The transport elevator groaned, descending into the underlayers of Nexus City. Rusted rails rattled, old lights flickered, and with each passing floor, the air grew thick with cold metal dust, recycled exhaust, and traces of a forgotten industry.
Kairo stood beside Ryn, leaning against the grated wall. She clutched her patched satchel as though it were armour.
"Are you sure this contact of yours is real?" he asked.
"Real," she said. "Safe… I'm less certain.
"Good enough."
The elevator shuddered to a stop.
A heavy door ground open, and a cavernous level was revealed, lit only by scattered emergency strips. The pipes overhead hissed like restless serpents. The echoes of far-off machinery vibrated through the floor: slow, rhythmic, almost like breathing.
Ryn stepped out first. "Welcome to the Lower Levels. Where the city forgets we exist."
Kairo followed, eyes scanning every shadow. "It's quiet."
"Too quiet. But that's normal."
She led him down a narrow metal walkway that hung above darkness. The walkways twisted through old factories and derelict storage bays, forming a labyrinth of steel and shadow. Kairo memorised every route—automatic habit.
He had lived in places like this before.
He had died in places like this before.
After a few turns, they came upon a dark passageway with the same faded symbol etched upon it – three interlocking squares.
Kairo recognised it instantly.
"Old Consortium logo," he muttered.
Ryn blinked. "You can read that?
"It was discontinued twenty years ago," said Kairo. "Which means this facility was abandoned… or repurposed without permission."
"Repurposed," Ryn confirmed. "That's why we're here."
She knocked on a metal door: two short taps, one long.
A slit opened. A pair of mechanical eyes scanned them.
"Identify."
"It's me," Ryn said. "I brought someone who needs clearance."
The slit closed.
Heavy locks disengaged. The door groaned open.
Inside, it was a chamber filled with monitors, disassembled tech, and humming processors. At the centre of all this, hunched over a glowing terminal, sat a man whose skin had been replaced in patches with steel plating, with wiring exposed, like veins. His face was half-cybernetic, half-human, and both were equally exhausted.
He turned.
"Ryn," he said in a distorted and warm voice. "You bring trouble again?"
"Not trouble," she insisted. "Opportunity."
The man now looked at Kairo.
Kairo didn't bat an eyelid.
The cybernetic man blinked. "You're… calm. Too calm for someone stepping into my den."
"Calm keeps me alive," replied Kairo.
A slow grin crossed the man's face. "Interesting. Call me Mavrix."
He motioned around him at the screens. "I run information for anyone desperate enough to come this deep. Surveillance, identity rewrites, black-market data streams. You want something buried or found? I'm the one who can do it."
Kairo stepped forward. "I need a new identity."
Ryn's eyes widened; she hadn't expected him to say it so directly.
Mavrix leaned back. "That's not cheap."
"I'll pay when I can," said Kairo.
"No deals without leverage."
Kairo tapped the inactive drone component he'd taken from the alley fight, now tucked into his coat, setting it on the table.
Mavrix's remaining human eye widened. "…Where did you get this?"
"Rogue unit," Kairo said. "Decommissioned it an hour ago.
"Impossible," Mavrix muttered, studying the circuitry. "Rogue units are Apex-classified blackouts. Nobody normal gets near them… much less destroys one."
Kairo held his gaze. "Do I look normal?"
Mavrix chuckled low, seemingly impressed. "No. You look like someone the city forgot to monitor."
He turned to his terminal. "I'll get you your identity. But you'll need more than a name to survive what's coming."
"What is coming?" Kairo asked.
Mavrix paused, his face lit by shifting data.
Then he showed the screen.
A map of the city.
Red markers.
Hundreds of them.
"Surveillance failures," Mavrix said quietly. "Across multiple districts. Something is disrupting Apex Council systems. Something big."
Kairo stared at the map.
His rebirth, the rogue drone, the unexplained light…
It was not a coincidence.
Ryn whispered, "Is this… connected to you?"
Kairo didn't reply.
Because part of him already knew the answer.
The city was on the move.
The rules were changing.
And his second life wasn't just a chance; it was a summons. Mavrix looked at him with a mixture of fear and curiosity. "Tell me, stranger… who exactly are you?" Kairo stepped closer, the shadows framing him like a forgotten legend coming to life. "I'm someone the city tried to erase," he said in a quiet voice. "Now I've returned to redesign its future." Mavrix swallowed. Ryn stared. And deep in the Lower Levels, something electric stirred, like destiny realigning itself. The Second Life Architect had started his blueprint.