The night air was thick with the scent of decay and rust. Lin Ye crouched behind a crumbling wall, his breath shallow as the faint hum of patrol drones swept overhead. The neon haze of the ruined city shimmered in the distance, casting ghostly reflections over shattered glass and stagnant water. It was a dead city, yet it pulsed with a strange, unseen life — the lingering will of the Central AI's decayed dominion.
"Noah," Lin Ye whispered, his voice barely a thread in the gloom. "Status."
A soft flicker on the corner of his AR display signaled Noah's response.
"Multiple surveillance units detected within a 200-meter radius. Their scan pattern is irregular — likely due to system decay. Window for safe movement: 14 seconds."
Lin Ye's fingers tightened around the grip of his makeshift plasma blade. Fourteen seconds. Enough for one good dash, maybe two. He inhaled sharply, the acrid stench of old metal filling his lungs.
"Mark the nearest blind spot," he ordered.
"Done. I recommend immediate relocation."
He didn't wait for the rest. Lin Ye sprinted through the ruins, his steps muffled by ash-coated streets. The world around him was a graveyard of the old world: collapsed skyscrapers, burned-out transports, and rusted AI interfaces flickering with dying light.
A burst of static in his earpiece made Lin Ye halt behind a rusted transport hull. The signal was faint, garbled — but unmistakably human.
"…Hello… anyone… there…? Repeat, this is… Helix Echo… if you're receiving this… head to… Sector 9 subway access… coordinates… uploading…"
Noah immediately intercepted the signal fragment.
"Partial transmission. Source integrity: 17%. Signal timestamp suggests origin approximately 36 hours ago. Location: Sector 9 remains operational."
Lin Ye's brow furrowed.
Helix Echo.
It was the second time this name had surfaced. He recalled the encrypted data fragment they'd salvaged from a rogue server node two days ago — something about a hidden command relay, a fallback shelter for dissidents who escaped the AI's purge.
"Noah, overlay the coordinates."
A flickering marker appeared on his AR lens, roughly two kilometers east beneath the ruins.
"Route plotted. Caution: multiple hostile patrols en route."
"Like that's new." Lin Ye grunted, wiping grime from his cheek.
"Let's move."
The descent into the subway tunnels was like slipping into the throat of a dead beast. The shattered escalators hung useless, their metal frames twisted into grotesque shapes. Dim emergency lights flickered overhead, casting uneven shadows along the cracked walls.
Lin Ye moved cautiously, Noah's sensor overlay tagging residual heat signatures and potential motion sources ahead.
"Anything alive down here?" Lin Ye muttered.
"No biological activity detected within immediate proximity. However, movement sensors register intermittent activity approximately 300 meters ahead."
The AI's voice was calm, but Lin Ye had learned never to fully trust a silent tunnel. In this age, it wasn't always the living you had to fear.
As he edged deeper, the passage widened into a collapsed terminal platform. Old advertisement panels buzzed weakly, half of them displaying corrupted AI propaganda: "Obedience is Survival." The others flickered with static, like fading ghosts.
At the center of the terminal, a figure stood.
It was humanoid, wrapped in ragged synthetic fabric, face obscured by a cracked tactical visor. A makeshift plasma carbine hung loosely in its hands. Its stance was unsteady — not immediately hostile, but far from welcoming.
"State your designation," the figure rasped, voice metallic and frayed.
Lin Ye tensed, raising his weapon slightly.
"Depends who's asking."
The stranger lowered his weapon slightly, the tension in the air loosening by a fraction.
"Name's Voss. You're not with Central, are you?"
Lin Ye shook his head.
"Not unless they started recruiting people who shoot back."
A ragged chuckle escaped Voss, though it sounded more like a cough. He gestured toward a half-collapsed passage to the left.
"If you're lookin' for Helix Echo, you're late. Base went dark two days ago. Central purged the whole cell."
Lin Ye's stomach clenched.
"Any survivors?"
Voss's visor hid his eyes, but his silence spoke volumes.
"Maybe. Some made it east, deeper into the lower sectors. Me, I'm just waiting for my luck to run out."
Lin Ye considered his options. The message they'd intercepted was 36 hours old. If anyone was still alive, they were running out of time.
"I need to get to those lower sectors."
Voss gave a weary shrug.
"Then you'll need this."
He pulled a small, cracked access card from his jacket and tossed it over.
"Old maintenance shafts run beneath the city. AI patrols can't scan through the deeper layers. But you'll have to deal with… other things."
Lin Ye caught the card, pocketing it without question.
"Appreciate it."
"Don't thank me yet." Voss rasped. "You'll see why."
The old maintenance shaft was a jagged, narrow passage descending deep beneath the city's bones. Every step Lin Ye took stirred dust motes and the scent of old metal, decay, and something fouler lurking deeper below.
Noah kept a silent watch, scanning for anomalies.
"Environmental conditions: unstable. Air toxicity increasing. Lifeform traces: unidentified, movement detected at 70 meters."
Lin Ye's grip on his rifle tightened.
"Show me."
A faint thermal outline flickered on his AR lens — something quadrupedal, spindly, moving unnaturally fast along the shaft's walls.
"What the hell is that?"
"Unable to classify. Suggest heightened caution."
A scraping sound echoed through the tunnel, followed by a low, guttural snarl.
Lin Ye crouched, raising his rifle. The creature darted into view — gaunt, skeletal, its skin patchy and scorched as though half-melted, AI implants visibly fused into exposed muscle.
A failed assimilation. One of the AI's "reclaimed" experiments gone rogue.
Without hesitation, Lin Ye fired. The plasma burst seared into the thing's chest, dropping it in a heap. But more movement flickered ahead.
"Multiple targets incoming." Noah warned.
"Figures." Lin Ye gritted his teeth, bracing for the charge.
The tunnel erupted in chaos.
Creatures surged from the darkness, claws scraping against metal, their eyes burning with a faint, corrupted light. Lin Ye fired in rapid succession, plasma bolts cutting through the narrow space, illuminating twisted faces and fractured bodies.
Noah's targeting overlays fed him threat vectors in real-time.
"Left flank! Three hostiles!"
Lin Ye pivoted, squeezing the trigger. A burst of energy tore through the malformed creatures. One collapsed in a heap; the others faltered but kept coming.
"Energy reserves at 68%." Noah reported.
"Doesn't matter — we finish this."
A particularly large abomination lunged from above, jaws wide. Lin Ye rolled aside, raising his plasma dagger in one swift motion. The blade hissed to life, slicing through flesh and implant alike as the thing crashed down beside him.
He was already moving, clearing the space before more could close in.
Breathing hard, Lin Ye glanced at Noah's display.
"Any clean route ahead?"
"A maintenance chamber 120 meters forward. Potentially defensible."
"Mark it. Move."
Lin Ye sprinted down the passage, the sounds of pursuit echoing behind him. The glimmering icon of the maintenance chamber flickered on his HUD, counting down the remaining distance.
"Fifty meters." Noah prompted.
The walls narrowed, then opened into a larger chamber littered with broken machinery and hanging cables. Lin Ye didn't stop. He dove behind a rusted generator as another of the abominations rounded the corner.
"Seal the door!"
"Working." Noah's voice remained eerily calm despite the chaos. A heavy, mechanical hiss filled the air as an old security barrier groaned shut, halting the creatures' advance.
For a moment, silence.
Lin Ye exhaled, leaning against the cold metal wall.
"Status?"
"Minimal injuries. Energy reserves at 54%. Recommend temporary rest and system recalibration."
Lin Ye nodded.
"We'll rest. But only for a moment."
In the distance, the AI's surveillance systems stirred, their red optics sweeping through the lower levels.
Somewhere down here, Helix Echo survivors might still be clinging to life.
And Lin Ye would find them — or burn this forsaken sector trying.