Enemy in Disguise

Chapter 20: Enemy in Disguise

Location: Lower Sector Hideout – 3 Days Later

The walls of the hideout were humming with silent tension.

Ryo had barely slept. Every second wasted was a second lost to the ticking clock counting down his sister's life. Plans were scribbled across the walls—maps, anomalies, Guild movements. A dozen dungeon routes. Half-broken encryption nodes. Targets. Kill zones.

He stood by the terminal, rerouting access through corrupted data paths.

Iri entered behind him, carrying two metal crates. "New weapons drop from a rogue Guild supplier. Risky, but we need every edge."

Ryo didn't look up. "Put it by the calibrator. I'll scan them after I crack the fifth lock."

[Encryption Progress: 58% – Layer 5 of 6]

"You've barely eaten."

"Don't need to."

"Ryo—"

"I said I'm fine."

Iri clenched her jaw but didn't push further. Something was shifting in him. The quiet storm. The Shadow Protocol inside him was whispering louder every day.

Visitor at the Door

The motion sensors flared.

[ALERT: Proximity breach – Single unidentified entity]

Iri grabbed her blade. Ryo's HUD lit up. They both moved silently, positioning themselves near the side vents, weapons drawn.

The figure stepped into the dim hallway. Long coat. Gloved hands. Hood shadowing their face.

Then—

"Don't shoot. I come bearing answers," a calm, almost soothing voice said. "And a warning."

"You're in the wrong place to be cryptic," Iri said, blade aimed at the figure's throat.

The figure slowly lifted his hands. "Name's Lucian Vale. Former Protocol handler. Exiled."

Ryo narrowed his eyes. "You were on the Protocol control team?"

"Until I refused an order to terminate a child linked to an unstable shadow fragment. Ring any bells?"

Ryo's hands trembled slightly.

"You're lying."

"Am I?" Lucian stepped forward and removed his hood. His face was gaunt, with piercing grey eyes and a scar that ran across his jaw. "You were that child. Sector 3 blackout. Six years ago."

The memory hit like a collapsing building.

The Forgotten Past

Burning buildings. A white room. Men in lab coats. Aya screaming. Ryo strapped to a table with wires in his spine.

"They called you the Anomaly. But I saw something else. You broke the system's laws and survived. That makes you dangerous. And exactly what I need."

"Need… for what?" Ryo asked, voice low.

Lucian smiled faintly. "To stop the real enemy."

"Who?"

"The Overseer. The one who built the Shadow Protocol. He's alive. Hidden inside the system. And he knows about your sister."

The Twist in the Shadow

Before Ryo could respond, a sharp pulse hit his HUD.

[Warning: External breach detected – Code sync initiated]

"It's a trap!" Iri yelled.

Lucian's eyes widened. "No! I came to—"

Glass shattered.Three masked attackers warped into the room through a shadow-gate—a rare ability. Guild assassins, moving like echoes.

"Protocol retrieval squad," Ryo muttered. "They tracked him."

The fight broke out instantly.

Iri slashed through the first. Ryo dodged a spear of data-light. Lucian drew a strange dagger shaped like a broken key—data compression weaponry.

The room exploded in flashing light and shadows.

Ryo leapt forward, unleashing a burst of shadow from his palm.

[Ability: Umbra Pulse – Active]

The shadows engulfed the enemy's legs. Iri finished them with a strike to the chest.

Lucian dropped to one knee. "They're not just after me. They've been watching you since you touched the Override Core's encryption."

"So the Overseer knows…"

"He's accelerating everything. You have seven days now. Maybe less."

A Dangerous Alliance

After the bodies were dumped in the acid pit below the hideout, Ryo stood alone outside, staring up at the flickering sky—Sector 12's artificial ceiling struggling to simulate dawn.

Lucian approached, slowly.

"You don't trust me. That's smart."

"You helped bring this system into existence."

"And I'll help you destroy it."

"Why?"

Lucian looked up at the digital sky.

"Because I built the Shadow Protocol to protect people. Not turn them into weapons. But I was wrong. And the Overseer twisted everything."

Ryo stared for a long time.

"You get one shot. Cross me, and I'll rip the truth from your bones."

Lucian smiled.

"Fair enough."

Mission Updated

Back inside, Ryo accessed his terminal. The system recognized Lucian's signature and unlocked a new file.

[Protocol Encrypted Pathway: Overseer-Node Located – Abyss Tower Layer 3][Side Quest Updated: Find the Overseer's Code Chamber]

"Looks like we just got a new path," Iri said behind him.

"Yeah," Ryo muttered. "And the game just changed."

He glanced at the wall of objectives again—Aya's countdown had dropped to 10 days.

There were now two endgames on the board.

And time was running out.

End of Chapter 20