Sector 4 didn't just look like a graveyard; it looked like a deleted level.
The Industrial District was a rust-colored scar on the edge of St. Lazarus. Here, the neon advertisements faded into the heavy orange glow of sodium vapor lamps. Massive automated cranes moved silently against the black sky, stacking shipping containers like a giant, slow game of Tetris.
Maya drove the cruiser with the lights off, navigating the maze of corrugated steel canyons.
"This place gives me the creeps," she muttered. "No people. Just machines."
Caleb sat in the passenger seat, gripping the door handle. He wasn't looking at the cranes. He was looking at the red border pulsing around his vision.
[ZONE ENTERED: SECTOR 4]
[RULESET: PVP ENABLED]
[WARNING: LAW ENFORCEMENT AI IS OFFLINE]
"It's a sandbox," Caleb whispered.
"A what?"
"A testing ground," he corrected quickly. "Isolated. No witnesses. If you wanted to test a weapon that breaks physics, you'd do it here. Where the only things watching are blind cameras."
He glanced at Maya's sidearm. "You brought extra ammo, right?"
Maya tapped the steering wheel. "I have two mags. And a shotgun in the trunk. Why? You expecting an army?"
"I'm expecting... bugs," Caleb said.
The coordinates from the video led them deep into the heart of the container yard, to a dead-end alley formed by walls of stacked red and blue steel.
"We're here," Maya said, killing the engine. "Coordinate 44.2."
They stepped out into the rain. The silence was heavy, broken only by the distant metallic clank of the cranes.
Caleb scanned the area. His Overlay highlighted the environment in wireframe.
The ground was wet asphalt. [FRICTION: LOW]
The containers were marked [COVER].
A flickering light at the end of the alley was marked [OBJECTIVE].
"Stay behind me," Maya commanded, drawing her weapon. "And for god's sake, don't touch anything unless I tell you."
"Your faith in my self-preservation is touching," Caleb murmured, staying exactly one step behind her.
They moved toward the light. It was coming from inside a rusted, open shipping container that had been converted into a makeshift shelter. A tarp hung over the entrance.
Maya approached the tarp, signaling for Caleb to hold back. She swept the curtain aside with her gun barrel.
"Police! Show me your—"
She stopped. She lowered her gun.
"Oh my god."
Caleb peered over her shoulder.
Inside the container, sat around a burning barrel fire, were four people. Squatters. Three men and a woman, dressed in heavy coats. One was holding a can of beans. Another was mid-laugh, head thrown back.
They were frozen.
Just like Arthur Sterling. The fire in the barrel wasn't moving—the flames were solidified jagged peaks of orange light, like a low-resolution texture. The smoke hung in the air like grey cotton balls.
[ENTITY GROUP: UNREGISTERED CITIZENS]
[STATUS: BUFFERING... 99%]
[ERROR: SERVER OVERLOAD]
"He paused them," Maya whispered, horror creeping into her voice. "All of them. At once."
"It's an Area of Effect test," Caleb said, his voice hollow. "Arthur was a single target. This... this is a radius test."
He stepped into the container. The air felt heavy, static-charged. He waved his hand through the frozen smoke. It felt solid, like spun sugar.
"Don't touches the smoke," Maya warned, pulling him back. "If that gas is still active..."
"It's not gas," Caleb said, forgetting his cover story for a second. "It's code. The script is still running."
"Caleb!"
"I mean... the magnetic field!" Caleb recovered, sweating. "The field is still active. Look at the fire. Fire is plasma. Magnets can shape plasma. Whoever did this used a massive emitter."
Maya looked at the frozen fire, then at the frozen people. "Why them? Why homeless people?"
"Because they're NPCs," Caleb said bitterly. "Non-Priority Citizens. If Arthur Sterling goes missing, the world panics. If these guys disappear? No one files a report. They're the perfect beta testers."
Suddenly, a loud mechanical whirring sound echoed from outside.
[WARNING: HOSTILE DETECTED]
[DIRECTION: 6 O'CLOCK]
[TYPE: MECHANIZED]
Caleb spun around. "Maya! Get down!"
"What?"
Caleb tackled her. He didn't have a reason—not a "Sherlock" reason—but the red arrow flashing in his eyes was screaming [DODGE].
They hit the dirty metal floor of the container just as a beam of high-intensity light swept over the tarp.
THWIP-THWIP-THWIP.
Three jagged metal spikes slammed into the wall where Maya's head had been a second ago. They punched through the steel like it was cardboard.
"Sniper!" Maya yelled, rolling into a crouch and aiming her gun at the entrance.
"Not a sniper," Caleb gasped, scrambling behind a crate of frozen canned goods. "Crane!"
Outside, the noise grew louder. The ground shook.
Caleb peeked over the crate. Through the open flap of the container, he saw it.
One of the massive automated shipping cranes had rotated. But it wasn't lifting a container. Its magnetic hoist had been modified. Hanging from the cables was a massive, jury-rigged platform bristling with nail guns and floodlights.
And on top of the crane's cabin, Caleb saw the text.
[ENEMY: PORT AUTHORITY CRANE v4.0]
[MODIFIER: HACKED]
[AGGRO: LOCKED ON YOU]
"The crane is hacked!" Caleb shouted. "It's automated defense!"
"A crane?" Maya fired two shots blindly into the darkness. "Since when do cranes shoot spikes?"
"Since Patch 1.2!" Caleb yelled back. "We triggered the security script!"
The crane's platform swung toward their container like a wrecking ball. The floodlight blinded them.
[ATTACK INCOMING: HEAVY SWING]
[TIME TO IMPACT: 3 SECONDS]
"Move!" Caleb grabbed Maya's jacket and dragged her toward the back of the container.
The back wall was rusted shut.
"We're trapped!" Maya shouted. She fired at the back lock, sparks flying.
One second.
"No clip!" Caleb screamed, squeezing his eyes shut. "Just glitch through it!"
IMPACT.
The crane's payload smashed into the entrance of the container. The metal groaned and buckled. The entire structure tipped forward, screeching as it slid across the asphalt. The frozen squatters toppled over like mannequins, shattering into pieces—not flesh and blood, but rigid chunks.
Caleb and Maya were thrown against the back wall. The container rolled, tumbling them like dice in a cup.
It slammed to a stop, upside down.
Caleb groaned, tasting blood. His sunglasses had flown off. The world was a mess of bright, screaming error messages.
[HEALTH: 65%]
[ARMOR: 0%]
[CONCUSSION DETECTED]
"Maya?" he coughed.
"I'm here," her voice came from the darkness. "I'm... okay. My gun is gone."
Light poured in through the crushed entrance. The crane was retracting its arm, preparing for a second swing.
[BOSS FIGHT STARTED]
[CURRENT OBJECTIVE: SURVIVE]
Caleb searched the floor for his glasses. He found them, cracked but functional. He shoved them on.
"We can't fight that thing with a pistol," Caleb wheezed. "It has a health bar the size of a bus."
"A what?" Maya wiped blood from her forehead.
"It's heavily armored!" Caleb corrected. "We need to run. But it has thermal optics. If we step out, it nails us."
Maya looked around the crushed container. "We're sitting ducks."
Caleb looked at the crane through the gaps in the metal. He focused on the text floating above the machine.
[ENEMY: CRANE]
[WEAKNESS: ???]
[CONNECTION: WIRELESS (ENCRYPTED)]
He couldn't hack it. He didn't have a computer. But...
He looked at the frozen barrel fire, now spilled across the ceiling (which was now the floor). The "solid" fire chunks were glowing.
"The magnetic field," Caleb muttered. "The gas creates a lattice."
He looked at Maya.
"You have a taser, right?"
"Yes," Maya patted her belt. "But that thing is fifty feet away and made of steel. A taser won't do anything."
"Not on the crane," Caleb said, a desperate plan forming. "On the gas."
"The... frozen smoke?"
"It's charged particles," Caleb explained rapidly. "If you introduce a high-voltage current into a suspended magnetic lattice, it doesn't just melt. It overloads."
He pointed to the chunks of frozen smoke and fire scattered near the entrance.
"It's an EMP grenade waiting to happen. Shoot the smoke."
Maya looked at him like he was insane. The crane was swinging back for the killing blow. The sound was deafening.
"Trust me!" Caleb screamed. "Shoot the damn smoke!"
Maya drew her Taser X26. She aimed at the pile of solidified grey gas near the opening.
"This better be real science, Caleb!"
She pulled the trigger.
The probes hit the frozen smoke.
ZZZ-CRACK.
It wasn't a spark. It was a bloom.
The moment the electricity hit the suspended particles, the magnetic lattice shattered. The pent-up energy released in a blinding pulse of blue light. A shockwave of pure static distortion blasted outward.
[SYSTEM ALERT: EMP DETECTED]
[VISION: OFFLINE]
Caleb's HUD went black.
Outside, the crane seized. The massive machine groaned, its lights dying instantly. The wrecking ball swing faltered, losing momentum, and crashed harmlessly into the ground ten feet short of them.
Silence returned to Sector 4.
Caleb blinked. His Overlay rebooted, flickering back to life in safe mode.
[SYSTEM REBOOT SUCCESSFUL]
[ENEMY STATUS: DISABLED]
Maya lowered the taser. She was staring at the pile of melted smoke, which was now just a puddle of grey sludge.
"You turned a cloud into a bomb," she whispered.
"Physics exploit," Caleb mumbled, leaning back against the cold steel. "Developers never patch the particle interactions."
"What?"
"I said... basic chemistry," Caleb corrected, closing his eyes. "Can we call for backup now? I think I broke a rib."