Chapter 141: The Sky Hunters and the Binary Storm
The neon lights of the city blurred into long, electric streaks as the silver sports car tore through the night. Aki's hands were tight on the steering wheel, his mind racing faster than the engine. He wasn't just driving; he was "feeling" the road through the car's sensors, a remnant of his Admin-Perception that hadn't quite faded in the real world.
"Aki, watch out! Three o'clock!" Rena shouted, pointing toward the sky.
High above the skyscrapers, three sleek, black shapes descended. They weren't helicopters; they were P-4 Sentinel Drones, autonomous police units equipped with thermal scanners and EMP harpoons. Their red searchlights swept the highway, turning the asphalt into a sea of crimson.
"Leo! They found us!" Aki yelled into his earpiece. "I thought you said we were in a dead zone!"
"You were, but you're driving a car that's basically a giant Wi-Fi router!" Leo's voice was frantic. "The moment you hit the main bridge, you pinged every tower in the district. Aki, you have to disable their 'Uplink' or they'll fry the car's brain!"
The Aerial Sabotage
The first drone dived, its underside glowing with blue energy. A small harpoon shot out, trailing a cable of electrified wire. It struck the trunk of the car, and immediately, the dashboard began to glitch.
[WARNING: SYSTEM INTERFERENCE DETECTED. ENGINE OUTPUT DROPPING...]
"I don't think so!" Aki gritted his teeth. He couldn't reach the drone with his hands, so he reached out with his mind. He visualized the drone's internal code, searching for the "Slave-Master" protocol that kept it connected to the police headquarters.
Command: Local_Network_Override
Target: Drone_Unit_01
Action: Re-Route_Navigation_Data
Aki didn't just try to shut it down; he gave it a new target. He sent the drone a set of coordinates that pointed directly at its partner drone.
The first drone suddenly jerked to the left, its thrusters firing wildly. It slammed into the second drone with a shower of sparks and twisted metal. The two machines spun out of control, crashing into the side of a building in a spectacular explosion of blue fire.
"Two down, one to go!" Sai cheered, leaning out the window and ready to punch anything that got close.
The Hard-Limit of Physics
The third drone was smarter. It pulled back, staying out of Aki's immediate "Mental-Range." It fired a long-range EMP pulse that hit the road directly in front of them. The asphalt didn't break, but the car's electronics screamed.
The engine died. The neon lights on the dashboard went black. The silver beast skidded across the highway, its tires screeching as Aki fought to keep it from flipping over.
"We're dead in the water!" Aki shouted, frantically tapping on the glass screen. "The code is gone! I can't feel the car anymore!"
Von (Volt) placed a hand on Aki's shoulder. His violet eyes weren't panicked; they were focused, like he was looking through the very fabric of reality. "Aki, stop looking for the code in the machine. The code is in the air. Use the static. Use the 'Noise' they created."
Von stood up, opening the sunroof of the moving car. Even without his 'Twilight Reaper' sword, his presence was overwhelming. He reached toward the hovering drone, his fingers crackling with purple electricity—not magic, but raw, unfiltered data-energy.
"In our world, you were the law," Von whispered. "In this world, I am the Exception."
The Crash and the Shadows
Von released a burst of violet static. It didn't travel like a bullet; it expanded like a virus. The moment it touched the drone's sensors, the machine's entire operating system collapsed into a loop of infinite errors. The drone didn't just fall; it disintegrated into a cloud of black pixels before hitting the ground.
The car finally came to a halt, smoking and battered, right at the entrance of the 'Old Sector'—a dark, abandoned part of the city where the neon signs were broken and the streets were covered in dust.
"Everyone out," Von commanded, stepping onto the cracked pavement. "The drones are gone, but the ground teams will be here in minutes. From here, we walk."
Aki jumped out, looking at the dark alleys. For the first time, he looked a little scared. "No more cars? No more lights? Just... shadows?"
Rena walked up beside him, her hand glowing with a soft, natural light that seemed to defy the darkness of the city. "Shadows are where we started, Aki. It's where we're strongest."
In the distance, the sirens of the police grew louder, but as the group melted into the dark alleys of the Old Sector, their digital signatures vanished from Leo's screen. They weren't assets anymore. They were ghosts in the machine.