The tunnels beneath Subdeck 7 were older than the Academy itself—forgotten remnants of pre-war bunkers, sealed under layers of concrete, secrecy, and fear.
Arin sprinted through the dim corridors, every muscle aching, his heart hammering from the integration of the Forbidden Core.
> [Vitals: Stable]
[Cognitive Sync: 72%]
[Mutation Alert: Dormant Phase Initiated]
Behind him, alarms still howled from Chamber 9X. Security forces were sealing exits, deploying drones.
But Rhea Lin was already waiting at the junction, her cloak shimmering with stealth tech.
"You took your time," she said dryly.
Arin wiped blood from his cheek. "Thanks for the exit route."
"I didn't do it for you," she replied. "I did it to stop them from killing you before we get answers."
"Answers to what?"
"To why the system is evolving… and why it chose you."
---
They navigated deeper underground until they reached a sealed bunker, camouflaged by layers of reinforced plating.
Rhea placed her hand on the scanner.
> [Authorized: Lin, Rhea – Level 5 Clearance]
Access: GRANTED
Inside was a command room—dusty, dimly lit, and filled with pre-war tech. Old monitors flickered to life, projecting diagrams of ancient systems and incomplete genetic blueprints.
Arin paused.
Some of the sequences looked... familiar.
His own DNA.
"This is your lab?" he asked.
"It was my brother's," Rhea answered. "He was one of the first to experiment with core fusion. Before the academy turned against him."
Arin raised an eyebrow. "What happened to him?"
Rhea's voice dropped.
"He vanished. After claiming he made contact with a sentient core—one that spoke, evolved, and… remembered."
Arin's eyes narrowed. "The same one I just integrated."
Rhea nodded slowly. "That core was not meant to be awakened. It doesn't follow Academy protocol. It creates its own."
---
Suddenly, a nearby terminal blinked.
> [New Sync Detected: Arin Verma]
Trait Recognition: Genetic Recall (Active)
Unlocked Archive: Project Xeno-Soul – File A1
A holographic recording played.
A younger version of Rhea's brother stood in front of the camera.
"If you're seeing this… the Xeno-Core survived. That means the Academy lied. We weren't the first system users. We were the second. The originals—those chosen by the Bio-AI—vanished from history because they refused control."
The screen glitched. Then:
"They called it Project EvolveX. A system not built… but born. And it's still searching for a host strong enough to complete its awakening."
Arin stepped back.
"EvolveX. That's…"
"…what you've become," Rhea finished.
---
Suddenly, the room shook violently.
> [Proximity Alert – Hostile Entity Detected]
Identification: Unknown System Wielder – Class A Threat
Rhea drew her weapon. "They found us."
"No," Arin said. "He found us."
From the shadows stepped Zeth—his armor cracked from their last battle, but his eyes glowing brighter than ever.
"I warned you, Arin. The moment you touched that core, you became a threat to the entire system hierarchy."
Arin narrowed his gaze. "Then maybe the system needs to change."
Zeth activated a new mode—his form cloaked in shadowfire, a black aura that warped the air around him.
> [Zeth – Awakened State: Phantom Rift]
Abilities: Spatial Tear, Memory Burn, Zero-Point Blink
Rhea stepped forward to fight, but Arin raised a hand.
"I'll handle this."
---
The battle began in silence—then exploded into chaos.
Zeth tore open space with a swipe, bending dimensions to attack from impossible angles.
Arin activated Echo Step, blinking past strikes, barely dodging the spatial cuts.
But then Zeth launched a Memory Burn, attacking Arin's mind directly.
> [Mental Defense: Breached]
Side Effect: Flashback Surge Triggered
Arin staggered as images flooded in—his childhood, the lab where he was tested, faces he couldn't remember screaming as machines burned.
Then a voice—not Xyro, not his own—echoed in his head.
"You were not born. You were engineered."
Arin dropped to one knee.
Zeth approached. "See? You're unstable. A mistake."
But then… Arin's aura changed.
The Forbidden Core pulsed within him, wrapping him in a new energy—calm, deep, and ancient.
> [Mutation Stage 1 – Activated]
Trait: Adaptive Pulse Skin – Absorbs Impact Damage & Reconfigures Defense
Arin stood, stronger than before.
"Maybe I was engineered," he said. "But now… I evolve by choice."
He unleashed a new ability—
> [Pulse Lash – Tier 1]
Description: Whiplash of condensed system energy that targets biological weak points
The strike hit Zeth square in the chest, knocking him back through two reinforced walls.
Before he could recover, Arin dashed in with Focused Flow, landing a series of precision strikes.
Zeth gasped—his power flickering.
"This isn't over…"
"It is for today."
With a final surge, Arin punched the ground, activating a repulsion wave that buried Zeth under a collapsed corridor.
---
Later, in the quiet aftermath, Rhea approached him.
"Zeth was one of their best," she said. "He'll come back."
Arin nodded. "Then I'll be ready."
The system flickered inside him.
> [DNA Evolution: 89.3% to Rank D]
[New Skill Path Detected: Core Manipulation – Locked]
[Side Quest Unlocked: Find the Remaining Core Fragments]
Rhea looked out at the darkness ahead.
"So what now?"
Arin replied, eyes calm and focused—
"Now I find out who I really am."