Kane's first taste of the arena refused to leave him.
He had knocked Lander out cold and tasted that brief, dizzy rush of victory. Then Yohan had stepped in and reminded him what a real gap in strength looked like. One fight had made his name. The next had crushed his pride.
The bruises were gone now, faded under the steady work of the chip. The ache in his chest was not so easy to erase.
By the time he dragged himself up the stairwell to their apartment, his legs felt like sandbags. The door creaked the way it always did when he pushed it open. The smell of cheap soup and old paint drifted out to meet him.
"Kane!"
A small figure launched at his waist. Yelena wrapped around him like a spring-loaded toy, brown hair messy, cheeks flushed. At eight years old, she was noise and warmth and light in a city that had forgotten all three.
He managed a smile and rested a hand on her head. "Careful, shorty. I break easy."
"You're late," she complained, hugging tighter instead of letting go. "I thought you weren't coming home."
That one hit a little too close. He squeezed her back, letting her weight anchor him.
Past her, in the weak light of the kitchen, his mother stood by the crooked table with her arms folded. Jane did not say anything at first. She did not have to. Her eyes said enough.
Fear. Anger. That tired kind of worry only a parent carried.
"So," she finally asked, voice sharp but trembling around the edges, "you went and did it, didn't you?"
Kane knew exactly what she meant. He gently pried Yelena off his waist and straightened.
"Yeah," he said. "I got it."
A muscle jumped in Jane's jaw. Her gaze flicked over his face, the fading bruises at his neck, the stiffness in his shoulders.
"You know these things are illegal. You know they are dangerous. Then you come home looking like that and expect me to just nod and smile?"
Each word landed like a punch. Somehow it hurt more than Yohan's kicks had.
"I know, Ma." Kane's voice came out rougher than he expected. "You think I do not know? But what choice do we have? Every month we are counting coins just to keep the lights on. If I am not out selling scrap or fixing busted junk or running errands for people we both know are bad news, we do not eat."
"That is still not worth your life," Jane snapped. Tears started pressing against the anger now. "Do you hear yourself, Kane? These chips kill people. They blow in their heads or twist them until they are not human anymore. What am I supposed to tell your sister if you do not come back? 'Sorry, Yelena, your brother gambled himself away?'"
Yelena had gone very quiet. Her eyes flicked between them, wide and frightened.
Kane felt himself shrinking under the weight of his mother's words. Still, he clenched his fists. He had clung to this decision like a lifeline. He could not back away from it now.
"I am doing this for us," he said, voice low. "When Dad died, it did not matter how I felt. Somebody had to step up. Someone had to make sure rent got paid. I cannot sit here and watch us slide deeper every month. The chip is dangerous, yeah, but it is a chance. Maybe the only one we get."
The anger in Jane's face cracked, letting the hurt show through. She stepped closer, her voice softening.
"I know how much you have carried since your father passed," she said. "I know I ask too much of you. You have grown up too fast and that is on me. I am proud of you, Kane. I am. But I am still your mother. You and Yelena are all I have. I do not care about money more than I care about pulling you both in for dinner every night."
His throat tightened. Whatever argument he had ready died on his tongue.
Yelena edged in between them and wrapped her small arms around both, as if she could physically pull the two halves of her family back together.
"Please do not fight," she whispered.
The three of them stayed like that for a few seconds. No words, just shared breath and the sound of the city grinding outside the thin walls. Car horns, distant sirens, some engine coughing itself to death in an alley.
Jane was the first to pull back. She kept one hand on Kane's cheek, forcing him to meet her eyes.
"I do not like this chip," she said quietly. "I do not trust it. I do not trust the people around it. But you are not a child anymore. I cannot keep you chained here no matter how much I want to. So I will do the only thing I can. I will trust you."
He blinked, surprised.
"Trust me…?"
"To be careful," she finished. "Promise me you will at least try to come back in one piece."
Kane let out a shaky laugh. It felt too small for the moment, but it was all he had.
"I promise, Ma."
That night, when he finally lay down on his thin mattress, the apartment was quiet. Yelena breathed softly in the next room. The faint murmur of his mother washing dishes drifted through the wall. His body was exhausted, but the pressure in his chest had eased a little.
For the first time in a long while, the weight on his shoulders did not feel like it would crush him.
Sleep came quickly.
Morning did not arrive gently.
Light pushed through the cracks in the blinds in sharp lines. As it did, Kane's vision flickered. His HUD booted on its own, dragging him from sleep before he could fight it.
Only this time, it was different.
No basic status menu. No quiet notification.
A new window crawled into focus, letters etched in cold blue.
[Hidden Quest Unlocked]
Title: Techno Zombie
Objective: Defeat a feral in combat
Time Limit: 5 hours
Reward: ???
Failure Penalty: ???
Kane sat up so fast his back protested.
"A feral," he muttered, voice still hoarse. "Already…?"
He instinctively searched for a decline button, a skip, anything. There was nothing. The timer ticked down silently at the edge of his vision. He could feel the chip humming at the base of his skull. Not a suggestion. Not an offer.
An order.
He swung his legs off the bed and rubbed a hand over his face. "Of course. No rest for the illegal."
He dressed quickly, strapped on his boots, and slipped out without waking anyone.
The search was worse than any arena match.
There was no helpful arrow this time, no glowing path like when he had gone to the tournament node. Just an invisible clock counting down while he combed through the city's rotten edges.
He hit the alleys first. Abandoned lots next. The burned-out buildings where people without chips went to disappear. Rumors said ferals drifted to places like that, drawn by leftover signals or simple habit.
Two hours vanished. Then three.
The sun dragged itself across the hazy sky. Sweat trickled down Kane's spine. Every time he checked the timer, the numbers were lower, calmly indifferent to his growing frustration.
"Where are you hiding…" he muttered under his breath.
The answer found him.
A scream split the air. Thin, high, terrified.
Kane ran toward it before he could think, boots skidding on gravel as he cut through a side street into a narrow alley.
A boy burst into view. Twelve, maybe younger. His right arm and leg gleamed silver, mechanical joints pumping frantically as he sprinted. Panic twisted his face.
Behind him pounded two men.
One had bright blue hair shaved short on the sides, his grin stretched too wide. The other was thicker through the shoulders, his left arm entirely mechanical. Pistons clanked in rhythm with his steps.
"Get back here, scrap!" the blue haired one shouted.
"We only want your parts," the cyborg added with a laugh that made Kane's skin crawl. "We will even try not to make it hurt."
The boy bolted past Kane and out of the alley, eyes too locked on survival to see anything else.
The two men kept charging.
Kane did not move aside. He stepped in.
"Pick on someone built to hit back," he said. His voice came out flat, low. His hands were already curling into fists.
The cyborg's eyes flicked over him. "Scram, kid. We are chip users. You get in the way, we wipe you."
Blue hair snorted. "You do not understand how this city works, do you? Every day we use these chips, we gamble going feral. So we upgrade. We get better hardware. That little metal-legged brat is just a walking store credit. We cut him up, we get a shot at one more year breathing."
The logic made something cold settle in Kane's stomach.
"Survive by carving up children." Kane's jaw tightened till it hurt. "Nice excuse. You chose this game when you installed those chips. Do not drag innocent people into your rotten justification."
Blue hair's expression hardened. "Last warning."
Then he lunged.
His fist flashed toward Kane's face. Kane's counter landed first. His punch crashed into the man's jaw, snapping his head to the side and sending him stumbling into his partner.
"Alright," the cyborg growled, steadying himself. "Now you die."
He jerked violently. Sparks spat from the back of his skull. His HUD, if Kane had been able to see it, would have gone wild. His eyes lit up a sickly neon green. The sound that tore from his throat was not human.
Kane's HUD flashed instead.
[Alert: Viral Corruption Detected]
"Perfect timing," Kane muttered. "A feral."
Robert, the cyborg, charged. His punch smashed into the wall where Kane had been standing a heartbeat before, exploding brick and concrete in a shower of dust. Kane rolled, feeling the shockwave rattle his bones.
Blue hair swore. "Robert, stop! Focus!"
Robert did not hear him. Or could not. The virus owned him now.
Kane seized the distraction. He dashed forward, momentum surging through his limbs. His boot connected with Blue hair's ribs with a heavy crack. The man crumpled against the opposite wall, air driven from his lungs.
One threat temporarily out. One true monster left.
The feral turned slowly, movements jerky and unnerving. Light gathered in the palm of his metal arm.
"Blast Cannon," he rasped.
The beam tore the air apart as it flew. Kane triggered Dash on instinct, throwing himself sideways as the blast carved a smoking furrow through the alley, sheared a chunk from the building behind him, and detonated with a thunderous boom.
Shards of glass rained down. Somewhere, alarms began to wail.
Another blast arced toward him. Kane ducked behind a broken dumpster as concrete shattered where his head had been. The world narrowed to flashes of light, impacts, and the hard drum of his heart.
He pushed off the ground and sprinted in low.
His fist slammed into Robert's gut. It felt like hitting a steel door. The feral did not even grunt. The backhand that followed caught Kane in the ribs and sent him sprawling.
His HUD screamed a warning as his health plummeted.
He tasted copper.
"Come on," he hissed to himself, dragging air into his lungs. "Move."
Robert loomed, metal arm raised for a killing blow.
This time Kane did not try to dodge away. He stepped in. At the last possible second he slipped under the descending arm, grabbed the feral's wrist, swung his legs up, and locked them around the man's neck.
The momentum carried them both around.
They crashed into the wall together. The sound that followed was a sickening crack. Robert's head twisted at an angle nothing alive should wear. The neon light in his eyes guttered, then went out completely.
Kane dropped to the ground, coughing, lungs burning.
"Robert?"
The voice came from the other side of the alley. Blue hair, finally pulling himself back to awareness, stared at his friend's body. For a second his face crumpled. Then rage swallowed everything else.
"You bastard," he spat. "I will kill you."
Sparks danced at the base of his skull. Kane swore under his breath.
"No. Not again."
The second man's pupils flared the same toxic green. His features twisted as the virus chewed through what was left of his sanity.
He rushed.
Ferals were strong. That much Kane already knew. What they were not was careful.
The first swing roared over Kane's head. He ducked and felt the wind of it heat his scalp. The second blow he caught on his forearm, pain lancing through bone. He stepped in and drove a jab into the man's kidney.
Almost no reaction.
Fine. Harder.
Kane shifted his weight, hammered a kick into the ribs, then came up with an uppercut that snapped the feral's head back.
This time the hit registered.
He watched the health bar over the man's head nosedive. The virus kept the body moving for a few heartbeats more. Then the system burned out. The feral's legs buckled. He fell forward, dead before he hit the ground.
Silence rolled into the alley at last.
Kane stood there and listened to his own breathing for a moment, harsh and uneven, echoing off the walls. Every part of him hurt. His knuckles were raw and opened, blood already drying on his shirt.
His HUD blinked and replaced the scene with bright lines of text.
[Hidden Quest Complete]
Classification: D
Reward: 11,000 credits
Experience: +3 to all stats
Vitality +3
Agility +3
Intelligence +3
Strength +3
Sense +3
Additional: +10 Distributable Points
Skill Updates:
Dash → Level 2
New Skill acquired: Cannon Blast (15 EP)
New Skill acquired: Counter (15 EP)
Equipment Obtained: Anti-Virus Module Lv.1
The numbers scrolled past like a quietly announced miracle.
Kane let his legs give out and dropped to sit on the cracked pavement. For a second he only stared at the glowing text. Then a laugh slipped out of him, a breathless, half-crazed sound between a gasp and a shout.
"Now that," he managed, grinning up at the filthy sky, "that is what I am talking about."