The darkness inside the Han River utility tunnel wasn't just the absence of light; it was a heavy, suffocating pressure. The air tasted of ozone, rusted iron, and the ancient, stagnant dampness of unventilated concrete buried fifty meters beneath the riverbed.Above us, through millions of tons of mud and river water, the faint, dull thuds of localized explosions rattled the concrete ceiling. Dust and cold droplets fell in a steady, rhythmic rhythm into the dark puddles at our feet."Ethan..." Sarah’s voice was a barely audible rasp, muffled by the claustrophobic walls. She was clinging to my jacket, her hands shaking so violently I could feel the tremors through my shoulder. "Are they... are they fighting each other out there?""The network lost our signal," I murmured, keeping my left hand flat against the cold, sweating wall of the tunnel as we shuffled forward. "When an Administrator core vanishes off the global map, the bounty doesn't just cancel. The users assume someone else cl

The red bone blade didn't tear through the rest of the ceiling. It remained locked in the stone, pulsing with a deep, rhythmic light that turned the electric-blue glow of the reservoir into a muddy, violet sludge."She’s tracing the signal line," Kang-Dae said, his voice entirely devoid of panic as he glanced up at the cracked concrete above his catwalk. He didn't even draw his straight sword. "Raven is persistent, I'll give her script that much. But she doesn't have the clearance for Sector 0.""Neither do they," Min-Ah added, her submachine gun remaining leveled at my face as Sarah and I treaded the cold, glowing water beneath them. "Ethan, get out of the pool. Unless you want the fluid in those pods to start replacing your bone marrow."I pulled Sarah toward the rusted iron ladder attached to the catwalk’s support pillar. My muscles screamed in protest, my left arm still feeling like dead weight from the short circuit, but the cold calculation in my head kept my hands moving. I hau