Chapter 10: Echoes Beneath Hollow City
Morning in Hollow City wasn't like morning anywhere else.
There was no sun — just the pale glow of reactor light bleeding through the sky domes. The streets hummed with faint energy currents, neon veins running through cracked walls and battered towers. The entire city felt… alive.
And somewhere in that pulse, Kai could still feel the countdown ticking in his mind.
[Time Remaining: 23:42:19]
He rubbed the back of his neck, trying to ignore the System clock flashing in his vision. The warning hadn't faded since last night's encounter with the Overmind. No matter how many times he blinked, it was still there, mocking him.
"Hey," Mira called from across the small workshop, tossing him a can of nutrient drink. "You've been staring into space for five minutes. Planning your funeral?"
Kai caught it easily, cracking the seal. "Just thinking."
"Don't hurt yourself."
He smirked, but there was no real energy behind it. His entire body still ached from the synchronization overload. It felt like someone had poured lightning through his bones and replaced his blood with static.
Lira was seated beside the holographic projector, her fingers tapping through dozens of System data screens, brows furrowed in concentration. "I've run a trace through the local network. Whatever the Overmind did, it rewrote the Ascendant system protocols."
"Rewrote how?"
She turned the screen toward him. Strings of code flashed — fragments of silver script interlaced with corrupted black symbols that shimmered like oil. "This shouldn't exist. It's not just code, Kai. It's… sentient data. Adaptive. It's growing."
"Growing?" he repeated. "Like a virus?"
"Like a parasite," Lira corrected. "But one that knows how to hide."
Mira whistled. "So the voice in your head planted a trojan horse in your soul. Nice."
Kai drained the can. "You're really bad at comfort talk, you know that?"
She grinned. "Just keeping it real."
Lira ignored their banter. "There's more. The Overmind's signal isn't coming from outside the city. It's coming from below it."
Kai froze. "Below… Hollow City?"
Lira nodded, the hologram shifting to reveal an underground grid beneath the city's foundation. "Old sectors. Before the awakening era, the government used these tunnels for early genetic research. After the first Collapse, they sealed them off. But something's still alive down there."
For a moment, no one spoke. The quiet hum of the reactor lights filled the space.
Then Kai said softly, "Then that's where we're going."
Mira's eyes widened. "You're serious?"
"You saw what happened in the training chamber. The Overmind's not just watching — it's testing us. And if that thing is under the city, it's not waiting for us to come to it."
Lira stood, adjusting the weapon strapped to her thigh. "Then we move before the timer hits zero. If the System said stabilize or shatter, we'd better pray it means the city, not you."
---
An hour later, they descended into the undercity through a maintenance shaft forgotten by most. The air grew colder, thicker with static and dust. The deeper they went, the more the architecture changed — sleek alloys gave way to rusted iron and broken glass.
Kai activated a light orb from his System inventory, casting a soft glow across the narrow tunnel.
[Time Remaining: 20:03:51]
Every step echoed like a warning.
At the bottom, they entered a vast underground chamber. Dozens of cables hung from the ceiling like vines, feeding into a massive structure in the center — a monolithic black obelisk pulsing with silver light.
Mira whistled. "Okay. That's definitely not regulation architecture."
Lira scanned it with her wrist device. "Energy readings are unstable. Whatever this thing is, it's feeding directly from the city grid."
Kai took a cautious step forward. The closer he got, the louder the whisper in his mind became — not words this time, but echoes.
Millions of voices, overlapping, weeping, screaming, whispering.
He gritted his teeth. "They're… alive."
"What?"
He turned to Lira, his eyes glowing faintly silver. "The people who disappeared during the first Collapse — their data wasn't erased. It was stored here."
The obelisk pulsed once, and a ripple of light spread through the chamber.
The ground trembled. Then, from the shadows, shapes began to form — humanoid silhouettes flickering like broken projections.
Mira stepped back. "Spirits?"
"No," Lira whispered. "System remnants. Failed Awakened."
One of the figures lunged forward, its face glitching between dozens of expressions.
Kai reacted instantly, summoning his blade of condensed silver aura. It hissed through the air, slicing clean through the creature — only for it to reform seconds later.
"They can't die!" Mira shouted, firing plasma bolts that phased straight through them.
Kai's System flickered back to life:
> [Adaptive Combat Mode Activated]
[Enemy Type: Digital Echo]
[Objective Updated: Assimilate or Terminate]
"Assimilate it is," Kai muttered, closing his eyes as he reached toward the nearest Echo.
The energy hit him like a tidal wave — memories, pain, fragments of voices flooding his mind.
> "Help us…"
"The system lied…"
"He's coming…"
When the light faded, Kai stood taller, the silver glow radiating stronger than ever.
Lira stared in shock. "What did you do?"
He exhaled slowly. "Absorbed their core data. They weren't enemies — they were trapped. The Overmind used them to build this place."
The obelisk began to hum violently, as if angered by his interference. The countdown on his interface flashed red.
[Time Remaining: 18:00:00]
Then, a voice boomed through the chamber — colder, more distorted than before.
> "You're learning faster than expected, Ascendant. But every choice has a cost."
The obelisk split open, revealing a massive pulsating core filled with black liquid code. From within, something began to emerge — humanoid, but wrong. Too smooth. Too perfect.
Lira drew her weapon. "What is that?"
Kai raised his blade. His pulse was calm now, his fear buried under focus.
"Probably my next boss fight."
Mira groaned. "You and your gaming metaphors—"
The creature lunged.
---
The ground erupted in a shockwave of light and static as Kai met the strike head-on, their energies clashing in an explosion that tore through the undercity. The echoes screamed, the obelisk cracked, and for the first time since his awakening… Kai felt the true weight of the path he had chosen.
Above them, Hollow City trembled.
And in the darkness, the Overmind smiled.