The rain was relentless that night.
Each drop struck the glass walls of Omnitek Tower with the precision of a ticking clock—counting down the seconds of Elias Ward's life as he knew it.
From the top floor, the city stretched like a digital labyrinth—neon arteries pulsing through the smog, holo-ads flickering between corporate propaganda and artificial smiles. Below that brightness, the world rotted. Above it, the Five Thrones played gods.
And Elias Ward had just betrayed one of them.
Inside the sterile, white-lit chamber, the Board loomed behind a holographic table, each member's face shadowed beneath blue glass visors. The Omnitek logo glowed between them—a silver "O" encased in a circuit halo.
"You accessed a restricted protocol, Ward,"
said Director Renna Voss, her voice cold as steel.
"The Legacy Protocol was not your concern."
Elias stood still. The only sound was the hum of servers and the pounding rain outside.
He looked nothing like a criminal.
Thirty-one years old, dark hair neatly cut, calm eyes that had seen too much code and too little sleep. But in this room, his silence made him guilty.
"I built half the neural architecture behind Dominion Online," Elias said quietly.
"If something in that code wakes itself up—shouldn't I know?"
Voss smiled, but it wasn't kind. "You weren't paid to think, Mr. Ward. You were paid to build."
He could've laughed. He could've begged. He did neither. He simply stared at her, memorizing every flicker of contempt on her perfect, synthetic face.
Because this was how Omnitek disposed of people—cleanly, clinically, with no blood to stain the floor.
Two guards entered. Their armor gleamed with Omnitek's crest, faces hidden behind black visors. One of them—older, with a faint tremor in his voice—hesitated. "Ma'am… he's unarmed."
"Escort him out," Voss ordered. "And wipe his access. Permanently."
Elias clenched his fists, watching as his name and credentials blinked red across the holo-display.
ACCOUNT: TERMINATED.
ASSETS: SEIZED.
SECURITY CLEARANCE: REVOKED.
Then the last line appeared.
PROJECT LEGACY: LOCKED—AWAITING CLAIMANT AUTHORIZATION.
His heart skipped. He hadn't imagined it.
It was real. And it had recognized him.
The guards took him by the arms, but Elias didn't resist. He let them march him through the hall, past the cold white corridors and walls lined with corporate slogans.
"Omnitek Holdings: Building Humanity's Tomorrow."
He almost laughed at the irony.
By the time he reached the street, the rain had soaked through his coat. The air stank of ozone and fuel, and the holographic billboards above flickered with the faces of Dominion Online's champions—players worshiped like gods.
He walked aimlessly through the neon haze, replaying the day's events. The betrayal. The lies. The fear in Voss's eyes when he mentioned the code.
She knew what Legacy was.
They all did.
But they couldn't control it.
And now… maybe neither could he.
He reached his apartment after midnight—a cramped capsule on the lower tiers of the city, its single window overlooking a rain-slick alley. His sister's photo sat beside a cracked terminal, her smile bright despite the fading pixels.
"Liana," he whispered, brushing a hand over the frame. "I'll fix this. I promise."
He sat before his console, opening a hidden partition in his personal drive. The last remnant of his Omnitek credentials still glowed faintly. He entered a manual override—one only the system's creators should know.
ACCESSING: LEGACY PROTOCOL
AUTHORIZATION: WARD, ELIAS.
…ACCESS GRANTED.
His screen went black.
Then a line of text appeared, pulsing softly in pale gold:
[Claimant Detected.]
[Legacy Code Activation Imminent.]
[Initializing Link: Dominion Online.]
Elias leaned back, the glow of the terminal washing over his face.
A strange calm settled over him. Fear, yes—but beneath it, something else.
Resolve.
They had taken everything from him—his name, his career, his freedom.
But what they didn't understand was simple.
He had built the system.
He was the system.
"You created your empire on lies," he murmured, staring into the flickering light.
"Now I'll build mine… on truth."
Outside, lightning tore across the skyline.
Inside, the Legacy Code came alive.
And as the world turned toward dawn, somewhere in the neural networks of Dominion Online…
a new player logged in.
[WELCOME, ELIAS WARD — LEGACY CLAIM VERIFIED.]
[DOMINION PATH: UNDEFINED.]
[PLEASE CHOOSE YOUR BEGINNING.]