The scent of blood in the alley was slowly carried away by the wind.
The two Enforcers, whose hands were still trembling around their blades, looked at Cade as if they were staring at a monster. Their leader was still embedded in the brick wall, his chest caved in, alive or dead unknown.
Cade didn't even glance at them. He bent down over the unconscious leader. With practiced hands, he ripped a palm-sized, glowing blue energy box from the man's waist.
It was a [White Tier · Star Energy Core]. Market price: 3,000 Credits. Enough to feed a family of three in the Outlands for two years.
"Beep." Cade swiped his finger across the core. The tyrannical power of "Sequence 0" instantly invaded the device. The mental imprint belonging to the Cyan Tower was wiped out before it could even resist.
[External Energy Source Detected.] [Devour?]
Golden text floated in his mind. Cade silently commanded: No.
He didn't need this impure energy right now. He pocketed the core and turned his gaze to the remaining two Enforcers.
The two men flinched violently. Their Star Energy blades clattered to the ground with a crisp clang. "D-Don't kill us! We didn't see anything! We swear!"
Cade looked at them, his eyes as calm as if he were observing two stones. "Leave your communicators." "Huh?" "Three seconds."
As if granted amnesty, the two scrambled to tear the communication devices from their ears, threw them onto the wet pavement, and vanished into the night without daring to look back.
Cade stepped forward and crushed the devices under his boot. Crack.
He didn't kill them. Not out of mercy. If he killed them, the Cyan Tower's bio-monitoring system would trigger an immediate alarm, summoning higher-level "Blue Tier" hounds. Letting them run back to report "a freak with no energy readings" would only confuse the upper management. Chaos and suspicion would buy him time.
Every move Cade made was the result of cold, hard calculation.
30 Minutes Later. The Outlands. Abandoned Industrial Zone 4. Underground Level 3.
A hidden base converted from a massive shipping container. This was Cade's "home." The dim space was cluttered with scavenged mechanical parts, flickering screens, and a mess of cables. Though chaotic, there was a strange sense of order to it.
Cade sealed the heavy lead door, cutting off outside radiation and prying eyes. He sat in a chair made from a scrapped engine and pulled out the blood-stained chip.
"Let's see what kind of lie is worth dying for."
He grabbed a data cable, stripped the insulation, and jammed the chip's interface into a custom-built decoder.
The screen flickered. A line of crimson garbled code screamed out.
[WARNING: Tower S-Class Encrypted File.] [Forced access will trigger self-destruct sequence...]
"The 0th Law." Cade's pupils constricted slightly. A touch of white light, undefinable by any data stream, flowed from his fingertips into the decoder. "In this room, I am the only firewall."
[Detected Absolute Authority Suppression...] [Self-destruct sequence overwritten.] [File Unlocked.]
The code reorganized instantly. An audio waveform and a complex 3D model of a human body appeared on the screen.
A raspy, desperate voice echoed in the empty container:
"…Cough… If you are hearing this, I am already dead." "I am Researcher 7902 from the Order Tower's 'Gene Engineering Department'." "Everyone craves Star Energy awakening. Everyone wants to be chosen by the Tower, to become a noble Awakened… But it's a lie! A complete lie!"
On the screen, the human model rotated. A red dot appeared in the heart, connecting directly to the brain.
"The so-called 'Awakening' is essentially implanting a 'Bio-Beacon' inside the human body." "White Tier, Green Tier, Blue Tier… The stronger you get, the higher the frequency of the beacon." "The moment you evolve to 'Red Tier', your consciousness is uploaded, and your body is wiped blank…" "We are not evolving into Gods… We are being farmed." "The things at the top of the Tower… They feed on our 'Hope'."
Zzzzt— The recording cut off abruptly.
Cade watched the screen. There was no shock on his face. Instead, a mocking sneer surfaced in his pitch-black eyes. "I knew it."
He had always felt this world was wrong. Why were the stronger Awakened always unconditionally loyal to the Tower? It turned out the path of evolution was just a conveyor belt to a dinner table.
"Interesting." Cade tapped his fingers on the desk, dangerous light flickering in his eyes. "If the whole world is a pen for livestock..." "Then I, the anomaly who refuses to be eaten, might just have to flip the entire slaughterhouse."
Just then.
A microscopic sense of dissonance touched Cade's nerves. Not a sound. Not a smell. It was the presence of… a "kindred spirit."
Cade's tapping finger stopped. He didn't turn around. He simply spoke to the empty air: "Heard enough?"
In the shadows of the container's corner, the air distorted.
Click. A massive, customized hand cannon with a barrel glowing with ominous blue light was pressed silently against the back of Cade's head.
A female voice, lazy and playful, sounded right behind his ear.
"I've heard enough." "But handsome, you cracked that chip three seconds faster than I calculated."
Cade glanced sideways. In the dim light of the screen, he saw a face. A face one would never forget after seeing it once.
She wore an oversized biker jacket over a tight black tank top. Her exposed waist was blindingly white but wrapped in cold mechanical bandages. Short, messy silver hair looked like a cat that just woke up. But the most striking feature was her eyes—her left eye was a natural amber, while her right eye was a tactical mechanical implant, glowing with a menacing red light.
She chewed on bubblegum and nudged the gun barrel against Cade's skull.
"Let me introduce myself." "Outland Bounty Hunter, Jinx." "Also, a friendly reminder: That chip was my job. You stole my kill, and I'm very unhappy."
With a gun to his head, Cade's expression remained flat. He didn't raise his hands in surrender. Instead, he swiveled his chair around to face the dangerous girl head-on.
Minutes ago, he might have feared this gun. But now...
Cade looked at the faint chains wrapped around Jinx. Unlike everyone else's solid black chains of servitude... Hers were broken. Sparks of struggle and resistance flew from the snapped links.
"Bounty Hunter?" Cade looked into her eyes and suddenly smiled. "No." "You are like me." "Just another... monster who refuses to be eaten."
Jinx blinked, caught off guard. Before she could react, Cade lifted a finger.
[The 0th Law: Forced Interference]
Snap. Inside Jinx's massive hand cannon, the firing pin inexplicably snapped in half.
The girl's pupils dilated instantly. "Huh?"
Cade leaned back in his chair, pointing at the "livestock truth" on the screen behind him. His tone was as calm as if discussing dinner plans.
"Your gun is broken. Now, we can talk." "About how to tear that Tower down... and sell it for scrap metal."