2026-07-31 07:30:21Rain poured heavily over the abandoned institute.
Thunder rumbled across the dark sky.
Ethan never took his eyes off the top-floor window.
He had seen it clearly.
The glowing blue screen.
It was exactly like his own system.
Alexander stood beside him.
“You saw it too.”
Ethan nodded.
“I did.”
Alexander looked toward the building.
“So we’re not too late.”
He turned to the Crown Guards.
“Seal every exit.”
“No one gets in.”
“No one gets out.”
“Yes, Chairman!”
Within seconds…
More than twenty guards surrounded the institute.
Some moved toward the rear entrance.
Others climbed onto nearby rooftops.
The entire building was surrounded.
Alexander looked at Ethan.
“Ready?”
Ethan nodded.
The two of them entered through the rusted front doors.
…
The lobby was frozen in time.
Broken furniture lay scattered across the floor.
Dust covered every surface.
Old research papers littered the hallway.
The air smelled damp.
As if no one had entered the building for decades.
Yet…
Fresh muddy footprints stretched down the corridor.
Someone had walked through here recently.
The system appeared.
Scanning…
Fresh Human Activity Detected.
Estimated Time: 11 Minutes Ago.
The screen disappeared.
Ethan followed the footprints.
Alexander walked beside him.
Neither spoke.
The silence felt unsettling.
Halfway down the corridor…
Ethan stopped.
“What is it?”
Alexander asked.
Ethan pointed upward.
“A camera.”
Alexander looked.
Hidden inside a broken ceiling light…
A tiny surveillance camera blinked red.
“We’re being watched.”
The next second…
Every light in the corridor suddenly switched on.
Click!
Click!
Click!
The building came alive.
Electricity surged through the old walls.
Then…
A calm female voice echoed from hidden speakers.
“Welcome.”
Alexander immediately recognized it.
“No…”
“It can’t be.”
The voice continued.
“Welcome back…”
“…Alexander.”
Alexander’s face turned pale.
Ethan looked at him.
“You know that voice?”
Alexander whispered,
“I’d never forget it.”
“It belongs to…”
He stopped speaking.
The voice laughed softly.
“Forty years…”
“And you still remember me.”
A metal door at the end of the hallway slowly slid open.
Beyond it…
A brightly lit underground elevator waited.
The female voice spoke again.
“Come.”
“I’ve been waiting.”
Alexander looked at Ethan.
“We’re going.”
The elevator carried them deep underground.
Ten seconds.
Twenty.
Thirty.
Finally…
The doors opened.
Ethan’s eyes widened.
The underground laboratory was enormous.
Rows of advanced computers lined the walls.
Glass chambers stood in neat rows.
Holographic displays floated in the air.
The technology looked decades ahead of anything on the surface.
Alexander whispered,
“This place…”
“It shouldn’t exist.”
A woman stood in the center of the laboratory.
She appeared to be in her early forties.
She wore a white lab coat.
Her long black hair rested over one shoulder.
She smiled gently.
“Welcome.”
Alexander stared at her.
His hands trembled.
“No…”
“You died.”
The woman smiled.
“I know.”
Alexander stepped closer.
“I attended your funeral.”
“So did many others.”
She folded her arms.
“That was the idea.”
Ethan frowned.
“Who are you?”
The woman looked at him.
“My name…”
“…is Dr. Evelyn Hart.”
Alexander closed his eyes.
“Nathan’s partner.”
She nodded.
“And co-creator…”
“…of the Legacy System.”
Ethan’s heart pounded.
“So you created it.”
Evelyn smiled.
“No.”
“We designed it.”
“But neither Nathan nor I…”
“…were its true creator.”
The system suddenly flashed.
Warning!
High-Level Information Detected.
Host Authority Updated.
Information Restrictions Reduced.
Evelyn slowly walked toward Ethan.
She looked into his eyes.
“I’ve waited years to meet you.”
Ethan asked the question that had haunted him from the beginning.
“Who gave me the system?”
Evelyn answered without hesitation.
“No one.”
“You inherited it.”
Ethan froze.
“What?”
She nodded.
“The Legacy System…”
“…is never created.”
“It is passed on.”
Silence filled the laboratory.
Alexander looked just as shocked.
Evelyn continued.
“Every Host receives it from the previous one.”
“The system chooses.”
“Not us.”
Ethan’s mind raced.
“Then who chooses?”
Evelyn slowly looked upward.
“I don’t know.”
“But Nathan believed…”
“…the system has a consciousness of its own.”
Before Ethan could ask another question…
Every monitor inside the laboratory suddenly turned red.
An alarm echoed throughout the facility.
WARNING!
WARNING!
UNAUTHORIZED ACCESS DETECTED!
One of Evelyn’s assistants rushed into the room.
“Doctor!”
“They’ve broken through the outer defenses!”
Evelyn’s smile disappeared.
“Who?”
The assistant’s face turned pale.
“The Black Dragon Syndicate.”
“And…”
“They’re not alone.”
Alexander frowned.
“Who else is with them?”
The assistant swallowed hard.
“Crown Society members.”
The room fell into stunned silence.
Someone inside the Crown Society…
Had betrayed them.
Previous Chapter
Latest Chapter
Chapter 109: Legacy Reawakened
The blue screen flickered.It was unstable.Unlike the flawless interface Ethan had relied on throughout his journey, this one was fractured.Tiny cracks spread across its edges as though the system itself had suffered tremendous damage.The familiar mechanical voice spoke again.It was weaker than Ethan remembered.Yet…He smiled.After everything that had happened…It still sounded like home.Legacy System…Emergency Restoration… 7% Complete…Warning… Core functions unavailable…Reason… Legacy sacrificed during the Final Convergence…Ethan’s heart pounded.“So…”“You survived.”The screen remained silent for a moment.Then…A new sentence appeared.Correction…This unit did not survive.This unit… was remembered.The words struck him harder than any attack ever could.Remembered.Not rebuilt.Not repaired.Remembered.The blue screen slowly continued.Human belief…Shared memories…Legacy fragments carried within countless lives…Emergency reconstruction successful.Ethan finally un
Chapter 108: The Sky Breaker
The crack spread across the blue sky.It didn’t happen all at once.Thin fractures crawled outward like veins across glass, stretching from one horizon to the other.Each new crack released a faint silver light.The peaceful meadow beneath Ethan’s feet trembled.Birds that had been singing moments before suddenly took flight.The gentle breeze vanished.An unnatural silence swallowed the world.Ren’s small hand instinctively reached for Ethan’s.His fingers were trembling.“They found us.”Ethan looked down.“Who?”Ren swallowed.“The ones who don’t want us remembered.”Another deafening roar echoed overhead.This time…It was closer.The sky shattered a little more.Chunks of blue light drifted downward before dissolving into countless glowing particles.Ethan had seen worlds collapse before.He had watched stars disappear.Yet…There was something uniquely terrifying about watching the sky itself come apart.Not because it looked destructive.Because it looked…Wrong.Like reality w
Chapter 107: The First Face
Every step echoed inside Ethan’s helmet.Crunch.Crunch.Crunch.The lunar dust compressed beneath his boots as he followed the countless footprints stretching toward the enormous black doorway.Mission Control remained connected through his communicator.“Ethan, your oxygen levels are stable.”“Heart rate elevated, but within acceptable limits.”Dr. Brooks’ calm voice filled the silence.Professor Orion spoke next.“Distance to the structure: four hundred meters.”“Proceed carefully.”“I will.”Ethan answered.He never took his eyes off the doorway.The closer he came…The larger it became.From orbit it had looked massive.Standing beneath it…It was overwhelming.It rose into the endless darkness above him like a mountain carved from midnight.Its surface reflected nothing.Not sunlight.Not stars.Not even Ethan himself.It was as though the doorway refused to acknowledge reality.Back on Earth…Sophia stood inside Mission Control.Her hands remained folded tightly together.She h
Chapter 106: The Man Who Walked Through Silence
By sunrise…Ethan had made his decision.He would go.Not because he trusted the beings beyond the black doorway.Not because he believed they meant no harm.But because he had seen something in the message that no one else seemed willing to acknowledge.They had asked.Twice.First…May we speak?Then…One may come.An enemy didn’t ask permission.An enemy simply invaded.Whatever waited beyond that door…It wanted to be heard.Whether that was a blessing or a trap…Only one way existed to find out.The launch facility came alive before dawn.Floodlights illuminated the enormous launch pad while engineers hurried around the silver shuttle.Unlike the bulky spacecraft used during the early years of space exploration…This one had been built after the Seven Days.Human technology had advanced dramatically with knowledge recovered from the Architects.Its engines were cleaner.Its shields stronger.Its navigation system could cross the distance between Earth and the Moon in less than th
Chapter 105: The Invitation
No one celebrated.Although the footprints had stopped appearing…Although the black doorway had remained closed…Not a single person inside Mission Control believed the danger had passed.If anything…The silence felt heavier.It was the silence of two strangers looking at one another across a great distance.Waiting.Wondering who would speak next.Dr. Elena Brooks stood beside the communications console, replaying Ethan’s transmission.“My name is Ethan.”“You asked if you could speak.”“You can.”She listened to it three more times before finally muting the speakers.“I’ve worked in aerospace for seventeen years.”She slowly shook her head.“I spent my entire career preparing for first contact.”She smiled weakly.“I never imagined it would begin with… permission.”Professor Orion nodded.“Neither did I.”Hours passed.The black doorway did not move.The Moon remained quiet.Scientists continued monitoring every satellite, every telescope, and every sensor aimed toward the far sid
Chapter 104: Beyond the Black Door
The three knocks echoed through Mission Control.Slow.Steady.Deliberate.Every person in the room froze.No one spoke.No one breathed.The sound wasn’t coming from the speakers anymore.It seemed to resonate through the walls themselves.Three knocks…Yet it felt as though something enormous had struck the fabric of reality.Then…Silence.Emergency lights flickered back to life.Rows of monitors rebooted one after another.Technicians hurried to their stations.“Power is returning!”“I’m reconnecting to the lunar station!”“Signal stabilizing!”Dr. Elena Brooks leaned over one of the consoles.“Get me visual confirmation.”The largest monitor flashed.Static filled the screen.Then the image cleared.Everyone stared.The giant black doorway still stood on the Moon’s far side.Exactly where it had been before.Silent.Motionless.Almost…Innocent.Kai slowly let out the breath he had been holding.“I hate doors.”Lyra looked at him.“You hate everything.”“I especially hate mysteri
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