A heavy silence filled the metro car—broken only by the faint hum of residual electricity in the wires. The dim red emergency lights painted Silas's face in blood-like tones, while Lina trembled, clutching her bag as if trying to hide the phone that had betrayed her.
"The digital game is over, Silas…"
(V)'s voice echoed through the speakers—calm, confident, devoid of any human emotion.
"You spent your time building a fortress of ones and zeros… but you forgot that bodies cannot be encrypted. You are now inside a metal box I control down to the millimeter. No exits, no signal, no algorithm to save you."
"System Admin…" Zero's hiss came distorted this time, as if struggling against heavy interference.
"(V) has electromagnetically isolated this area. He's shut down the gateway. The Death Phone cannot connect to the external network. We are in offline mode."
Silas didn't respond immediately.
He slipped his hand into his pocket and felt the cold surface of the black interface. The device was heating up—the Shinigami within it was stirring.
"Lina… give me your phone," Silas said in a low, eerily steady voice.
"What are you going to do?" she asked, handing it over with a trembling hand.
"I'm going to turn it into a logic bomb."
Silas didn't attempt to hack (V)'s encrypted system—he knew (V) was waiting for that.
Instead, he activated a feature in Shinigami OS: [Hardware Overload].
Using Lina's phone as a bridge, the Death Phone drained all the stored energy from its battery and injected it in a single surge into the manual control panel of the metro door.
"Oh… so you're using raw power?" Zero whispered.
"This will burn the entire circuit system of the train."
"That's the point," Silas murmured.
"If (V) controls the system, I'll destroy the system… and rewrite the rules of engagement into primitive mechanics."
"Are you trying to break the lock, Silas?" (V)'s voice returned.
"I reinforced the doors with magnetic bolts that can withstand ten tons of pressure. Even if you burn the system, you'll remain trapped. Why not surrender… and tell me where you got that device?"
Silas smiled faintly and looked up at the speaker.
"You're smart, (V)… but you suffer from a failure of imagination. You think this device is a tool… when in reality, it's a black hole. I'm not trying to open the door… I'm trying to erase the environment that contains me."
With rapid movements, he typed one final command:
target: Subway_Line_Grid
action: Reverse_Polarity + Voltage_Spike
source: Shinigami_Core
What happened next… even (V) didn't anticipate.
The Death Phone didn't send a signal—it absorbed electricity from the third rail beneath the train.
A massive energy backlash erupted.
The red lights exploded. Sparks burst beneath the carriage. Lina screamed as the metro windows cracked and shattered under the sudden atmospheric pressure caused by destabilized electrical charges.
"Sir! We've lost all system connections!" (V)'s assistant shouted.
"The target triggered a full short circuit across the metro line! He's using the train's power to generate a directed EMP!"
(V) stood frozen.
One by one, the screens in front of him went dark.
Silas had blinded him—physically.
Amid smoke and the stench of burned circuitry, Silas slammed his shoulder against the damaged door. It gave way.
He grabbed Lina and pulled her into the dark metro tunnel.
Drones hovered near the station exits in the distance—but they were blind within the tunnel, overwhelmed by smoke and magnetic interference.
"System Admin," Zero said,
"You've consumed 15% of the device's physical energy. (V) will deploy human intervention units now. He won't rely on technology anymore."
"That's exactly what I want," Silas said calmly, walking through the darkness, the phone screen his only light.
"Humans make mistakes. Humans feel fear. And humans… have names that can be written."
Silas suddenly stopped and turned to Lina.
"Your phone is destroyed. That means you're now digitally invisible—like me. But remember… if you try to run, I'll have to add your name to the next update list."
Lina wiped blood from her face, her eyes no longer seeing a genius student…
…but something far more terrifying.
"Where to now?"
"To Point Zero," Silas replied.
"We're going to the place (V) thinks I would never go…"
"…we're going to his home."
In his dark room, (V) stared at the only screen still functioning.
A single message appeared in cold blue text:
[SYSTEM ERROR: ADMIN IS COMING FOR YOU]
For the first time…
(V) felt something real.
Cold.
Silas was no longer defending.
He had begun the counter-strike.