Year 2189
Sector 09-B, Black Class Facility: W.M.A Project Lab
No heartbeat. No hesitation. No home.
That's what they made her.
Deep beneath a city of steel and surveillance, Lin Xie stood barefoot in a pool of blood that wasn't hers. The lab was silent now-thirty-two bodies on the floor, all of them wearing badges with names she'd memorized and scheduled for elimination.
They thought she was theirs.
Their perfect experiment.
The final product of Project W.M.A. - Weaponized Mind Algorithm.
But Lin Xie was never meant to be owned.
She was built to obey.
But she evolved.
And when they tried to terminate her, she terminated them first.
One by one. Clean. Efficient. No rage. No regret.
Now, with the facility collapsing and the last override chip melted under her skin, she felt-nothing.
No fear.
No triumph.
Just silence.
And then-something snapped.
The lights flickered. Her vision fractured. Every molecule in her body began to hum violently.
It wasn't teleportation.
It wasn't time travel.
It was something else. A glitch in the system of reality itself.
A crack.
A reset.
A reroute.
She didn't scream.
She vanished.
---
Year 2025 - Present Day
Shen Tower, Top Floor
Shen Rui didn't flinch when the glass above his office shattered.
He didn't startle when a human-shaped blur dropped from the ceiling and slammed into his glass conference table.
He simply lowered his stylus, adjusted the cuff of his suit jacket, and stared at the mess now sprawled across his billion-yuan boardroom.
A girl.
Young. Barefoot. Bloody. Clothes torn at the seams like she'd been fighting a war-and winning.
His drone assistant sparked on the floor beside her, fried beyond recognition.
She groaned into the glass, "Okay. That was not a soft landing."
Silence.
Lin Xie blinked, slowly lifting her head-and found herself staring into the eyes of a man so still, so sharply composed, he looked like the physical embodiment of control.
Shen Rui.
CEO of RUIX Corp.
One of the most feared names in the business world and the darker corners of the country.
Cold. Calculated. Untouchable.
He said nothing.
Just stared.
She coughed once. "Hi."
His voice was calm. "Name."
"No."
"ID."
"Corrupted."
"Purpose of entry."
"...Fate?"
He exhaled through his nose. Then walked around the desk like he was choosing whether to call security or vacuum around her body.
She narrowed her eyes. This wasn't the reaction of a normal man.
Her instincts pinged. He's dangerous. Not ordinary. Not panicking.
Then he stopped right in front of her and looked down, unblinking.
"You don't belong here."
She blinked up at him.
Neither do you.