Vitality – Whisperstone Ridge, Inner Fragment Zone
The wind across Whisperstone Ridge cut like memory—thin, sharp, weighted by silence. Ancient runes glowed along the canyon walls, barely visible to normal players.
Cassian crouched near a collapsed sigil gate, tapping into the Veil. His HUD displayed a partial trace:
> "Fragment Data Key Detected – Dev-Class Encryption (Mid-Tier)"
"Potential Link: Pre-Core Node Cluster – Status: Unstable"
He didn't breathe.
The trace pattern wasn't just familiar—it was his. A string of code he had once written as part of a subroutine buried beneath the original Vitality sandbox.
> "Why is this here?"
---
Synapse Interference
Just as he initiated data capture, the screen flashed.
> [WARNING – Veil Interference Detected]
[Monitoring Layer Breach – SynapseCorp]
[Error: Real-World Traceback Initiated – Abort Recommended]
Cassian's pulse jumped.
They weren't just watching in-game anymore.
They were trying to map the Veil's signature layer—the hidden architecture that blurred reality and code.
He severed the connection instantly.
But the alert lingered.
> "Did they see me?"
"Or… did they see where I am?"
---
Vitality – Shadowwood Periphery (Minutes Later)
He moved fast—repositioning deeper into the game's fog layers, masking his node signal through a cascade of misdirection pulses.
A shape followed from a distance. Silent. Not hostile.
> StarViper.
She emerged only when the fog thinned, leaning against a broken travel rune, arms crossed.
"Someone's rattled."
Cassian didn't respond.
She studied him carefully. "That wasn't a normal scan back there. What were you trying to find?"
He adjusted his grip on the Veil console. "Does it matter?"
"It might," she said. "If what you're chasing can bleed into the real world."
Cassian looked away. "Everything bleeds, eventually."
---
He activated a private diagnostic in the Veil.
Mira's stabilizer signal blinked in the corner of his HUD—a ghost overlay he'd installed himself. Not real-time, not precise, but enough to tell him if she dropped again.
Tonight, it was stable.
But for how long?
Her condition was worsening, and the black-market lead was all he had. If Synapse's tracing worked, they could find him. Or worse—find her.
And if that happened—
He cut the thought off before it finished.
---
Cassian returned to the ridge under cover of a rerouted path. The interference was gone—but something had been left behind.
A message.
> [Encrypted Layer – Access Only via Veil Root Code]
"You're not the only one who remembers how this world was made."
– PHANTOM
He stared at it.
Crimson Phantom?
Or someone else?
And how did they know what he'd buried here?
---
End of Chapter Eighteen