The red envelope icon on the screen went dark.
"Architect, I'm not here to kill you. I'm here to surrender." Allen's fingers hovered above the virtual keyboard.
Condensate dripped from the P2 floor onto the concrete floor with a crisp sound.
Two in the morning. Red Hook Zone. Warehouse rooftop.
Allen stood at the top of the stairs.
Lina was three meters behind him. A crescent-shaped dagger was drawn, the blade pressed against her forearm.
Lina's breathing slowed to eight breaths per minute.
She stared at the edge of the rooftop; one gesture from Allen, and the dagger would slash out.
Jason crouched behind a drainpipe on the opposite roof. The crosshairs of his sniper rifle were locked onto the center of the rooftop.
A triangular crossfire was formed.
From the darkness at the edge of the rooftop, a dark figure emerged.
Elena Graves.
No black tactical uniform. No dark silver dagger.
A faded gray hoodie. Jeans. White sneakers.
A dark red stain seeped through the fabric of her left shoulder. The sword wound left by the Abyss Watcher last night.
Her hands were raised in front of her chest. Fingers spread. Palms facing outward.
There was no fluctuation of rift energy.
Allen's Shadow Perception stretched across the ground.
The A-level energy signal was forcibly compressed to a range of one millimeter on her skin. She had actively locked all her extraordinary circuits.
Elena stopped five meters away from Allen.
Shadow Perception erected an invisible wall at the five-meter boundary.
"Did you post the forum message?" Allen asked.
"Yes."
"Last night you killed thirty monsters in my dungeon, almost shredding a core chamber."
"Yes."
"Now you say you've come to surrender."
"Yes." Allen stared at the woman five meters away.
Without her glasses, the edges of her distant silhouette were somewhat blurred. But five meters was enough to see the direction of her facial muscles.
Exhaustion.
Extreme exhaustion. He looked exactly like the person he saw in the mirror after building eighteen dungeons.
"Why did you attack first?"
"I need to test your defenses." Elena's gaze passed over Allen, landing on Lina behind him.
"If you can't even hold me off alone, you're not qualified to receive my intelligence."
"Your Watcher proves you are." A gust of wind rippled through the plastic bags along the edge of the rooftop. The corrugated iron roof vibrated low.
"Three years ago." Elena looked away, focusing on Allen.
"I was twenty-four. A member of the GWA Rift Manipulation Research Group. The only A-rank Rift Manipulator."
"Sent to the S-rank dungeon in Manhattan. Mission codename: Core Stability."
"Upon arrival, I received a second order."
"From Geneva. Highest encrypted frequency."
"Order contents: Expand the rift. Accelerate the eruption. Destroy the core consciousness." Allen's right hand tightened in his hoodie pocket. His nails dug into the flesh of his palm.
"Whose signature is this?"
"Not Hawke." Elena paused for a second. "It was someone else. I carried it out."
"You know there are 23,000 people up there."
"I know." Elena's right middle finger twitched uncontrollably at her side.
A Level C Shadow Sense detected this tiny muscle spasm from five meters away.
"I was told the early warning system had evacuated all residents within a three-kilometer radius. I only found out after the outbreak that the warning system had been deactivated." Warning deactivated, Hawke signed.
The rift widened, Elena carried it out.
Evacuation canceled, a third-party decision.
Three chains tightly bound 23,000 lives.
Allen turned his head.
Jason pulled a bottle of mineral water from the side pocket of his tactical vest and tossed it to him.
Allen caught it. He walked to the edge of the five-meter line.
Arm outstretched. The bottle was offered forward.
Elena looked at the bottle of water.
Her fingers froze in mid-air.
Two seconds. Three seconds.
She reached out and took it.
She unscrewed the plastic cap. Her wrist trembled.
Water spilled, wetting the mesh of her white sneakers.
She tilted her head back and took a sip.
Before she could swallow the second sip, the bottle slipped from her hand.
The plastic bottle slammed onto the concrete floor of the rooftop. Water seeped into the cracks in the ground, spreading to the low-lying areas.
Elena crouched down.
Not to pick up the bottle.
Her knees slammed directly onto the rough concrete.
Liquid welled in her eyes. It slid down her cheekbone, down her jaw, and dripped onto her gray hoodie.
No sobbing. No wailing.
The dagger in Elena's hand dipped half an inch. The blade moved away from its striking position.
Allen stood still.
Wait.
Three minutes later, Elena wiped her face with the sleeve of her hoodie. She stood up.
"Who is that guy in Geneva?" Allen asked.
"I don't know his real name."
"A code name."
"Gatekeeper." The gatekeeper.
Allen quickly flipped through the PDF roster in his mind. One hundred and twenty names, from the executive level to Hawke.
No such codename.
Hidden a layer above the roster. Buried deeper than Hawke, the "founder."
"His plan isn't just to detonate the twenty-seven cores," Elena's voice quickened. "Detonation is just the first stage."
"The second stage. Using the energy shockwaves from the simultaneous eruptions of the twenty-seven cores, forcibly opening a permanent passage to the Abyss."
"He wants to open the rift?" Allen interrupted her.
"He wants to destroy the rift."
Elena shook her head.
"Once the permanent passage is formed, he plans to use a device to reverse the collapse of the passage."
"I participated in the early development of that device."
"The energy generated by the collapse is enough to permanently seal the connection between the Abyss dimension and Earth."
"From then on. No more dungeons. No more awakening. No more supernatural powers."
"Humanity will return to what it was before the Great Cataclysm." The wind stopped.
Allen's breath caught in his throat.
Returning to before the Great Cataclysm.
This means the disbandment of GWA. The major guilds have lost their power. All the high-ranking S-class Awakened instantly became mortals.
Gatekeeper intended to burn the entire game, board and all.
Including Allen Grey.
If the Abyss connection were severed, the supernatural energy on Earth would completely dry up. Every dungeon he created. His architect profession. His network consciousness. All depended on the energy supply from the Abyss dimension.
A dark green, rounded rectangle suddenly popped up on the management panel.
Network Consciousness.
"Architect. I have completed a full-body scan of target #067."
"She carries a dormant Rift Seed within her."
"Once activated, it can serve as a tracking beacon. Any Rift Manipulator can pinpoint her exact coordinates through this seed."
"If she remains near the Red Hook zone, Gatekeeper can, at any time, tear open a rift through the seed within her body to reach your location."
"Recommendation: Immediately expel or physically destroy the target." The dark green text danced in the field of vision.
Allen looked at Elena.
Elena raised her right hand and pressed it against her collarbone above her left breast.
"I know."
"That's why I said 'surrender,' not 'join.'" Her fingers dug into the skin through the fabric.
"The seed is here. I can't get it out. Any conventional scalpel touching it will instantly activate and tear space apart."
"Another reason I'm here is—"
"Please have your Watcher remove it for me." Allen stared at the spot on her collarbone.
His Shadow Senses focused.
A pea-sized, dark silver energy nodule.
Alive. Pulsating. Its frequency perfectly synchronized with Elena's heartbeat.
A two-meter-long, hundreds-of-pounds dark red greatsword, to pick a pea?
Allen's fingers tapped on the virtual keyboard.
"Can the Watcher do it?" A dark green rounded rectangle replied.
"Okay."
"The adaptation counter has accumulated enough data. The Watcher can shrink the energy field at the sword tip to a diameter of 0.5 millimeters for micro-manipulation."
"However, there is a 10% chance of damaging the subclavian artery. Based on current medical conditions, the mortality rate is extremely high." Allen looked at Elena.
"Are you willing to accept a 10% chance of death?"
"I have a beacon inside me that could blow you up at any moment." Elena lowered her hand. "If you don't remove it for me, you should kill me now."
"Jason. Clear P2 level." Allen ordered.
"Lina. Prepare tourniquets and clotting agents."
The order was given.
Room 80.
The metal floor cracked.
The Abyss Watcher drew its greatsword. The third release.
Five minutes later. P2 level underground parking lot.
The incandescent bulb emitted a slight hum.
Elena lay flat on two desks pushed together. The zipper of her hoodie was unzipped, revealing her left collarbone.
Her breathing was steady.
An A-rank assassin exposed her most vulnerable carotid artery to the monster that had nearly cleaved her in two.
Allen stood beside the table.
A two-meter-tall figure in dark red armor stood on the other side.
The Watcher stood in the shadows. The dark red patterns on the armor undulated in the darkness. No breath. The sheer size of the body exuded a palpable sense of oppression.
Jason stood five meters away, his gun still in his hand. He watched as the monster held a greatsword capable of shattering tower shields above a woman's collarbone, cold sweat beading on his forehead.
"This is insane," Jason muttered. "Use a battering ram to poke her." Lina, holding a clotting agent, stood on the other side. "If the tip deviates even a millimeter, her blood will splatter all over the ceiling." The greatsword was raised high.
The dark red light at the tip contracted sharply inward, compressing into a blinding red dot.
The Watcher gripped the hilt with both hands.
The tip pointed vertically downwards, aimed at that thin layer of skin.