I. DAY 1 – Alert without echo
Dawn in Syria arrived amid artificial lights, with no visible changes. The city, meticulously controlled by its central system, followed its exact routines. No one noticed the silence on the news. No one missed the announcements. No one remembered what they had read yesterday.
The "Uprising of Oblivion" had already begun.
Akihiko watched from the top of an abandoned industrial tower. The woman rescued from the synchronization center was sleeping under sedation. Lorn, his only local contact, was working on a portable terminal that hadn't yet been tracked by the system.
—"They've already changed the news channels. No one will remember that there were two murders in District 9 yesterday. Or that one of the bodies… had the Ebony symbol carved into its back."
Akihiko closed his eyes. The enemy didn't kill; it reformatted the truth.
—"Then we have to make them remember. Even if they don't want to."
II. The forgotten team
Akihiko traveled that same night to the Syrian border.
In a vault abandoned by the old defense commandos, he found his former urban infiltration unit: three agents asleep in frozen files , deemed expendable after the dissolution of order.
Among them: Riva Drast , a quantum security expert; Juno Tal , a sniper with no loyalties; and Marek Voss , a former traitor turned strategist.
—"Why wake us up?" Riva asked, sharpening a dull blade.
—"Because in four days, they won't remember who they are.
And if that happens… whatever comes next won't be human anymore."
III. DAY 2 – The inverted mirror
Ysin had activated the jamming nodes. Every public screen now broadcast a series of harmless images: empty streets, families having dinner, laughing children…
But behind each image was a coded visual pattern that slowly disconnected emotions from memory.
Within 48 hours, the people of Syria began to stop crying. To stop feeling afraid.
And when a people stop feeling fear… they no longer have reasons to resist.
IV. First Strike – Tower 6
Akihiko and his team infiltrate Tower 6, one of the four pillars that support the reprogramming network.
The halls are empty, unguarded.
But each door contains altered identity sensors. One miscalculated step and the systems could rewire an agent's mind .
Riva hacks the primary console. Juno covers the blind chambers. Akihiko and Marek plant a reverse pulse generator.
The system partially collapses.
A wave of unfiltered memories begins to return to thousands of citizens at the same time.
Screams. Convulsions. Despair.
—"This is just the beginning," Marek says. —"Yes," Akihiko replies. "Now they know they were robbed."
V. DAY 3 – Ysin's Counterattack
The Bone Counter appears publicly for the first time. Not as an enemy, but as a spokesperson for the "Collective Neurological Protection Program."
He uses his clean face, his soft voice, his clinical language. And within 12 hours, more than 40% of Syrians voluntarily accept the protocol.
Akihiko watches the news on a pirated screen. "He's going to convince them to forget for their own good."
Riva interrupts: "If they complete the second tower, the reverse pulse will no longer work."
—"Then we will destroy it before that happens."
VI. Assault on Tower 3 – The Mirror Center
Tower 3 has no physical security. Only optical sensors. One false reflection… and the system reconfigures your identity.
Marek enters first. He doesn't speak.
His memories are reconfigured in real time. He begins attacking his own team.
Akihiko immobilizes him. Riva launches a disruptive impulse. Marek is knocked unconscious, but his brain file has already been partially modified.
—"We're out of time," Juno says.
"One more… and this world turns to polished stone."
VII. DAY 4 – The point of no return
Ysin announces a complete emotional reset broadcast.
At 4:00 a.m., all memories of negative events will be blocked, edited, or deleted. Citizens will wake up with artificial peace… and rootless obedience.
The underground network Akihiko was using goes down. The last public screens go dark.
And in central Syria… it starts to rain, for the first time in ten years.
But the rain is black. A sign of biological activation.
—"We have three hours left."
VIII. The Last Door
Akihiko and Riva enter the Central Tower, where the core of emotional synchronization is protected by a sentient AI implanted by Ysin.
The AI shows the faces of dead relatives.
It offers words of comfort. It invites surrender.
Akihiko doesn't fall.
Riva almost does. But she remembers the face of her forgotten sister.
And that saves her.
With effort, they break the core. A pulse is released throughout the city.
The programming begins to unravel. The citizens cry again. They scream.
They remember.
IX. The True Face of Ysin
Ysin appears at the top of the tower, on a giant screen, surrounded by darkness.
—"You've won this round.
But the memory… is only one layer. The next will be deeper. More irreversible."
Akihiko aims his gun, even though there is no physical target.
—"Then we'll come for you before you find that cloak."
And the screen turns off.
END OF CHAPTER 144