The air was thick with questions.
Back at the safehouse, Kael sat in silence as lines of glowing code raced across Spark's massive screen wall. His gaze was fixed on a pulsing red folder she'd pulled from the Black Flame servers—labeled only "Project LUX".
"I don't like this," Spark muttered, fingers dancing over the keyboard. "Everything's encrypted beyond military grade. Like they knew someone like me would come looking."
"Can you crack it?" Kael asked.
"Already on it." She cracked her neck. "But this isn't just tech. It's like… something's alive in here."
Aria glanced up from sharpening her blade. "Alive?"
Spark gestured at the screen. "Every time I get close to breaching a file, the system adapts. Reroutes itself. It's not just protected—it fights back."
Kael's jaw clenched. "Then we fight harder."
Rin walked in, holding a printout. "You'll want to see this."
He handed it to Kael: a surveillance capture, blurry but clear enough to recognize the face in the middle.
A woman.
Tall, sleek. White coat. Calm expression. And unmistakable authority in her eyes.
"Dr. Elira Voss," Rin said quietly.
Kael's eyes widened. "Voss? As in—?"
Aria stood instantly. "That's my mother."
Everyone froze.
"I thought she was dead," Aria continued, voice cold, but her hands trembled ever so slightly. "She disappeared when I was fifteen. I searched for years, and all I found were whispers—experiments, covert labs, vanishings."
"She's not only alive," Rin said grimly, "she's the lead scientist behind Project LUX."
The room fell silent.
Kael looked at Aria, her eyes stormy, her expression unreadable.
"You okay?" he asked.
"I will be." She walked toward the exit. "But when we find her… I want answers."
---
That night, Kael's dreams were darker.
He saw himself standing in a white room. Clean. Sterile. Silent.
A figure sat in a chair across from him—shrouded in shadow, but the voice was unmistakable.
"Kael Riven. Do you understand what you are?"
He opened his mouth to speak, but no sound came.
The figure leaned forward.
"You are not a player in the System. You are the product of it."
Kael jolted awake, drenched in sweat.
[System Notice: Memory Interference Detected – Dream Protocol Unstable]
He sat up, breathing heavily. "What the hell is happening to me…"
---
By morning, Spark had cracked the first layer of Project LUX.
"What I found… it's insane," she said, pulling up a set of decrypted files. "Project LUX isn't just about controlling Operators. It's about building the perfect one. Artificially."
Kael stared at the screen. "You mean creating a synthetic Operator?"
Spark shook her head. "Not synthetic. Hybrid. Real body. Real mind. But coded enhancements built directly into their DNA. Programmable personalities. Custom systems."
Aria folded her arms. "Living weapons."
"Exactly," Spark said. "And guess what? You weren't their first success, Kael."
Kael blinked. "What?"
Spark highlighted a name on the screen.
Subject-000: ECHO
"No photo. No age. But logs show 'Echo' completed twenty-seven missions before being… 'retired'."
Rin leaned closer. "Retired meaning…?"
"Either dead… or hidden," Spark said.
Kael's hands clenched. "If there are others like me… I need to find them."
"There's more," Spark continued. "Your system—'LIFE'—is the only one listed with autonomous evolution. Every other subject was under full control. No free will."
Kael sat back, heart pounding.
"Which means someone wanted you to break free," Rin said. "Someone planted LIFE as a wildcard."
Aria looked at him. "And now you're a threat."
Kael stood, eyes fierce.
"Then let them come."
---
Later that day, Kael stepped out onto the rooftop once more. The wind was colder. Sharper. The city stretched before him—deceptively calm.
[New Mission Unlocked: Trace Subject-000 "ECHO"] [Location: Unknown – Scattered Data Fragments Detected] [Difficulty: S-Rank]
Aria stepped beside him. "You sure about this?"
"No," Kael said. "But I have to try."
She nodded. "Then I'm in. For Echo… and for my mother."
He looked at her. "You don't have to come if—"
She cut him off. "She abandoned me. Used others. But I'm not walking away. I need to know why. And if she's too far gone…"
Kael finished the sentence. "We stop her."
The wind howled.
The System pulsed.
And in the depths of Granis City, something awakened.
Something that had been waiting for Kael all along.