Chapter 134: The Digital Whisper and the Ghost-Patch
The air in the valley was no longer just air; it was thick with a static charge that made the hair on Rena's arms stand up. Aki's "Memory-Leak" had worked, but it had also turned their location into a beacon for every monitoring system in the "Real World".
As the group prepared to move, a strange phenomenon occurred. A small, glowing blue bird—made of shimmering lines of code—fluttered down from the sky and landed on Aki's shoulder. It didn't chirp. Instead, it emitted a series of rapid, high-pitched tones that translated directly into words inside Aki's head.
"Subject_777... Aki... can you hear me? This is Leo. I'm a developer at the Core. I saw your message. I'm not supposed to talk to you, but... what you sent... it changed everything."
"Von! The bird is talking!" Aki shouted, frozen in place. "It says its name is Leo. He's from the place where the chairs and computers are!"
Von (Volt) stepped forward, his hand on the hilt of his violet blade. "Ask him why he's talking to us. Is he trying to fix the 'Bug' or is he trying to help the 'Living'?"
The Secret Gift from the Other Side
The bird's eyes flickered like a loading icon. "I'm not here to fix you. I'm here to hide you. My bosses have ordered a 'Sweep-and-Clear' on your coordinates. In ten minutes, a strike-team of Level 999 'System-Sentinels' will arrive to erase everyone in this valley."
"Ten minutes?!" Sai roared, slamming his shield into the ground. "We can't even get to the forest edge in ten minutes!"
"I'm sending you a 'Ghost-Patch'," the bird continued, its voice becoming distorted as if it were being intercepted. "It's a piece of experimental code I was working on. It will mask your data-signatures. To the system, you will look like rocks, trees, or piles of dirt. But you have to accept the integration now."
Aki looked at his golden scar, which was pulsing in sync with the bird. "He's sending a file, Von! If I take it, we might be safe, but... it might overwrite our memories too."
"Do it, Aki," Von said, looking up at the sky, which was already beginning to fracture into the red grid of the Admins. "I'd rather be a rock that remembers who it was than a deleted file that feels nothing."
The Integration of the Ghost-Code
Aki reached out and touched the blue bird. Upon contact, the bird shattered into a million tiny fragments of light that swirled around the group. Aki felt a cold sensation, like being dipped into a river of liquid ice.
[SYSTEM PATCH INITIATED: 'Project_Invisibility_v0.1'. Status: Installing...]
Suddenly, their physical forms began to blur. Rena's green robe turned the color of moss. Sai's armor became grey and jagged like a mountain cliff. Von's violet energy didn't disappear, but it sank deep beneath his skin, looking like the veins of a dark mineral.
"I feel... heavy," Aki whispered, his body becoming a small, moss-covered boulder. "But I can still see you guys. It's like we're wearing a costume made of the world itself."
The Arrival of the Sentinels
Just as the patch finished, the sky split open. Three massive entities descended—the System-Sentinels. They were ten feet tall, made of polished white chrome, and had glowing red eyes that scanned the environment with mathematical precision.
[SCANNING... COORDINATES: 77.89, 45.12. TARGETS: NONE FOUND. ANOMALIES: 0.0%.]
One of the Sentinels stepped right next to the "boulder" that was Aki. It paused, its red light passing over his surface. Aki held his breath, praying that the "Ghost-Patch" wouldn't flicker.
Inside the office at the Core, Leo watched his screen with sweat dripping down his forehead. He had manually edited the Sentinel's sensor logs in real-time. "Just a few more seconds..." he whispered.
The Sentinels hovered for a moment longer, then let out a low-frequency hum. [RESOLUTION: FALSE ALARM. DATA LEAK ATTRIBUTED TO SERVER-DECAY. RETURNING TO BASE.]
The entities vanished into a flash of light, and the red grid in the sky slowly dissolved.
A New Ally in the Dark
The "Ghost-Patch" slowly deactivated, and the group returned to their normal forms, gasping for air.
"We're alive..." Sai panted, looking at his hands. "He actually helped us."
Aki looked at the sky where the blue bird had been. "He's still there, Von. Leo. He said he'll try to keep our coordinates hidden, but he can't do it forever. He said the Architects are building a 'True Reality Scanner' that can see through his patches."
Von looked at his violet blade, which was now vibrating with a new, strange frequency. "Then we don't have much time. We need to find the Out-Gate before they finish that scanner. And Aki... tell Leo 'Thank you'. Tell him we'll meet him on the other side."
Aki smiled, his golden eyes glowing with a renewed determination. "I think I just did. And Von? I think I also accidentally stole his digital 'Lunch Coupon' while the patch was installing. Does that mean I can get a real burger when we leave?"
Von laughed, a sound of pure defiance against the system. "Aki, if we make it out, I'll buy you the biggest burger in their world.