[Text for Chapter 2]
The roof of the Obsidian Tower was no longer a place of silence. The red eyes of the security droids burned through the artificial fog, their weapons humming with lethal energy.
[WARNING: HOSTILE UNITS DETECTED.]
[MISSION: ESCAPE THE TOWER. STATUS: ACTIVE.]
Kaito's heart hammered against his ribs. He had spent his whole life running from these machines, hiding in the shadows of the slums. But now, something was different. A cold, calm power was settling in his gut—the Source Code of the Ninja.
"Body Flicker," he whispered again.
WHOOSH.
He didn't just move; he vanished. One of the droids fired a pulse shot, but it only hit the space where Kaito had been a millisecond before. He reappeared behind the machine, his hand instinctively reaching for a discarded metal pipe on the floor.
[SKILL ACTIVATED: CHAKRA INFUSION (RANK-F)]
The rusted pipe began to glow with a faint blue light. Kaito swung it with a strength he didn't know he possessed. The metal sliced through the droid's armored neck like it was made of paper.
SPARK!
The machine exploded in a shower of wires and oil. Kaito didn't stop to celebrate. He felt a sharp drain on his energy.
[CHAKRA LEVELS: 45/100. WARNING: OVERUSE WILL CAUSE FATIGUE.]
"I need to get to the elevator," Kaito muttered, dodging another barrage of lasers. "If the Administrators send the Enforcers, I'm dead."
Suddenly, the faceless man's voice echoed in his head: "Do not just run, Architect. Rewrite. Look at the security terminal."
Kaito lunged toward a glowing console near the rooftop door. His fingers danced over the holographic keys, but he wasn't hacking like a normal coder. He was seeing the 'Strings'—the literal code of the world.
[GLITCH DETECTED. DO YOU WISH TO REWRITE SECURITY PROTOCOL?]
"Yes," Kaito hissed. "Turn them on each other!"
[PROCESSING...]
[PROTOCOL OVERRIDDEN. NEW COMMAND: TARGET ALL ADMINISTRATOR UNITS.]
The remaining droids froze for a second. Their red eyes flickered to green, then purple. Slowly, they turned their weapons away from Kaito and aimed at the reinforced doors where more reinforcements were arriving.
"Good luck with that," Kaito smirked. He turned and jumped off the ledge, not to his death, but toward a passing maglev train three floors below.
As he landed on the roof of the speeding train, a new notification popped up:
[LEVEL UP! LEVEL 0 -> LEVEL 1]
[NEW REWARD: SEALED SCROLL OF THE WHIRLPOOL.]
The wind roared in his ears as the city blurred past him. He had escaped the tower, but he knew the hunt had only just begun. Neo-Tokyo wasn't ready for a Ninja.