Liam woke to the faint hum of Haven's Edge stirring to life, the sound of scavenged generators buzzing through the thin walls of the bar where they'd spent the night. He sat up, the Echo Bindings on his wrists glowing softly, their blue light a steady pulse against the dim morning haze. His Echo Sync still sat at 72%, the system's warning—"Resonance Stabilized… for now"—lingering in his mind like a bad dream. The memory of the cracked orb from the market, the way it had made the Bindings hum, gnawed at him. There were answers in the Wastes, and he needed them—answers about the Omega Architect, the Apocalypse Waves, and the path he was being forced down.