The Dark Server still echoed with that name.
Circuit Ghost.
Yuto'o sat slumped against a cracked hologram wall. His glitch-body was half-destroyed, red-blue data flickering like a dying flame.
Orbis stood before him, violet eyes glowing with hidden truths.
"You wonder, don't you?" he said softly. "Why you still exist, when others who die in VR simply vanish?"
Yuto'o gripped his fading glitch blade. "I don't understand. I should've been gone. But I'm still here. Why?"
Orbis stepped closer. "Because you're one of them… one of us. A Circuit Ghost. Human souls trapped in the network."
He snapped his fingers. A hologram bloomed in the air, displaying thousands of points of light.
"Each point is someone who died in VR. But only a handful… didn't vanish. They became anomalies. Digital ghosts."
One by one, the lights dimmed, until only a few faintly glimmered.
"Most Ghosts were hunted down and erased by the corporations. Only those who know how to hide survive."
Yuto'o clenched his teeth. "And I'm one of them."
"Yes. But there's more." Orbis's voice lowered. "There's a way back. A legend about the Reboot Server."
Yuto'o's eyes widened. "Reboot Server?"
"A secret server, built before VR-verse 3.0 launched. They say it holds a gateway… a path to download consciousness back into a living body. If that body still exists."
Yuto'o fell silent. His real body… it might already be gone. But maybe—just maybe—there was still a chance.
"…I can come back to life?" his voice trembled.
Orbis nodded slowly. "Perhaps. But the path is near impossible. The corporations guard that secret like gods guarding heaven. You'll need a data map. You'll need strength. And you'll need allies."
Yuto'o stared into the shadowed alleys where Dark Tooth had vanished moments earlier.
"I don't care how impossible it is. I want my body back. I want to live again."
The fire in his eyes burned, twin flames of red and blue.
Suddenly, a system chime echoed through the air.
GLOBAL ANNOUNCEMENT
CORPORATE BOUNTY ISSUED: "CIRCUIT GHOST"
REWARD: 10 MILLION DATA CREDITS
The Dark Server fell silent. Every avatar turned toward Yuto'o at once.
Whispers warped into greedy gasps.
"Ten million…"
"With that bounty, I could rule this place…"
"We have to capture him!"
Orbis shut his hologram. "You're the number one target now, Yuto'o. Not just the corporations… the entire virtual world will hunt you."
Yuto'o rose slowly, his glitch blade reigniting. His body cracked, unstable—but his eyes blazed stronger than ever.
"If the whole world wants to hunt me…"
He leveled his blade.
"…then I'll fight the whole world."
From the darkness, hundreds of avatar eyes flared to life, all fixed on Yuto'o with the same hunger—
to claim the Circuit Ghost.
The hunt had only just begun.
The world's bounty is set. The ghost now stands against everyone.