GHOST CITY - TOWER BOOTCAMP TRIAL
The Razorback roared.
The sound wasn't merely loud.
It had force.
The surrounding air vibrated.
Windows shattered throughout the district.
A nearby building lost half its remaining facade.
The debris came down like artillery.
"Shields!"
My drones reacted instantly.
An energy barrier snapped into existence above me.
Concrete slammed into it.
Chunks the size of motorcycles exploded against the field, fragments ricocheting across the street.
The barrier buckled.
I sprinted.
Definitely S-Rank.
I ducked behind an overturned bus as another wave of debris tore across the intersection.
My HUD filled with impact calculations.
[ENERGY BARRIER: 82%]
Then 76%.
Then 69%.
Great. Just what I need.
I peeked over the edge.
The Razorback continued walking.
It wasn't chasing me.
It didn't need to.
Its footsteps were destroying the city simply because the city happened to be underneath it.
I glanced toward the highway tunnel.
Three hundred meters.
The creature turned its head.
Those crimson eyes locked onto my position.
My stomach tightened.
It saw me.
The system had warned me.
Movement.
Light.
Noise.
Three things I'd already used extensively.
I looked at my drones.
Then at the monster.
Then back at the tunnel.
Running was the obvious choice.
Which was precisely why I didn't trust it.
An S-Rank creature with extreme sensory perception, regeneration, and durability had been placed inside a trial designed specifically for a C-Rank awakener.
The Tower wasn't expecting me to kill it.
The system had practically screamed that fact into my face.
Do not engage.
Which meant the objective probably wasn't killing the thing.
It was surviving it.
That changed the problem.
I didn't need to defeat the monster.
I needed to understand its rules.
And rules were where things got interesting.
I crouched lower.
My fingers moved across the interface.
"Let's see what you're hiding."
The recon drones spread wider.
I began collecting everything.
Thermal fluctuations.
Muscle movement.
Respiratory rhythm.
Energy output.
Regenerative activity.
Microfractures in the scales.
Movement patterns.
The Razorback lifted one foot.
My scanners caught a faint pulse beneath its chest.
I froze.
There.
A heartbeat.
Not biological.
Not entirely.
A concentrated energy signature buried somewhere behind its rib cage.
Regenerative Core Detected.
The system hadn't been lying.
But that wasn't the interesting part.
The interesting part was the energy pattern.
It was fluctuating.
Every time the creature moved, the core pulsed.
Every time it took damage, the pulse intensified.
Regeneration isn't passive.
My eyes narrowed.
It's being powered.
I smiled.
Now we were talking.
The Razorback roared again and charged.
ROOOARRRR.
I stood.
"Never mind the talking part."
I turned and ran toward the tunnel.
"Let's do this the hard way."
My drones accelerated around me.
The city shook behind my back.
I could hear the creature coming.
Each footfall struck the ground like a demolition charge.
I pushed my armor's servos harder.
The tunnel entrance grew closer.
Two hundred meters.
One hundred fifty.
The Razorback tore through a building behind me.
I didn't look back.
One hundred.
Fifty.
I dove through the entrance.
A claw smashed into the road behind me.
The entire tunnel shook.
I rolled across the floor and came up on one knee.
My HUD flashed.
[STRUCTURAL INTEGRITY: 63%]
I looked at the tunnel.
Then at the monster's silhouette outside.
A slow grin spread across my face.
"Indestructible skin, huh?"
I brought up the scan data.
The regenerative core pulsed again.
I zoomed in.
"Too bad I speak fluent genetic code."
My fingers moved through the holographic interface.
The code tree unfolded.
Biological systems.
Cellular replication.
Regenerative pathways.
Energy conversion.
Mutation resistance.
The deeper I went, the more complicated the architecture became.
This wasn't ordinary biology.
The Razorback's cells were reinforced by an external energy network, making them functionally modular. Damage one section, and the system redirected resources from another.
A biological load-balancing algorithm.
I almost laughed.
"GAIA really does love making everything look complicated."
My smile sharpened.
"Well. It's still system bound."
The first layer of code opened.
Then another.
A warning appeared.
[WARNING: TARGET BIOLOGICAL ARCHITECTURE EXCEEDS CURRENT ACCESS AUTHORITY.]
I ignored it.
Another warning.
[CODEBREAKER ACCESS: PARTIAL]
I ignored that too.
My temples began to throb.
There it was.
The familiar pressure.
Not enough to stop me.
Enough to remind me that the Codebreaker wasn't some magical cheat code that made reality obedient.
Every system had resistance.
Every exploit had a cost.
And this one was definitely going to hurt.
I pushed deeper.
The Razorback's regenerative network reacted.
The code shifted.
Adaptive defense.
My eyes widened slightly.
It can rewrite itself.
Interesting.
Very interesting.
The monster roared outside.
The tunnel entrance exploded.
I raised an arm as fragments tore through the air.
My drones formed a defensive lattice.
The energy barrier flared.
My HUD filled with red warnings.
[SYSTEM STRESS: RISING]
[NEURAL LOAD: 42%]
[CODEBREAKER LATENCY: DETECTED]
I grinned despite the headache building behind my eyes.
"Fine."
My fingers danced faster.
"You want to play adaptive?"
I locked onto the regenerative core.
"Let's see how well you adapt when I rewrite the rules underneath you."
The code shifted.
I forced an intrusion through the first defensive layer.
The Razorback's core pulsed.
Once.
Twice.
Then—
[ACCESS DENIED.]
I laughed.
"Of course."
The tunnel shook violently.
Dust rained from the ceiling.
The Razorback's crimson eye appeared through the breach.
It was staring directly at me.
I stared back.
A hundred meters of armored extinction versus one C-Rank Technomancer with a headache, twelve drones, and questionable judgment.
Honestly?
I've survived worse odds.
I just usually had the good sense to complain about them afterward.
I cracked my knuckles.
"Come on, big guy."
My interface opened another layer.
For once, the system didn't bury the option behind three dozen warnings.
A single black window appeared in the center of my vision.
[NANOTECH REBIRTH]
Uses Remaining: 2/3
Previous Usage Detected: 1
Cooldown: Available
I stared at the display.
Two left.
I'd already burned one use manipulating the tattoo.
That left me with two attempts before the ability locked itself behind cooldown.
Not exactly an unlimited supply.
Which was probably for the best.
Nanotech Rebirth wasn't some convenient miracle button. Every time I invoked it, the Codebreaker had to force its way through a biological or technological system and rewrite the underlying architecture.
That kind of intrusion wasn't free.
My neural pathways already felt like someone had driven a heated nail behind my eyes.
Still...
I looked at the Razorback.
The creature's enormous head filled half the tunnel entrance.
Its metallic scales reflected the emergency lights in jagged crimson streaks. One massive claw scraped against the concrete, producing a shriek that vibrated through my teeth.
The regenerative core had rejected me.
Fair enough.
If I couldn't break the body's defenses, I'd stop attacking the body.
My gaze shifted toward the monster's skull.
Brains are systems too.