Sirens tore through the night sky, wailing like banshees.
"Class 1 Explosion at District 9 Awakening Hall!" "Requesting backup! Requesting backup!"
Blue Star Energy mixed with firelight, turning the hall into a blazing inferno. Cade pulled the data drive from the console. As he turned, a figure wrapped in gale-force winds smashed into the ground beside him.
BOOM! Concrete cracked. Dust billowed. Jinx landed with her massive sniper cannon propped on her shoulder. She squatted on the debris like a feral cat, that signature manic grin plastered on her face.
"Hey, got the data?" She casually fired a round, blasting two approaching mech-guards into scrap metal. The recoil sent her silver hair flying wild.
"Let's go." Cade wasted no words. He grabbed Jinx's wrist and bolted toward the emergency exit.
"Wait! There's a cabinet full of high-grade batteries I didn't grab..." Jinx complained loudly. "Run if you want to live," Cade's voice was ice-cold. " The real trouble is here."
Before his words landed. A terrifying pressure descended, crushing the air out of the hall.
"Leaving so soon?" An arrogant voice floated down from above.
Cade looked up. Hovering in mid-air was a man clad in streamlined dark blue armor. He floated without any visible thrusters, surrounded by invisible wind blades that sliced the air with a sizzling sound.
District 9 Chief Enforcer — Blue Tier · Stormbringer.
"Tsk. It's this mad dog." Jinx's expression darkened. She dropped her joking attitude. "Blue Tier. Elemental manipulation. My rounds can't penetrate his wind shield."
The man in the air looked down at them as if they were rats scurrying in a trap. "Desecrating holy ground. Stealing holy relics." "By the Laws of the Tower, I sentence you to... dismemberment."
He waved his hand. Dozens of crescent-shaped wind blades materialized instantly. With piercing shrieks, they slashed down, covering every inch of space. Each blade was sharp enough to slice through tank armor.
"Dodge!" Jinx screamed, shoving Cade.
But Cade didn't move. He stared dead at the incoming death, the black light in his pupils flickering violently.
[Fatal Threat Detected.] [Survival Probability: 0.01%.] [Activate 0th Law?]
Cade didn't hesitate. In his mind, he commanded: "I reject... air resistance."
In that instant, physics broke. Cade grabbed Jinx by the waist and kicked off the ground. With Zero Air Resistance, his speed instantly broke human limits. He became a ghostly blur, weaving through the microscopic gaps between the wind blades with a trajectory that defied logic!
Swoosh—! A few strands of hair were cut. But the two of them burst out of the encirclement unscathed.
The Blue Tier Enforcer froze in mid-air. "What kind of movement was that? No energy fluctuation? Pure physical strength?" It shattered his understanding of power.
"Don't just stare! Clear the path!" Cade growled.
Held in his arms, Jinx snapped back to reality. She looked at Cade's profile, inches from her face, and a strange light flashed in her eyes. "Aye aye, Captain!"
She swung her heavy cannon onto Cade's shoulder. Her red ocular lens spun wildly, locking onto the load-bearing pillar at the exit. "Bring it down!"
BOOM! A high-explosive round hit the sweet spot. The massive stone pillar collapsed, bringing down tons of rubble and sealing the exit, blocking the Stormbringer's line of sight.
"Lunatics! Two lunatics!" Angry roars echoed from behind the rubble. But Cade and Jinx had already vanished into the labyrinth of the underground sewers.
One Hour Later. Abandoned Industrial Zone 4. The Base.
"Huff... Huff..." Jinx collapsed onto the sofa, unladylike and gasping for air. Her biker jacket had a few new tears, revealing pale skin underneath.
"That was... too thrilling..." She fished out a compressed biscuit and took a bite, mumbling, "That old dog's face turned green. Hey, Cade, how did you do that? For a second, you were faster than a ghost."
Cade didn't answer. He sat at the workbench, his face paler than usual. Repeatedly using the 0th Law took a massive toll on his mind. Forcing reality to bend felt like pulling a train with his own nerves.
"Loot." Cade tossed a vial of high-purity Star Energy taken from the hall to Jinx.
Jinx's eyes lit up. She caught it perfectly. "You do have a conscience. With this, my 'Crimson Eye' can finally upgrade."
Cade ignored her cheering. He took a deep breath and inserted the blood-bought data drive into the decoder again.
The screen flickered. This time, without the self-destruct sequence, the core database opened wide.
"Let's see what the Cyan Tower is hiding."
Cade's fingers flew across the keyboard. Lists of names, gene maps, and experiment logs scrolled down like a waterfall. Most were records of Outland civilians, labeled with harsh tags: "Inferior", "Recyclable", "Fodder".
Suddenly. Cade's fingers stopped.
A folder named [Top Secret · Sequence 0] appeared on the screen. Creation Date: Nineteen years ago. The exact year Cade woke up with no memory.
Cade's heart skipped a beat. He opened the folder.
A photo popped up. It was an infant, floating in green nutrient fluid, covered in tubes. There was no bio-beacon implant on the baby's chest. Instead, there was a natural black birthmark shaped like... broken chains.
Below the photo was a line of red text:
[Subject: Cade.] [Status: The Only Successful Sample.] [Trait: Unbound by the 1st Law. Possesses a "Logic Bug" capable of rewriting reality.] [WARNING: Subject escaped 19 years ago. Extremely dangerous. Capture alive. He is the only key to the "Throne of God".]
Dead silence filled the container.
Jinx leaned over, her biscuit falling to the floor. Her eyes widened, looking from the baby on the screen to the man in the chair.
"Hey..." Jinx's voice was dry. "That name... is you?" "You were... made by them?"
Cade stared at the screen. There was no fear or confusion on his face. Instead. The corners of his mouth slowly curled up. It was a smile colder and crazier than when he was killing in the alley.
"So that's it." Cade whispered. "No wonder I have no past." "No wonder I can see the chains." "No wonder... I can reject this world."
He slammed the laptop shut and turned to face Jinx. In those pitch-black eyes, a wildfire burned—one hot enough to scorch the sky.
"Jinx." "W-What?" Jinx shrank back instinctively. For the first time, she felt this man was scarier than any Blue Tier Enforcer.
"Since I am the 'Only Key'..." Cade stood up and straightened his collar. "Then I will use myself to jam their lock... and break that Tower apart."
"Starting today, I'm done hiding." "I'm going to show them." "Losing Sequence 0 was the biggest mistake their 'God' ever made."