Location: Siberia – Black Veil Sector
Time: 10:47 P.M. (Local Time)
Temperature: -42°C
⸻
You knew cold.
But this was different.
This wasn't the crisp edge of winter or even the battlefield bite of a freezing wind—it was still, deathly cold. The kind that crawled into your bones and didn't let go. The armoured snow transport you rode rattled with each gust of the blizzard outside, windows rimmed with ice, engine humming low like it, too, wanted to stop and surrender to the storm.
But you couldn't.
Not tonight.
Because somewhere beneath these cursed mountains, buried under a tomb of ice and steel, was the original facility tied to Project Nexus.
Cryo Site A.
The Nexus Prime Chain drive you recovered in Mexico had revealed its location—a deep-core lab buried in an area the Russian government had officially declared geologically unstable. No one came out here anymore. No one even looked.
You checked your system readouts.
[Skill: Cold Resistance Lv. 1 – Active]
Reduce damage and stamina drain from extreme cold environments by 18%.
[System Status: Threat Scan – Passive]
No immediate hostiles were detected within 200 meters.
[Adaptation Core Sync: 93%]
You exhaled and watched the breath freeze in the air.
Daredevil had insisted on staying behind for this one. He was good, maybe better than you in some ways, but even Matt knew this wasn't his arena. This wasn't rooftops and alleyways. It was buried labs, dead science, and things humanity tried to forget.
You were alone.
And somehow… it felt right.
⸻
Entrance Discovery
You descended from the transport and into the storm, your cloak's adaptive weave blending into the snow. The blizzard raged, but you moved like a ghost through the white, your boots crunching atop the ice-laced stone.
You scanned the area. Beneath a ridge of black ice, the signal from the Prime Chain pulsed.
[Skill Activated: Deep Analysis Lv. 2]
→ Subsurface electromagnetic field detected. Estimated depth: 7.4 meters.
You knelt and pressed a gloved hand to the ice. The drive buzzed in your coat pocket, resonating with something beneath.
A moment later, the ground trembled.
With a grinding groan, a circular steel hatch emerged from the snow—shaking off frost and time. The glyphs on its surface—part-Russian, part-symbolic code—lit up faint blue.
[Access Granted – Nexus Prime Chain Authentication Confirmed.]
With a loud hiss, the hatch released pressure.
Air escaped like the final breath of a long-dead god.
You dropped into the black.
⸻
Cryo Site A – Interior
The facility's interior was exactly what you expected. Sterile steel walls, cryogenic frost coating every surface, and red emergency lights flickering dimly as if they were struggling to remember what life felt like.
Dozens of cryo-pods lined the walls. Many were shattered. Glass, blood, and frost blended on the floor in horrifying patterns. Some pods were twisted open from the inside. Others still had… occupants.
Bodies, half-frozen. Some missing limbs. Others with metallic implants protruding from their skin.
Failed prototypes.
You passed each one, eyes narrowing.
Subject 003: Failed Adaptation – Burnout
Subject 019: Enhanced Neuro-Reactor – Terminated
Subject 037: Muscle Density Max – Escaped
Subject 001: Singular – LOCKED
You stopped at that last one.
Subject 001.
Your designation. Your past.
The pod remained sealed, with thick steel plating across the front. But as you reached toward it—
[Memory Fragment Recovered – 3/5]
Your vision stuttered—
Cold steel on your skin.
Surgeons shouting behind a screen.
"It's not adapting. It's responding!"
"He's awake—GET THE SEDATIVE!"
Then darkness. A cage.
Not safety. Not birth. Just containment.
The system buzzed softly in your ear.
You breathed through it.
There was more. You could feel it.
And someone—or something—was watching.
⸻
Deeper Into the Facility
You found the command hub past two sealed blast doors, using your system's interface to override dead security.
Inside, the walls were lined with defunct monitors, rusted conduits, and still-flickering touch panels. You slotted in the Nexus Prime Chain.
The system booted.
[Data Chain Linked – Uploading Codex…]
[Signal Key Fragment: 2/4 Acquired]
[New Location Unlocked – Ascendant Deep Vault: Undisclosed]
Another ping.
[Genome Analysis: Subject 001 vs. Subject Zero – Genetic Match: 94.4%]
You froze.
Subject Zero.
You hadn't seen that name before.
Your fingers hovered above the screen. Then the system spoke again:
[Warning: Containment Failure Detected – Deep Cryo Lock Breached.]
A cold dread rolled over you. You pulled up the internal facility map—and saw it.
Deep Chamber 5B – Subject Zero: STATUS – AWAKENING.
You grabbed the drive, locked down the command hub, and turned to leave—when the steel floor beneath you rumbled.
The walls began to breathe.
⸻
The Escape
You sprinted down the hall, system warnings flashing as the integrity of the entire level dropped.
[Emergency Protocol – Evacuation Suggested. Hostile Entity Mobilizing.]
[Hostile: Subject Zero – Class: Unknown | Aggression: MAXIMUM]
From far below, you felt the roar. Not a scream. Not a human voice.
A reaction.
You launched into motion.
[Skill Activated: Combat Sprint Lv. 1]
[New Skill Gained: Polar Reflex Lv. 1]
In cold climates, reflexes are boosted by 12%.
A blast door exploded behind you.
You ducked into a collapsed shaft and used Intercepting Step to leap from wall to wall, claws of frost and wind chasing you like a living creature.
When you reached the final corridor, a huge shadow swept past the breach below—massive, humanoid, and wrong.
You didn't get a good look.
You didn't want to.
You vaulted out the entrance hatch, slammed your remote detonator into the panel, and dove into the snow.
The hatch exploded.
Ice rock and debris burst upward as the whole facility began collapsing behind you, swallowed by a mountain of frost and time.
⸻
Safehouse Omega – Hours Later
You patched the graze on your shoulder in a dimly lit room powered by solar cells. Outside, the blizzard was gone. Only the eerie calm of Siberia remained.
You placed the drive on your makeshift terminal and loaded what you'd recovered.
[Level Up: 16 → 17]
Stat Points Gained: +5 – Auto-Distributed]
• STR: 23
• DEX: 23
• END: 23
• INT: 23
• WIS: 23
• CHA: 23
• LUCK: 11 (+1 applied)
[New Skill: Cold Hardened (Passive)]
Reduce environmental and frost-based damage by 20%.
[Adaptation Core Sync: 94%]
You leaned back, breathing steadily.
You were getting stronger.
Smarter.
Faster.
But something else was evolving now too.
Something they thought they had buried.
Something that looked like you.
And it was finally awake.