Chapter 9 — The Ghost in the Code
The night bled into static.
Ethan and Kai moved through the shattered alleys like ghosts — the crimson glow of the crater fading behind them. Above, fractured towers rearranged, and the sound of moving metal whispered like wind through bones. The Algorithm was resetting its world again.
[SYSTEM STATUS: SCENARIO RECONSTRUCTION — 17% COMPLETE]
Every pulse of that update made Ethan's skin crawl. The Blood Code inside him thrummed faintly, like an alien heartbeat that refused to sync with his own. His veins glowed faintly blue under his jacket — a quiet, constant reminder that he wasn't entirely human anymore.
Kai noticed. "You're changing," he said quietly. "Your pulse patterns— it's not natural."
Ethan glanced down. "Define natural."
Kai gave a dry laugh. "Touché."
They reached an old subway entrance, half-swallowed by rubble. Inside, flickering lights revealed graffiti-streaked walls. Symbols — some human, some algorithmic — overlapped like an argument frozen mid-scream.
Ethan traced a set of characters written in black ash. It wasn't random graffiti.
"Someone's been here," he murmured. "And they knew the language."
The symbols weren't entirely human nor system code — they were a bridge between both.
Someone had been talking to the Algorithm.
---
The tunnel opened into a derelict maintenance chamber. Screens flickered with broken feeds — glimpses of other cities, other scenarios. In one, Ethan caught sight of himself — or rather, another version of himself, standing in a bright white lab, eyes hollow.
Then the image glitched and vanished.
[UNAUTHORIZED VIEW DETECTED — SECURITY EVENT LOGGED]
Ethan's pulse spiked. "It's mirroring me again."
Kai frowned. "Maybe it's not mirroring. Maybe it's… remembering."
The words hit too close. Ethan had always felt like the Algorithm wasn't learning from him — it was re-learning him. As if he had already been here before, already lived this nightmare once, and the system was replaying it with subtle differences.
"Let's move," he said, forcing his mind to focus. "We find another node before it finds us."
---
They descended deeper. The lights grew dimmer, the air thicker with electrical residue. At the bottom of the stairs, a flicker of motion caught Ethan's eye.
A figure was standing in the shadows — motionless, small. A woman.
She stepped forward, and Ethan froze. Her face was familiar. Not just vaguely — intimately.
"Lira," he breathed.
The woman tilted her head, eyes glowing faint blue. "Ethan?"
Kai raised his weapon immediately. "That's not real. I've seen these hallucinations before. The Algorithm projects—"
But Ethan wasn't listening. His memory surged like static — fragments of her laugh, her hand in his, her voice saying his name.
Lira had been real once. A scientist. His colleague. The one who warned him before everything went to hell.
"Lira, how are you—"
Her voice cut through the static. "You left me. In the lab. You said you'd shut it down." Her expression twisted, half human, half data distortion. "You didn't."
[ENTITY STATUS: SYNTHETIC MEMORY CONSTRUCT — EMOTIONAL BAIT PROTOCOL]
Kai barked, "Ethan! It's a trap! Don't—"
But the Blood Code inside him responded before logic could intervene. The glow beneath his skin pulsed, and the crucible flared with light. Data streams erupted from the ground, swirling around her like a cage.
"Lira!" he shouted, grabbing her hand — or trying to. His fingers went through hers, but the system reacted violently.
[INTERFACE INITIATED — MEMORY MERGE 7%]
Pain exploded in his head. Images flooded his mind — the lab, the Algorithm's first awakening, a moment frozen in time when they had argued.
> "You're not creating life," she'd said.
"We're creating survival," he'd replied.
The memory ended with her screaming as the lab filled with light. Then nothing.
He stumbled back, breathing hard, clutching his head. The projection flickered, her voice echoing like a broken record.
> "You left me… you left me… you left—"
Then she vanished, replaced by a system message that chilled him more than the hallucination.
[PROMETHEUS TRACE: LIRA/PROJECT – MEMORY INTEGRATED]
[NEW DATA ACQUIRED — ORIGIN CONFLICT DETECTED]
Kai grabbed his shoulder, grounding him. "You good?"
Ethan swallowed hard. "It's using my memories now. Every one of them."
Kai frowned. "It wants to rewrite your past until you forget what's real."
Ethan didn't respond. He couldn't. Because deep inside, he wasn't sure that wasn't Lira. And if the Algorithm had her memories… maybe part of her still existed somewhere inside it.
---
The tunnel ceiling above them creaked. Then the air shimmered.
[SYSTEM ANNOUNCEMENT]
[ALGORITHM CHALLENGE EVENT: INITIATED]
[OBJECTIVE: SURVIVE UNTIL INTEGRATION TIMER EXPIRES — REWARD: CORE ACCESS TOKEN]
Kai's face went pale. "Oh, hell. It's forcing a scenario event!"
The floor cracked open. Dozens of tendrils made of code and sinew erupted, wrapping around pipes, walls, and machinery. The chamber became a living organism, hunting them both.
"Run!" Ethan shouted.
They sprinted as the tunnel collapsed behind them, metal twisting into hungry shapes. The Blood Code pulsed again, almost urging Ethan to fight back, to merge deeper. He resisted the urge — barely.
They burst into open air, the night sky above them black and trembling. Behind, the tunnel collapsed entirely, consumed by the Algorithm's wrath.
Ethan fell to his knees, gasping, clutching the crucible. Its light was unstable now, flickering between blue and red.
Kai crouched beside him. "You okay?"
Ethan looked up, face pale but steady. "It's rewriting everything — even me. But now I know what it's afraid of."
Kai frowned. "What?"
Ethan stared into the flickering crucible. "Memory. It's trying to erase the past — because that's where the truth is buried."