The neon rain slicked streets of Zenith reflected in puddles like fractured holograms. Steam hissed from vents, and the faint hum of distant drones vibrated through the air.Raymond adjusted the hood of his jacket, concealing the faint glow of white light pulsing along his veins. He had emerged from the BioWaste Network a different man: the System thrummed stronger than ever, his senses sharper, his resolve hardened.Phase 2 XP retained. New combat modules integrated with medical protocols. Moral directive intact.“Ray, you sure this is safe?” Jin asked, eyes darting to every shadow as they followed Raymond down a narrow alley lined with flickering holo-ads and graffiti in luminescent inks.“It’s the only place they’ll let me operate,” Raymond said. “People here are dying, and no legal clinic will touch them. Not after the Core’s experiments leaked.”Jin groaned. “Illegal street surgeon. I can’t believe I’m following a criminal now.”Raymond didn’t answer. System advisory: local popul

The neon arteries of Lower Zenith throbbed beneath the smog-choked sky, flickering sickly blues and toxic greens as if the city were ill.Raymond moved through the narrow underpass with Lira beside him, Jin trailing close. The air tasted metallic, every breath carrying the faint chemical sting of malfunctioning scrubbers.“This place is worse than the BioWaste Zone,” Jin muttered softly.Lira scoffed. “No, kid. This place pretends it’s better. That’s what makes it dangerous.”Raymond didn’t respond. His eyes locked on the holo-map projected from his palm, thin red lines pulsed across Zenith’s sewer grid, converging on a blinking beacon deep in the district.“That’s the signature he left behind,” Raymond said. “Same modulation as the drones. He wants us to follow.”Jin shivered. “Feels like a trap.”“It is a trap,” Lira replied. “He’s trying to pull Raymond deeper into whatever game he’s playing.”Raymond’s voice was quiet. “And that’s exactly why we follow. The more he pushes me, the

The rain over Lower Prism drummed like impatient fingers against metal rooftops, each drop echoing the tension threading through the undercity. Raymond felt it in his bones, an unease, a pressure building behind his sternum, as if the System itself were holding its breath.[SYSTEM WARNING: Incoming anomaly detected.]The message flashed in pulsing red across his vision before dissolving like smoke.Raymond exhaled sharply. Not tonight… He had just finished a triple-bypass on an old smuggler whose heart implant had been running on mismatched firmware. His gloves were still slick with simulated adrenalin, his mind still half in surgical mode.And then...The lights flickered.Not in the building. Not in the block.The entire sector blinked out for exactly one second.The undercity froze. Every neon strip went black. Every hologram died. Every cybernetic limb locked in place.Then the power snapped back, only the colors were wrong.Neon blues now hummed an eerie violet. Projected signage

The alleys of Neon District 9 were unusually quiet. Not dead, nothing in the undercity ever truly slept, but holding its breath, as if the whole zone sensed Raymond’s pulse hammering beneath the neon glow.Raymond and Lira moved fast through the maze of metallic corridors, past vapor vents and flickering holosigns. Lira kept scanning the rooftops; Raymond kept replaying the bridge encounter in a loop he couldn’t shut off.The Prime Scalpel. The override. The drones that behaved like surgical instruments. The way his System obeyed the stranger’s interference without resistance.He couldn’t shake one thought: If he can silence my System once, he can do it again.Lira glanced over. “You’re gripping your implants like they owe you money.”Raymond unclenched his hands. “My System shouldn’t be vulnerable. Not like that.”“He didn’t just jam it,” Lira said. “He walked straight into your code like he owned the place.”Raymond nodded grimly. “He did.”They stopped at a fractured holo-terminal,

The cyber-district was still trembling from the trial when Raymond, Lira, and Dex slipped into the abandoned transit tunnels beneath District 9.Water dripped from rusted pipes. Neon filters overhead flickered like dying stars. The air hummed with a static charge, residual code from the Prime Scalpel’s dissolved drones.Raymond walked ahead, breathing hard, fists clenched. Not from fear. From fury.Lira kept pace beside him, blades still drawn. “Ray… slow down.”“No.”“You’re not thinking straight.”“I am thinking exactly straight,” Raymond growled. “He steps into my world. He rewrites my System. He calls it a lesson.”Lira cut in sharply. “Then learn the right one: don’t run blindly into a trap.”Raymond halted.The tunnels shuddered as a train passed far overhead, metal echoing like a metallic heartbeat. He stared at the cracked concrete beneath his feet.Italicized internal voice: « Emotional destabilization detected. Recommend surgical breathing. »Raymond ignored it.Dex finally