The corridor ahead pulsed with faint blue light, like the slow, tired heartbeat of a machine on life support. Kai moved silently, every step calculated, every breath measured. The deeper he went into the forgotten under-complex beneath Grid-6, the stronger the ambient hum grew—a static thrum just on the edge of hearing.
[System Notification: You have entered a Restricted Sector – Clearance Level: Unknown][Warning: Quantum anomalies detected. Proceed with extreme caution.]
Kai glanced at the message and dismissed it with a flick of his eyes. Warnings were nothing new. If he heeded every red alert the System gave him, he wouldn't have made it past the first week out of the ruins.
Still, this place felt different.
He rounded a corner, and the tunnel abruptly widened into a chamber—a dome-like structure with metallic walls and a grated floor. In the center stood a monolithic structure: black, angular, and humming with low-frequency energy. It resembled a shard of night sky trapped in the ground, etched with glowing glyphs only partially decipherable by the System.
[Object Identified: Core Node 3 – Data Archive][Status: Dormant. Integrity: Stable. Memory Access: Conditional Sync Possible]
Kai took a cautious step forward. "This is it."
He reached out and placed his hand on the cool surface. Instantly, the glyphs flared to life, cascading up the monolith in waves of deep blue light. The System Interface flared.
[Initiate Memory Sync? Warning: High probability of psychic backlash. Temporary disorientation and hallucinations may occur.]
"Do it," Kai muttered, jaw clenched.
The moment he accepted, the chamber dissolved into data-light. Reality peeled away, pixel by pixel, until Kai found himself somewhere else entirely.
Now, he was in a gleaming laboratory—immaculate, cold, and pulsing with the quiet hum of active machines. Transparent screens floated mid-air, displaying streams of code and molecular diagrams. A large monitor at the far end read: ASCENSION PROTOCOL - PHASE II: INTEGRATION.
Kai wasn't himself anymore. He looked down to find his hands gloved, his body covered in a sleek jumpsuit with a patch on the chest: KAIROS-07.
A voice called from behind him. "Kairos, status update."
He turned. The voice belonged to a woman—her face obscured, as though the System refused to fully render her features.
"Synchronization at 93%," Kairos—no, he—replied automatically. "Subject Zero remains unstable, but containment is holding."
"Push it to full lock," she ordered. "We don't have time for another regression. The Omega Core is waking."
Kai's mind spun. Subject Zero? Ascension Protocol? This wasn't just a lab. It was a launchpad for something bigger—something dangerous.
The room dimmed as a containment unit lit up behind a wall of glass. Inside was a child, floating in stasis. Tubes connected to their body pulsed with golden energy. Alarms flashed.
[Error: Neural feedback overload. Subject rejection imminent.]
Then came the static. The memory fractured, skipping like a corrupted recording.
Pain split Kai's skull. The scene shattered—
He came to, gasping for air, back in the Core Node chamber. His body trembled from the psychic overload, blood trickling from one nostril. His vision danced with afterimages.
[Memory Fragment Acquired: Classified Designation - Omega Echo 1][New Objective Unlocked: Locate Subject Zero][Omega Thread Progression: 7%]
Kai wiped the blood away with the back of his glove. "Kairos-07," he whispered. "That was me… or someone I was cloned from."
The implications were massive. If he had once been a part of this experiment—if he was the experiment—then his entire identity, his entire past, had been a carefully managed lie. The name Kai might not have even been his to begin with.
More disturbing was the child. The memory had felt too real to be fabrication. That child—Subject Zero—had been integral to whatever the Ascension Protocol was supposed to achieve. And it had gone wrong. Badly.
The lights in the chamber flickered suddenly.
[Warning: Hostile Entity Approaching]
A metallic screech echoed through the hall behind him. Kai snapped into motion, drawing his blade and activating [Overclock Reflex +40%]. A monstrous machine-creature burst from the shadows—a fusion of quadrupedal mech and living tissue, covered in armor plates and wires like sinew.
Kai dodged its first lunge, sliding beneath its claw and slashing at its underbelly. Sparks flew, but the thing retaliated with a tail swipe that sent him crashing into a console.
Pain bloomed across his back. He rolled just as a claw tore through where his head had been a second earlier.
[System: Tactical Tip – Target weak point: spinal ports.]
Kai surged forward, ducking a flurry of strikes. He slipped beneath the beast, jammed his blade into the exposed port cluster at the base of its neck, and twisted. The creature shrieked in static agony before collapsing in a heap of twitching metal and synthflesh.
[Enemy Neutralized. +2200 EXP. System Sync: Stable.]
Kai leaned against the wall, panting, his thoughts swirling. He had faced death before—but never the death of who he was.
He glanced back at the now-dormant Core Node.
"Subject Zero... I need to find you. If I was Kairos-07, then maybe you were the first. And maybe… you're still out there."
The System pulsed softly in his vision.
[New Path Added to Map: Echo Route – Leads to Archive Nexus.]
The way forward was clear—but it wouldn't be easy. Nothing in this world ever was.
Kai sheathed his blade, cracked his neck, and started walking.
He had questions.
And the Core had only just started answering.
End of Chapter 14