2025-06-26 18:30:57The rain had stopped, but the cold had not.
Kieran pulled his jacket tighter, every step sloshing through puddles as he walked the cracked sidewalks of East Glen. This part of the city was a forgotten echo of its polished skyline—abandoned buildings, flickering signs, silent alleys where people were either sleeping or stealing.
Above his vision, the system panel pulsed faintly, semi-transparent in his field of view.
Task 001: Secure Shelter (Deadline: 5:00 AM)
Reward: 200 Credits + 1 Legacy Point (??)Penalty for Failure: Cold Exposure, System Instability RiskHe checked the time. 2:12 AM.
Just under three hours. No money. No friends. No options.
“System,” he muttered. “Is there a hint?”
Nothing.
Figures.
He turned into a narrow street where neon signs sputtered and went dark the closer he approached. He passed a collapsed newsstand, then a boarded-up bar. Behind him, a bottle shattered. He didn’t turn.
He needed a roof, not more enemies.
But the streets weren’t kind to desperation.
He passed a rusted overpass near the drainage canal. A group of rough-looking men huddled beneath it, steam curling around their makeshift fire. As he neared, one stood—a tall, scarred man in a torn hoodie.
“Well, well,” the man drawled. “What’s a pretty boy like you doing here?”
Kieran ignored him. Keep walking. Just keep—
A second man stepped into view, blocking the path.
“You deaf, kid?”
Kieran swallowed. “I’m not looking for trouble.”
“You’re in Glen East, man,” the first said. “Trouble’s the only thing looking.”
A third figure emerged from the shadows. This one didn’t speak. He just smiled—too wide—and showed a switchblade.
Kieran’s heartbeat pounded like war drums.
System Notice: Threat Level – Moderate
Adaptive Response Mode AvailableActivate? Y/NHis mind screamed yes, but his mouth stayed shut. Was this real? Would it work? Was he willing to bet his life on something he didn’t understand?
He stepped back. “I’m warning you…”
They laughed. The switchblade glinted.
Task Update: SURVIVAL CONDITION – TRIGGERED
Sub-Mission Generated: Survive Assault or Deter ThreatReward: 50 Credits + Threat Assessment BonusKieran clenched his fists.
Suddenly—his vision sharpened.
The man with the blade shifted, and in slow motion, Kieran saw the twitch of his hand, the way he leaned left before lunging. Instinct—or maybe the system—kicked in. Kieran ducked.
The knife sliced air. Kieran drove his shoulder into the man’s chest, knocking him into the garbage cans.
The others rushed.
System Bonus: Reflex Enhancement – Lv. 1 (Temporary)
Kieran twisted sideways, barely dodging a swing, then grabbed a loose pipe from the ground and swung it wildly. It connected with someone’s jaw. Crack.
Pain lanced through his side—someone had punched him hard. He fell.
System Warning: Vitality 71%
Auto-Parry UnavailableFallback Protocol: ESCAPE RECOMMENDEDHe scrambled to his feet, panting, eyes blurred with tears and rain.
Then—
Incoming Assistance Detected
Triggering Sequence: Ally Unlocked (??)A blur slammed into one of the attackers. A flash of movement. The man who’d pulled the blade now lay flat, groaning, nose broken.
A girl. No taller than Kieran’s shoulder, hood up, face streaked with rain and dirt, eyes glowing faintly beneath strands of wild black hair.
“You pick all the best corners to die in, don’t you?” she muttered.
“What—who—?”
“No time. Move!”
She grabbed his arm and pulled him into the side alley.
They didn’t stop running until they reached a hidden stairwell beneath a shut-down cafe.
The girl yanked open a cellar door and dragged him down, shutting it behind them. The air inside was warm, faintly electric, lit by a series of hacked LED strips. A cracked monitor sat on the wall beside a makeshift bedroll, several cans of energy drinks stacked nearby.
“Home sweet hole,” she said, wiping her forehead.
Kieran leaned against the wall, chest heaving.
“You... saved me.”
“No, you saved yourself. I just made sure you didn’t die before morning.”
She pulled off her hood. She was younger than he expected—maybe seventeen. Eyes sharp as razors, mouth set in a near-constant smirk. Her jacket bore the patch of a long-defunct resistance gang.
“Kieran,” he said, breathless. “Kieran Blackwell.”
“Yeah, I know who you are.”
That made him flinch.
“Don’t worry,” she said, opening a can of warm soda. “I don’t care about scandals. You’re broke. That makes you one of us.”
He studied her, puzzled. “Why help me?”
She hesitated, then tapped her temple. “Let’s just say… you’re not the only one with a system.”
Kieran blinked. “You… what?”
She held up a translucent panel only he could see—identical in form to his.
Her stats were blurred out, but the label burned clear:
CLASS: Rogue Node – Legacy Fragment Detected
“You’re not the only heir the system’s watching,” she said quietly.
“How many of us are there?”
“No clue. But I know one thing—the system doesn’t just pick anyone. It’s watching for something. A collapse? A war? Maybe both.”
She tossed him a protein bar. “Name’s Skye. And right now, your first mission’s about to expire.”
Kieran’s panel flashed red.
Task 001: Shelter Secured – Success
Reward Claimed: +200 Credits | +1 Legacy PointNew Perk Unlocked: ‘Bare Survival’ – Minor resistance to cold, pain, and hungerA warmth spread through his chest. He sat up straighter.
Legacy Point Count: 1
Upgrade Path Available – Locked (??)He looked at Skye. “I thought I was alone.”
“You are. And you aren’t.”
She rose and walked to the panel on the wall, typing something fast. “But this world? It’s breaking. And if your system is anything like mine, it means you’re one of the last cards on the table.”
Kieran stood, unsteady but stronger. He looked at his hands, then at her.
“What now?”
She didn’t turn. “That depends.”
“On what?”
She paused, fingers frozen on the keyboard.
“On whether you’re ready to know the truth about your family… and what they really built.”
The lights flickered.
Then: a siren blared outside—shrill, too mechanical, too fast.
Kieran’s panel went blank. Then glitched.
ALERT: Tracking Beacon Detected
Target Marked: LEGACY SCION – BLACKWELLSkye whipped around. “They found you already?”
The ceiling trembled. Heavy boots echoed above. A harsh voice barked in static:
“Target located. Extract or eliminate.”
Kieran’s mouth went dry.
He had one Legacy Point, no weapons, and a girl with more secrets than answers.
“Can we fight?”
Skye pulled out a curved dagger laced with copper lines. “Fight? No.”
She kicked over the mattress and revealed a hidden grate.
“We run.”
Previous Chapter
Latest Chapter
Chapter 10: The Fablekill Directive
Ash drifted through Emberpoint like a second silence.Even after the light from Bryn’s last scream had faded and the static echoes of corrupted data ceased, the team remained haunted—each bearing the weight of what they had seen in the depths. A Null not consumed, but erased on her own terms.Lyra sat in the command node, silent, sorting fragments of what little data Kieran recovered from Bryn’s collapse. Skye tinkered with one of the turrets, but her movements were mechanical. Mira—normally distant and eerie—now clutched her knees and muttered words in loops too fractured to follow.And Kieran… stared at the wall where her image still flickered.Subject B – Status: REMOVED.Echo Flame: Archived.Fablekill Protocol: Pending.At 03:12 local node time, the Vault shuddered. Not from external impact.From code.Kieran’s HUD glitched, every display flickering before the Override insignia appeared, burned into the interface like a scar.Core Signal Override Detected.FABLEKILL PROTOCOL ONLI
Chapter 9: The Echo Depths
The first step beneath Emberpoint was like crossing into another world.Steel gave way to obsidian. Clean circuits morphed into jagged, fractured lines of corrupted data. Lights flickered unpredictably, casting distorted shadows along walls that hummed with old, unspoken grief.Kieran led the way, his blade drawn but low. Beside him, Skye moved like a ghost, every step measured. Behind them, Lyra checked every motion tracker while Mira—barefoot and humming again—walked as if she’d been here before.System Warning: Sub-layer anomaly detected.Signal: Fragmented Null Pulse — Proximity 2.2kmEnvironment: Suppressed Override Zone / Echo Contamination Level: Critical“This place isn’t just abandoned,” Lyra muttered. “It was sealed. Maybe even condemned.”Kieran’s panel buzzed faintly, skipping every few meters.“The system can’t read this level properly,” he said. “It doesn’t know if it exists—or ever did.”Skye whistled low. “Glitched reality. Beautiful.”“No,” Mira whispered. “It’s remem
Chapter 8: Children of the Broken Code
Silence had never sounded so loud.The aftermath of battle always came with noise—moans of the wounded, whirring repairs, systems rebooting. But this… this was different.Kieran sat on the edge of the Emberpoint command deck, a cracked energy blade across his knees, watching the child they’d found sleep under heavy sedation. A medical node pulsed quietly nearby, running vitals, though even it struggled to interpret the readings.Skye stood at his side, arms crossed.“She’s… not normal.”“That Wraith didn’t even touch her,” Kieran murmured. “It hesitated. Then crumbled.”Skye nodded slowly. “I’ve seen Override protocols adapt mid-fight. I’ve seen them devour minds and recompile memories. But fear?” She gestured toward the child. “This is the first time I’ve seen the system scared.”Lyra moved through the ruins of the war chamber, assisting tech-recovery drones and checking on structural integrity.Most of the heavy damage was confined to the lower corridors. They’d already salvaged thr
Chapter 7: Ashfall Stand
Override Beacon: ActivatedWarhead Squad ETA: 01:59:56Objective: Defend Ash Vault until override signal expires.If successful: Territory claimed – Resistance Base: EmberpointIf failed: Total annihilationKieran stared at the countdown.Just under two hours.That was all the time they had to turn a scorched military dump into a defensible fortress against a system strike team designed to annihilate legacy traces.The echoes of WRAITH’s retreat still burned in his mind—her final words twisted with warning.“This isn’t an execution. It’s a warhead drop.”01:55:09 – Preparing for WarThe Ash Vault, once a Blackwell testing bunker, still had a skeleton of functionality: pressure doors, reinforced platforms, a few half-operational defense turrets that buzzed erratically when touched.Skye moved like a ghost, checking every blind spot.Lyra barked orders with an old soldier’s confidence, waking up dormant terminals and rerouting power to external gates.Kieran stood at the center, map pul
Chapter 6: The Forgotten Flame
The moment Kieran activated the beacon, the countdown began.Override Broadcast DetectedNode 03 Termination Scheduled: 12:00:00Current Target: Node 03 – “The Forgotten Flame”Location: Ash Vault Subgrid | Clearance: RestrictedThe air felt heavier. The war had truly begun.Kieran stood atop a derelict comm tower overlooking Glen Sector 12—a husk of a district scorched by the last system war. Every building bore fire damage or was riddled with bullet holes, and the underground entrances were sealed or buried.“An ex-military Echo Node,” Skye said, scanning the map, “hiding beneath an incinerated city block. How poetic.”“How do we get in?” Kieran asked.She tapped the interface. “There’s a single access tunnel through an old heat disposal conduit. Problem is… it’s Override-patrolled.”“Then we go through them.”He didn’t say it like a threat.He said it like a promise.Meanwhile…Far below Glen’s outer shell, in the metallic bowels of the Ash Vault, a figure moved with precision thro
Chapter 5: Echo War
The system’s interface hovered before Kieran, glowing with quiet menace.Choose Next Protocol:– Echo War: Raise a resistance, find other legacy wielders.– Bloodline Cleanse: Destroy every node tied to Blackwell tech.His chest ached. His ribs felt cracked, and his left hand trembled from the last strike, but the real weight lay in those two blinking options.One path was vengeance—simple, burning, final.The other… was rebellion.Skye knelt beside him. “If you pick Echo War, you’ll have to build something. You’ll make enemies… and allies. You’ll risk becoming a symbol.”Kieran stared at the flickering prompt.He could almost hear his father’s voice again:“We built the system to rule. If it falls into wrong hands, it becomes a cage.”The cage was already here. And someone had to break the lock from the inside.He tapped Echo War.The screen rippled.Path Selected: Echo War – Resistance Formation Protocol OnlineNew Objective: Locate and Activate ‘Echo Nodes’ (Hidden system users bo
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