2026-07-31 07:31:4104:40
04:39
The countdown echoed through the underground laboratory.
Every second felt heavier than the last.
The massive steel door beneath the facility continued to rise with a deafening rumble.
Dust poured from the ceiling.
The entire institute trembled.
Evelyn’s face turned pale.
“We’re out of time.”
Alexander looked at the tactical display.
“Report!”
A Crown Guard answered immediately.
“The eastern defense line has fallen.”
“Three guards injured.”
“The intruders are moving toward the vault.”
Another explosion shook the laboratory.
Boom!
The lights flickered.
One of the computer servers burst into flames.
Smoke filled the room.
Richard Kane’s voice suddenly echoed through the speakers.
“Ethan.”
“You still don’t understand.”
“This vault was never built to protect the system.”
“It was built…”
“…to protect the world from it.”
The transmission ended.
Ethan looked at Evelyn.
“What does he mean?”
She hesitated.
“I hoped you’d never have to know.”
Alexander turned sharply.
“Evelyn.”
“Tell him.”
She closed her eyes.
Then nodded.
“The Legacy System isn’t just an artificial intelligence.”
“It evolves.”
“It learns.”
“It chooses.”
“And every time it’s passed to a new Host…”
“It becomes stronger.”
Ethan frowned.
“So what’s inside the vault?”
Evelyn answered quietly.
“The Core.”
“The original source code.”
“The first version Nathan and I discovered.”
“Discovered?”
Ethan immediately caught the word.
“You didn’t create it.”
“No.”
“We found it.”
“Where?”
Evelyn looked at him.
“In a satellite.”
Silence.
Alexander lowered his head.
“It crashed into the Sahara Desert forty-two years ago.”
Ethan couldn’t believe what he was hearing.
“A satellite?”
Evelyn nodded.
“It wasn’t registered to any country.”
“It carried no identification.”
“No launch records.”
“No manufacturer.”
“Nothing.”
“Inside…”
“We found a crystal storage device.”
“It contained the Legacy Core.”
The system suddenly flashed.
Hidden Memory Fragment Unlocked.
Origin of Legacy System: Unknown.
Possible Extraterrestrial Origin: 3% Probability.
Possible Classified Human Project: 41% Probability.
Possible Unknown Civilization: 56% Probability.
The screen disappeared.
Ethan’s heartbeat quickened.
Before anyone could speak again…
The floor shook violently.
Crack!
A section of the wall exploded inward.
Concrete flew across the laboratory.
Black Dragon Syndicate soldiers rushed through the opening.
“Move!”
“Secure the vault!”
Gunfire erupted.
The Crown Guards returned fire immediately.
Bang!
Bang!
Bang!
Bullets tore through the laboratory.
Glass chambers shattered.
Sparks flew from damaged equipment.
Alexander pulled Ethan behind a reinforced console.
“Stay down!”
“I’m helping.”
Before Alexander could stop him…
Ethan grabbed a metal emergency fire extinguisher from the wall.
A syndicate soldier charged toward him.
Ethan stepped aside at the last second.
The attacker lost his balance.
Ethan swung the extinguisher.
Crash!
The heavy cylinder struck the man’s shoulder.
His weapon flew across the floor.
Another attacker aimed his rifle.
Before he could fire…
A Crown Guard tackled him from behind.
The battle intensified.
Richard Kane’s voice echoed once more.
“Open the vault!”
“We’re almost there!”
The countdown continued.
02:11
02:10
02:09
Evelyn suddenly gasped.
“They’ve reached the access corridor!”
Alexander shouted,
“We have to beat them there!”
Without waiting…
Ethan sprinted toward the descending staircase leading to the vault.
Alexander followed.
“So did Evelyn.”
Behind them…
The sounds of gunfire faded.
The lower they descended…
The stranger the walls became.
The concrete slowly disappeared.
Replaced by smooth black metal.
Symbols glowed faintly along the walls.
None of them resembled any language Ethan had ever seen.
The system appeared again.
Warning.
Legacy Core Nearby.
Host Synchronization Beginning…
Synchronization: 12%
Ethan felt a strange warmth spread through his body.
The silver key Alexander had given him suddenly began to glow.
Evelyn stopped walking.
“It’s reacting.”
Alexander stared at the key.
“It recognizes you.”
At the bottom of the staircase…
They reached an enormous circular chamber.
In the center stood a towering crystal pillar.
It floated several inches above the floor.
Inside the crystal…
A sphere of blue light slowly rotated.
The entire room pulsed with energy.
Ethan couldn’t look away.
For some reason…
It felt familiar.
As if it had been waiting for him.
The system suddenly disappeared.
For the first time since he became a Host…
There was no blue screen.
Only silence.
Then…
A voice echoed inside Ethan’s mind.
Not mechanical.
Not human.
Calm.
Ancient.
“Welcome back…”
”…Successor.”
Before Ethan could react…
Another explosion shook the chamber.
The opposite entrance burst open.
Richard Kane walked in.
Beside him…
Lucien Draven calmly stepped through the smoke.
Both men smiled.
Richard looked at Ethan.
“Perfect.”
“You opened the vault for us.”
Lucien’s eyes shifted from Ethan…
To the glowing crystal.
Then he said quietly,
“So…”
“After forty years…”
“We’ve finally found the Legacy Core.”
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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