The city groaned under its own weight as Elias and Dizzy drove west, past shuttered factories and rust-stained overpasses. Streetlights flickered like dying stars. Somewhere beneath that dead light, the truth about Blackridge's underworld was buried—and Elias was getting close enough to dig it up.
They stopped near the outer fringe of Sector 7B. A rundown electronics repair shop, boarded up since the riots, now sat cloaked in silence. It was supposed to be empty. The map overlay pulsed faintly on Elias's HUD—red shimmer around the block. "Possible Black File Node." No confirmation, just potential.
"Why here?" Dizzy asked, eyeing the place with suspicion.
"Because this is where Marrow's intel points. She called it a static ghost node—system data that wasn't meant to survive, but did."
Dizzy sucked his teeth. "Ghost node, huh? This some kind of techno-haunted house?"
"Something like that."
They moved quick. The shop's back door was rusted, chained, but brittle. Elias forced it open with a pry bar and stepped inside. Dust choked the air. Shelves lined with shattered monitors and CRTs tilted like gravestones. And at the back, beneath a scorched tarp, sat an old arcade cabinet.
The HUD pulsed again.
[Black File Detected – Legacy System Fragment Located]
[WARNING: Interacting with Black Files carries risk. Proceed?]
Elias didn't hesitate.
******
[Black File Accessed – Parsing System Memory]
[Initiating Memory Reconstruction…]
[Welcome back, Kamar.]
******
The cabinet hissed, then flickered to life. A projection spilled onto the floor—a broken 3D loop. It showed a man in a sharp coat sitting at a table stacked with blueprints. Cigarette smoke swirled in front of his face.
"Name's Kamar. If you're seeing this, I'm dead—or worse."
Elias froze. This wasn't just a system remnant. It was a confession.
"They buried us in codes and algorithms," the projection continued. "Promised us power, control. I built systems to track, calculate, predict crime. Then they turned me into the first enforcer. Not a gang boss. A sanctioned monster. The System Prototype."
Kamar looked straight ahead. It felt like he was staring through the screen and into Elias's bones.
"I tried to break it from the inside. Failed. Now the rest of us? The ones who got 'selected'? We're pieces in a bigger game. You want to win? Don't trust anyone who offers you an upgrade for free."
The image fragmented, then collapsed into static.
******
[System Warning: Legacy Truth Unlocked – Alignment Fork Unstable]
Choose One:
– Stay the Path: +10 CP | Loyalty to Core System
– Investigate Kamar's Legacy: +3 CP | Path of the Rogue Operator (Story Route Unlocked)
******
Elias exhaled.
He knew what staying the path meant. More rewards. More streamlined growth. But Kamar had been him once—a system tool trying to break its own chains.
"I choose the rogue path," Elias said aloud.
The HUD adjusted. Territory colors on the map shifted, as if the system was reconsidering his position in the grand design.
+3 Crime Points
Path of the Rogue Operator Activated
New Trait: System Skeptic – Immune to Forced Missions
Dizzy leaned in. "That a yes or a no to the haunted techno-ghost?"
Elias smirked. "We just picked a fight with the people behind the curtain."
"Fantastic," Dizzy muttered. "Because our lives weren't already complicated."
As they left the building, Elias felt it—an awareness, subtle but sharp. Like the system was watching differently now. Not as a handler.
As a threat.
And that meant he was finally doing something right.