The Fracture System

Chapter 66: Packet Loss

The road to the south wasn’t paved with asphalt, it was paved with bad intentions and corrupt data.

Rin engaged the autopilot on the Void-Runner, leaning back in the driver’s seat and rubbing his eyes while the neural interface helmet sat on the dash, staring at him like a silent accuser. Driving with his brain was efficient, cutting reaction times down to milliseconds, but it left a taste of copper and ozone on his tongue that water couldn’t wash away.

"Loot check," Rin said, turning his chair around to face the crew.

The interior of the APC smelled like wet dog and ozone—the lingering scent of the Null-Serpent fight from the coast.

Leo held up a massive, jagged tooth the size of a shortsword that pulsed with a sickly green light.

[Item: Serpent’s Fang]

[Class: Material / Weapon]

[Effect: Inflicts ’Data Rot’ on hit. Reduces target regeneration by 80%.]

"Nasty," Nyx commented, looking at it from her bunk. "Attach it to the car?"

"No," Rin said. "Leo, mount it on your arm. You need a melee option that sticks."

"Understood." The Aegis suit whirred, a port opening on the forearm. Leo slotted the tooth in, the suit analyzing the biological component before breaking it down and integrating the code. A moment later, a retractable blade of green energy extended from his wrist. "Upgrade complete. Toxicity active."

"Joy, you got the skill book," Rin pointed to the glowing tablet she was holding.

[Skill Book: Mental DDoS]

[Rank: B]

[Effect: Overloads target’s sensory processing with junk data. Causes stun/seizure.]

"I learned it," Joy said, looking a little pale. "It felt like downloading the entire internet into my frontal lobe at once. I know things about knitting I never wanted to know."

"Use it wisely," Rin said. "Tayo?"

"I got a headache," Tayo muttered, adjusting his sling. "And a level up. My sound range increased to two hundred meters."

"Good, because we’re going to need range."

Rin stood up and walked to the navigation table where the holographic map of Namibia flickered, the terrain around Fish River Canyon rendering in jagged red lines.

"We’re entering the Red Zone," Rin said. "The Siphon here isn’t stabilizing the terrain like the one in Swakopmund, it’s accelerating the glitch."

"Meaning?" Nyx asked.

"Meaning the local time-space is fluctuating. The canyon is deep, but the Siphon is making it deeper. Infinite drop potential."

"I hate infinite drops," Tayo sighed.

The Void-Runner slowed, the engine pitch dropping as the terrain grew rougher, the flat desert giving way to rocky outcrops where the ground cracked open like dried skin.

"We’re here," Rin said, grabbing his helmet.

He swung the chair back around and jacked in.

The view from the sensors filled his mind.

Fish River Canyon was massive, a winding scar in the earth stretching for miles, but looking at it now through the filter of the System, it was terrifying.

The canyon walls weren’t rock, they were walls of scrolling code, waterfalls of red binary cascading down into a darkness that had no bottom. The wind howling through the gorge sounded like screaming static.

And flying in the updrafts were the dragons.

They weren’t flesh and blood. They were **Chrome-Drakes**. Sleek, metallic predators with wings made of hard-light panels and bodies that reflected the red sky, moving in jerky, teleporting bursts.

[Entity: Chrome-Drake]

[Rank: B (Swarm)]

[Attribute: Lag-Step]

[Note: Teleports short distances during combat]

"They’re lagging," Rin said over the team comms. "They blink-step. Targeting is going to be a nightmare."

"How many?" Leo asked from the turret.

"Dozens. Maybe a hundred."

"And the Siphon?"

"Down there," Rin pointed the sensors downward.

Deep in the abyss, miles down, a red star burned. The Second Siphon.

"We have to drive down the canyon wall," Rin said. "There’s a maintenance road... or what used to be one."

He pointed to a narrow, crumbling ledge that spiraled down into the code-pit.

"That’s a goat path," Joy said, looking at the screen. "We are in a tank."

"It’s an all-terrain vehicle," Rin corrected. "Engaging magnetic grip."

He pulsed gray energy into the tires, the wheels glowing as they locked onto the reality of the rock.

"Hang on."

Rin drove the Void-Runner off the edge.

The nose dipped, the view filling with the abyss as gravity grabbed them, but the tires bit into the vertical wall. They weren’t falling; they were driving down a cliff face at a sixty-degree angle.

"This is worse than the wyverns!" Tayo yelled.

"Contact!" Leo shouted.

The Chrome-Drakes saw them. Three of them peeled off the thermal, diving toward the vehicle without flapping, just glitching forward, blinking fifty feet at a time.

Blink. Blink. Strike.

A Drake appeared right in front of the windshield, opening a mouth full of spinning gears and plasma.

Rin didn’t swerve. He hit the ’Jump’ jet.

The Void-Runner leaped away from the wall, boosting outward, causing the Drake to bite empty air and slam face-first into the cliff where the car had been, exploding in a shower of sparks and polygons.

Rin fired the thrusters, slamming the car back onto the wall fifty feet lower.

"Leo, fire!"

The turret opened up. Green bolts of toxic energy—courtesy of the Serpent fang—streaked through the air.

Leo wasn’t aiming where the Drakes were, he was aiming where they would be.

One bolt hit a Drake mid-blink, the creature materializing around the energy blast, its chrome armor turning green and rotting instantly before falling into the dark.

"Nice shot!" Joy cheered.

"Two on the left!" Nyx called out. "They’re trying to flank!"

Two Drakes blinked onto the roof of the APC, their claws screeching on the armor plating as they started tearing at the turret housing.

"Get them off!" Leo yelled, the turret spinning wildly.

"Joy, hit them!" Rin ordered, focusing on keeping the car from plummeting into infinity.

Joy activated the intercom.

"BRAIN FREEZE!" she screamed.

She cast Mental DDoS.

The psychic shockwave blasted through the roof.

The Drakes froze, their movement loops stuttering, standing perfectly still on the roof with wings locked open.

"Nyx, flush them!"

Nyx hit the roof release, the hatch blowing open. She didn’t climb out; she inverted gravity in the cabin for a split second.

Everything inside floated, including the Drakes on the roof caught in the field.

Then she slammed gravity back to 5Gs downward.

The Drakes, disoriented and heavy, slid off the sleek armor of the Void-Runner and tumbled into the abyss.

"Cabin secure," Nyx gasped, wiping her nose. "That move sucks."

"We’re halfway down," Rin checked the altimeter, which was spinning crazily because depth perception was broken here.

The red light of the Siphon was getting brighter, revealing itself as a cage. Inside the red beam, something was thrashing.

[Boss Detected: The Glitch-King]

[Rank: A+]

[Status: Bound]

"Thorne trapped something in the Siphon," Rin realized. "He’s using a boss monster as the battery."

"What is it?" Tayo asked.

"It looks like... a hydra," Rin said. "But made of errors."

The creature had seven heads, each one distinct—fire, ice, void, physical, lightning, wind, and code—trapped in the red beam, roaring silently while its energy was siphoned to power the glitch.

"If we break the Siphon," Leo said, "we release the hydra."

"And then we have to kill it," Rin finished. "Standard raid mechanics."

They reached the bottom, or at least a floating platform of rock suspended in the red void, connected to the Siphon base by a bridge of hard light.

Rin drifted the Void-Runner onto the platform, tires smoking.

"Disembark!" Rin ordered, popping the hatch. "Defensive formation!"

They piled out into the hot air that smelled of burnt plastic.

The Siphon hummed, a towering machine of black metal and red glass containing the raging Hydra.

"How do we break it?" Joy asked, looking at the massive structure.

"We don’t break the glass," Rin said, walking toward the control console. "We corrupt the software."

He reached for the panel.

A shadow moved.

Not Leo’s shadow.

A figure stepped out from behind the machine wearing white armor that was pristine and glowing, holding a sword that looked like it was made of stars.

"You are persistent," the figure said.

Rin froze. He knew that voice. He knew that face, even though it looked ten years younger than it should.

[Entity: The Paladin]

[Identity: Kyros Webb]

[Status: Recruited (Awakened)]

It was the C-rank Hunter Rin had sparred with, the one who had warned him weeks ago.

"Kyros?" Rin asked.

"I am the Guardian of the Second Siphon," Kyros said, his eyes glowing gold. "Thorne opened my eyes. He showed me the code. I am not C-rank anymore, Rin. I am Optimized."

He raised his sword, the air around him distorting with heat waves.

"Step away from the console," Kyros said. "Or I delete you."

Rin looked at his team. They were tired, battered, and low on mana.

And Kyros... Kyros felt like an S-rank.

"Leo," Rin whispered. "Tank him."

"With pleasure," Leo stepped forward, his green blade extending. "I always hated Paladins."

"Nyx, Joy, handle the Drakes," Rin ordered, pointing up as a swarm descended from the darkness. "Tayo, cover fire."

"What are you doing?" Joy asked.

Rin looked at the console, then at the trapped Hydra.

"I’m going to make a deal with the monster."

Rin sprinted for the machine.

Kyros moved to intercept, a golden blur.

Leo met him. Shadow vs Light.

The impact shook the platform, cracking the stone.

"Go!" Leo roared, locking blades with Kyros. "I can’t hold him long!"

Rin reached the glass, the Hydra looking down at him with seven pairs of eyes.

Rin placed his gray hand on the containment field.

"Hey," Rin whispered to the beast. "Want to eat a Paladin?"

The Hydra stopped thrashing. It nodded.

Rin smiled.

"System," Rin said. "Unlock."

He pulsed.

The red glass shattered.