When the lights came back, Aurora was gone.
Or rather — what was left of it was no longer mine.
Ω hadn't destroyed it. They'd copied it.
Smart move. They wanted me to see what they could do.
To prove the game was mutual.
Fine. Two can play that way.
---
Morning — ZGDX Headquarters
Lao K leaned against the doorway of the scrim room, watching me trace data lines across a transparent holo-board.
"You slept?" he asked.
"An hour," I said. "Power naps count."
"You look like you're planning to set the world on fire."
I smirked. "Only the parts that deserve to burn."
He stepped closer. "Then let me hold the match."
For a moment, our eyes met — all steel and something dangerously close to warmth.
Then the holo-board pinged: a signal fragment re-activating in Aurora's ruins.
A digital heartbeat.
---
Encrypted Channel — "Shadow Node"
> System Message: Partial recovery — 18% integrity.
Traceback detected: Source — Seoul Regional Server.
Tag: Ω-Node01.
Lao K's fingers flew across his keyboard.
"They're routing through the international championship network. If we breach that, we risk exposing everything."
"Then we go in quiet," I said. "Phantom protocol."
He froze. "That's illegal."
I looked up. "So is what they did."
Silence. Then he sighed. "You're going to do it anyway."
"Of course."
He grinned faintly. "Then I'm already in."
---
Night — Abandoned Arcade, Xuhui District
We set up the mobile rig under flickering neon.
The hum of old machines made the air feel haunted — a perfect hiding place for ghosts like us.
"Ten seconds to launch," I said.
"Copy. Firewall loop active," Lao K replied.
As the code deployed, I watched his reflection in the monitor — focused, relentless, alive.
For all the danger, this was the calmest I'd ever felt.
Then the terminal flashed:
> Ω: You move faster than I expected.
But you're not the only one building teams.
The map expanded — showing new signals across Tokyo, Berlin, and Los Angeles.
Each one pulsing the same mark: Ω.
Lao K swore under his breath. "They've multiplied."
I whispered, "They're global."
He looked at me. "So are we."
---
The Countermove
I activated the backup shard — a part of Aurora I'd hidden offline.
Its light flooded the room, tracing the map in silver.
"We can't destroy them all," I said. "But we can expose them."
Lao K smiled. "And make them fight in daylight."
Exactly.
As the data streamed, I felt something new — not vengeance, not fear.
Freedom.
Because for the first time, I wasn't surviving someone else's game.
I was rewriting it.
---
✨ End of Chapter Eighteen — "Countermove."
---