The walk back to Lotus felt longer than usual.
Every sound echoed too loud.
Every shadow seemed to lean a little closer.
The city's filthy breath clung to Seo-jin's skin like oil.
Ha-eun walked beside him, unusually silent. She kept glancing over her shoulder, her hand close to the hidden knife tucked at her hip.
— "You feel it too, right?" she muttered.
Seo-jin nodded without looking back.
Something was wrong.
The Lower City was always dangerous. But this?
This was different.
A pressure in the air.
A prickling at the back of his neck.
Like unseen eyes digging into his spine.
**
They slipped through a maze of alleys, instinctively keeping to the shadows.
The streets buzzed with the dying rhythm of the city — distant engines, coughing vendors, the occasional scream muffled by concrete walls.
Seo-jin's senses stretched thin, his fragment humming faintly at the edge of activation.
He forced himself to stay calm.
Panic gets you killed faster than bullets here.
Ha-eun tugged his sleeve suddenly.
— "Up there," she whispered.
Seo-jin flicked his eyes upward.
A silhouette.
For just a second.
Standing on a rooftop two buildings away.
Tall. Still. Watching.
And then gone.
**
— "Split," Seo-jin said quickly. "Meet at the old tram station. Twenty minutes."
Ha-eun hesitated.
— "You sure?"
— "I'll lead him away."
She bit her lip but nodded.
In a blink, she was gone, melting into the alleys like smoke.
Seo-jin adjusted the strap of his satchel and quickened his pace.
Not running.
Running made you prey.
Walking fast but casual. Head down. Body loose.
Inside, every nerve screamed.
He turned left. Then right. Then left again.
Maze-pattern. Classic evasion.
But the feeling didn't fade.
If anything, it grew heavier.
Sticky. Suffocating.
**
He ducked into a narrow passage between two collapsed buildings.
Dead end.
"Damn it."
Seo-jin spun, ready to backtrack.
And froze.
Someone stood at the entrance of the alley.
Tall. Lean.
Draped in a dark cloak that fluttered lightly despite the still air.
A mask covered the lower half of his face.
Only his eyes were visible — sharp, colorless, predatory.
Seo-jin's pulse hammered.
The figure tilted his head slightly, studying him.
Then spoke.
— "You fought the Grey Thorns recently."
His voice was low. Calm. Almost bored.
Seo-jin didn't answer.
The man chuckled.
— "Relax. I'm not here to kill you."
He stepped closer.
Seo-jin took an involuntary step back.
The stranger stopped a few meters away, hands relaxed at his sides.
— "Name's irrelevant. Let's call me... an opportunity."
Seo-jin narrowed his eyes.
— "Opportunity for what?"
— "For survival. For strength."
Another step closer.
Seo-jin's fragment pulsed harder, reacting instinctively.
The stranger noticed. Smiled under his mask.
— "Good instincts. But not nearly enough."
In a flash, he moved.
One second distant — the next, right in front of Seo-jin.
Seo-jin barely threw himself sideways, his shoulder slamming into a wall.
Pain exploded across his ribs.
He gritted his teeth, forcing his fragment to respond.
A small fissure cracked the ground between them, unstable and weak.
The stranger danced back lightly, unbothered.
— "You're raw," he said. "But not hopeless."
Seo-jin staggered to his feet.
Sweat dripped into his eyes.
Breath sawed in and out of his lungs.
The stranger watched him, head cocked like a curious animal.
Waiting.
Testing.
Seo-jin's heart pounded.
Fight?
Run?
No time to think.
He lashed out again, throwing a sharper fissure at the man's feet.
The stranger blurred aside with casual grace.
— "Better," he admitted. "Still not enough."
Seo-jin growled low in his throat.
He wasn't going to win this. He knew it.
But he sure as hell wasn't going down easy.
Seo-jin forced his aching body upright.
His hands were shaking, his breath ragged, his knees wobbling under him — but he refused to show weakness.
The stranger didn't rush him.
He simply watched.
Waiting for Seo-jin to decide.
Fight.
Flee.
Surrender.
Seo-jin chose.
He struck.
Another fissure split the ground, narrower, sharper this time.
The stranger nodded, almost approvingly, as he dodged effortlessly.
— "Not bad," he said.
Seo-jin gritted his teeth.
He could feel his fragment overheating, burning the edges of his mind.
If he kept pushing like this, he would collapse.
But the alternative — lying down and accepting defeat — was worse.
He gathered the last dregs of his strength.
One final fissure.
This one, he didn't aim at the man directly.
Instead, he split the wall beside him.
A chunk of concrete broke loose, crashing down in a cloud of dust.
The stranger leaped back — just a fraction slower than before.
Seo-jin lunged forward, using the distraction.
He threw a desperate punch.
The stranger caught it effortlessly.
Seo-jin gasped in pain as the man's fingers tightened around his wrist.
— "Clever," the stranger murmured. "Still not enough."
He shoved Seo-jin back against the wall.
Hard.
Stars burst behind Seo-jin's eyes.
His knees buckled, but he stayed standing by sheer willpower.
The stranger stepped back, crossing his arms.
— "You've got the instincts. The anger. The hunger."
His voice lowered.
— "But you're trapped."
Seo-jin blinked through the pain.
— "What... are you talking about?"
— "Lotus," the man said simply. "Small. Weak. Comfortable."
Seo-jin growled.
— "They're my people."
The man chuckled.
— "Are they? Or are they just... better than nothing?"
Seo-jin bared his teeth.
He wanted to punch the smirk off that masked face.
But deep down...
The words struck a nerve.
**
The stranger's tone shifted, becoming almost... inviting.
— "You're wasting your potential. With us, you'd grow. Real strength. Real power. Not scraps."
Seo-jin narrowed his eyes.
— "With who?"
The man tilted his head.
— "In time, you'll find out. If you survive long enough."
He turned, walking away casually, as if the fight had been nothing more than a conversation.
After a few steps, he paused.
— "Lotus can't protect you from what's coming."
He glanced back over his shoulder.
— "Think about it."
Then he vanished into the labyrinth of alleys.
Gone like smoke.
**
Seo-jin slumped against the wall, sliding down to sit on the cold ground.
Every part of him hurt.
His ribs screamed.
His arms trembled.
His fragment flickered like a dying ember inside him.
He clenched his fists.
The stranger's words echoed in his mind.
"Trapped."
"Wasting your potential."
Seo-jin gritted his teeth.
He hated it.
He hated that part of him — deep, buried, bitter — whispered that it might be true.
**
A shadow darted toward him.
Seo-jin flinched instinctively, his battered body coiling to fight again.
But it was only Ha-eun.
She dropped beside him, panting, her eyes wide with panic.
— "You're bleeding," she gasped. "What the hell happened?"
Seo-jin shook his head.
— "Not sure."
Ha-eun helped him stand.
He winced as his bruised ribs protested.
— "We need to move," she said. "Now."
Seo-jin nodded.
Together, they staggered into the night, melting into the city's shadows.
But Seo-jin knew one thing for certain.
He wasn't safe anymore.
And the road ahead had just become much, much darker.
They moved silently through the maze of broken streets.
Every step was a battle for Seo-jin — his legs trembled, his lungs burned, his vision blurred at the edges.
But he kept going.
Ha-eun hovered close, her face drawn tight with worry.
— "Who was he?" she whispered.
Seo-jin shook his head slowly.
— "I don't know."
But deep down, he had a feeling.
That masked man wasn't random.
He was a message.
And a warning.
**
They reached an abandoned tram station — a skeleton of cracked glass and rusted steel.
The perfect hiding spot for now.
Seo-jin slumped against a pillar, closing his eyes for a brief moment.
Images flashed behind his eyelids.
The Lower City.
The bleeding man against the wall.
The old shopkeeper with eyes like frozen knives.
The stranger's words gnawed at him.
"Small. Weak. Comfortable."
Seo-jin's hands curled into fists.
He hated how much it resonated.
**
Ha-eun sat down next to him, hugging her knees.
— "You scared the crap outta me," she said softly.
Seo-jin managed a weak smile.
— "You're the one who said I looked like a corpse last time."
She punched his arm lightly.
— "Idiot."
But there was no heat behind it.
Only fear.
Only worry.
Seo-jin stared up at the ceiling, where bits of cracked concrete hung like dying stars.
— "I need to get stronger," he said quietly.
Ha-eun looked at him.
Really looked.
And for the first time, she didn't tease.
She didn't joke.
She simply nodded.
— "Yeah. We both do."
**
They stayed like that for a while.
Silent.
Breathing.
Alive.
Barely.
**
Later, back at the Lotus base, Ko frowned as he patched Seo-jin's wounds.
— "Fragment-induced damage," he muttered. "Someone roughed you up good."
Seo-jin said nothing.
Ko's eyes narrowed.
— "You didn't cross the wrong group, did you?"
Seo-jin shook his head.
— "Just bad luck."
Ko grunted.
But Seo-jin saw the suspicion lingering behind the old man's gruff exterior.
Seo-jin couldn't blame him.
Trust was expensive here.
And secrets... even more so.
**
That night, lying on his thin mattress, Seo-jin stared at the cracked ceiling.
He couldn't sleep.
Not with his body aching.
Not with his mind racing.
"You're wasting your potential."
The words twisted in his gut like knives.
Was it true?
Was he destined to rot here?
Fighting for scraps?
Begging for approval from men like Ko?
Dreaming small because it was safer?
Seo-jin's chest tightened painfully.
He thought of the shop.
The strange artifacts.
The power thrumming in the walls.
He thought of the masked man, so confident, so far beyond anything Seo-jin had ever known.
And he thought of Ha-eun.
Bright. Fierce.
But trapped here too.
**
"I don't want to just survive anymore."
"I want more."
He sat up slowly, every joint screaming.
A grim smile tugged at his lips.
If power was out there — real power — he would find it.
Whatever it took.
He wasn't a pawn anymore.
Not in the Lower City.
Not in Lotus.
Not anywhere.
Seo-jin clenched his fists.
The road ahead was dark.
Bloody.
Lonely.
But it was his.
And he would walk it to the end.
No matter what waited for him in the shadows.