Kodi Grey was twelve when he hacked a national bank. His mom took the fall.

By seventeen, he’d burned through a trust fund, lost the only people who cared about him, and fell headfirst into the street-level hustle. But Kodi wasn’t just another burnout—he was built different. Gifted. Dangerous. And when rock bottom hit, he turned back to the only thing that ever made him feel powerful: hacking.

Carding got him back on his feet. Old connections helped him climb. Then the old kings of the dark web were arrested—and Kodi and his partner NullSyntax took their place. Rich. Respected. Untouchable.

But power is a prison in disguise.

Now bored with carding and suffocating under his own legend, Kodi sets his sights on something bigger—something that could expose global corruption, or destroy him completely.

Because the higher you climb, the harder you fall.
And Kodi Grey was never meant to stay on the ground.

For the first time in weeks, he wasn't decrypting satellite logs or bribing customs agents with NFTs. Just him, a silk robe, a cigar, and a rare moment of silence.


But Lucia Guo?Lucia didn't sleep when the world moved.


She was already in their private server room—barefoot, hair up, holding a glass of 2003 Bordeaux and a remote keyboard.


"Kodi thinks he's the god of the game," she whispered. "But gods forget—queens move in all directions."


Her eyes locked onto a blinking file Kodi had marked "DO NOT OPEN" (which to her meant: open immediately and make copies).


The true Eden kill code.The one not just designed to end the internet, but rewrite the global infrastructure of finance, surveillance, and AI development.


"Oh, Kodi…" she muttered, sipping. "You didn't just build a nuke. You built the damn launch pad too."


Cut to: Lucia's private Telegram thread.Recipient: @SiliconWitchAlias: Ex-Blackrock AI Strategist turned crypto-femme-anarchist.


"I have the Eden Origin Code. Interested?"


"No price. A plan. We gut NullSyntax, burn Eden, and rebuild the system in our image."


"He went behind me the second he faked his death. I'm just flipping the mirror."


Cut to: NUKEHunched over a laptop in the other room. He saw everything. Lucia forgot the cameras Kodi installed when NUKE was "just a kid."


"Mom's going rogue... Dad's pretending to be God...Am I the only normal one in this psycho sitcom?"(pauses)"Cool."


Cut to: NullSyntaxNow inside Eden's outer walls. Watching Lucia's shadow movements in real-time.


"She's splitting from Grey," he grinned. "How poetic. The hacker family that hacks itself apart."


"Initiate MIRRORFALL. Let's make this a three-way chess match."


NUKE tosses him the tablet. Lucia's messages. Eden fragments missing.


"Lucia's gone rogue. Also, she partnered with SiliconWitch."


Kodi stared blankly, blinked, then calmly lit a fresh cigar.


Chapter 40 - Chapter 40 — Queen Takes Knight