Kai didn't go home.
That was the rule.
After contact with Oversight, you disappear for twelve hours.No movement patterns.No anomalies.No risks.
That was what the bracelet wanted.That was what the system expected.
Kai walked past the last streetlight instead.
The glow thinned behind him, the city's noise fading into something distant and irrelevant. He crossed into the industrial buffer zone—abandoned lots, half-collapsed buildings, old infrastructure everyone pretended didn't exist.
Places cameras hated.
ANOMALY DAMPENING: ACTIVEOBSERVATION RISK: REDUCED
"Reduced," Kai muttered. "Not gone."
Good enough.
He climbed through a broken fence and followed a drainage channel until the air changed—heavier, rawer. The Barrier loomed ahead, its light bleeding through the night like a warning scar.
He stopped.
Not because he was afraid.
Because something had noticed him.
PREDATOR INSTINCT — ALERTTHREAT TYPE: HUMAN
Kai frowned.
Human threats felt different. Cleaner. Focused. No hunger—just intent.
He stepped forward anyway.
The moment he crossed the invisible boundary where the city stopped pretending to be safe, the pressure spiked.
Three presences.
Elevated positions.
Range.
Snipers, Kai realized.
"Of course," he whispered.
A voice carried through the darkness, amplified just enough to reach him.
"Kai," it said. Male. Calm. Confident. "Stop where you are."
Kai stopped.
Hands visible.
"Congratulations," the voice continued. "You've officially broken containment protocol."
Containment.
Not arrest.
Not inquiry.
The word sat wrong.
"I didn't know I was contained," Kai said.
A soft chuckle echoed. "That's how we prefer it."
A shape stepped into the edge of the light—tall, armored, visor opaque. No insignia. No rank.
Behind him, two more figures shifted, rifles trained casually.
THREAT ASSESSMENT: EXTREMERECOMMENDATION: COMPLIANCE OR DEATH
Kai felt the Adaptive Core stir—slow, deliberate, curious.
"So," Kai said, "you're the ones Vale warned me about."
The armored man tilted his head slightly. "Inspector Vale interferes more than she should."
"That sounds like a yes."
The man raised one hand. "You're not in trouble—yet. You're an anomaly. We'd like to understand you before you destabilize something important."
Kai smiled faintly.
"That sounds worse."
The man stepped closer, boots crunching gravel. "Your core isn't registered. Your growth curve doesn't cap. That makes you dangerous."
"To who?" Kai asked.
"To the system," the man replied easily. "And systems don't like competition."
Something clicked.
This wasn't about safety.
It was about control.
Kai glanced at the Barrier, then back at the rifles.
"Let me guess," he said. "You take me in, cut me open, figure out what I am."
The man didn't deny it.
"We call it classification," he said. "You call it whatever helps you cooperate."
The Adaptive Core pulsed harder.
Not fear.
Not anger.
Interest.
ADAPTIVE RESPONSE READYCONDITION: LETHAL STIMULUS REQUIRED
Kai exhaled slowly.
Breaking this rule meant dying…or becoming something they couldn't put back in a box.
"I'm going to say no," Kai said.
The rifles rose instantly.
"Final warning," the man said.
Kai looked at him—and smiled wider this time.
Not polite.
Not nervous.
Predatory.
"Then watch closely," Kai said. "You wanted to see how I adapt."
He turned and sprinted.
Gunfire exploded behind him.
The world slowed.
Not magically.
Efficiently.
Kai's body moved before thought—angle shifting, stride shortening, momentum rolling through his hips. Bullets tore through where he had been, not where he was going.
ADAPTIVE RESPONSE — ENGAGEDTRAIT EVOLUTION IN PROGRESS
He hit the drainage slope and slid, gravel tearing at his palms. A round grazed his shoulder, heat blooming—
—and the pain sharpened his focus instead of breaking it.
Kai rolled, came up hard, and vaulted over a rusted pipe into darkness.
The gunfire stopped.
Not because they lost him.
Because they were recalculating.
CORE EXPERIENCE SURGE DETECTED
Kai didn't slow down.
He ran until his lungs burned and the city vanished behind him.
Only when the pressure faded did he stop, bent over, laughing quietly in the dark.
They'd seen him.
Not fully.
But enough.
The interface pulsed, brighter than before.
CORE LEVEL INCREASE: IMMINENTOBSERVATION STATUS: PRIORITY TARGET
Kai wiped blood from his mouth and straightened.
"Good," he whispered.
Because now he knew the truth.
The monsters weren't just outside the wall.
They wore armor.
They carried guns.
And they were afraid of what he might become.
[End of Chapter 10]