Chapter 3: The First Scavenge
Lila was a dancer, a whisper of a thing that moved through the silent, ruined buildings with the grace of a ghost. Alex watched her from the shadows, impressed. She wasn't an assassin, not with a System-granted power. She was just… a shadow. She'd scout the perimeter, her dark cloak making her all but invisible to the wandering Rogues, and then she'd give a sharp, decisive hand signal.
She moves like she's a part of the world, not just a visitor. Alex thought, a tinge of respect for her skill mixed with a bit of professional envy. I've always been too loud, too direct. A hammer, not a scalpel.
Elias, on the other hand, was all frantic energy and muttered curses. He hunched over a circuit box, his fingers flying across the cracked wires.
"Stupidly simple," he mumbled to himself. "The tech here is… it's like a toddler built a supercomputer. No proper fail-safes. Just... stupidly simple." He pressed a final wire into place, and the low, grinding hum of a pressure plate alarm died a quiet death.
"He's a genius, just a bit... excitable," Lila's voice whispered in Alex's ear, making them jump.
"You're too quiet," Alex said, their heart thumping.
"It's a gift," Lila replied, a small, tired smile on her face. "Now, your turn. The power cell is behind that wall. But the vibrations from a punch will set off a sonic alarm. Can your punchy-thing make it… not so punchy?"
Alex nodded, their mind already working through the problem. They closed their eyes, their senses expanding, and focused on the subtle, kinetic energy that ran through their veins. They didn't just want to create a blast; they wanted to absorb the sound, to cancel it out. They concentrated, the golden glow of their interface flaring in their mind's eye.
[SYSTEM: SKILL EVOLVED: KINETIC PUNCH > SOUND DAMPENING PUNCH]
The words felt like a breakthrough. The System wasn't just a simple tool. It was a learning program, an evolving entity. They pressed their fist against the wall, a solid steel plate that hummed with a low-frequency hum. The glow from their hand spread out, a soft, warm light that swallowed the sound, the metal, with a quiet, nearly inaudible, whoosh. The panel just… melted away, leaving a clean, open hole. Alex reached in and pulled out a large, glowing power cell, its light a soft, steady hum. A tiny victory, but a victory nonetheless. The three of them shared a look, a small moment of camaraderie, a silent acknowledgement of a job well done.
The celebration was short-lived. A low rumble, like a freight train, shook the ground. The wall on the other side of the room simply disintegrated, a storm of dust and debris erupting outward. A new Rogue, a "Juggernaut," lumbered through the opening. It was huge, a walking tank of corrupted matter, with thick, heavily armored plates that shimmered with the tell-tale Glimmer. Its eyes, two pulsing orbs of violet light, locked onto the power cell in Alex's hands. The sound it made was not a hum, but a low-frequency shriek, a sound that made Alex's teeth ache and their head spin.
Alex raised their hand, ready to use their new ability, but the System's display flickered. The letters fragmented, the numbers turned into gibberish.
[SYSTEM: WARNING: CONFLICTING DIRECTIVE]
The message was a broken, garbled mess, lasting for only a split second before the display cleared, the corrupted words gone, but the feeling of utter failure remained. Alex's ability, the one they had just evolved, failed. The kinetic energy sputtered and died, a pathetic fizzle of golden light. Damn it. I'm not a soldier with a rifle anymore, and this System, this perfect, logical tool, is just a flawed machine.
"Elias! Now!" Lila's voice, a sharp command, cut through the noise.
Elias, with a panicked yell, threw a small, glowing orb at the Juggernaut. The orb, a tech decoy, exploded in a shower of sparks, a bright, disorienting flash that momentarily stunned the brute. Lila, moving with impossible speed, sprinted to the side, creating a diversion. The Juggernaut, its internal processors obviously confused, turned to face the new threat.
They're a team. Alex realized, a fresh pang of frustration and helplessness washing over them. They trust each other, and I'm just… a wrench in the works. The System had failed them, and for a moment, they were just Alex Kane again, an average soldier in a terrifying new world. They had to fall back on their old skills, the ones they had tried to forget. They dropped the power cell, rolled into a slide, and dove for cover, the sound of the Juggernaut's footsteps a thunderous echo behind them.
Back at the base, the mood was subdued. They had the power cell, but just barely. Alex leaned against a wall, their shoulders slumped, their knuckles bruised from falling. Elias was already huddled over the power cell, his face lit up by the glowing core, rambling about how fascinating the corrupted code was, his voice a quick-fire blur of jargon.
"It's like… the Glimmer is trying to rewrite the data," he explained to no one in particular. "A virus, a parasitic presence that's trying to consume the core code... it's beautiful, in a horrifying way."
Alex just grunted, the words a low, angry murmur. "Beautiful? It nearly got us killed."
Zara, her arms crossed, watched them with a quiet intensity. Lila, seeing Alex's frustration, walked over, her face tired but a small, empathetic smile on her lips. She didn't say anything, just offered a bottle of water. It was a silent promise, a message of understanding that didn't need words.
Alex took it and went to a quiet corner, away from the hum of the crowd. They pulled up the interface, trying to find the log of the glitch. But there was nothing. The log was blank. Frustrated, they tried to manually debug the code, to find the source of the conflicting directive. A new message appeared.
[SYSTEM: DATA CORRUPTION DETECTED. SOURCE: UNKNOWN]
The word "UNKNOWN" hung in the air like a taunt. The System, the very thing that had saved them, that had given them power, was flawed. It wasn't just a bug; it was a deeper corruption. It wasn't the perfect tool they thought it was. A new layer of fear was added to their survival, a fear not of the outside world, but of the very thing keeping them alive. The System, their lifeline, was also a vulnerability, a ticking time bomb of unknown origin. And with a single, corrupting directive, it had made me question everything. This wasn't just a fight against Rogues anymore; it was a fight against the very code of this reality, and Alex was right in the middle of it.
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