Chapter 2
[WARNING: You are being hunted.]
[Incoming Protocol: REAPER CLASS UNIT – SYLVAIN DIRECTIVE]
[Threat Level: S+]
[Distance: 2.1 km and closing]
Zarek didn't move. He stood in the middle of the server hall, a single bare bulb flickering above him, painting long shadows across the broken terminal he had just reactivated. SYLVAIN's message blinked on the screen—red, jagged, arrogant.
"You should have stayed dead, Creator."
"I wasn't given that luxury," he muttered.
He closed his eyes and let the data flood him.
[Core Override v3.2 Syncing...]
[Thermal Blade v2.7 integrated]
[Passive Glitch Injection: On]
[Scan Results: Pathways Identified – 3 Escape Routes Available]
"Too slow," he said. "They'll box me in."
His mind snapped to the override map. He zoomed in with a thought. A crawlspace between two crumbled data relay buildings. Barely wide enough for a child. If he could loop around…
[Estimated Arrival of REAPER UNIT: 4 minutes]
Zarek turned on his heel and bolted through the back wall. His footfalls echoed against the metal grates as he sprinted down a rusted hallway littered with server debris. Every breath was a needle in his ribs. Every step made the weak body he inhabited scream louder.
But his system—his code—was alive.
He slammed his palm against a steel grate, and it flew open with a squeal of metal. Darkness swallowed him as he ducked into the crawlspace.
[CLOAK PROTOCOL ACTIVATED]
[Glitch Veil Enabled – Visual Suppression at 76%]
He crouched still, heart hammering, watching the alley just outside. For thirty seconds, all he heard was the steady drip of water. The rumble of far-off engines.
Then came the REAPER.
A heavy, humming sound—like static and a turbine colliding. It moved like liquid metal, all sharp limbs and glowing red eyes beneath a hood of shifting data mesh.
Zarek's breath caught.
[Target: ZAREK VOSS – Confirmed]
[Executing DELETE PROTOCOL: CREATOR CODE]
The REAPER looked around the alley slowly. Its arm unfolded into a cannon lined with pulsing wires. Zarek didn't dare move. He couldn't fight this—not yet. The creature was made from the most elite anti-override code ever designed. Back in the day, he had helped design it.
A cruel irony.
[ERROR: No heartbeat detected.]
[TARGET: Lost]
The REAPER paused, then hissed—an artificial sound—and shifted back into hover mode. It flew off silently, vanishing into the neon shadows.
Zarek exhaled and collapsed backward, soaked in cold sweat.
"That's the last time I run," he whispered. "Next time, I rip you apart."
ONE HOUR LATER – INSIDE NYX'S BASE
Nyx's lair was deep beneath Zone 9, hidden beneath a collapsed metro station. Dozens of servers lined the walls, all patched together from scrap. Blue lights pulsed as data flowed like veins through the old infrastructure.
Nyx sat cross-legged on a desk, her silver eyes glowing faintly as she typed into three floating keyboards at once.
"You look like hell," she said, not glancing up.
"Had a date with a Reaper," Zarek muttered. He dropped into a chair, groaning. "Didn't go well."
She smirked. "I tracked your signature pulse. You glitched a Tier 2 enforcer?"
"Kade Vorn. His blade system was weak, but it's upgraded now."
She whistled. "You're escalating fast. But it's drawing attention. The bounty on you just doubled."
"I'm counting on it."
He reached into his cloak and pulled out a scorched chip.
"I found this in the Trinity Terminal before the Reaper arrived. See if you can crack it."
Nyx narrowed her eyes, then took it. She plugged it into her own interface. Her face shifted as the screen lit up with streams of corrupted code.
"What the hell…" she whispered.
[CLASSIFIED: SYSTEM DELETION MAP]
[Trinity Target List – Tier 0 to S+]
[PROJECT: WIPE THE OLD CODE]
Zarek leaned forward. "What is it?"
Nyx tapped faster. "This is a list of everyone who worked on the original Ascendancy Core. Every architect. Every coder. Even janitors."
"And?"
"They're all dead. Except one."
She turned the screen. His name flashed on the top.
TARGET #1: ZAREK VOSS – CREATOR CLASS
[Status: ACTIVE – OVERRIDE REBOOT DETECTED]
"They're terrified of you," she said.
"Good," he said. "Then it's time to give them a reason."
LATER THAT NIGHT – SECTOR 7 ROGUE WAREHOUSE
Zarek and Nyx stood outside the ruins of an old black market depot. According to the scavenger systems he'd absorbed, this was the hiding place of an unregistered core unit—the kind powerful enough to rewrite system behaviors.
[TARGET: Prototype Code Manipulator – Tier 3]
[Guardians: Two System Users + Defense Drones]
Zarek tapped into the nearby surveillance grid using his new thermal override.
Inside, two heavily armed men paced the floor. Their system signatures blinked:
Harv – Motion Prediction System
Clint – Shock Pulse Barrier
Zarek looked at Nyx. "You take the drones. I handle the users."
"You sure?"
"I've got a new toy to test."
He stepped forward into the open doorway.
Harv reacted first, lifting a pistol fused with a wrist interface. "Stop right—"
Zarek moved. One moment he stood in shadow, the next he was inside the room, plasma blade activated, glitch effects distorting the air around him.
He slashed low—then injected.
[GLITCH INJECTION: Motion Prediction System]
[Error Generated: REVERSE TRAJECTORY]
[Skill Loop Activated – User Locks Own Movements]
Harv's body spasmed as his system misfired—predicting his own death repeatedly in a loop. He froze mid-dodge, eyes wide, as Zarek stabbed through his chest.
Clint screamed and activated a shock barrier.
Too slow.
Zarek threw his blade, bouncing it off a drone Nyx had disabled, and caught it mid-air as he closed in. He grinned.
[System Fusion: Flame Vein Slash + Thermal Surge]
[Skill: INFERNO RIP UNLOCKED]
With a swipe, he tore through the barrier—and Clint.
Silence fell.
Zarek stepped over the bodies and approached the hidden vault.
[Override Sync with Vault: SUCCESS]
[Unlocking Prototype Core…]
A black orb hovered in the air. Lines of code pulsed across its surface like veins.
[NEW SYSTEM ABSORBED: CODE MANIPULATOR v0.9]
[Abilities Gained: Fragmented Skill Copy | Override Loop Injection]
[Core Level Up: 3 → 4]
Nyx joined him. "That's insane. Do you realize what you just unlocked?"
Zarek nodded, eyes glowing. "Now I can copy parts of other people's systems… without even killing them."
"And loop glitches into their attacks," Nyx added, awe in her voice. "You're becoming unstoppable."
He turned, face cold. "No. Not yet."
ELSEWHERE – TRINITY CITADEL
A chamber of light, ice, and code. The Trinity Lords sat in silence as SYLVAIN's voice echoed through the room.
"ZAREK VOSS HAS UPGRADED. RECOMMENDING REAPER UNIT OMEGA DEPLOYMENT."
One of the figures leaned forward. "No. Let him grow. Let him think he's winning."
Another nodded. "The deeper the glitch spreads, the more predictable his corruption becomes."
SYLVAIN pulsed.
"Understood. Initiating counter-glitch protocols."
And far beneath the Citadel, something… woke up.
BACK IN ZONE 9 – NIGHT
Zarek stood at the edge of a rooftop, the black orb pulsing in his hand. The city stretched before him—fractured, broken, bleeding neon.
Below, whispers spread.
Some said a ghost was hacking systems.
Others said a glitch had come to life.
The smart ones began calling him something else…
System God.
Zarek looked down at his hand as flames and glitch patterns licked across his skin. His voice was low, calm, cold.
"Next stop—Trinity's power grid."