Shadows of Seoul

📌 Disclaimer:This is a work of fiction. All characters, organizations, events, and locations are purely fictional. Any resemblance to real persons, places, or events is purely coincidental.

1. Arrival in the City of Silence

[Mission Brief: Operation Phantom Vein]

[Location: Seoul, South Korea]

[Objective: Investigate classified "Rift Echo" incidents across abandoned cyber research zones. Priority threat level: BLACK.]

The moment Raunak stepped off the translucent Veil Transport Disc at the Seoul Nexus Gate, a chill ran through him. Not from the weather—the air was oddly warm for early spring—but from the pressure.

A pressure not seen, not felt in wind or temperature, but in the System.

[WARNING: Zone registered under long-range psi-suppression field]

[Status: Compatible Core Users Only]

Raunak adjusted his stance, glancing at the neon-blurred skyline. The once-vibrant city shimmered with illusion-like displacement. Countless data-towers flickered as if between realities, like Seoul was caught mid-blink in some ancient dream.

Seo Jin-Tae stepped beside him, tightening the black straps on his coat.

"Stay sharp. They said the East Veil lost three scouts in less than five minutes last month. We're stepping on broken echoes."

Raunak nodded. He could feel it too. The city's aura was wrong. The ground hummed. The air vibrated not with life, but... memories. Painful ones.

They weren't alone either.

[Team Addendum: Agent Jisoo - Shadow Division: Ranker Code: VANTA03]

A woman walked toward them in a matte-black jacket, her boots making no sound. Long raven hair fell in a straight sheet over her left shoulder, her eyes hidden behind dusk-tinted visor lenses. A Ranker, clearly. But the kind that wasn't meant to be seen.

"Agent Jisoo," she said. "I'm your contact and handler until we enter Zone 6. After that, you're on your own."

Raunak raised an eyebrow. "What happened in Zone 6?"

"We lost it."

2. Data Ghosts and Rift Marks

The outskirts of the abandoned cyber research district were wreathed in fractured advertisements and broken AR overlays. AI billboards from the pre-Rift days flickered with looping, corrupted messages:

"Innovation is Immortality."

"Welcome to CyberNest — The Mind Beyond Flesh."

These words echoed eerily off the ghost city structures.

"This place feels haunted," Raunak said.

"It is," Jisoo replied flatly. "By data. By people who uploaded pieces of themselves here and... never came back."

[Scan Initiated]

[Signal Found: Psi-Core Frequency Match Detected.]

[Target: Subject-7 | Confirmed: Partial Echo Signature Present]

Raunak's chest tightened.

Subject-7.

The name had appeared in earlier logs. The same profile linked to Seo Jin-Tae's early missions and Entity-X's first ripple manifestation in this city.

"Looks like we're close," Raunak muttered.

Jin-Tae didn't reply, but his shadow shifted again—crawling slightly faster.

The team moved to a ruined data station. Inside, the remains of memory-banks hung like peeled walls. It smelled like ozone and rust. A screen blinked once, and a hologram sputtered to life.

A boy, maybe fifteen. Jet black hair. Half his face replaced with chrome.

"If you're seeing this, I failed. I'm Subject-7. My mind was supposed to save this place. Instead... I opened a door I shouldn't have. And something walked through it."

Raunak felt his stomach twist.

The holo shattered into static.

Jin-Tae exhaled. "He's still alive. Somewhere. Part of him."

3. Echo Surge

[System Alert: Echo Signature Spike - 87% Match to Entity-X Core Thread]

[Location: Zone 6 Perimeter - Warning: Breach Threshold Approaching]

They moved.

The run through the city was like dashing through nightmares stitched into reality. As they neared Zone 6, the air rippled, and the sky dimmed despite it being only 3 p.m.

Then it came.

The ground cracked.

A gaping Rift opened, pulsating with chaotic red and violet energy. Out of it crawled figures—faceless, human-like, wrapped in tangled data-chains.

Raunak activated his core.

[System: Phantom Arc Blade Activated]

[Passive Triggered: Mirrorlink Core Fragment Boost - 10% Surge]

He slashed the first creature cleanly in half. It didn't bleed. It burst into raw binary.

Jisoo vanished into the shadows, appearing behind three enemies and disabling them in perfect silence.

Jin-Tae walked directly into the Rift energy and unleashed a Voidwave.

[Skill: Void Collapse - 13 Entities Erased]

But more kept coming.

Raunak felt it—the pulse of something bigger.

4. Within the Rift

Jin-Tae grabbed Raunak by the collar. "It's not stopping. We need to go in."

"We don't have clearance!"

"Forget clearance. You already touched the mirror. You are the key now."

They dove.

The Rift swallowed them.

Everything went white.

And then—static. Screams. A million whispers of alternate Raunaks, all crying out. Dying. Laughing. Merging.

Inside the Rift, there were floating fragments of reality. Cities hanging in upside-down gravity. Torn pieces of code drifting in spirals. In the distance, Raunak saw a figure chained to a giant clock.

Subject-7.

He reached out—

[Connection Detected: Mirrorlink Accelerating]

[Subclass Evolution Possible: Dual-Phased Ranker]

And then, the voice returned.

"Take my hand, Raunak. Join me. Let the world collapse. We'll rebuild it... better."

Entity-X.

Raunak was about to scream when Seo Jin-Tae sliced the space between them.

"Not today."

A black ripple exploded—tearing them free.

5. Back to Reality

They landed outside the Rift just as it sealed shut.

Raunak collapsed to his knees. Jin-Tae looked shaken but intact.

Agent Jisoo was waiting, a gun aimed at both of them.

"You're both contaminated. We're taking you to the Isolation Veil."

Raunak barely heard her.

Inside his System, something had changed.

[New Skill Acquired: Temporal Feedback Loop - Lv. 1]

[Effect: Upon taking lethal damage, rewind time by 3.2 seconds. Cooldown: 12 hours.]

[Subclass Path Unlocked: Echo-Bound Ranker | Tier II]

End of Chapter 10