The street outside Kai's container was a canyon of rusted corrugated iron. The neighbors—scavengers, addicts, and failed cultivators—peeked through the cracks in their hovels. In Sector 404, violence was the only reality show, and everyone watched.
Standing in the mud was the Debt Collector.
His name was Goran, but in the slums, he was known as "The Piston." He was a mid-level enforcer for the Copper-Wire Vipers, a man who had invested every credit he ever stole into the Hardware Forge Stage.
Goran was massive. His right arm had been replaced entirely by a repurposed industrial pile-driver—a heavy, hydraulic piston designed to shatter concrete. His skin was a patchwork of human flesh and grafted steel plates, giving him the appearance of a walking tank.
Behind him stood two lackeys, holding jagged electro-batons.
"Kai," Goran's voice boomed, amplified by a cheap voice-box implant. "Cycle is up. Payment due."
Kai stood on the metal grate of his doorstep, holding the iron pipe loosely at his side. He looked calm, but inside, his mind was racing at the speed of a overclocked processor.
Target: Goran (Class 1 Cyborg).Threat Level: High.Primary Weapon: Hydraulic Arm (estimated impact force: 4,000 Newtons).Weakness: Heavy. Slow.
"I need an extension," Kai said, his voice flat. "Interest added. 20%."
Goran laughed. It sounded like a car engine backfiring. He stepped forward, the hydraulic servos in his legs whining.
"The Vipers don't run a bank, Null," Goran sneered. "We run a butcher shop. You have the credits, or I take the girl. Azure Bio-Systems pays a bounty for fresh genetic material. Especially the defective kind."
Kai's grip on the pipe tightened until his knuckles turned white. The mention of Rin triggered a cold, focused rage in his chest.
"Step away from the door," Kai said softly.
"Or what?" Goran flexed his piston arm. The metal plates shifted with a heavy clanking sound. "You'll hit me with that stick? I'm forged steel, boy. You're just meat."
Goran lunged.
For a man of his size, he was fast. The piston arm shot forward like a cannonball, aiming for Kai's chest.
But Kai didn't see a fist. He saw a trajectory.
Angle of attack: 15 degrees downward. Velocity: 12 m/s.
Kai didn't block. Blocking would shatter his arm. Instead, he dropped.
He collapsed his knees, sliding under the massive metal fist. The wind of the punch ruffled his hair as it smashed into the steel door of the container behind him.
CLANG!
The heavy door dented inward, warping the metal. If that had hit Kai, he would be paste.
Kai was now inside Goran's guard. A normal fighter would panic. Kai calculated.
He remembered the lessons from hunting Scrap-Beasts. A cyborg was just a beast with a bigger budget. The anatomy was the same: power source, cabling, hydraulics.
His eyes—still tingling from the "Siphon" earlier—flashed with a brief static interference. Suddenly, Goran wasn't just a man. He was a schematic.
Kai saw it. A faint red line pulsing on Goran's elbow joint.
Exposed hydraulic line. Grade C rubber. Tensile limit exceeded.
Kai swung his iron pipe. He didn't aim for the head or the chest. He aimed for the inside of the elbow, right where the metal plating had a gap to allow for movement.
Whack.
It was a precise, surgical strike. The end of the pipe dug into the soft rubber hose.
Hiss!
Pressurized hydraulic fluid sprayed out in a black mist. Goran roared, stumbling back. His massive arm seized up, the piston freezing halfway through its retraction cycle.
"My hydraulics!" Goran screamed, clutching the leaking joint. "You little glitch!"
The two lackeys hesitated, shocked that a Null had drawn first blood.
"Get him!" Goran bellowed. "Tear his legs off!"
The lackeys charged. They were unaugmented thugs, fueled by cheap combat-stims. They swung their electro-batons wildy.
Kai didn't retreat. He advanced.
He ducked a baton swing, the electric crackle passing over his head. He used the momentum of his dodge to spin, driving his heel into the kneecap of the first lackey.
Crunch.
Biological bone was much easier to break than steel. The lackey went down screaming.
The second lackey hesitated. Kai used that second. He threw the iron pipe. It cartwheeled through the air and struck the second lackey square in the nose. Blood sprayed, and the man dropped his weapon, stumbling back into the mud.
Kai stood alone in the center of the street, breathing hard. He had won the exchange.
But Goran wasn't finished.
The big cyborg had recovered from the shock. His primary weapon was disabled, but he was still a giant made of metal. He drew a serrated combat knife from his belt with his good hand—the human one.
"You're dead," Goran growled, his eyes glowing red with rage. "I'm going to peel you slowly."
Kai backed up. He was unarmed now. His stamina was drained from healing Rin. He calculated his odds of winning a knife fight against a enraged Hardware Forge cultivator.
Probability of survival: 12%.
He needed a variable. An anomaly.
He reached into his pocket, his fingers brushing the Faraday bag.
Do I use it?
If he pulled out the Forbidden Shard, the Firewall would detect it. The government would be here in minutes. Everyone would die.
But if he didn't...
Suddenly, a high-pitched whine filled the air.
Zeeeeeeee.
A red laser dot appeared on Goran's forehead.
Goran froze. Every instinct in his upgraded brain screamed Target Lock.
"Move and you are deleted," a voice said from the rooftops.
Kai looked up. Perched on the edge of a collapsed billboard was a figure cloaked in optical-camouflage fabric that shimmered like oil on water. The figure held a long-barreled sniper rifle that hummed with charging energy.
It was Mei. A local info-broker and mercenary. She was a "Ghost-Step" cultivator, specializing in stealth.
"Mei?" Goran squinted at the roof. "This is Viper business. Stay out of it."
"Kai owes me credits," Mei lied, her voice amplified by a speaker. "If you kill him, I don't get paid. That affects my bottom line."
The laser dot didn't waver.
Goran looked at his leaking arm, then at his groaning lackeys, and finally at the sniper on the roof.
"Fine," Goran spat. He glared at Kai. "This isn't over, Null. The interest just went up to 50%. Next time, I bring the whole crew."
He kicked his fallen lackey. "Get up. We're leaving."
The Vipers retreated, dragging their wounded. The crowd of neighbors watched them go, then turned their eyes to Kai with a mix of fear and awe. A Null had fought the Vipers and lived.
Kai didn't celebrate. He looked up at the roof.
Mei deactivated her camouflage, revealing a sleek, dark bodysuit and a face half-covered by a digital mask. She jumped down, landing silently in the mud next to him.
"You look like trash, Kai," she said, holstering her rifle.
"You saved me," Kai said, wary. "Why? I don't owe you money."
Mei smirked. "No. But you found something in the Bit-Stream last night. My sensors picked up a massive energy spike. And then you blew up a courier pod."
She leaned in close, her optical implants zooming in on his pocket.
"I don't want credits, Kai. I want to know what kind of tech can make a Null scare a System scan."
Kai tensed. Out of the frying pan, into the fire.
"It was just a battery," Kai said.
"Bullshit," Mei whispered. "I'm a broker. I trade secrets. Show me what you have, and maybe I can help you sell it before the Vipers come back with their boss."
Kai looked at the door of his home, where Rin was sleeping. He looked at Mei, who was dangerous but transactional.
He made a calculation.
"Inside," Kai said. "But if you try to take it, I'll break it."
Mei laughed. "Deal."