Chapter 5 The Inheritance That Burned Through My Nerves

"00:05...00:02...00:01..."

The artificial intelligence's scream was cut short by a thunderous roar that split the sky apart. The concrete roof of the laboratory above me collapsed as a beam of pure blue light from Zeus's orbital satellite struck the Underbelly district. The shockwave hurled me into the air, slammed me against a wall, and then the entire facility caved in, burying me in absolute darkness.

I didn't die. But it felt like death.

The darkness in my eyes was no longer as dense as before. Instead of absolute blackness, I could now sense flashes of pure snow white code piercing through the layers of dark fog that had once smothered my consciousness. It wasn't sight. It was something closer to direct penetration into the core of my awareness. Cold. Elegant. Pure.

Consciousness began pulsing back to life, stronger than before, as though fueled by a new source of energy. But the pain, yes, the pain was still there. The nerves behind my ear, where I had implanted the Dragon Scale bio-chip with a rusted razor blade, sparked with jolts of electricity.

[WHITE DRAGON SYSTEM HAS BEEN ACTIVATED]

The message appeared not on a monitor, but within the deepest layer of my vision, glowing with a cold, razor-sharp light.

"Ugh... Alessa..." I hissed, coughing thick blood onto the rubble. My chest tightened, not only because concrete debris pinned my leg, but because of the image of my little sister suffering inside a Nexus cell. "I can't die here... Not yet!"

Slowly, as waves of white code swept through my body, beginning at the crown of my head, spreading through every nerve and penetrating all the way to my bone marrow, I felt something extraordinary. This system was ancient, but clean. Evolutionary, yet brutal. And now it was converting my pain into fuel.

A surge of heat, like molten iron flowing through my veins, spread from the chip throughout my entire body. This was the effect of the White Dragon System's initial-stage Data Overwrite. The system detected massive organ damage caused by the orbital missile strike, cracked ribs, and severe neural inflammation. Instead of searching for medical tools, the WDS rewrote the information describing that damage with new code. Repairing it. Or rather, replacing corrupted data with an updated version generated by the system itself.

With a frustrated roar, I shoved aside the slab of concrete trapping my body.

The concrete shattered. I could feel my muscles responding in a way they never had before. A hidden power pulsed within me.

I rose to my feet amid the smoke left behind by Zeus's bombardment. The ruins of Father's laboratory appeared far clearer now. The graphical quality of my world had suddenly improved dramatically through an Augmented Reality Overlay integrated directly into my vision.

Numbers illuminated the darkness in brilliant white. My condition was catastrophic. Yet beside those indicators of destruction, another entity appeared, radiating a majestic glow.

[WDS STATUS: ACTIVE // CORE PROCESSING ONLINE // SYSTEM RANK: LEGENDARY]

[PRIMARY DIRECTIVE: SURVIVAL & EVOLUTION]

"You're hunting me, Sterling? You created this trap to corner me, Ryker?!" I shouted toward the shattered ceiling, challenging the satellite that had just tried to kill me. "You think you've destroyed me?!"

My laughter exploded through the silence of the ruins. It was not the laughter of relief. It was the laughter of a predator who had just awakened a forbidden power.

"Bastards... I'll make you pay for every drop of blood spilled here," I muttered, wiping dried blood from my neck.

Data Overwrite did not eliminate pain. It processed pain into feedback. My body felt unfamiliar, yet far more alive. The problem was that the WDS required raw EXP data to evolve. Level 1 was an extremely vulnerable position, while the entire Nexus Corporation fleet was already heading toward these coordinates to ensure my death.

[SYSTEM ACTION: INITIATE SELF-DIAGNOSTIC PROTOCOL...]

[ENVIRONMENT ANALYSIS COMPLETE: HIGH RISK // CONTAINMENT ACTIVE]

"I know, White Dragon," I murmured to the system in my head. "Time to hunt. Let's find a way to gain a little EXP so I don't die before I can see Alessa's face again."

Suddenly, my WDS-enhanced eyes detected a visual distortion in the corner of the collapsed room. A deep red overlay flooded my vision, framing a hidden wall that had split open during the explosion.

There, concealed behind the rubble, was a secondary Sub System Cache belonging to Father, one that had escaped destruction during the orbital strike.

I leaped over the debris, moving with impossibly sharp instincts. In front of the opening stood an ancient eight-digit numeric keypad secured by a lock.

[ACCESS LEVEL: ANCIENT SECURE PROTOCOL]

[DECRYPTION REQUIRED: LOW-TIER SECURITY KEY]

"Damn it, I don't have time to hack this!" I shouted in frustration.

[SYSTEM ACTION: SCANNING AVAILABLE DATA SIGNATURES...]

[SIGNATURE FOUND: TRACE MEMORY FRAGMENTS OF DR. ELIJAH ARDENT]

My heartbeat stopped for a moment. Within my cornea, a faint visual memory flickered to life. It was Father's handwriting, Elijah Ardent's. A number he had taught me when I was a child, the code for one of our games: [74129638]

"Father..." I whispered, my throat suddenly tightening with overwhelming emotion.

My trembling, bloodstained fingers entered the sequence. The small vault door opened, revealing several data chips and an old steel cased Datapad. The moment I touched it, the Datapad powered on, recognizing the WDS signal within my body.

[ARDENT FAMILY LEGACY DATA BANK ACCESS GRANTED]

[EMERGENCY PROTOCOL 'SILVER VEIN' ACTIVATED]

[DESTINATION: UNDISCLOSED SECTOR KAPPA-7 // TEMPORARY SAFE ZONE]

Sector Kappa-7. An escape route Father had prepared before he was "erased." A place where I could hide and gather strength before reclaiming Alessa. I immediately swept the data chips into my hoodie pocket.

But that brief moment of peace was shattered by a crimson WDS alarm flashing across my vision.

[ALERT: HOSTILE SIGNATURES DETECTED]

[IDENTIFICATION: CORPORATE ENFORCERS - HEAVY ARMOR UNIT]

[ESTIMATED ARRIVAL: 15 SECONDS]

"That was fast, you bastards!" I cursed.

[WDS ACTION: SUGGESTED ESCAPE ROUTE FORMULATED]

[ROUTE ALPHA: OPTIMAL PATH VIA SUBTERRANEAN TUNNEL SYSTEM]

An emerald green line glowed across the floor, leading behind a tilted vault cabinet. Using every ounce of my newfound bionic strength, I shoved the cabinet aside, revealing the entrance to a pitch-black underground passage. Thanks to the WDS, the darkness instantly transformed into a bright night-vision landscape.

"Just a little longer, Alessa," I whispered into the darkness. "Your brother is coming."

I jumped into the tunnel and pulled the vault cabinet back into place, sealing the entrance.The moment it locked shut, I heard the laboratory door above explode apart. The heavy footsteps of Nexus soldiers echoed through the ruins, accompanied by a voice I knew all too well broadcasting through their helmet speakers.

"Find the body! If Kaelan Ardent is still breathing, bring his head before Lord Sterling!"

I held my breath in the darkness of the narrow tunnel, preparing to crawl deeper underground. Then my movement stopped instantly.