Grayhaven never slept easily after a day like that. The merchants didn't know why, but they felt it—the city's hum carried a faint edge, like a string tuned just a fraction too tight.
Adrian barely closed his eyes before the Heart jolted him awake.
[System: Unusual Activity Detected – Energy Surge Originating Inside Grayhaven. Threat Level: Critical.]
He was already moving before the message finished rendering. The autonomous shard network pulsed around him, still synchronized from yesterday's fight, but this wasn't an external push on the perimeter. This was… internal.
Kael's voice broke in over the comm, tense and quiet. "Adrian. Someone just walked into the central market with a hybrid charm that doesn't belong to you."
Adrian froze mid-step. Impossible. Every hybrid shard in Grayhaven was cataloged, bonded to him through the Heart. There were no untracked units.
[System: Hybrid Signature Detected – Unknown Source. Behavior: Adaptive. Risk: Uncontained.]
He sprinted through narrow alleys, the Heart pulsing harder as he closed on the signal. Around him, shards in nearby stalls hummed uneasily, reacting to the foreign presence. Buyers turned, confused at faint ripples of energy passing through the streets.
The central plaza was crowded as always, but at its core stood a man in travel leathers, holding up a charm that glowed in a way no product should. The energy pattern wasn't wrong—it was familiar. Too familiar.
"Where did you get that?" Adrian's voice cut through the din as he stepped forward.
The traveler smiled faintly. "A gift. From someone who says hello."
[System: Rival Hybrid Detected – Architecture Based on Your Own Design. Efficiency Estimate: 83%.]
The Heart lurched. Whoever his rival was, they hadn't just copied him—they'd made something dangerously close to the real thing.
Around the plaza, Adrian's shards shifted defensively, network threads tightening like a net. But the foreign hybrid didn't resist. Instead, it pulsed with his system, sliding into rhythm before twisting suddenly, sending jagged interference down every line.
Stalls flickered. Blades misaligned. Charms crackled, their glow sputtering out of sync. Buyers gasped and backed away, merchants shouting for calm.
[System: Market Stability Falling. Audience Confidence -6.]
Adrian moved fast. His fingers ran over the control lattice, isolating corrupted frequencies, re-synchronizing units before the rival's shard could cascade through the entire network. But this wasn't remote interference—it was physical, here in the city, infecting his own energy lines from within.
Kael dropped down from a rooftop, hand on his blade. "You want me to remove him?"
"Not yet," Adrian muttered. His eyes locked on the traveler's charm. "If I destroy it without learning how it works, I'm blind tomorrow."
The man holding the hybrid seemed almost amused. "Impressive. You stabilize fast. But how many times can you do that before people see through your perfect little show?"
Adrian's answer was a pulse through the Heart. The autonomous shard network tightened, isolating the corrupted signature. Individual products went dark for a heartbeat as he cut them off from the main grid, quarantining the infection. Then, with a precise adjustment, he inverted the signal—using the rival's own frequency to burn itself out.
The foreign hybrid flared once, then shattered in the man's hand. He didn't flinch.
[System: Rival Hybrid Neutralized – Data Logged. Market Stability Restored. Audience Confidence +4.]
The traveler gave Adrian a slight bow, unfazed by the destruction. "That was only proof of concept. My employer wanted to see if your system can bleed."
Adrian stepped closer, but the man moved faster, vanishing into the crowd with impossible ease.
Kael cursed under his breath. "You can't keep letting them test you in the middle of the city."
Adrian didn't answer. His focus was on the shards around him, still trembling faintly even after the interference ended. His system was strong, but now the rival had touched it. Learned from it.
[System: Daily Summary – Rival Hybrid Infiltration Detected. Defensive Response Successful. Strategic Insight +11. Probability of Next Attack: Immediate.]
Night fell hard over Grayhaven. Adrian stood on the same rooftop as yesterday, staring down at the glowing streets. Every shard still pulsed obediently, but now he knew how fragile that obedience really was.
"They've stopped probing," Kael said, joining him. "Now they're planting knives."
Adrian's eyes stayed on the city. "Then I'll teach them what happens when you try to stab the Heart from inside."
The Heart pulsed once, deep and steady, as if agreeing. Somewhere beyond the rooftops, another foreign shard blinked faintly in the dark—already moving.