The searchlights of the Paladin Dropship were still scouring the scrapyard when Jax reached the mouth of the Vent-Pipe. Unit-01 followed behind, its movements a little smoother now as Jax's "Processing Power" stabilized.
The Under-Market wasn't a place on a map; it was a frequency. To get in, Jax had to tune his father's old comms-unit to a static-filled channel that bypassed the city's "Holy Firewall."
As they descended into the lightless tunnels, the smell of ozone and rotting garbage was replaced by something else: the scent of expensive synth-oil and street food. The tunnel opened into a massive, subterranean cavern—an old water filtration plant that had been carved into a neon-lit bazaar.
"Stay close," Jax whispered to Unit-01. "And keep your hood up. If someone sees a Paladin with violet eyes, we won't last ten minutes."
The Under-Market was crowded with the people the "Holy Crusade" wanted to forget: rogue cyborgs with exposed wiring, data-brokers with glowing ocular implants, and desperate scavengers trading bits of 'Relic Tech' for clean water.
Jax headed toward a stall draped in tattered fiber-optic banners. Behind a counter made of stacked server-racks sat a woman whose skin was almost entirely replaced by matte-black carbon fiber. This was Sledge, the best "Mod-Fixer" in the sector.
"You're late, Jax," Sledge said, her voice sounding like grinding gears. Her cybernetic eyes zoomed in on his face. "And you look like you've been eating scrap-metal for breakfast. What do you have for me?"
Jax didn't say anything. He reached into his pocket and pulled out the Soul-Fragment he had extracted from the Paladin. It glowed with a faint, pulsing white light inside a small glass vial Jax had scavenged.
Sledge's eyes widened. She reached out with a trembling hand, but Jax pulled it back.
"I need an upgrade," Jax said, his voice steady. "My 'System' is glitching. I need a Neural-Stabilizer and a Data-Bridge. Something that can handle high-speed extraction without frying my brain."
Sledge leaned back, her cooling fans whirring loudly. "A Paladin soul? You're playing with fire, kid. If Valerius finds out you're trading the 'Light' for black-market hardware, he'll burn this whole market to the ground."
"He's already trying to kill me," Jax replied. "Help me, or I take this to the Chrome-Heads at the other end of the tunnel."
Sledge hissed, then nodded toward a chair made of dental equipment and wires. "Fine. Sit down. But if your 'Legacy' starts screaming during the install, I'm cutting your h
ead off to save my shop."