The wagon slowed.
Not abruptly—carefully, like even the road itself knew better than to rush.
Brush sat upright now, still feeling the echo of the dream clinging to him like static. The seven unknown fates lingered at the back of his mind, silent… watching.
Crunchyroller pulled the curtain aside.
What lay beyond made even her go quiet.
A city rose from the digital wasteland ahead—Vikka.
Not built. Not coded. Compiled from forbidden fragments.
Neon signs flickered with currencies that didn't exist anymore. Markets floated vertically, stacked on layers of corrupted data. Streets bent at impossible angles, selling things no system update would ever approve.
"Black Market City Vikka," Equinox said softly.
"If it was deleted, banned, patched out, or erased by the System…"
"You can buy it here."
Brush felt the Seed of the Internet tighten, like a warning pulse.
"This place…" he muttered,
"it's alive."
Hikaru nodded.
"Vikka exists between rules," she said.
"That's why the System can't fully touch it—and why Dark Gods, Councils, and broken AIs all pass through here."
As the wagon rolled closer, figures began to notice them.
Dealers with glitching faces.
Avatars stitched together from incompatible assets.
Merchants selling powers wrapped in chains, memories sealed in glass, and futures labeled with price tags.
A massive gate loomed ahead, carved with rotating symbols:
VIKKA — ALL TRADES FINAL
NO REFUNDS
NO MORALS
Brush swallowed.
The seven unseen fates stirred again—reacting.
Crunchyroller crossed her arms.
"Whatever you saw back there," she said quietly,
"Vikka is the kind of place that tries to force it out of you."
Equinox smiled—but there was tension behind it.
"And if the Black Market notices the Seed of the Internet…"
"They won't just want to trade with you."
The wagon passed through the gates.
The moment it did, Brush felt it.
A thousand unseen eyes locking onto him at once.
Some curious.
Some greedy.
Some afraid.
And somewhere deep in the city, something ancient recognized him.
The Chosen One has arrived.
The wheels stopped.
Vikka awaited.