Chapter 25: A Glitch in the System

The enforcers moved with mechanical precision, scanning the silent streets as Ethan and Eve crouched behind the metallic structure, barely daring to breathe. The city pulsed with eerie luminescence, the buildings shifting ever so slightly, as if the world itself wasn't entirely stable.

Ethan clenched his jaw. "So, what exactly do you mean by 'an error'?"

Eve's gaze remained locked on the enforcers. "An anomaly. Something that shouldn't exist in a system this perfect."

Ethan exhaled sharply. "You mean like us?"

A slow smirk tugged at the corner of her lips. "Exactly."

One of the enforcers suddenly paused mid-step, its head tilting slightly as its glowing eyes flickered. The air around it shimmered—like a loading screen caught in an infinite loop.

Eve grabbed Ethan's wrist. "Run. Now."

No hesitation. They bolted from their hiding spot, sprinting through the digital city's shifting streets. The buildings around them seemed to react, recalibrating, reshaping in real-time as if trying to predict their next move.

The enforcers detected them.

Alarms shrieked through the city like a synthetic banshee wail. Red warning symbols materialized in the sky above, pulsing with intensity. The enforcers gave chase, their movements impossibly fast, flickering in and out of existence as they warped toward their targets.

Ethan's lungs burned as he ran, his heartbeat syncing with the chaos around him. "This plan better be brilliant, Eve!"

She pulled him sharply down an alleyway just as an enforcer's hand phased through the space where they'd been standing a millisecond before. "I told you. We need to break the system."

Ethan glanced back—the enforcers were relentless, adapting to every sharp turn, every evasive maneuver. Their glowing eyes locked onto the fugitives with chilling efficiency.

"Yeah? How do we do that?" Ethan shouted.

Eve's eyes gleamed, her instability seemingly an advantage now. "We create an error so big, the system has no choice but to crash."

She skidded to a stop in front of a towering monolith—a sleek, glowing obelisk humming with an unnatural energy. The structure was surrounded by shifting waves of light, its form constantly rewriting itself.

"The Core," Eve breathed. "It's processing everything in real time. If we corrupt it—"

"—we bring down the whole city," Ethan finished, realization dawning.

The enforcers appeared at the entrance of the alley.

No more time to think.

Eve reached out and plunged her hand into the Core.

The city screamed.