THE GILDED LEGEND (Enternity Online)

Chapter 12 Liam's Threat in the Real World

The coolant in the VR pod hissed, sucking away the residual steam clinging to Axel's body. He forced his lungs to work, inhaling the real air that felt heavy and smelled metallic. His heart hammered in his chest.

"Damn it," he cursed softly. His voice was hoarse, almost inaudible.

He tried to lift his hand to push open the pod's cover, but his fingers were still stiff. A stinging sensation crawled along his nerves, residuals from the forcibly interrupted neural synchronization. Outside, behind his apartment's steel door, the footsteps sounded again. Slow, yet deliberate.

"Axel? You hear me, don't you?" The voice came again. Not from behind the door, but from the apartment's internal speaker system. "Your security system is quite interesting. But not strong enough to stop me."

Axel forced his muscles to respond. With a rough jerk, he managed to push the pod cover open. His body was soaked, trembling violently as he crawled out and fell onto the cold marble floor.

"A-Aina?" Axel whispered, calling out to his home AI assistant.

Silence. The lights in the room blinked crimson.

"Aina's asleep, Steele." Liam's voice echoed again, clearer this time. "I've shut down her network. You know, I hate it when someone eavesdrops on our real-world conversations."

Axel fumbled along the wall, trying to stand. His vision was still blurry, but he could feel the Gilded energy he'd felt in the game still lingering in his arm muscles. His reflexes felt sharper, even though his body was weak.

"What do you want, Liam?" Axel shouted toward the dark corner of the room. "Come in if you dare. Don't hide behind the system."

A cold laugh echoed from the speaker. "I'm not that stupid. I just wanted to give you a warning. Look at your entrance. There’s a little gift for the legend."

Axel stumbled toward the main door. His mind was racing. "How did he know my address? How could he hack Aina so quickly?" He reached for the doorknob, opening it cautiously. No one was in the hallway. Only a small, unlabeled black box sat on the doormat.

Axel picked up the box and carried it inside. His hands trembled as he opened the lid. Inside, there was a stack of photos. He picked up the top photo, and his world seemed to stop spinning.

It was a photo of himself sleeping inside the VR pod, taken from a very close angle. The next photo showed Zara Blaze walking out of a convenience store, unaware that a lens was targeting her from a distance.

"Bastard," Axel hissed.

Suddenly, his smartphone vibrated violently on the table. An incoming call from an unknown number. Axel connected it to his earpiece.

"Axel? Are you safe?!" Zara’s voice sounded very panicked on the other end of the line.

"Zara! Where are you?" Axel immediately snatched a dagger from his desk drawer, his Ghostwalker instincts now fully active in the real world.

"I'm in my apartment. Axel, my network is down. All the data on my private server suddenly disappeared. And just now, someone threw a package onto my balcony." Zara gasped for breath. "The contents ... Axel, they were photos of my father in his office."

"He's targeting both of us, Zara. Liam's gone crazy. He's crossed the game boundaries." Axel paced back and forth in his now completely dark living room. "Listen to me, don't go out. Lock all the doors. I'm coming over there."

"No, Axel! His people might be outside. He sent me a message through the data terminal just now." Zara's voice trembled. "He said he wants Gilded integration access. He knows the system changes our physical bodies."

"How could he know that?" Axel asked sharply.

"Maybe he felt it too. Remember how his pod almost exploded earlier? He performed a forced synchronization that was much harsher than ours," Zara replied. "He wants to know how you survived without suffering brain damage."

Axel stared at the photo of himself in the pod. His eyes narrowed. "He's not getting anything, Zara. I'm going to shut down all our backup servers. We have to disappear from public reach for a while."

"But what about Nexus? We were just about to start that project." Zara sounded hesitant yet scared at the same time.

"Nexus isn't important if we end up dead at the hands of this psychopath!" Axel snapped. "Gilded isn't about the game anymore, Zara. It's about an instant evolution that he wants. He'll kill anyone to get it."

Suddenly, Liam's voice cut into their phone call again. A very clean frequency hack.

"A very interesting discussion," Liam said. "Zara, you sound beautiful when you're scared. And Steele, still trying to play the hero? How amusing."

"Liam, let her go," Axel growled. "Your business is with me."

"My business is with the Gilded System," Liam retorted coolly. "I spent millions of dollars to become the best in Eternity, but you destroyed it overnight with that garbage code. I don't need your Ghostwalker title. I need what's inside your nerves."

"You'll never understand it, Liam." Axel clenched his fists. "It's not just code. It's part of an evolution that requires mental readiness. You'll only destroy yourself if you try to take it by force."

"We'll see about that." Liam chuckled. "Twelve hours. That's how long I'm giving both of you to hand over the primary Gilded access code. Otherwise, the next photos I send won't show you breathing."

The phone connection cut off.

Silence returned to Axel's apartment. He stared at his dead monitor screen, leaving only the reflection of his pale face. He could feel the pulse of energy in his arm growing stronger, as if the Gilded system inside his body was responding to this real threat.

"This evolution ... has truly begun," Axel whispered.

He grabbed his black jacket and quickly put on a bag containing a portable decryption device. He knew Liam wouldn't wait twelve hours. The man had already acted beyond boundaries from the start. Axel had to move faster than any predator he had faced in the Rotten Swamp.

He walked toward the large window overlooking the city. In the distance, the lights of skyscrapers twinkled, hiding the now-real threat in the shadows. Axel touched the windowpane, and for the first time, he saw a reflection of his own code there, golden lines beginning to merge with his pupils.

"You want a war in the real world, Liam?" Axel smirked faintly, a wild expression just like when he finished off monsters in the game. "I'll give you hell!"

Axel jumped out through the balcony window, landing on the fire escape with a speed that should have been impossible for an ordinary human. The world in his eyes was no longer just buildings and streets, but a series of vectors and energy flows that he could manipulate.