The Prison of Time was quiet. Too quiet.
The guards in the sector — all machines linked to the Eternal Loop Core — had frozen mid-step. Their eyes flickered. Movements jittered. Something was off.
In the center of it all stood Kei, hoodie half-burned, eyes glowing faint blue. A thin circuit-shaped mark crawled up his neck.
He raised one hand.
> [Command: Reconstruct Attack Log - Section 17.4a]
[Source: Faceless Man | Signature: Disruption Wave | Status: Stored]
Time around him bent as glowing data threads formed a spiraling sphere. The moment from his first battle with the Faceless Man — the terrifying glitching wave — began replaying in code.
But this time, Kei didn't dodge it. He reprogrammed it.
His voice was steady, almost amused. "Let's make it mine."
> [Custom Rewrite: Phase Disintegrator] — Executing]
The wave warped — blue glitch turned silver. Sound vanished. Space cracked like a mirror. The walls around him didn't explode — they simply vanished from existence.
An entire hallway of the Prison of Time was gone.
Alarm klaxons screamed. Red lights flickered. But it was too late.
Kei had broken the rules.
On the upper levels, the Warden jolted upright. "Who authorized Neuromancer-level interference!?"
His assistant trembled. "No one. The system bent… to him."
Below, Kei walked through the glitching remains of the corridor, each step resonating like a digital heartbeat.
Behind him, a glitching voice whispered from a broken drone.
> "Y-you… are no longer a prisoner…"
Kei didn't look back.
"I'm the patch they never coded in."