**Chapter 27: Corporate Espionage**
The lecture hall smelled of stale ozone and the sour, nervous sweat of fifty teenagers pretending to understand thermal dynamics.
Su Yuan sat in the back row. He wasn't taking notes. His eyes were open, fixed on the holographic blackboard where Instructor Vance was droning on about "Qi-Compression Ratios," but his mind was elsewhere. He was swimming in the noise.
The Azure Dragon Academy ran on a closed-circuit intranet, a fortress of firewalls and biometric keys. To the average student, it was a library. To Su Yuan, it was a glass house.
*Hum.*
The SoulNet overlay sat on top of his vision, a translucent gray film.
**[ NODES ACTIVE: 111. ]**
**[ PASSIVE GAIN: 3.2 SP/HOUR. ]**
The numbers were ticking up. The *Genesis Protocol* was feeding. Every breath his cultists took in the slums, every step his squad took on the patrol grounds, generated a trickle of data that fed the hunger in the back of his skull.
But today, the noise was different.
It wasn't the usual static of student anxieties or the rhythmic pulsing of the campus security grid. It was a distortion. A ripple in the pond.
Su Yuan narrowed his eyes. He focused on the digital architecture of the campus.
*There.*
Three signals.
They didn't look like the other nodes. Students were bright, messy sparks—unshielded and loud. These three were voids. Black holes in the data stream moving through the administrative sector. They were heavily encrypted, wrapped in layers of shifting algorithmic camouflage that slid off the Academy's sensors like oil off glass.
*Intruders.*
Su Yuan didn't panic. He just adjusted his mental aperture.
"System," he subvocalized. "Tag anomalies. Attempt handshake."
**[ HANDSHAKE REJECTED. ]**
**[ ENCRYPTION GRADE: MILITARY/CORP. ]**
**[ ORIGIN: OMNI-TECH SIGNATURE DETECTED. ]**
Omni-Tech. The corporation that had failed the Digital Purge three years ago. They were supposed to be dead, liquidated by the Spire. Clearly, the liquidation had been incomplete.
The three black voids were moving fast. They bypassed the biometric scanners at the Faculty Wing. They didn't hack the doors; they ghosted through them, likely using a frequency key stolen from a dead admin.
Their trajectory was straight.
Room 404. The Archives.
Su Yuan pulled up the personnel roster for that sector.
**[ OCCUPANT: INSTRUCTOR LIN. ]**
**[ STATUS: GRADING. ]**
Lin. The woman was strict, icy, and taught 'Ancient History of the Collapse.' She was boring. She was safe.
So why would a dead corporation risk a black-ops team to grab a history teacher?
Su Yuan tapped his finger on the desk.
*Possibility 1: She owes them money.* Unlikely. Teachers were paid in Spire Credits, traceable and secure.
*Possibility 2: She is one of them.* No. If she were a sleeper agent, they wouldn't break in; they'd send an activation code.
*Possibility 3: She has something they want.*
The *Genesis Protocol* flared. A cold spike of intuition.
*The Ruin Key.*
The text in the ancient manuals Su Yuan had parsed last night mentioned a "Gatekeeper" line. A family that held the cryptographic cipher to the Sunken Labs in Sector 9. The name associated with the line was hidden, but the bloodline was traced to the academic caste.
Su Yuan stood up.
"Mr. Su," Instructor Vance barked from the podium. "Is my lecture boring you?"
Fifty heads turned.
Su Yuan picked up his bag. He didn't look at Vance. He looked through him, reading the man's stress levels (elevated, insecurity high).
"Bathroom," Su Yuan said.
"Sit down," Vance commanded, his face flushing. "You think because you survived a patrol you're exempt from discipline?"
Su Yuan paused in the aisle.
He could sit down. He could play the role. But the three black voids were already at the Archive door. If they took Lin, they took the Key. If they took the Key, Su Yuan lost access to the Sunken Labs.
That was unacceptable.
Su Yuan looked at Vance. He pushed a tiny fraction of his intent—just a sliver of the *Wasteland King's* dominance—into his gaze.
"I said," Su Yuan repeated, his voice dropping an octave, "bathroom."
Vance opened his mouth to shout, then closed it. The color drained from his face. He blinked, confused by the sudden, primal urge to not be in Su Yuan's way.
"Go," Vance muttered, turning back to the board. "Make it quick."
Su Yuan walked out.
Once in the corridor, he ran.
***
He didn't sprint like a track star. He moved with the *Flowing Mercury Steps*. His boots made no sound on the linoleum. He was a shadow passing between the ceiling lights.
He needed to crack that encryption. He needed to know their loadout before he engaged.
His own processor was an F-Rank potato. It would take him hours to brute-force a corporate firewall.
But he wasn't computing alone anymore.
*Wake up,* Su Yuan ordered.
He reached down the mental connection to Node 91.
In the dark recess of his mind, the Wasteland King was dormant, a partitioned drive idling in standby mode. Su Yuan kicked the door in.
*Processing power. Give it to me.*
The King's consciousness flared—a mixture of resentment and programmed obedience.
**[ NODE 91 ENGAGED. ]**
**[ CPU LOAD: 100%. ]**
**[ D-RANK PROCESSING APPLIED TO DECRYPTION. ]**
Su Yuan's headache exploded. It felt like someone had driven a hot nail into his temple. The influx of raw calculation data was massive. He saw the encryption around the three intruders not as a wall, but as a math problem. A complex polynomial equation shifting every millisecond.
*Solve for X.*
The King's mind tore at the problem. It didn't use finesse; it used the digital equivalent of a sledgehammer.
*Crack.*
The shell broke. Audio and tactical data flooded Su Yuan's HUD.
**[ TEAM LEADER: AGENT KAIN. ]**
**[ WEAPONRY: SILENCED MAG-RAILS. ]**
**[ MISSION: ABDUCT ASSET 'LIN'. SECURE 'THE LOCKET'. ]**
**[ LOCKET CONFIRMED: ARTIFACT CLASS. ]**
The Locket.
Su Yuan smiled. It wasn't a metaphor. It was jewelry.
He reached the heavy oak doors of the Archives. A 'Do Not Disturb' sign hung crookedly on the handle.
There was no sound coming from inside.
Su Yuan touched the door. It was locked, but not physically. An electronic jammer was holding the magnetic seal shut.
He placed his palm on the lock.
*Shockwave.*
He didn't blast it. He sent a high-frequency vibration into the mechanism, matching the resonant frequency of the tumblers.
*Click.*
The lock disengaged.
Su Yuan pushed the door open and stepped into the smell of old paper and dust.
***
The Archives were a maze of tall metal shelves packed with physical books—the rarest commodity in the world. At the far end, in a small clearing between the stacks, sat a desk.
Instructor Lin was pinned against the wall.
She was a small woman, severe and sharp-featured, usually composed. Now, she was terrified.
Three men in matte-grey combat suits surrounded her. Their faces were covered by featureless ballistic masks. One held a suppressed pistol to her head. The other, the leader, was ripping a silver chain from her neck.
"Please," Lin gasped, blood trickling from her lip. "It's just a keepsake. My mother—"
"Quiet," the leader, Kain, said. His voice was synthetic, filtered through a modulator. He held the locket up to the light, scanning it with a handheld device. "Confirmed. Isotope signature matches the Gate."
"Secure the package," the third agent said. "Liquidate the witness."
The man with the gun tightened his finger on the trigger.
Su Yuan didn't shout "Stop!" He didn't monologue.
He picked up a heavy, leather-bound encyclopedia from a cart beside him.
*Calculation: Distance 12 meters. Wind resistance negligible. Target velocity required for cranial fracture: 45 m/s.*
He threw it.
The book crossed the room in a blur. It wasn't a toss; it was a kinetic missile powered by *Iron Body* torque.
*THWACK.*
The book hit the gunman in the side of the head.
It sounded like a melon being dropped on concrete. The agent's neck snapped sideways. He crumpled without a sound, the pistol clattering across the floor.
Kain spun around, the locket clenched in his fist. "Contact!"
The third agent raised his rifle.
Su Yuan was already moving.
He dove into the aisle between the shelves as a burst of mag-rail slugs shredded the spines of "History of Agriculture, Vol 4." Paper confetti exploded into the air.
"Suppressing fire!" Kain ordered. "Flank him left!"
The third agent moved left, tactical and smooth.
Su Yuan watched him through the shelf gaps. He saw the agent's silhouette through the books.
*He's expecting a student. A scared kid hiding.*
Su Yuan closed his eyes.
*Bestial_Sense.*
He switched drivers. He let the wolf take the wheel for a microsecond.
*Smell. Sweat. Gun oil. Heartbeat.*
The agent was coming around the corner, barrel leading.
Su Yuan didn't retreat. He stepped *into* the turn.
He met the agent at the corner. The man's eyes widened behind the mask. He tried to adjust his aim, but he was too close. His rifle barrel hit Su Yuan's chest.
Su Yuan ignored the gun. He grabbed the barrel with his left hand, forcing it up.
With his right hand, he drove a palm strike into the man's solar plexus.
*Technique: Primary Shockwave.*
*Output: 100%.*
The air rippled. The agent's Kevlar vest held, but the kinetic energy traveled through it like water. Ribs shattered. The diaphragm collapsed.
The agent folded, vomiting into his mask.
Su Yuan grabbed the man's head and slammed it into the metal shelving. *GONG.* The agent slid down, unconscious.
"You're good," Kain's voice came from the clearing. "For a cadet."
Su Yuan stepped out from the stacks.
Kain stood behind Instructor Lin, using her as a human shield. He had a knife pressed to her throat. The locket was stuffed into a pouch on his belt.
"Omni-Tech," Su Yuan said. He stood relaxed, hands at his sides. "Sloppy. You didn't check the perimeter."
"I checked," Kain said. "You weren't on the thermal. You run cold. What are you? Cyborg?"
"Concerned student," Su Yuan said dryly.
"Back off," Kain warned, pressing the knife harder. A bead of blood ran down Lin's white neck. She was shaking, her eyes locked on Su Yuan. "I walk out of here with the key, or the teacher gets a second smile."
Su Yuan looked at Lin.
He calculated the odds. If he rushed, Kain cuts her throat. Probability: 98%.
If he used *Wind Control* to knock the knife away? Too risky. He hadn't mastered the fine motor control of the skill yet. He might decapitate her himself.
He needed a distraction.
"The key is useless without the cipher," Su Yuan lied. "The locket is just the hardware. You need the password."
Kain hesitated. "The scan said—"
"The scan is old," Su Yuan interrupted. "The encryption rotates every twelve hours. I saw the logs."
"You?" Kain scoffed. "You're a kid."
"I decrypted your approach vector in six seconds," Su Yuan said. "Do I look like just a kid?"
He let the *SoulNet* pressure bleed out. The air in the room grew heavy, static electricity crackling along the metal shelves. The lights flickered.
Kain felt it. The instinctual fear of a lower predator meeting a higher one.
"Talk," Kain said, his grip on the knife loosening slightly.
"I have the cipher," Su Yuan said. "Trade. Her for the code."
"Give me the code first."
"No."
Su Yuan took a step forward.
"Stay back!"
"I'm not coming for you," Su Yuan said. "I'm coming for the data."
He raised his hand.
*Connection Request: Omni-Tech Neural Link.*
Kain had a neural implant. Su Yuan could see the signal spike at the base of his skull. It was heavily shielded, designed to fry the brain of anyone trying to hack it.
But Su Yuan didn't want to hack it. He wanted to overload it.
He opened the floodgates.
He took the combined sensory input of 111 connected souls—the hunger of the wolves, the pain of the cultists, the exhaustion of the students—and he compressed it into a single zip file of pure misery.
*Payload: Scream.zip.*
"Accept this," Su Yuan whispered.
He pushed.
Kain screamed.
It wasn't a vocal scream. It was the sound of a man's nervous system catching fire. He dropped the knife. He clawed at his helmet, falling to his knees as the phantom pain of a hundred lives washed over his synapses.
Lin scrambled away, crawling across the floor, gasping for air.
Su Yuan walked over to Kain.
The agent was convulsing, foam bubbling at the vents of his mask.
Su Yuan reached into the pouch on Kain's belt. He pulled out the silver locket. It was warm.
**[ ITEM ACQUIRED: GATEKEEPER'S KEY. ]**
**[ RANK: UNKNOWN. ]**
**[ FUNCTION: ACCESS GRANTED TO SECTOR 9 RUINS. ]**
Su Yuan slipped the locket into his pocket.
Then he looked down at Kain.
"End process," Su Yuan murmured.
He stomped. A sharp, efficient blow to the neck vertebrae. Kain went still.
Silence returned to the Archives.
Su Yuan turned to Instructor Lin.
She was huddled against a cart of maps, clutching her throat. Her blouse was torn, her hair a mess. She looked at Su Yuan with wide, terrified eyes.
"You..." she stammered. "You killed them."
"Incapacitated," Su Yuan corrected. "mostly."
He offered her a hand.
She hesitated, looking at his glove like it was covered in poison. Then, slowly, she took it.
He pulled her up. She was light, bird-like.
"Why?" she asked. "Why did they want my mother's necklace?"
Su Yuan looked at her. He could tell her the truth. He could tell her that her bloodline was the key to ancient technologies that could level cities.
"Corporate greed," Su Yuan said. "They thought it was made of star-metal."
"And... and where is it?" She touched her chest. "The necklace."
Su Yuan didn't blink.
"He didn't have it," Su Yuan said. "He must have passed it to the other agent before I took him down. I'll search the bodies."
He walked over to the unconscious gunman he had hit with the book. He pretended to search the pockets.
"Nothing," Su Yuan said. "I'm sorry, Instructor. It's gone."
Lin slumped, tears filling her eyes. "It was all I had left of her."
Su Yuan felt a twinge of something in his chest. A microscopic error in his logic core. Empathy.
He squashed it.
The locket was safer with him. She was a civilian. If she kept it, they would come back. They would peel her apart to get it. By taking it, he had saved her life.
*Theft is protection,* the logic justified.
"You should call security," Su Yuan said. "Tell them a student heard a struggle and intervened. Keep it simple."
"Who are you?" Lin asked, staring at him. "Really?"
"Su Yuan. First year. F-Rank talent."
"F-Rank talents don't break ribs with the palm of their hand," she whispered.
Su Yuan walked to the door. He paused.
"The curriculum is outdated, Instructor," he said over his shoulder. "Some of us are self-taught."
He stepped out into the hallway.
***
He walked fast. The adrenaline was fading, replaced by the dull ache of mental fatigue. Using the King's processor to crack the encryption had burned a lot of calories. He was starving.
He needed to get clear before the Campus Guard arrived.
He turned a corner and stopped.
A figure was leaning against the lockers.
Sergeant Kovacs.
The big cyborg was dressed in his off-duty fatigues, smoking a lho-stick despite the 'No Smoking' signs. His mechanical eye whirred as it focused on Su Yuan.
"Bathroom break?" Kovacs asked.
"Something like that," Su Yuan said.
Kovacs looked at the Archives door down the hall, then back at Su Yuan. He took a long drag.
"Funny thing," Kovacs said. "My sensors picked up a massive electromagnetic spike in this sector about three minutes ago. Looked like a comms jammer getting fried by a localized DDOS attack."
"Electronics are unreliable," Su Yuan said.
"They are," Kovacs agreed. He dropped the cigarette and crushed it with his boot. "You got a little blood on your collar, kid."
Su Yuan touched his neck. A speck of red from when the agent had crashed into him.
"Nosebleed," Su Yuan said. "Stress."
Kovacs laughed. A low, grinding sound.
"You're a terrible liar, Su Yuan. But you're a hell of an asset."
Kovacs stepped closer, lowering his voice.
"Those bodies in there? Omni-Tech?"
Su Yuan nodded once.
"Good. I hate those corporate spooks." Kovacs patted Su Yuan on the shoulder. It felt like being hit by a slab of beef. "Go back to class. I'll handle the cleanup. I'll tell the brass I intercepted them."
"Why?" Su Yuan asked.
"Because if they find out a student flatlined a kill-squad, they'll dissect you," Kovacs said. "And I need you for the next patrol. You make my job easier."
Kovacs winked—a terrifying gesture with a cybernetic eye.
"Get out of here. And wipe that blood off."
Su Yuan watched Kovacs walk toward the Archives, racking the slide of his sidearm.
Su Yuan turned and walked back toward the lecture hall.
He put his hand in his pocket, his fingers brushing the cold metal of the locket.
**[ QUEST UPDATED: THE SUNKEN LABS. ]**
**[ REQUIREMENT MET: KEY ACQUIRED. ]**
**[ NEXT STEP: LOCATE THE DOOR. ]**
The *Genesis Protocol* hummed with satisfaction.
Su Yuan pushed the classroom door open.
Instructor Vance was still talking. The students were still bored. The world was mundane, grey, and safe.
Su Yuan sat down in his seat.
"Did everything come out alright, Mr. Su?" Vance asked sarcastically.
Su Yuan looked at the board.
"Yes," Su Yuan said. "Everything is cleared."
He opened his notebook. He didn't write notes. He drew a map.
A map of Sector 9.
The game was opening up. And he held the master key.