LIGHT NOVEL TITLE: "Fractured Code"
Chapter 2: The Girl With No Pulse
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The city of Velterra was never truly awake, nor fully asleep. It breathed through wires and whispered in electric pulses. And somewhere within it, Kairo Vellian was breaking.
The day after the man in black froze time, Kairo didn't sleep. He couldn't. His body no longer seemed to require rest. Every time he blinked, lines of code danced across his vision — not hallucinations, but real-time system diagnostics. His skin still glowed faintly under moonlight. He wore gloves now, even indoors.
But the strangest part?
He didn't feel human anymore.
Yet… he felt more alive than ever.
---
At school, Lyn Seraphine sat behind him. No one else seemed to notice her.
She passed him a folded note without a word. It read:
> "Meet me under the old mag-train bridge. 6 PM. Don't bring anyone. And don't bring your 'System.'"
He crushed the note in his hand. But the moment he did, it dissolved into light. Like it had never existed.
---
6 PM.
The old bridge was half-collapsed, surrounded by broken tracks and forgotten tech. Rust and wires coiled like vines around it.
Lyn was already there.
"So… are you going to kill me?" Kairo asked, trying to joke. His voice cracked.
She looked at him. No emotion.
"No. I'm here to save you. Or at least… delay your collapse."
"Collapse?"
"You weren't supposed to awaken yet. Subject-9's protocol doesn't activate until Phase Omega. You forced it."
"I didn't force anything—!"
Suddenly, Lyn pulled a knife from her coat and slashed him across the chest.
No blood.
Just static.
Kairo gasped. "What the hell—?!"
"You're already unstable," she whispered. "Your data stream is corrupting the surrounding reality. If you fully awaken now… you'll tear Velterra apart."
Kairo's eyes flared with violet light.
"So what am I supposed to do? Wait? Die quietly?"
"You need to find the Core. Before they do."
"Who's they?"
A low hum echoed from above.
A floating drone, black as void, hovered silently behind them. Its eye turned red.
"Too late," Lyn said.
---
The drone fired a burst of red energy. Lyn threw up a barrier with a flick of her hand — one that shimmered like glass code.
Kairo didn't wait.
He sprinted forward, heart thundering, and grabbed the air — and from the void, his weapon formed.
A blade of white energy, shaped like a katana, but humming like electricity.
The moment it touched the drone, time slowed.
Kairo could see everything — the sparks, the code trail, even the pulse of the drone's core.
One slash.
The drone shattered.
Lyn's eyes widened. "…White Algorithm. You summoned it."
"I… I don't know how."
"You're evolving faster than expected."
She turned away.
"You're not just Subject-9," she whispered. "You're something else entirely. Something even the Architects feared."
---
That night, Kairo stood in front of the mirror again.
His reflection flickered.
His face shifted… then stabilized.
But behind his reflection, something watched him back.
Not a ghost.
Not a shadow.
A version of himself — older, colder, with white
hair and no eyes.
It smiled.
"Hello, Kairo," it said. "Ready to become me?"
END OF CHAPTER 2
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