The city smelled like metal, gunpowder, and lies.
Su Chen moved through the shadows like a ghost in a broken simulation. His footsteps made no sound. His presence barely registered on surveillance grids. The System had started enhancing his stealth without asking. It liked efficiency.
[System Tip: You are now classified as 'Ghost Signature'. Detection chance: 3%]
"Guess I'm not dead enough," Su Chen muttered, flipping up the hood of a tattered jacket he'd borrowed from one of the guards Zhang Wei used to play poker with. That guy wasn't playing anything anymore.
Above him, Walled City 09 buzzed with flying vehicles, drones, and neon advertisements promising "a new life after devastation."
New life, Su Chen thought. I got one. Costs blood, though.
His boots crunched across glass as he reached the outskirts of District V — where Lin Yue had last been sighted.
She was alive. Still working in her old unit. Med-Tech Division. Helping the same regime that declared Su Chen dead for "morale purposes."
"The world doesn't need another martyr," Zhang Wei once said. "It needs survivors."
Su Chen could still hear his voice like an echo in his skull. He wanted to crush it like static.
But not yet.
[Target: Lin Yue][Status: Stable. Guilt Level: 4%][Emotion: Relief, Loneliness, Mild Sadness]
[Recommendation: Increase emotional conflict before engagement]
[Unlockable: Trauma Link Initiation - 37% progress]
He stared at the flickering hologram of her face — hair still short, lips still trembling when she thought no one watched. Su Chen remembered how she used to cry in her sleep, afraid of losing him.
Now she just slept alone.
Good.
He moved.
MED-TECH TOWER | FLOOR 17
Lin Yue sat at her desk, injecting a nano-serum into a burn victim's neck. The boy flinched but smiled. She smiled back — fake, tired, mechanical. Healing the world, one wound at a time.
But her fingers shook when she was alone.
There was a note on her locker mirror:
"Your pain matters."
Bullshit.
She hadn't even visited Su Chen's body. Wei told her it wasn't recoverable.
"Too much damage," he'd said. "We have to move on."
So she moved on.
Until the lights flickered.
Twice.
She looked up.
Nothing.
Then her comms buzzed.
She tapped it. "Dr. Yue here."
Silence.
Then a voice she hadn't heard in months. One that shouldn't exist.
"Hey, Yue... Do you miss me yet?"
Her blood froze.
"No…" she whispered. "No, no, no—"
She stood up too fast. The tray of tools crashed to the floor. Nurses rushed in.
"Doctor? Are you alright?"
She didn't answer.
Because the lights flickered again. And her monitor displayed a single line of text.
I remember the way you lied.
She staggered back, her breath short.
Across the tower, Su Chen watched from a hijacked security feed. His grin widened.
[Trauma Link Progress: 57%][Emotional Conflict: Increasing][New Option Unlocked: Memory Echo Trigger (Locked)]
"System," he whispered, "when can I talk to her directly?"
[Soon. Let her drown a little first.]
That's what Su Chen liked about his System.
It wasn't merciful.
That night, he sent the first package.
A bullet casing.
The same one Wei used to shoot him.
Inside the envelope was a note.
You said you loved me.I believe you.So I'll kill you last.
[Target Emotional Collapse Progress: 64%][Projected Timeline to Breakdown: 3 days][System Update Unlocked: Ghost Protocol II][Skill Acquired: Shadow Walk (Passive)][Effect: Can move without leaving physical traces or triggering AI detection for 10 seconds every 3 minutes.]
Su Chen stood on the rooftop of a half-collapsed church, looking out at the flickering lights of the city.
The wind was cold.
The fire in his chest wasn't.
He lit another cigarette.
He didn't smoke because he liked it.
He smoked because she hated it.
End of Chapter 2