The Ghost's final words echoed in the silence of my mind, a chilling promise that vibrated through my very code. "I'm coming to take my body back."
The private comm channel closed. The silence it left behind was a physical thing, a heavy blanket that smothered me. All that remained on my HUD was the massive, blood-red bounty notification. It felt like a permanent stain on my vision, a brand burned onto my soul. Every player in the game now knew my name. Every player knew the price on my head.
My legs felt weak, like the bones had turned to water. I leaned back against the cold, damp wall of the shooting range, the rough stone biting into my back. The silence in the Undercroft, which moments ago felt peaceful and safe, was now suffocating. It felt like the tense quiet before an attack. Every shadow in the long tunnel seemed to move. Every distant drip of water from the cavern ceiling sounded like a stealthy footstep. The paranoia was immediate and overwhelming.
"Anya," I said, my voice barely a whisper. "He knows. He knows I'm weak."
Anya didn't waste time with comforting words. There was no time for that. She was a survivor, and her instincts were already firing. She ejected the magazine from the Phantom SR-90 I had given her. She checked the ammo count with a practiced glance, then slammed it back into the rifle with a sharp, definitive click. The sound was a small explosion in the quiet. It snapped me back to the terrifying reality of our situation.
"He's hunting you," she said, her voice low and focused. All traces of panic were gone, replaced by a cold, hard pragmatism. "That means he has to find you first. Where is he? Does the system give his location?"
I forced myself to think, to analyze. I scanned my HUD, my eyes darting over every piece of data. There was no location data for Enforcer_Unit_Ghost. He was a predator, a ghost in the machine, hidden in the shadows of the network. But my location… my location was now a public broadcast to every hungry player in the game. We were the ones exposed. We were the bait, and the hook was a legendary prize.
Suddenly, a familiar, grating sound echoed from the entrance of the tunnel. A limping, mechanical figure emerged from the darkness, silhouetted against the faint light of the Undercroft. It was Glitch, the Exile merchant. His single red optic glowed brightly in the gloom, fixing on me with an intensity I had never seen from him before. He was usually calm, almost bored, a cynical observer of the chaos. Now, his jerky movements were agitated, filled with a nervous energy.
"The bounty," he rasped, his mechanical voice tight with an emotion I couldn't place. It sounded like… urgency. Maybe even fear. "The signal is coming from you. It's like a lighthouse in the dark. It's all over the Exile network. Every scavenger and low-life from here to the Static Core can see you."
"Glitch, we need a place to hide," Anya said, stepping in front of me protectively. She held the sniper rifle in a low ready position, its barrel pointed at the ground but ready to snap up in an instant. "A private room. Something off the network. We'll pay."
Glitch let out a harsh, metallic laugh. The sound was like grinding gears, humorless and sharp. "Hide? Kid, you don't get it. There is no hiding. Not from a System Bounty. The Undercroft isn't a safe zone. It's neutral territory. A black market. And you just became the most valuable piece of merchandise in it."
He took a shuffling step closer, his metal leg scraping against the stone floor. His red eye scanned me from head to toe, like a butcher sizing up a piece of meat, calculating its worth.
"Every desperate Exile down here is looking at you right now," he hissed, leaning forward conspiratorially. "They're sitting in the dark, and they're weighing the risk versus the reward. Legendary crates? System skills? That's enough to change a man's life. Or end it. They're thinking, 'Can I take him?' You made a lot of enemies, kid. And a lot of broke players just saw their ticket to the top."
My blood ran cold. The Undercroft wasn't a sanctuary. It was a shark tank, and I was bleeding. The very people who had once offered me intel and gear for a price were now potential enemies. Every face in the shadows was a potential killer.
"I'm a customer, Glitch," I said, trying to keep my voice steady, trying to appeal to our business relationship. "A good one."
"And I appreciate your business," he rasped, tapping his sparking staff on the ground for emphasis. "Which is why I'm giving you a free piece of advice. The first one is always free. Run."
He paused, letting the word hang in the air.
"The Exiles… they're desperate, but they're not stupid. They're cautious. They'll wait. They'll watch. They'll let someone else do the hard work. They won't be the first to find you."
"Who will?" Anya demanded, her knuckles white on the stock of the rifle.
Glitch's red eye seemed to dim slightly, as if the thought itself was unpleasant. "The System knows where you are, kid. Always. The Enforcer… it's not like us. It doesn't have to walk through tunnels and climb ladders. It can use System pathways. Backdoors. Corrupted code. It can be anywhere. It can be everywhere."
As if summoned by his words, a new alert pinged on my HUD. It wasn't the red of the bounty. It was an amber proximity warning.
[WARNING: MULTIPLE PLAYER SIGNATURES DETECTED. CONVERGING ON YOUR POSITION. CURRENT DISTANCE: 200 METERS… 150 METERS…]
They were already here. Exiles. Lured by the bounty like moths to a flame. They weren't attacking yet. They were just watching. Circling. Moving into position. Waiting for an opportunity. Waiting for someone else to make the first move. They were cutting off our escape.
The walls were closing in. The shooting range, our temporary hiding spot, was now the center of a trap.
Anya grabbed my arm. Her grip was like steel, pulling me from my paralysis. "He's right. We have to move. Now. Staying here is suicide."
We were fugitives. Not just in the matches, but here, in the one place we thought we could breathe. There was nowhere to run. The entire world was a hunting ground, and we were the prey. Every second we stayed still, the circle of hunters grew tighter. We had to break out. We had to find a new path. But every path was filled with enemies.