The sky above the ruins of Sector Nine didn't shift or flicker. It simply hung there, a bruised, static gray that suggested the world had run out of color as much as it had run out of fuel. Johann Keller stared up at that oppressive ceiling of clouds, waiting for the blue lines of a status interface to bleed into his peripheral vision, to tell him his blood pressure, his remaining calories, or the impending systemic foreclosure.Nothing came. Just the absolute, suffocating silence of a universe that had forgotten how to process its own existence."Stop searching for the readout, Johann," a voice rasped. It wasn't soft; it was the sound of gravel grinding in a tectonic plate shift. Freya sat a few feet away, leaning against the jagged ribcage of a collapsed transit hub. She was meticulously sharpening a piece of rebar against the concrete, her movements jerky and stiff. "The HUD isn’t coming back. The bank is bankrupt, remember? You tore the ledger out of the mainframes. You don't have