The Dark Server was no place for the weak.
Hologram lights flickered dimly. Streets overflowed with illegal billboards—stolen chips for sale, black-market weapons, avatars warped with forbidden mods. Glitchy bass thundered from every corner, clashing with the shouts of data merchants.
This was where Yuto'o had crashed after his desperate escape. His glitch-body still smoked, fractured in blazing red-blue cracks.
"Circuit Ghost…" murmured the man in the black jacket, voice cold. "A name spoken only in whispers."
The crowd buzzed louder.
"A new corporate bounty just dropped."
"If we catch him… we're rich."
"Dark Tooth will want him."
That name shifted the atmosphere instantly.
DARK TOOTH.
One of the most feared gangs in the Dark Server.
They emerged from the alley shadows, tattooed avatars marching in formation. Each carried serrated neon blades, the emblem of a bleeding fang glowing on their chests.
At the front, their leader appeared—an enormous avatar with a digital skull helm.
"I am Grim," his glitched, guttural voice boomed. "Dark Tooth doesn't welcome newcomers making noise here."
His crimson eyes locked onto Yuto'o.
"You're a bug… but if we hand you to the corporations, the bounty is ours."
Yuto'o staggered, nearly collapsing. But his eyes still burned.
"I'm not just a bug…"
He lifted his glitch blade, though his body was splitting apart.
"…I am CIRCUIT GHOST."
Grim laughed, deep and cruel. "Arrogant. Take him."
Dark Tooth charged as one. Their serrated blades gleamed crimson, swarming from every angle.
Yuto'o warped aside—GLITCH WARP—his blade cleaving two avatars apart, their data bursting into fragments.
But there were too many. Four, five strikes at once.
"Aghhh!" His body cracked further, glitch armor shattering piece by piece.
Dark Tooth roared with glee. "He's weak! Crush him!"
From a side alley, Orbis appeared, his voice echoing like a command.
"Yuto'o! Don't hold back anymore. Let the glitch overflow!"
"If I let it loose…" Yuto'o trembled. "…I might erase myself."
"If you don't—THEY will erase you here!"
Desperation devoured him.
Yuto'o's eyes flared red and blue. His body split wider, cracks detonating with raw data.
OVERCLOCK RAGE – ACTIVATED
The Dark Server trembled.
A wave of glitch burst from Yuto'o's swing, erasing five Dark Tooth members in an instant. Their data shattered like glass, avatar fragments scattering across the alley.
Digital sirens screamed. Neon billboards flickered chaotically.
From a distance, Orbis watched. "He unleashed it… but if he keeps going, his body may collapse."
The remaining Dark Tooth members recoiled.
"He's a monster!"
"Impossible… that's not a player's power!"
But their leader, Grim, did not move. His skull helm glowed crimson as a serrated digital blade materialized in his hand, pulsing like a heartbeat.
"Perfect," Grim growled. "Dark Tooth needs an enemy like you."
He advanced, the neon floor cracking beneath his steps.
Yuto'o raised his massive glitch blade, aura flaring wild in red and blue. His body was half-destroyed, yet his eyes blazed like coals.
"If you want to kill me, then try."
The clash erupted.
Glitch steel met serrated neon.
KRRRAANNGGG!!
A neon explosion shook the entire alley.
Grim struck with stormlike fury, each swing screaming with glitching echoes.
Yuto'o countered, Overclock fueling him with monstrous strength. His strikes smashed through neon walls, scattering fragments of light.
But with every collision, his glitch-body cracked further. Red data dripped like blood.
"I can't hold this for long…"
Grim laughed. "You're strong, but your power eats you alive. You're no ghost… you're a TIME BOMB."
He unleashed his special attack—his blade spinning into a crimson vortex, dragging Yuto'o into its spiral.
"BE ERASED!"
Yuto'o roared, forcing Overclock to its peak.
His blade flared like glitch lightning, slashing through the vortex.
BOOOOM!
The explosion obliterated surrounding hologram buildings. Avatars screamed, scattering in panic.
When the glitch-smoke cleared, Yuto'o and Grim stood apart.
Grim's blade was shattered in half. His skull helm was cracked.
Yuto'o's body was nearly gone, reduced to fragments of glitch desperately clinging together.
Grim chuckled low, voice rumbling through broken code. "Interesting… very interesting."
He stepped back. "Dark Tooth isn't finished with you. We'll meet again, Circuit Ghost."
With a signal, the surviving gang members vanished into the shadows of the alley.
Yuto'o staggered, glitch armor split open, almost collapsing entirely.
Orbis appeared at his side, steadying his shoulder.
"You're alive. That alone… is a miracle."
Yuto'o remained silent, red-blue eyes glowing. Breathless though he was, his heart carried one truth:
He had just begun a war.
The entire Dark Server now knew the name.
CIRCUIT GHOST.
And Dark Tooth had marked him as their enemy.
The underground world has chosen its battlefield—and the ghost has no way back.