The chip was shoved back to him, along with the energy credits that were enough for a comfortable stay in the black market. The vendor curled up in the shadows like a frightened insect, refusing to say another word. Those eyes, once bright like data cores, now held only pure terror, deliberately avoiding Chen Ke's gaze.
The Cradle.
This term was more tangible, and consequently more dangerous, than the [Stop] warning. It had emerged from what was officially deemed "garbage," accompanied by a mysterious schematic of a ring-like structure and a word that could make a hardened black market veteran lose his composure.
Chen Ke did not insist. He retrieved the chip and credits, turning to melt into the twisted flow of the black market's crowd. His steps remained steady, but his senses were now fully deployed, like a radar with its tentacles spread wide. He knew that from the moment the vendor's face revealed that horror, the danger no longer came only from the omnipresent "System" above, but also from the depths of these dirty, damp, memory-reeking tunnels. People killed to keep secrets here; that law was more naked in the black market than anywhere else.
He did not take the original route back. The pipeline network under District 7 was a labyrinth; he had several escape routes. At a junction reeking of strong rust, he turned without hesitation into a narrower, dimly lit passage.
The footsteps behind him were light, almost masked by the sound of condensing water dripping deep within the pipes. But there was more than one set. They took turns tailing him, using the terrain for cover. Professionals. Not System security—the System didn't need to track; it pinpointed and suppressed directly. This was an underworld tactic.
Chen Ke quickened his pace, his figure flickering between the afterimages of neon lights. He needed an environment complex enough to temporarily disrupt conventional signals.
His target was the old data relay station—a long-abandoned place, reportedly plagued by chaotic magnetic fields, a blurry scar on the System's planning map.
The footsteps behind him also suddenly became urgent; they realized they had been made.
The chase unfolded in silence, like a soundless hunt. Relying on his familiarity with the terrain and physical prowess far exceeding the norm, Chen Ke opened up a gap. He rushed through the station's corroded metal gates. The interior was vast, filled with countless abandoned server racks standing like giant tombstones. Fine static electricity floated in the air, causing a slight tingling on the skin. The navigation signal in his helmet indeed began to jump and distort.
He weaved through the forest of server racks, using the complex layout to hide his form. Suddenly, he stopped behind a massive server rack covered in abnormal energy patterns, holding his breath.
Two pursuers entered cautiously, one after the other. They wore ordinary grey work clothes, but their movements were coordinated, their eyes sharp, holding non-standard stun batons and shock daggers.
"Signal unstable, target lost," one whispered into a wrist device, his voice creating faint echoes in the vast, empty space.
The other gestured, suggesting they split up to search.
Chen Ke, like a ghost clinging to the shadows, silently circled into the second man's blind spot. The moment the man turned the corner of a server rack, Chen Ke struck. No wasted movement—a precise chop to the nerve cluster on the man's neck. His body stiffened and went limp.
Almost simultaneously, Chen Ke snatched the falling shock dagger and, without looking, threw it backwards diagonally!
"Ugh!" A grunt.
The first pursuer was just lunging from behind him, stun baton raised. The dagger's hilt struck hard against his wrist, and the baton clattered to the ground.
Chen Ke gave him no time to react. Stepping forward, he delivered an elbow strike, a chokehold, and a knee strike in one fluid motion. The second man also collapsed, unconscious.
He crouched, quickly searching the two. No identification, no organizational markings. Their equipment was clean, as if fresh off the assembly line. The only clue was a tiny, almost invisible pattern embroidered on the inside of their collars—
A simple ring.
Its basic form was strikingly similar to the ring-like structure from the chip's schematic.
Chen Ke's heart sank. This was not the end, merely the beginning. "The Cradle" was not just a word, a coordinate; it seemed to represent a tight-knit organization hidden beneath the surface. Their eyes were already everywhere throughout the city's shadows.
He stood up, ignoring the two on the ground, and quickly left the chaotic data graveyard.
Back in his small, tidy apartment on the edge of District 3, all defense systems self-checked and clear. Chen Ke sat in his only metal chair. The room was filled only with the low hum of the cooling fan.
He called up his personal terminal, not connecting to any network, and simply opened a blank local document.
His fingers hovered over the virtual keyboard for a moment, then began to input. He drew a simplified version of the schematic from memory—the ring structure and the orbiting points of light. Beneath the image, he wrote down key terms:
[Li Ming's Chip] -> [Homologous Frequency] -> [Black Market] -> [The Cradle (Coordinate?)] -> [Ring Emblem (Organization?)] -> [System Warning (Aware/Complicit?)]
The clues were like several broken chains, all vaguely pointing in the same, bottomless direction. The System was warning him. A mysterious organization was hunting him. And the dead Engineer Li Ming had left behind a key that might unlock Pandora's box.
The Cradle... What did it nurture? Or, what did it bury?
Chen Ke closed the document and executed a physical-level, thorough deletion. He walked to the window, looking out at the city skyline, illuminated by countless holographic ads, never truly dark.
He had not stopped. He could not stop now.
A flame, cold and determined, ignited for the first time in his always-impassive eyes. He was no longer just an enforcer investigating out of duty.
Now, he was the prey. And he was the hunter.
He needed to find The Cradle. Before the System, or that ringed organization, found him first.