Sleep came late and shallow.
Logan woke before dawn, the system interface already open at the edge of his vision. No new missions. No warnings. Only the same two active objectives sitting cold and clear.
[Kill Ethan – Pending]
[Escape the Shadow's gaze – Active]
He dressed in the dim light, left the hotel without waking the others, and began the second day of scouting before the sun fully cleared the horizon.
Bronson Town in the early hours felt different. The commercial strips were still quiet. Automated cleaners moved along the main roads. Origin barriers along the perimeter hummed at a lower frequency. Logan walked the eastern districts first, the ones the academy reports had flagged for unstable fluctuations. Residual energy lingered in faint, irregular pockets near abandoned storage blocks and an old transit rail that had been decommissioned years earlier. Nothing strong enough to match an active gate. Nothing that carried the clean signature of pure light.
