Graffiti Into Glory.Bonus: Public Redemption Multiplier x2 if authenticity factor exceeds 85%.”He smirked. “Authenticity? That’s all I have got.”He didn’t go to the Syndicate first. “No, you don’t waltz into enemy territory without backup.” Jaylen reached out through contacts in the art underground. Within hours, he was led to a dimly lit basement smelling of spray tu

The airplane had barely touched down in Boston before the system’s interface lit up in Jaylen’s mind.“New Territory Detected: Boston - East Coast Sector.Warning: Phase 2 enemies are hostile, technologically augmented, and reputation-driven.Enemy Approaching: The Phantom Choir - AI Collective. Difficulty: High.”Jaylen tightened his jaw. His last battles, Evangeline Frost’s theatrics, the Ink Syndicate’s slander had nearly broken him, but this felt different from all the battles he had fought.He took a deep breath, straightened his face. Boston wasn’t like London’s glamour or his hometown’s underground grit. The city’s centre were heavy with the industry tradition, and rebellion. All were together at once. But now, that heartbeat was being smothered by something unreal - voices that weren’t voices at all.The team car drove him straight from Logan Airport into the city center. Boston commons should have been alive with chatter, buskers, and local music. Instead, speakers were all