In the darkness, the only light came from me.
My veins glowed a brilliant, electric blue. The energy I'd drained from the Penthouse — thousands of volts meant to power the holograms and air conditioning — was surging through my body. My skin itched like it was crawling with ants. My heart hammered against my ribs like a trapped bird, beating so fast I thought it might explode.
It was too much power for a Level 3 body. I felt like a balloon about to pop.
"He's glowing!" one guard shouted, his voice cracking with fear in the pitch black. "Cut him down! Aim for the glow!"
I heard the whoosh of a blade cutting the air. A high-pitched whine — a blade sharp enough to cut through anything.
I didn't dodge. I didn't know how to dodge a sword master. But I didn't need to be skilled. I just needed to be fast.
I grabbed the nearest thing I could find — a heavy gold dragon statue on the desk, it was solid and weighing at least twenty pounds — and i swung it blindly toward the sound.
CLANG.
The statue smashed into the incoming katana. Sparks flew, lighting up the terrified face of the guard for a split second. The force of my swing — amplified by the raw energy coursing through my muscles, it didn't just block the sword. It shattered the blade.
The guard gasped, staring at the broken handle in his hand.
"Get back!" I yelled.
I couldn't hold the energy anymore. I had to let it out.
[Skill: Discharge]
I screamed as I released the dam.
A shockwave of blue lightning erupted from my body. It wasn't a clean, controlled beam like a superhero. It was a wild, chaotic explosion of electricity — untamed and angry. It arced across the room, jumping from metal to metal.
It slammed into the guards, throwing them backward. Their suits sparked as the electricity fried their brain chips. They hit the floor hard, convulsing, foam building at their mouths.
[XP GAINED: +100]
[XP GAINED: +100]
[XP GAINED: +100]
I stood there, panting. The room smelled like burnt hair and scorched metal. The silence was deafening.
"You..." I said.
Dragon-Head Wu was still standing.
He hadn't moved. He stood by the window, silhouetted against the stormy sky. The moonlight caught the golden dragon tattoo on his chest. It was moving — writhing across his skin like it was alive.
"Impressive," Wu said calmly. He stepped over the twitching body of one of his guards. "You are a battery that learned to fight. A walking battery."
He dropped his cigar. It hissed as it hit the wet floor.
As he stepped forward, the dragon tattoo on his chest peeled off his skin. It broke apart into particles of glowing red energy, then reformed around his fists, it was solid, a see-through gauntlets that hummed with a deep, menacing power.
"But raw power is nothing without discipline, boy."
He moved.
He was a blur. My eyes couldn't even track him. Before I could raise my hand, he was already inside my guard.
CRACK.
His glowing fist slammed into my gut.
It felt like being hit by a wrecking ball. I doubled over, retching. The air left my lungs instantly. Something cracked — a rib, maybe two.
CRACK.
An uppercut to my jaw sent me flying backward. My feet left the ground. I crashed through the heavy glass table in the center of the room, shattering it into a million pieces. Shards of glass bit into my back.
"Elias!" Sarah screamed, struggling against her restraints. She kicked at the chair leg, desperate to break free.
I lay in the wreckage, coughing up blood. My vision swam.
[HP: 30%... CRITICAL]
Wu stood over me, adjusting his silk cuffs. He looked bored.
"You rely on your little trick," he said with a sigh. "You think because you have a System, you are a warrior. I have been fighting in the pits since before you were born. I am Level 45. You are... what? Level 3?" He shook his head. "You are an ant fighting a god."
He raised a glowing fist to crush my skull.
I looked at his fist. I looked at the red energy surging around it.
Can I drain him?
No. He was too fast. If I touched him, he'd snap my wrist before I could blink.
"Glitch!" I choked into my comms, spitting blood. "Now! I need a distraction!"
ON IT, Glitch's voice chirped in my ear. Uploading payload...
The massive screen on the wall — the one showing Malachi's face — flickered violently.
Malachi's image distorted. It twisted, stretched, and was replaced by a giant, pixelated smiley face with crossed-out eyes.
[HACK INITIATED]
From the speakers hidden in the walls, a blast of deafening dubstep music exploded at maximum volume.
WUB-WUB-SCREEEEECH.
It was loud enough to vibrate the floor. Wu flinched, instinctively covering his ears. The noise hit him like a punch — just for a split second.
That was all I needed.
I didn't attack Wu. I reached out with my mind. Not for a weapon. For Sarah.
Telekinesis? No. Technomancy.
I focused on the electronic cuffs binding her wrists to the chair. I could see the code locking them shut — neat little lines of data, tight and clean.
UNLOCK, I commanded, pushing my will into the lock.
CLICK.
The cuffs popped open.
"Sarah!" I yelled.
She didn't waste a second. She leaped from the chair, grabbing the shattered leg of the glass table — a jagged spear of thick glass.
But she didn't go for Wu. She spun around and hurled it at the floor-to-ceiling window behind her.
CRASH.
The massive window exploded outward. The wind from the storm outside howled into the room, bringing rain and chaos, whipping the curtains around like angry ghosts.
"Jump!" Sarah screamed.
"What?!" I stared at her. "We're fifty stories up!"
"Jump or die here!" She said.
She grabbed my collar and dragged me toward the broken window.
Wu recovered. He saw what we were doing. He lunged at us, his dragon-fists blazing red with fury. "You are going nowhere! I own your soul!"
We jumped.
We fell out of the Penthouse, into the open air of Neo-Veridia.
The wind roared in my ears. I saw the lights of the city spinning below me — neon pink and blue, a dizzying blur getting closer by the second. Gravity yanked at my stomach. This was it. I was going to die. I was going to be a splatter on the pavement.
"Glitch!" Sarah yelled into her comms. "Catch us!"
DEPLOYING ASSET, Glitch replied casually. ETA: Now.
From the darkness below, something massive roared.
It wasn't a monster. It was a drone. A heavy-lifter cargo drone — the kind they used to move shipping containers. It rose up from the traffic lane to meet us, its engines screaming against gravity. Its flatbed was covered in old mattresses and piles of garbage bags.
THUMP.
We hit the mattresses hard. I bounced, nearly rolling off the edge, but Sarah grabbed my belt and hauled me back to the center.
The drone wobbled under our weight, dipping dangerously, but its thrusters fired blue flame and stabilized.
We lay there, panting, staring up at the rain. Above us, in the shattered window of the Penthouse, Dragon-Head Wu watched us. He looked small from down here.
But I could still feel his rage.
"We... we're alive," I gasped, touching my broken rib.
"For now," Sarah said, wiping rain and glass dust from her face. She looked at me, her eyes intense. "You did good, Elias. You stood your ground against a Triad boss."
"I got beat up by a Triad boss," I corrected, wincing. "But we survived."
My wrist-comp beeped.
[QUEST COMPLETE: ESCAPE THE CASINO]
[REWARD: +1,000 XP]
[LEVEL UP!]
[LEVEL UP!]
[YOU ARE NOW LEVEL 5]
[NEW ABILITY UNLOCKED: OVERCHARGE]
(Temporarily boost the power of any ally or machine by injecting your stored energy. Warning: Excessive use may damage the target.)
I looked at the drone we were riding. I looked at the glowing engines.
"Glitch," I said into the comms. "Where are we going?"
"Safehouse," Glitch's voice came through. "My place. Sector 2. It's underground. Malachi can't scan it. And I ordered pizza."
"Take us there," I said.
The drone banked sharply, diving into the maze of city streets, disappearing into the neon fog.
We had escaped the Corporation. We had escaped the Triad. Now, we had a team.
A Caretaker. A Queen. A Hacker.
The revolution had officially begun.