"What the fuck is that?"
Malo's voice cut through the haze of adrenaline, his finger jabbing toward the bathroom mirror. Dex barely had time to process the words before the glass shattered—not from impact, but from something far worse.
His reflection had glitched.
For half a second, the mirror showed not his face, but Spectre's—her golden cyber-eye pulsing with frantic light, lips moving in silent warning. Then it fractured into a thousand pieces, the shards hanging suspended in midair as reality itself seemed to stutter.
The Luciano enforcer outside the door screamed. Not in rage—in pain. Something was happening to him, his body jerking like a marionette with cut strings. His radio crackled to life, Valentina's voice slicing through static:
"ABORT. HE'S AWAKENING THE—"
Then silence.
The gas canister rolled to a stop at Dex's feet, its smoke now twisting into strange, geometric patterns. The particles glowed faintly blue—the exact same shade as his eyes.
Malo grabbed his arm. "Dex. Breathe."
He hadn't realized he'd stopped.
His lungs burned. His skull pounded. And beneath it all, something new stirred—something cold and vast and hungry.
[CYBER LORD GENE ACTIVATION: 12%]
The words appeared not in his HUD, but seared across his vision, brighter than anything Dreamscape had ever shown him.
A Private Island, Somewhere in the Pacific
The old man sipped from his coconut, the straw making a lazy slurp as he watched the tide roll in. His sandals were kicked off, toes buried in warm white sand. The Hawaiian shirt—a particularly offensive shade of lime green with dancing pineapples—flapped in the breeze.
Peace.
Perfect, boring peace.
Then—
Pop.
The air warped three feet to his left, and a man in a tailored black suit materialized, his polished Oxfords sinking slightly into the sand. He clutched a slim, silver notebook against his chest and bowed at precisely a 45-degree angle.
The old man didn't look over.
"Player ID: Dex_Martinez," the suited man announced, voice crisp despite the salt-heavy air. "Cyber Lord Gene route unlocked. Activation threshold breached at 12%."
A pause. The waves crashed. A seagull screamed overhead.
The old man took another sip. "Huh." He scratched his stubble. "Took longer than I thought."
The suited man remained bowed. "Your orders?"
"Keep an eye on him." The old man waved a hand, shooing a fly. "See if he can handle one of the Five."
Another bow. "Understood."
Pop.
The suited man vanished, leaving behind only a faint ozone tang.
The old man sighed, leaning back in his chair. The sun warmed his face as he muttered to the empty beach:
"Three down. Two to go."
And then, because the universe loved irony, his coconut slipped from his grip and rolled into the surf.
"Ah, damn it."
Somewhere, A River That Should Not Exist
The water was too clear to be real. It flowed over smooth stones like liquid glass, catching the moonlight in ways that defied physics. And in its center, bathed in silver and shadow, she sat.
Her skin was the pale gold of dawn, her hair a cascade of living ink that swirled around her in the current. Elven ears—sharp and elegant—twitched as a breeze carried the scent of jasmine through the air. She was naked, but the word felt crude applied to her. This was something beyond nakedness. This was unveiled.
Dead flowers floated around her, their withered petals brushing against her thighs. Then—she hummed.
A single note, low and resonant.
The riverbank shivered.
Brittle stems straightened. Rotting petals flushed with color. Buds that had never opened in life burst into bloom, their fragrance thick enough to taste.
She smiled, eyes still closed.
Then—
A glitch.
The air above the water fractured like broken stained glass. For half a heartbeat, the river reflected not the moon, but lines of cascading code.
[SYSTEM ANNOUNCEMENT]
[UNIQUE HOLDER ALERT: CYBER LORD GENE ACTIVATED]
[CURRENT MANIFESTATIONS: 3/5]
Her eyes opened.
They were the green of deep forests, of poison, of old things that remembered when the world was young.
"Oh?" Her voice was melody given sound. "Another little godling stirs."
She rose, water sluicing from flawless skin. The droplets hung in the air a moment too long, defying gravity, before—
—she was gone.
Only the flowers remained, too alive, too vibrant, their petals now edged in faint, unnatural blue.
Somewhere in Tokyo – Midday at Shibuya Academy
The cafeteria buzzed with the usual lunchtime chaos—trays clattering, laughter bouncing off tiled walls, the scent of curry bread and miso soup thick in the air. At a corner table, a group of first-years huddled together, their uniforms slightly rumpled from morning classes.
And then there was him.
Kai Renjou—fourteen years old, sunshine-blond hair that always looked artfully messy, and a smile that made even the strictest teachers soften. He lounged in his seat like a lazy cat, chin propped on one hand as his friends debated anime with the intensity of wartime generals.
"—but Jujutsu Kaisen's power system is objectively—"
"—overrated! Chainsaw Man's chaos is—"
Kai chuckled, twirling a chopstick between his fingers. "You're all wrong. Hunter x Hunter had the best—"
Then—
A cough cut him off. Not a normal cough. Something deeper, wetter, like his lungs were trying to expel a shadow. His friends didn't notice, but Kai's sky-blue eyes flickered, the pupils dilating into pinpricks for half a second.
[SYSTEM NOTIFICATION]
[UNIQUE HOLDER ALERT: CYBER LORD GENE CONFIRMED]
[CURRENT MANIFESTATIONS: 3/5]
A grin split Kai's face—too wide, too sharp, all teeth and sudden, unsettling glee.
"Ah…" He stood so fast his chair screeched. "Sorry, guys! Gotta bounce."
His friends blinked. "Huh? Class starts in—"
But Kai was already weaving through the crowd, hands in his pockets, humming. By the time someone thought to call after him, he was taking the stairs to the rooftop three at a time.
Rooftop – 12:03 PM
Wind whipped through Kai's hair as he pushed open the door. The Tokyo skyline stretched before him, endless and glittering. He didn't pause at the fence. Didn't hesitate.
One step. Two.
Then—a running leap.
For a heartbeat, he hung in the air, suspended like a bird mid-flight, his uniform jacket flapping behind him. The ground yawned four stories below.
"Cyber Lord, huh?" Kai laughed, wild and bright. "What a cool name! Can't wait to meet—"
And then, just before gravity remembered him, he vanished.
No flash. No sound. Just empty air where a boy had been.
Above, a single scrap of paper fluttered down—a doodle of a grinning cat, its tail curled into a question mark.