88CloudSpace

Gabriel Alvarez was born with nothing. A poor Hispanic-American kid struggling to survive the streets of New York, he died alone and starving—just another forgotten soul. But death wasn’t the end.

He awakens in Neo-Terra, a world where magic and technology have fused into a powerful System that governs society. Every person has a class, skills, and stats, their fate determined by the System’s rules. Yet Gabriel is different. Labeled Unawakened, he has no class, no abilities—until he discovers something forbidden.

He can hack the System.

What starts as a glitch quickly escalates into something much bigger. Gabriel isn’t the first to defy the System—there were others before him, people known as Deviants. Every single one of them was erased. Now, the Academy that once offered him sanctuary wants him dead. The Federation considers him a threat to world stability. And an ancient secret buried deep within the System is waiting for him to uncover it.

Armed with his unique ability to override the laws of reality, Gabriel is no longer a forgotten street rat—he’s a rogue element in a world that runs on rules.

And if the System wants him erased?

Then he’ll rewrite it.

Reborn in a World of Magic and Machines

The Underbelly was no longer just a hideout—it was a battleground in waiting.

In the month since Gabriel's acceptance into the Red Hand, he had trained relentlessly. He studied Phantom Code, sparred with rebels, and learned how the resistance used hacked Federation tech to survive. Every day was a test. Every moment, an opportunity to push himself beyond the System's control.

But he wasn't the only one adapting.

Gabriel's Training: Mastering Phantom Code

Gabriel sat at a dimly lit workstation deep in the rebel tech lab, his fingers flying over a holographic terminal.

Lines of corrupted Federation code flickered across the display—normal System data, twisted and broken until it became invisible to the very machine that created it. Phantom Code.

"Slow down," said Elias, the young Red Hand hacker guiding him. "You can't just brute-force it like Federation encryption. Phantom Code isn't about hacking the System—it's about tricking it into ignoring you."

Gabriel exhaled, adjusting his approach. He focused on the patterns, the loopholes, the spaces where the System's omniscient gaze blurred.

Bit by bit, he injected fragments of Phantom Code into his own System interface. The usual warning messages flickered… then disappeared.

Elias grinned. "You just made yourself a ghost, my friend."

Gabriel flexed his fingers, feeling an eerie lightness. The System no longer registered his presence.

And if he could do this to himself… what else could he rewrite?

Miles above, in the floating capital of Neo-Terra, a war council convened.

A holographic surveillance feed hovered over the table, showing a grainy, infrared image of Gabriel fighting in the Trial of Shadows. The Red Hand may have thought they were hidden, but the Federation had eyes everywhere.

A woman clad in black-and-silver exosuit armor leaned forward. Commander Lysara Voss—one of the Federation's most ruthless enforcers. Her expression was unreadable, but her golden cybernetic eye zoomed in on Gabriel's face.

"This one is different," she mused. "He shouldn't exist outside the System's control."

A deep voice rumbled from the other side of the room. "Then he's a threat."

Seated in the shadows was Director Kalen Vos, one of the Federation's high-ranking officials. He was an older man, his face lined with the weight of ruthless decisions.

Voss turned to him. "The Red Hand has always been a nuisance. But this boy… this 'Gabriel'… If he is what I suspect, then he is more than just a rebel."

She glanced at the display again. "He is a deviation."

Vos exhaled slowly. "Then we crush him before he spreads."

He gestured to the hologram, which now displayed a tactical map of the Underbelly. Federation troops—elite Blackguard units—were already being deployed.

Voss's lips curled into a smirk. "Let's see how well a ghost can survive when the entire system is hunting him."

Back in the Underbelly, Gabriel stood atop a rusted metal platform, overlooking the sprawling ruins of the rebellion's domain. He had finally begun to understand Phantom Code, bending the System's laws in ways even the rebels hadn't dreamed of.

But he had an uneasy feeling in his gut.

Chapter 21: Ghosts in the Machine