Chapter 3: Sector 23

The city's skyline rose in wavering Holographics above Alex's head—neon dragons twisting through artificial clouds, scales blinking with advertisements. The Neo-San Francisco never slept. It hummed, like a computer operating under strain, never actually at rest.

Alex stood at the edge of District 17, hood pulled over his head, watching out for the fastest route to Sector 23.

The System had focused on Dr. Rachel Kim's most recent known location: Arcadia BioCorp, a biotech facility repurposed as a blacksite lab after its sudden takeover by SynTech's shell corporation three years prior. Officially, it was "under reconstruction."

Unofficially, it was a ghost zone.

"Find Rachel Kim – Active Quest

Destination: Arcadia BioCorp

Time Recommended: Night

Risk Level: Moderate

Reward:???"

Alex breathed deeply and entered the transit pod station.

Twenty minutes afterward, he was in the still ruins of Sector 23.

This area of the city looked as if time had forgotten it—overgrown metal structures, blinking lights buried half-length in moss and fog. It was still in a way that made his flesh creep.

DeepScan was activated.

His vision subtly shifted as the System flowed through his optic nerves, selecting bioresonance lines and power traces concealed in the buildings. Arcadia's signature was faint, but there—inconspicuous behind an old, rusted freight terminal.

He slid silently, noting security cameras ripped from their holding brackets and charred black scorch marks along the walls.

Someone had walked this route fairly recently. Someone not careful.

The old Arcadia BioCorp building resembled a toppled monolith—angled steel bones jutted into the sky like a ribcage. Alex slipped through a side hatch, crawling over debris until he found a narrow corridor leading to a still-powered sublevel.

The moment he stepped inside, the System pinged again.

[Area Hazard Detected – Hostile Surveillance Active]

Caution: Movement Patterns Suggest AI-Driven Sentinels.

Great.

"System," Alex whispered under his breath. "Show me a path."

The HUD flickered. A transparent map appeared, plotting a clean route past heat signatures—machines, not humans. Quadruped drones with sensor arrays mounted on them.

Alex glided noiselessly, creeping between walls, crouched under conduits. His amplified Reaction Time allowed him to slip past a patrol mere seconds before its beam covered the corridor.

And then he saw it: a sealed door with an antiquated biometric lock.

He pulled out a palm-sized code stick—his own design—and slotted it into the port.

The door clicked open.

And what lay beyond nearly knocked the air from his lungs.

A lab.

Preserved in stasis. Pristine, untouched.

Holographic screens still floated in the air, looping static data logs. Cryo-pods lined the walls, empty but humming.

And at the center, a single chair—still warm—faced a flickering console with the name:

DR. RACHEL KIM

PROJECT TRANSCENDENCE – LOG 002

Alex approached, heartbeat thudding in his throat.

The console came to life beneath his hand.

Log 002 – Project Transcendence

"I told them.

I told SynTech that pushing evolution would have consequences. That the mind is not just a machine. It feels. It breaks.

We lost Subjects 2 through 7. Not because the System broke, but because they wanted to control it. They used it like a tool.".

But evolution does not pay the greedy. Evolution pays the flexible.

So I set the parameters.

I instructed the System to find someone who would fit into it like a glove.

If you're reading this, then you were chosen.

And they know.

If you want answers… find me.

I'm still alive. But for not too much longer.

Coordinates Embedded – Restricted Access.

Override Key Required.

Alex leaned back.

So she was alive. And she'd made the System not as a weapon of war—but as an evolutionary filter.

And now she was running from SynTech.

He reopened the System menu, eyes narrowing.

New Objective Available

Unlock Override Key for Rachel Kim's Coordinates.

Options:

— Seek Key Fragment (Option A)

— Hack Data Vault (Option B – High Risk)

— Confront Known System User (Option C)

That last one stopped him cold.

He hadn't run into any other users.

Yet.

But then, as if promptingly, the lights in the lab began to flicker—and the HUD cried out.

[Warning: Hostile Entity Detected]

System User Signature Confirmed – Tag: USER_03

Codename: Lyra]

Echoing footsteps down the hallway.

Alex huddled behind a cryo-pod as a figure approached—tall, wearing obsidian-black armor laced with pulsing chrome veins that shimmered blue.

Her eyes pulsed with faint light. Not cybernetic—augmented by the System.

She was like him.

And she had a gun.

"You're a bit too deep in the archives to be a tourist," the woman said, voice low and cold.

Alex stood up slowly, palms facing out. "I'm not with SynTech. I'm searching for Rachel Kim."

The woman didn't lower her gun. "Everyone is. Half want to kill her. The other half want to exploit her."

"Which half are you?"

"I'm having trouble staying alive." She nodded her head. "And now you're a variable. That makes you lethal."

"Wait—your name," Alex broke in quickly. "Are you Lyra? The second System user?"

Her expression darkened. "You're not supposed to know that."

"I didn't. The System told me. It knew you."

She froze for only a moment—then put her gun back in its holster.

"You're synced. Fully synced."

Alex nodded.

Lyra cursed under her breath. "Then you're on the kill list. Viktor doesn't like wildcards loose."

Alex's face blanched. "So Viktor's real."

"He's very real," Lyra snarled. "He was the first success. The first user who integrated completely. But something… went wrong. The System didn't develop him—it warped him."

She gestured toward the lab behind them. "This place? This is where it started. Where Rachel tried to fix it. But it was already too late."

Alex scrubbed his hair. "So we need to find her first then."

"You can't simply find Rachel Kim," Lyra said. "She lives among silhouettes. She's got backdoors in all the neural nets here to the Outer Districts."

"But I found her message. I can get her coordinates."

Lyra's gaze had narrowed. "You got the log key?"

"Not exactly. I need to access the vault, or acquire a fragment."

There was a pause.

Then she said, "I know where one of the fragments is."

Ten minutes had gone by before they were scrambling back up through the sublevel out into the open air.

The city shone under artificial starlight, drones swooshing overhead.

Alex looked at Lyra. "Why are you helping me?"

She didn't answer for a moment. Then she said quietly, "Because I've been on my own too long. And because the last person who attempted to fight Viktor on their own screamed for hours."

Alex glared at her. "So this is a team-up?"

"Let's not get sentimental. I'll help you to Rachel. After that… we'll see."

The HUD beeped again.

Quest Branch Selected: Seek Key Fragment

Ally Acquired: Lyra (System User_03)

New Destination: The Scorch Loop – Sector 11

Alex looked out into the distance.

The road ahead wasn't just dangerous—it was war.

But for the first time since the System went live, he wasn't alone.

He was chosen.

And now that he had someone to share this with, the path ahead burned like flame in his mind.