The night wind in Sector 9 usually carried the scent of rusted metal and scorched ozone, but tonight, the air felt different to Kenzo. Residual energy still pulsed in his fingertips—the leftovers of the Sentinel Hound unit he had dismantled at Warehouse Delta-6. Inside his cramped shack, the blue glow from the medical Liquid Qi vials illuminated Meixing's calming face. Yet, that peace was only skin-deep. Behind his sister's steady breathing, Kenzo knew a storm was lurking.
"Brother... you didn't have to do this," Meixing whispered. Her eyes fluttered open, landing on Kenzo's open tactical bag. "This medicine... it's too expensive for people like us."
Kenzo stroked her hair, masking the tremor in his hands. "The price is nothing compared to your life, Mei. Sleep. Tomorrow, we'll find somewhere safer."
Once he was sure she was asleep, Kenzo stepped out onto the small porch overlooking the city center. Far on the horizon, the Neo-Heaven Tower loomed like a blade of light piercing the black sky. That tower was the symbol of everything wrong with this world: luxury built on the backs of those deemed "Zero."
"You are too soft, boy," Long Wei's voice echoed, cold and mocking. "If you were your ancestor, you would have leveled that building by now. Why waste energy stealing tiny vials when you could drink directly from the source?"
Because I'm not strong enough to die in vain yet, Old Dragon, Kenzo retorted internally. I need information. Meixing isn't just sick because of a cheap chip. There's something wrong with how her body rejects this Liquid Qi.
The next day, Kenzo didn't head to the junkyard. He had an appointment with Uncle Feng on the outskirts of Rust Haven. Uncle Feng wasn't just a junk technician; he was a walking library for those who wanted to know corporate secrets without connecting to the monitored public network.
Feng's workshop was hidden behind a labyrinth of old bus frames. Inside, thousands of cables dangled from the ceiling, and the bitter aroma of cyber-coffee filled the air.
"You're carrying heat, Kenzo," Uncle Feng said without turning around. He was staring at an ancient monitor displaying grainy CCTV footage from the warehouse incident. "Every Sentinel unit in Sector 9 is performing massive biometric scans. They're looking for the 'ghost' who can crush a mechanical hound with his bare hands."
Kenzo placed a vial of medical Liquid Qi on Feng's workbench. "I don't care about the Sentinels. Check this, Uncle. There's something strange about this medicine."
Feng frowned, picking up the vial with a hand that had been largely replaced by hydraulic prosthetics. He inserted it into a small analyzer. The needles on the monitor began to vibrate wildly.
"Dammit..." Feng muttered. His wrinkled face suddenly went pale. "Kenzo, this isn't just anti-jamming medicine. There's a hidden Nano-Tracker code in the composition. Neo-Heaven doesn't just sell health; they inject surveillance tools into the patient's blood."
Kenzo clenched his fist. "You mean Meixing is being tracked right now?"
"It's worse than that." Feng turned the monitor toward Kenzo. "Look at this pattern. This Liquid Qi is designed to interact with a specific Heart Chip. It doesn't heal nerve cells; it 'harvests' them. They call it the Ripening System. They're over-nourishing Meixing's soul energy so that one day, when her chip reaches its bandwidth limit, that energy can be pulled back to the central server."
A bone-chilling cold raced down Kenzo's spine. All this time, Meixing hadn't been a patient; she was energy "livestock" for Neo-Heaven Corp. The reality was more disgusting than he could have imagined.
"There is one place where you can find the full answer," Feng continued, his voice dropping low. "The Ivory Tower. Not the Sentinel military base, but the Research Lab in the Upper District. That's where the physical archives for 'Project Harvest' are kept. If you want to save your sister permanently, you have to go in there as a scavenger."
"A scavenger?" Kenzo was confused. "How can a scavenger get into the Upper District?"
Feng gave a thin smile, pulling out a worn access card with a pulsing, faint chip. "Tomorrow is the annual cyber-waste purge. They need people with no digital identity—Zeros—to clean the basements flooded with wild Qi radiation. It's a suicide mission for a normal person, but for you..."
"For you, it is a lunch banquet," Long Wei interjected with a raspy laugh.
The Upper District was a different world. If Rust Haven was a pile of rusted scrap, the Upper District was a sprawl of glass, chrome, and blinding holographic projections. Here, people walked with chips in their heads that publicly projected their social status, NC balance, and power levels.
Kenzo stood inside a waste transport truck, wearing heavy, filthy protective gear. Around him were other Zeros—men and women whose eyes had lost the light of life, those who had resigned themselves to being radiation slaves for a handful of Neo-Credits.
The truck stopped at the rear gate of the Neo-Heaven Lab complex. Sentinel guards with Tier 3 (Stream Rank) stood tall, aiming energy rifles at the scavengers.
"Move it! No talking! Touch nothing but the waste!" the officer barked.
Kenzo bowed his head, hiding the glint in his eyes. Beneath his protective suit, he slowly circulated his Qi through the Heavenly Circulation technique. He had to keep his energy calm to avoid triggering the Qi-detectors installed in every corner.
They were led into the bowels of the earth—a vast basement filled with humming, colossal machines. This was where Liquid Qi waste was dumped and processed. The air was hot and toxic, saturated with distorted Qi particles.
"Get to work!" shouted a six-legged robot foreman.
Kenzo began scavenging discarded chip components. However, his goal wasn't the scrap. He mapped the guards' patrol routes. With Long Wei's help, he could feel the electricity and data signals crawling through the laboratory walls.
"To the left, boy. There is a door with an old mechanical seal. They don't use digital biometrics there because the radiation is too high," Long Wei commanded.
Kenzo moved slowly, slipping away from the group while the robot foreman was busy processing waste on the other side. He slid into a narrow, dark corridor. At the end stood a heavy steel door with a manual lever.
This was a territory forgotten by modern technology—an anomaly in the heart of a digital empire. Kenzo turned the lever with his immense physical strength. The door opened with a harrowing groan.
Inside, he found what he was looking for: the Physical Archive Room. Wooden shelves were filled with paper documents and microfilm. Kenzo searched randomly until his eyes landed on a black folder with the Lin Clan logo, crossed out in red ink. His hands trembled as he opened it.
INCIDENT REPORT: PURGE OF THE BLACK SKY SECT. SUBJECT: LIN TIAN.
The text was clear: "The Lin Clan possesses the natural ability to absorb Qi without a chip. This is a threat to the corporate energy monopoly. All descendants must be monitored. If a subject shows signs of awakening, initiate the Forced Harvest Protocol."
Kenzo felt his blood boil. His father wasn't just a business failure; he was a warrior hunted and destroyed for refusing to be a slave to the machine. And now, they were doing the same to Meixing.
Suddenly, the room's lights flared to life.
"I knew a rat would try to find its way in here eventually," a soft but sharp voice came from the doorway.
Kenzo spun around. There stood a young woman in a white dress that contrasted sharply with the filthy surroundings. On her forehead, a gold chip pulsed at an incredibly high frequency.
"Zhao Ling..." Kenzo hissed. He recognized that face from the database Ling Er had provided. The Director of Intelligence for Neo-Heaven Corp.
"A Zero who can move freely in a high-radiation zone without protection?" Zhao Ling gave a lopsided smile, her purple cybernetic eyes watching Kenzo with dangerous curiosity. "You aren't just a scavenger, are you? Tell me, what is your connection to the black dragon that crashed our systems last night?"
Kenzo didn't answer. He dropped his bag and settled into a combat stance. Black aura began to seep from his body, defying the mental pressure emitted by Zhao Ling's gold chip.
"You want answers?" Kenzo's voice was deeper now, laced with Long Wei's growl. "Take them yourself if you can."
Zhao Ling let out a soft laugh. "How bold. What Tier are you? Byte? Frame? Oh, wait... you don't even have a chip. You're just arrogant organic waste."
With a wave of her hand, Zhao Ling triggered a digital command. From the walls of the room, four Drone-Killers equipped with laser blades emerged.
The battle in the basement erupted instantly. Kenzo leaped toward the first drone, using the Void Strike technique to shatter its energy core in a single blow. He used no weapons; his hands were the strongest weapons in this world.
Zhao Ling froze for a moment. She had never seen someone move that fast without the aid of a digital neural accelerator. "Interesting. Very interesting. You truly are an heir to an era that should be dead."
Kenzo wasted no time. After crushing the last drone, he shoved the black folder into his bag and lunged toward an air vent.
"This isn't over, Zero!" Zhao Ling shouted, her voice echoing through the underground tunnels. "I've marked your biological frequency. Wherever you go in this city, I will find you!"
Kenzo didn't look back. He slid through the ventilation pipes, heading for the surface. He had obtained what he wanted, but the price was high. Now, he wasn't just a Sentinel fugitive; he had drawn the direct attention of the corporate throne.
Back at Rust Haven, Kenzo found Ling Er waiting with a frantic expression.
"Kenzo, you're insane! The Sentinels just announced a total lockdown of Sector 9!" she yelled.
"Open this, Ling Er," Kenzo threw the black folder onto the table. "We don't have time to hide anymore. They're after my blood, and they're using Meixing as bait."
Ling Er scanned the document, her face turning from anxious to horrified. "Harvest Protocol... this isn't just about energy, Kenzo. They want to build a 'Digital God' using the collective consciousness of the people they harvest. Zhao Shen... he wants to live forever as the ruler of data."
Kenzo stood by the window, watching the acid rain begin to wash over the Iron City.
"If he wants to be a god, then I will be the demon that tears down his heaven," Kenzo said coldly.
That night, beneath the falling rain, a small black dragon—Xiao Hei—crept out from Kenzo's shadow. It consumed the scraps of the drone chips Kenzo had brought back, and for the first time, the dragon's gold eyes glowed with a terrifying intelligence.
The real war had just begun.