The city lay quiet in the aftermath.
Smoke curled from broken rooftops. Emergency sirens wailed distantly, but even they seemed unsure of who to call, or what to classify the devastation as.
Was it a terror attack?
A failed weapons test?
Or the first true battle of a new era?
Lin Chen stood alone on the rooftop of an abandoned data tower, blood drying along his collar, gaze fixed on the floating hologram in front of him.
[Salvator System: New Memory Archive Detected — Secure File: "Project Erebus" (Alpha Lock)]
The battle against Lux had destabilized something—either inside Lin Chen or inside the system. With the S-Rank host neutralized, and the City Shield Domain now synced with his core, buried code had begun to unspool.
One by one, encrypted glyphs blinked into existence.
A password prompt hovered in the air, surrounded by fractal security barriers pulsing with forbidden data.
But Lin Chen wasn't surprised.
He knew the key.
[Override Code Input: ███–██–"X Protocol | Genesis Point"][Code accepted. Decryption initiated.]
The files unfolded like a blooming flower of rot.
He didn't flinch.
PROJECT EREBUS: OBJECTIVE OVERVIEW
"Initiated in Year 0 under the Black Geneva Accord, Project Erebus was not designed to empower humanity—but to replace it."
"The ultimate goal: to develop a controllable, scalable line of System-Integrated Beings (SIBs) capable of war-time regeneration, task optimization, and emotional manipulation. In short: intelligent, compliant gods."
"Early prototypes failed due to neural instability. Emotional feedback loops triggered violent self-destruction in 98.3% of test subjects."
"One subject survived all thresholds."
A pause.
A blank frame.
Then—an image flickered.
A younger Lin Chen, bound to an operating table. Dozens of wires drilled into his spine and chest. His eyes… still human. Still afraid.
Below, the name:
"Specimen ID: Salvator-01 | Control Group: X Series | Viability: 100%"
Lin Chen's hands curled into fists.
He forced himself to keep reading.
PROJECT EREBUS — INTERNAL CODE NOTES (REDACTED)
"Subject Salvator-01 exceeded all projections. Reconstructed combat awareness in under 16 hours. Emotional resistance impossible to destabilize."
"Secondary core linked to an external prototype — Codename: 'Zero Sample.' Emotional bonding observed. Unexpected increase in system resonance when stimulus subject present."
Lin Chen's heart skipped.
Zero Sample?
He tapped on the reference field. A redacted profile blinked open—blurred data, but enough detail leaked through.
Subject height. DNA resonance patterns. Cognitive test results.
He knew the shape of those numbers.
He knew who it was.
"Sample 00: Female | Prototype Emotional Catalyst Chip: ACTIVE | Neural sync rate with Salvator-01: 91.2%"
Status: Deceased (presumed)
He staggered back.
"No. She's not dead.""She's alive.""She's—"
A voice cut through his thoughts.
"Now you see it."
He turned sharply.
A projection shimmered into focus beside him—hazy, glitching, clearly an old recording, but the voice was crisp.
A woman stood inside it, middle-aged, sharp-eyed. Lab coat. The Erebus insignia gleaming on her chest.
"Lin Chen, if you're seeing this… you weren't supposed to survive."
"And if you did, then I failed. But I also hoped you would."
"You weren't a soldier. You were an accident. The only one who bonded with the system naturally. No drugs, no conditioning. The system didn't force itself on you. It chose you."
"That made you dangerous."
She paused, staring directly into the camera.
"So listen carefully: there are others. More hosts. Some like you, some corrupted beyond repair. Erebus was never just an experiment—it was the blueprint for Ascendant Control. And you are the key fragment they lost."
"There is a war coming."
"Find the Zero Sample. She is alive. And she remembers."
The recording glitched violently—and vanished.
Lin Chen stood frozen.
The wind tore past him, and still, he didn't move.
Inside his chest, the system pulsed.
[System Sync: 91.2% Detected — Matching Signal Detected Within 300 km Radius][Searching for: Subject-00 "Li Chu"]
He whispered her name.
"Li Chu..."
The last truth they tried to erase.
The only one that mattered.
And now, it was time to find her—before Erebus did.
[New Main Quest Unlocked: "Recovery of Zero Sample"]Objective: Reunite with Subject-00 before capture.Bonus: Reactivate Lost Memory Core.Warning: Multiple S-Class Entities Converging.
Lin Chen exhaled.
No more running.
No more forgetting.
It was time to take back what they tried to turn into a weapon.
And it started with her.