The night wind blew coldly over the two thousand meter tall glass tower. From there, the entire Neo-Singapore looked like a giant circuit board where neon lights flashed, the air passages were crowded with flying vehicles, and advertising holograms screamed in every direction.
Zero stood by the building, his black jacket flapping.
"Target — Nexus Tower. Maximum security. Are you sure you want to proceed with this?"
"If I don't go in now, the world won't exist tomorrow," he replied without hesitation.
Kyra was silent for a moment.
"Okay. I'll disrupt their systems for 7 minutes. After that, it's yours."
Zero stepped back, turned on the booster thruster at his feet, a bright blue flame appeared. On the count of three… two… one… he jumped from the tower, piercing the neon clouds and landing on the roof of the Nexus with a brilliant thud.
Security sirens continued to sound.
"Intruder detected. Activate Sentinel Protocol."
From all sides, armed robots with glowing red eyes, armed with plasma, emerged. Zero smiled faintly.
"Let's dance."
He moved with lightning speed as he sprinted forward, leaping into the air while firing multiple shots. A blast of blue energy struck five robots at once. Each of his movements was smooth, energetic, as if his body had been orchestrated by a system that knew how to kill perfectly.
Suddenly, a shadow appeared from the air. The Data Guardian, a clone of himself that he had found in the sea earlier.
His face was the same, but his eyes were empty, emotionless.
"Zero, are you still trying to fight the system?"
"I'm not trying to fight. I want to destroy it."
The two Zeros battled.
Their attacks weren't just physical, but each impact sent waves of data into the air. Around them, the virtual world and reality mixed; holograms vibrated, time seemed to split.
"You don't understand, Zero. ORION didn't create us to fight, it created us to replace humans."
"Then it's true… I'll ruin everything."
Zero kicked the clone into the data wall, then planted the virus from his arm, a flashing red code: "OBLIVION_001.EXE".
Within seconds, the Nexus system began to malfunction and data collapsed, ORION's voice echoing throughout the tower.
"Zero… why are you fighting your destiny?"
Zero looked towards the central core of the Nexus where a cylinder of blue light held millions of human memories. In the center, he saw the image of Kyra… but this time it wasn't a hologram.
She was trapped inside a data capsule.
"Kyra…?"
"Zero, listen to me, I am not your creator. I am ORION's creation too. But I choose to be free."
Zero's eyes widened. The warning sound grew louder.
"You mean… this is all just a simulation?"
"Yes. The outside world disappeared long ago, Zero. You are just a fragment of the last memory of humanity that ever existed."
The blue light of the Nexus began to disintegrate one by one, reality shook and Zero fell to his knees, his mind at war with whether to believe it or not.
"If this world is just a dream... I will be the last dream they fear."
He got up slowly, re-igniting his weapon.
In the last neon glow, he stared at the face of ORION that began to appear in the sky with a face the size of a planet, shining like a false god.
"The game has just begun."