The heavy, rhythmic thud of Enforcer boots grew louder, vibrating through the thin metal floor of the hallway. Red emergency lights began to pulse against the grime-streaked walls of Sector 4. In the year 2300, a "Physical Trace" was the beginning of the end. Once the corporate-funded police forces locked onto a biological signature, they didn't stop until the "Anomaly" was neutralized.
Seraphina leaned heavily against the doorframe of Jin's Nano-Unit, her silver hair matted with sweat. In the game, she was a terrifying warrior; here, in the cold reality of the slums, she looked like a broken porcelain doll. Her expensive combat suit was flickering with "Critical Failure" warnings, the haptic sensors struggling to recalibrate after the forced soul-link logout.
"The Mid-Tier..." she rasped, clutching Jin's arm with a grip that was surprisingly strong despite her condition. "Sector 7. Sub-level 12. I have a secure terminal there. It's off-grid. If we reach it, their scanners can't touch us."
"Sector 7 is halfway across the city," Jin said, his mind racing. He looked at Mei, who was clutching a salvaged data-drive to her chest. "We'll never make it on foot, and the automated cabs will report us the second we provide a biometric scan."
"The Mag-Lev," Mei interjected, her fingers already flying across her tablet. "The industrial line 44-B passes through the maintenance tunnel two levels down. It's a cargo train, no passengers. It doesn't use biometric checks—only encrypted corporate keys."
"I have the keys," Seraphina whispered, "but I don't have the hardware to broadcast them. My link-port is fried."
Jin looked at his own right arm. In the real world, the golden veins had faded, but a faint, translucent mark—a [Link] rune—remained etched into his skin. He felt the thrumming in his blood again, but it was different now. It wasn't just reacting to the higher dimension; it was reacting to the electricity in the walls, the data in the air.
"I'll be the broadcast," Jin said.
He grabbed the handles of Mei's wheelchair and signaled Seraphina to move. They dashed down the dimly lit maintenance stairs just as a squad of armored Enforcers rounded the corner of their hallway. The sound of a thermal-breacher detonating against their apartment door echoed behind them—a chilling reminder of what would happen if they stayed.
The maintenance level was a labyrinth of steam pipes and high-voltage cables. They reached the Mag-Lev platform just as a massive, silver-grey cargo train hissed into view, hovering inches above the superconducting rails on a cushion of electromagnetic force. It was moving at a steady seventy miles per hour, heading toward the heart of the city.
"We have to jump," Jin shouted over the roar of the wind.
He timed it perfectly. Using the Neural Reflex that had bled over from the game, he shoved Mei's specialized wheelchair into the open side-access port of a passing container and leaped in after it, dragging a stumbling Seraphina with him.
They tumbled onto a pile of hard, plastic-wrapped components. Outside, the blurred lights of the slums began to vanish as the train entered the high-speed vacuum tube.
"Jin, the security protocol is engaging!" Mei screamed. A red light at the front of the cargo car began to blink. An automated voice echoed: "Unregistered Weight Detected. Decelerating for Security Inspection. Enforcer Notification: Dispatched."
"They're going to stop the train right in front of the next security outpost," Seraphina groaned, sliding to the floor. "Without my link-port, I can't override the brakes."
Jin walked toward the cargo car's main control hub—a sleek, black box filled with quantum processors and fiber-optic bundles. To any other person, it was a miracle of 23rd-century engineering. To Jin, it was just another arrangement of runes.
He placed his hand on the cold metal of the console. His Runic Eyes flared to life.
In the real world, the runes didn't glow gold; they looked like shifting patterns of blue light and binary strings. He saw the [Control] logic, the [Velocity] parameters, and the [Safety-Lock] protocols.
"Mei, give me your tablet's power cell," Jin commanded.
"But Jin, if I give you that, I can't scramble the trackers!"
"Just do it! I'm going to give this train a new 'Source Code'."
He took the small, high-density battery and held it against the control hub. He didn't just connect the wires; he used his bloodline to "extract" the raw electricity. He began to "carve" into the air with his fingers, drawing a complex [Haste] rune combined with a [Masking] script.
[Real-World Runic Alchemy Detected...]
[Target: Industrial Mag-Lev Logic Board]
[Conversion: 2300-Tech to Runic Circuitry...]
"Jin... your eyes," Seraphina whispered, watching in awe as golden light began to leak from Jin's tear ducts.
The black box hissed. The red blinking light turned a deep, permanent gold. Suddenly, the hum of the Mag-Lev shifted from a low drone to a high-pitched scream.
[Overclock Initiated: Speed 140%... 200%... 350%...]
The train didn't slow down. It surged forward with such violence that they were all pinned against the back wall of the container. The security outpost flashed by in a fraction of a second, the Enforcers standing on the platform left in a cloud of ionized dust.
"You're... you're rewriting the hardware," Seraphina said, her voice filled with a mix of terror and wonder. "That's impossible. Not even the lead architects at Thorne can do that without a lab."
"I told you," Jin said, his voice straining as he maintained the connection. "I'm not a player. And I'm not just an alchemist."
As the train tore through the darkness toward the Mid-Tier, Jin felt a new sensation. The [Link] rune on his arm was pulsing in time with Seraphina's heartbeat. Through the rune, he could feel her history—the betrayal, the coldness of her family, and a hidden power within her that was remarkably similar to a rune he had seen in the grotto.
But he also felt something else. A third presence. Someone was watching them through the train's internal cameras—someone who hadn't alerted the authorities yet.
"We're approaching Sector 7," Mei announced, her voice trembling. "But Jin... someone just sent a private message to my tablet. It's encrypted with an Ancient Runic Header."
The message read: [The Architect is impressed. Keep the girl alive. The second Rune is waiting in the sky.]