“Open your eyes, Axel, or I will throw you into the sea!”Arlo’s voice sounded hoarse and distant. Axel groaned as his consciousness was forced back by the rough shaking of his shoulder. The first thing he felt was an overwhelming wave of nausea from the relentless motion of the boat. The sharp smell of fishnets and salt filled his nose. His eyes opened slowly, but no violet glow greeted him. His vision was blurred, catching only the silhouette of the wooden deck and the overcast morning sky.“Where are we?” Axel asked, his voice barely audible.“The Coastal Sector,” Arlo replied, handing him a worn plastic bottle filled with fresh water. “You were out for six hours. I thought that system had eaten your brain completely.”Axel drank greedily. His throat burned as if scorched. He tried to summon the System 2.0 interface at the edge of his retina, but nothing happened. No digital lines, no energy status, not even a biometric clock. His world felt unnaturally silent. The emptiness made h

“You are seriously trying to save the man who killed your father?”Arlo’s voice shattered the suffocating silence inside the hut. Axel did not turn right away. He stood motionless beside the cot, staring at Vayu’s chest rising and falling in an uneven rhythm. The purple glow in Axel’s eyes burned sharper now, casting a chilling contrast against the bamboo walls. Inside his mind, System 2.0 was forcing thousands of memory fragments together, each one like shards of glass. Axel felt the rush of wind and overwhelming panic on the balcony of the Diamond building, a memory freshly drawn from Vayu’s nerves during the forced synchronization.“He has answers no one else can give, Arlo,” Axel replied. His voice sounded heavy, as if layered with metal.“What kind of logic is that?” Arlo stepped forward, his fists clenched. “You said it yourself. Through that neural link, you saw him standing there when Dami

“Drop your weapons or we fire!”The voice thundered through the loudspeaker, echoing off the wet cliffs of Aethelgard. Axel felt the Arctic wind cut to the bone, carrying the scent of salt and jet fuel. His vision remained pitch black, but his ears caught the roar of massive turbine engines slicing through the waves. A warship was powering down at extremely close range.“Arlo, don’t move,” Axel whispered. He could feel Arlo’s hand trembling violently on his arm.“Their spotlight has us locked, Axel,” Vayu replied, breathing hard. His voice sounded hoarse, the lingering trauma from the nanite transfer still choking his throat. “That’s a Canadian Navy ship. They’re deploying a fast boat.”Tactical boots struck against the edge of the cliff. The synchronized clicks of automatic weapons being cocked formed a precise symphony of threat. Axel stood motionless, his head slightly tilted, coun

"Don’t move or your neck will snap against the coral trench."The voice was heavy and hoarse. Axel froze in place. He felt grains of wet sand clinging to his cheek and palms. A sharp, burning pain stabbed into his lungs as he tried to breathe. The stench of rotting algae and the briny reek of the sea pierced his nose. The world was still pitch black. There was no spread of digital data or temperature projections dancing at the corner of his vision. He tried to call out Vayu and Arlo’s names, but his throat felt like it was stuffed with jagged gravel."Who are you?" Axel whispered, his voice nearly swallowed by the roar of the Arctic wind."Just a fisherman who doesn’t want a corpse dirtying his beach this morning," the man replied. Axel heard the scrape of footsteps on sand drawing closer, followed by the dragging sound of a wet fishing net.Axel tried to sit up. His head throbbed violently, as if a hammer were pounding his skull from th

"Because you don’t have a spare life beneath that bionic skin of yours, while I only have one fragile human life."Elias’s voice trembled violently. The rifle barrel pressed against the skin behind Axel’s ear with an unsteady force. Axel could feel droplets of Elias’s cold sweat falling onto his shoulder. Amid the roaring Arctic storm behind them, the mechanical command from the bunker wall felt far more lethal than any bullet."One life for one access entry," Damian Benjamin’s recorded voice repeated."Pull the trigger, Elias. Do it now," Axel challenged. His voice was flat, devoid of emotion, in stark contrast to Elias’s ragged breathing. "My heartbeat is directly linked to this panel. If the biometric sensor detects the death of the key, this bunker will lock itself forever. You’ll freeze to death on this cliff with not a single piece of gold in your pocket.""You’re insane! You think I won’t do it?