WHITE DRAGON SYSTEM

"Kaelan, focus. Synchronization rate is holding steady at 99.8 percent," Ryker's voice echoed through the internal intercom. My best friend, my loyal partner, the person I trusted most in this miserable world.

A cold sensation crawled along my spine as my nerves synchronized perfectly with the Mana System server. Before me stretched the simulated world of Eternal Nexus, a sprawling futuristic neon landscape that never slept. I stood at the control center, enjoying a position reserved for players who had spent thousands of hours inside virtual memory.

"Just a little more, Ryker. Today, I want to break the limit," I replied, breathing hard. This simulation was everything to me. The tournament was only a week away, and this was our final practice session before the big stage.

Suddenly, my vision flickered. The HUD display that had been glowing bright blue turned a deep crimson red. Something strange slammed into my security protocols. Access Denied. Logical gateways shut down one after another with alarming speed.

"Ryker? What's happening? The system's in lockdown," I said, trying to remain calm.

But my instincts as a pro player were screaming danger.

There was no answer. Only the sound of approaching footsteps moving toward my simulation capsule.

I forced an override attempt, but it was useless. Then the main screen in the training room flashed to life. A live feed from the public security cameras in the Central District connected directly to the simulation visuals I was experiencing.

My eyes widened.

There, in the middle of a crowd of pedestrians, a system avatar began emerging from cracks in the Mana Network. It was malicious code, a Mana Virus. Even worse, a massive label at the bottom of the screen displayed my account name as the source of distribution.

"Ryker! Shut it down! Someone hacked our system!" I shouted in frustration.

The door opened.

Ryker stepped inside, but he wasn't here to help me.

He wore a Nexus executive uniform and held a manual console controller, a mocking look in his eyes. Behind him stood more than a dozen Nexus guards armed with pulse weapons.

Ryker stopped directly in front of my capsule.

He looked at me with a faint smile I had never seen before. The warmth of a friend was gone.

"Nice plan, Kaelan. Truly a perfect scenario," Ryker said flatly.

"What are you talking about, Ryker? Stop that virus program! Look at those people!"

On the screen, I could see dozens of citizens in the Central District beginning to scream. Their bodies cracked apart, glowing into fragments of light before slowly dissolving into chaotic clusters of pixels.

They weren't dying.

They were being erased.

They were being converted into data by the Mana Virus that, administratively speaking, originated from my login ID.

"That's a masterpiece, Kaelan," Ryker replied casually.

He pressed a button, forcing an emergency logout.

"And you're the most phenomenal scapegoat I've ever seen."

The capsule door burst open.

I collapsed onto the floor, my body shaking violently from the neural backlash caused by being forcibly disconnected during a high-sync session. My skull throbbed as though it were being hammered apart.

"Why, Ryker? We made a promise! My father... I even turned down the Nexus scholarship offer for our team!" I said between gasps, struggling to get back on my feet.

Ryker laughed.

It was a dry, soulless laugh.

He stepped forward, grabbed my collar, and slammed me back onto the cold concrete floor. His kick landed squarely against my left ribs.

I heard bone grind against bone.

The pain was paralyzing. It felt as though all the oxygen had been ripped from my lungs.

"Your father was obsolete tech trash, Kaelan. He ended his life in a pathetic way. And you? You're nothing but a toy to us," Ryker hissed inches from my face. "Victor Sterling gave me everything. Money, power, and a future beyond anything you could ever imagine."

My jaw tightened.

My fists clenched.

Victor Sterling.

That name was the reason I had fought so desperately. The reason I had spent every second, every minute, every hour, every day of my life trying to enter this company.

"You're a hired dog, Ryker," I growled, even as blood filled my mouth.

Ryker yanked my hair back until my head was forced upward.

"Call me whatever you want. Today, the world will learn that you're a cyber terrorist responsible for the deaths of hundreds of citizens. Your death will be the perfect ending to this drama. Just like your father's death ten years ago."

He gestured to his men.

"Clean up this mess. Make sure not a single fragment of Kaelan's data remains here."

Suddenly, the training room doors were blasted open from the outside.

Not by enemies.

By the building's own internal security system, reacting to the abnormalities caused by the virus Ryker had unleashed.

An explosion of digital energy shook the laboratory walls.

"Time's up," Ryker said as he turned away. "Don't worry. Your little sister will be joining you soon enough."

Alessa.

Her name struck my consciousness far harder than the pain in my ribs.

"DON'T YOU DARE TOUCH HER!"

Ryker glanced back over his shoulder before stepping through the doorway.

"That depends on how quickly you become a corpse, Kaelan."

Boom!

An energy blast struck a nearby system controller, triggering an overload in the training room's power reactor.

Dense white coolant gas erupted from a ruptured tank, flooding the room within seconds. The vapor burned my eyes, creating complete visual chaos.

The Nexus guards began firing blindly into the smoke.

"Find the target! Kill him on sight!" one of them shouted.

Inside the thick fog, I crawled.

Every movement felt like a thousand knives driving through my broken ribs. My breathing came in ragged bursts. I was on the verge of losing consciousness.

I couldn't die here.

Not now.

At the far end of the room stood a massive observation window overlooking the city below.

I stopped thinking about consequences.

With every ounce of strength I had left, I slammed the emergency lever that disabled the window's pressure lock.

The bulletproof glass was forced open.

The night wind of the Central District struck my face, carrying the wail of citywide alarms triggered by the virus outbreak.

Far below, glowing streams of digital data flowed through the city, neural networks that would instantly pull anything falling into them apart into fragments.

I looked back one last time.

Ryker's silhouette stood in the doorway.

His cold eyes stared at me as though I were an insect waiting to be crushed beneath his boot.

Without a word.

Without hesitation.

I jumped.

Darkness swallowed me whole.

Falling from five stories had never felt so slow.

In the final moments before my body struck the neon water below, I closed my eyes.

Father... is this the end of everything?

Forgive me for failing to avenge you.

As my body pierced the glowing surface of the water, a faint memory flashed through my mind.

A small object hidden by Father inside a vault. Something he once said would change everything if the world ever started burning.

The bio-chip.

Now, as my body sank into the depths of this decaying city, I hoped...

I desperately hoped...

That it had not been nothing more than a bedtime story.

My world faded away.

All that remained was pure hatred and the cold machinery of a system already casting me into the trash heap of history.