The city shimmered under the false calm of dusk. Streetlights flickered on like sentinels awakening, casting pale pools of light onto the damp concrete. But Lin Chen wasn't on the streets anymore.
He stood before a building no one remembered being constructed — no business listings, no security registry, and no camera feed ever captured movement near its door. A forgotten monolith buried in the heart of the city's industrial district.
The Tower Lab.
[System Notification: Target confirmed — "Erebus Research Annex: Unit-09 (The Tower Lab)"] Security Level: Class Omega. Stealth penetration recommended. Caution: Host presence detected within vicinity. Potential threat level: high.
Lin Chen took a breath, letting the twilight settle across his shoulders. This was where the trail had led — from Li Chu's corrupted energy field, to the faint echo of prototype data within the bracelet, to this: an ancient system node.
"Time to see what secrets you're hiding," he muttered.
The lock panel beside the door buzzed softly as he approached. Instead of force, he opted for subtlety.
[System Skill Activated: Logic Penetration Lv.1] Bypass success: 78% Running adaptive encryption exploit...
Click.
The metal door slid aside.
He slipped in.
Inside, the air was sterile, electric. Cold. The walls were white, but tinged gray from years of dust and disuse. Yet something felt... alive. Faint vibrations echoed beneath his feet.
He moved deeper, past observation windows, empty labs, broken containment pods.
Until he reached the archive room.
Rows of locked terminals greeted him, but one screen flickered on as he entered, almost like it was waiting.
A message blinked at the center:
"Welcome back, X-0."
His blood froze.
"…I'm not X-0."
[System Alert: Mismatch detected — System host ID does not match prototype registry. Initiating secondary protocol.]
The lights above dimmed.
A projector blinked on.
And the walls came alive.
Footage — degraded, timestamped over ten years ago — played like a nightmare from another life.
Children. Dozens of them. In white suits. Standing in rows. Some cried. Others stared blankly.
A voice, distorted and filtered, echoed through the room.
"We begin Phase 2 of the Host-Emotional Resilience Trial. Subject X-0 has demonstrated high receptivity to external empathy modulation."
The camera panned to a girl with long black hair, seated calmly as a synthetic probe hovered near her temple.
"Subject remains compliant. Emotional resistance to modification: under 5%."
Lin Chen's heart pounded.
[System Note: Emotional resonance spike detected in host. Recommend psychological moderation.]
"No," he whispered. "No moderation. Let me feel this."
The next file triggered automatically.
It showed the same girl. Older. Silent. Watching other subjects fail test after test. Some collapsed. Some screamed.
A scientist walked by and whispered, "The others break. She adapts."
Lin Chen finally understood.
Li Chu hadn't just been caught in Erebus's web.
She was the experiment.
And whatever they did — whatever code or emotion or algorithm they rewrote — it had taken something fundamental from her.
He pulled away from the console, fists clenched.
Then another file opened.
This one was a personnel log. And it had a familiar name.
Research Lead: Dr. Lian Ke
His jaw tightened. Lian Ke was the same man listed in the system's deepest restriction protocols. The one the system flagged as "Origin Access: Architect-Level Authority."
The files labeled him not as a scientist, but as a creator.
[System Warning: File contains restricted content. Host privilege insufficient. Attempting forced override...] …Override succeeded. Displaying redacted segment.]
Project X-Genesis Summary:
"Primary goal: Not to control, but to understand. Emotion as algorithm. Memory as programmable matter. X-0 is the proof of concept. She will love who we say. She will hate who we program. The future of warfare will not be firepower — it will be emotional supremacy."
Lin Chen backed away.
They hadn't just altered Li Chu's mind. They tried to build a weapon out of her humanity.
And they might still be doing it.
[System Notification: New Objective Acquired — "Locate Dr. Lian Ke. Retrieve original emotional overwrite protocol."] Reward: Module Expansion Key + Emotion Core Override Access]
Suddenly, the entire lab vibrated.
[Warning: Intrusion Detected. Hostile signatures inbound — code designation: Cleaners]ETA: 3 minutes. Suggested action: Escape.]
Lin Chen's eyes locked on the last line of data on the terminal.
Final Host List — Active Candidates:
X-0: Status — Recovered (Containment Failed)
X-1: Status — Eliminated
X-2: Status — Transferred to Urban Test Grid
X-3: Status — Pending Activation
There were more like her.
And they weren't just experiments.
They were weapons waiting to be turned on.
He turned, fists sparking with barely contained energy, then bolted through the hallway.
The Tower Lab had served its purpose.
Now it was time to burn the truth into reality.