The darkness within the maintenance shaft was thick as ink, carrying the scent of aged rust and condensed moisture. Chen Ke did not activate any lighting, relying instead on his implant-enhanced low-light vision and memory to descend swiftly down the narrow, slick stairs. From above, the floor where his apartment was located faintly transmitted the subtlest sounds of metal grinding—the people from "The Ring" had arrived.
He didn't pause for a moment, like water merging with the darkness, quickly sinking into the building's foundation.
The drainage system at the bottom was even older than the area where his apartment was. Enormous circular pipes crisscrossed, resembling a forgotten underground city. The air was foul, with only the occasional distant drip of water breaking the deathly silence. This was the system's blind spot, the rotting appendix beneath the city's glossy surface.
He didn't head directly for the "Oblivion Graveyard." The hounds had already caught the scent; going straight to the coordinates would be tantamount to walking into a trap. He needed a springboard, a place that could create misdirection and allow him to acquire more gear.
An hour later, Chen Ke appeared deeper underground in District 7, in an area known as the "Data Graveyard." Unlike the black market that traded memory fragments, this was a place dedicated to processing, destroying, and "recycling" physical hardware. Discarded servers, damaged implants, and obsolete terminals were piled high, forming a wasteland of metal and silicon fragments.
He stopped before a "shack" cobbled together from stacks of old server racks. There was no sign at the door, only a screen displaying flickering garbled code.
Chen Ke knocked rhythmically on the metal door panel.
After a moment, the door slid open a crack. A mechanical eye gleamed with a cold light in the darkness, scrutinizing him.
"It's me. Chen Ke."
The door opened. The interior was cramped, filled with various half-dismantled devices and tangled data cables. A short man, half of his face covered by crude metal prosthetics, stood there—his name was "Old Dog," a highly skilled but eccentric illegal hardware engineer.
"You're still alive?" Old Dog's voice was hoarse, laced with electrical static. "Heard the System is looking for you, and some unclean 'Ring' types are too." His information was always sharp.
"Alive for now." Chen Ke entered and got straight to the point. "I need an untraceable beacon, a set of environmental camouflage filter cartridges, and..." He paused briefly, "...something that can briefly interfere with the System's local scans."
Old Dog's mechanical eye focused on Chen Ke's face, flickering. "Interfere with the System? If you want to kill yourself, don't drag me down. That stuff is taboo. Touching it gets you completely Purged."
"Where I'm going, the System itself might not be a friend," Chen Ke said calmly, placing several high-purity energy coins on the nearby workbench—three times the market rate. "And I just need a little 'breathing' room, not to blow up its servers."
Old Dog stared at the energy coins, then looked back at Chen Ke, the light in his mechanical eye flickering uncertainly. Finally, his desire for resources overpowered his fear of risk. "...Ten minutes. At most, I can blur its 'gaze' for ten minutes. Range no bigger than a standard room. Energy burst type, one-time use."
"Enough." Chen Ke nodded.
Old Dog turned and started rummaging through a pile of discarded parts, his movements skilled as instinct. As he worked, he rasped, "That coordinate... 'Oblivion Graveyard.' You going there to die? There's nothing there but rusted ship hulls and crazy scavengers."
"Maybe some things are best hidden in 'nothing,'" Chen Ke replied, his gaze sweeping over a recently dismantled, intricately structured micro-detector on Old Dog's workbench. On its core component was an inconspicuous ring-shaped wear mark.
Chen Ke's heart sank slightly. Had even Old Dog's place been infiltrated? The reach of these "Ring" tentacles was far deeper than he imagined.
Just then, Old Dog seemed to finally find the parts he needed and began assembling. His back was to Chen Ke, and he muttered, almost as if unintentionally, his voice nearly masked by the sound of his tools:
"Lately... there've been strange signals... coming from deep in the 'Graveyard'... not regular comms... more like... a heartbeat... of something."
Chen Ke's head snapped towards Old Dog's back.
Old Dog didn't turn around, as if he had merely been talking to himself. He tossed a small, detonator-like device to Chen Ke. "Take your 'ten minutes.' Toss it far away after use, don't implicate me."
Chen Ke caught the device. The cold touch of the metal sharpened his focus. He collected the other gear, asked no further questions, and turned to leave the Data Graveyard.
"Heartbeat"...
Old Dog's words echoed in his mind. A "heartbeat" hidden deep within an interstellar junkyard. This unsettled him more than any weapon or guard, a unease born from the unknown.
"The Cradle." What exactly was it nurturing?
He hesitated no longer, connected the camouflage filter to his respirator, and melted into the darker passages leading to the city's outskirts. Destination—Oblivion Graveyard.
He was going to listen for himself, to hear what sound the heartbeat from the "Cradle" truly made.