Friday arrived quietly.
Too quietly.
The entire school day passed like background noise to Damien.
Teachers spoke.
Students laughed.
Assignments were submitted.
Somewhere during lunch, two students nearly started a fight over a mech-racing bet, and an intervention drone had to descend from the ceiling to separate them before things escalated.
Normal Blueburn City behavior.
But Damien barely paid attention to any of it.
His thoughts stayed somewhere else.
On the card.
On Dr.
Frost.
On the rooftop.
On the fact that for the first time in his life, something unknown had managed to crawl into his mind and stay there.
By the time classes ended at 4:00 PM, Damien had already made up his mind.
He was going.
No second thoughts.
No hesitation.
If this was a trap, he would deal with it.
If it was the truth, then even better.
Either way, he needed answers.
The moment he left school grounds, Damien activated the card.
At first, nothing happened.
Then the smooth dark surface suddenly flickered to life.
A thin red holographic projection expanded outward from the center, forming a floating map in front of him.
Coordinates pulsed softly alongside a navigation trail that adjusted itself in real time depending on his position.
The route led deep into Blueburn City.
Far deeper than Damien expected.
His eyes narrowed slightly as he followed the projected path.
“…You’ve got to be kidding.”
Because he recognized the destination immediately.
Everyone did.
Blueburn City was the largest modern city in the world.
The crown jewel of the Third Millennium.
A city so advanced that some people called it the “First Step Beyond Humanity.”
The headquarters of the world’s biggest technology corporations stood there, towering over entire districts like artificial mountains of steel and glass.
Massive teleportation hubs connected different sections of the city instantly.
Automated highways floated through the sky in layered currents.
Giant mech-construction frames moved between skyscrapers like mechanical titans maintaining civilization itself.
At night, Blueburn looked less like a city and more like a living network.
But even in a place like that…
There existed one forbidden wound.
Area Verdancy.
The district had been locked away for centuries.
No development.
No rebuilding.
No modernization.
Nothing.
The place was officially classified as a historical danger zone after a catastrophic incident hundreds of years ago, though information about what truly happened there had become fragmented over time.
Some said it was a failed war.
Others claimed it was a biological disaster.
Conspiracy channels insisted it was the birthplace of the first sentient AI rebellion.
Nobody knew the complete truth anymore.
What people did know was this:
Verdancy had emerged there.
The infamous terrorist organization.
A group violently opposed to AI advancement and technological evolution.
They believed humanity was building its own extinction.
That androids, synthetic intelligence, and human enhancement systems would eventually erase what it meant to be human entirely.
And unlike most extremist groups…
Verdancy had actual power.
Enough to terrify governments.
Enough to survive for centuries.
Enough to turn an entire district into a dead zone feared by the modern world.
As Damien crossed deeper into the city, the environment slowly changed.
The clean futuristic glow of Blueburn began fading behind him.
Towering holographic advertisements disappeared.
Sky traffic lessened.
The roads became quieter.
Older.
Cracked.
Even the air felt different somehow.
Nature had begun reclaiming the area in strange ways.
Vines crawled across dead buildings.
Grass pushed through fractured roads.
Massive trees rose between collapsed structures like silent guardians watching over forgotten ruins.
Technology became scarce the further he went.
No service drones.
No maintenance units.
No public AI systems speaking from hidden speakers.
It felt wrong.
Like stepping backward through time.
Now Damien understood why the place had been renamed.
Area Verdancy.
Not because of the organization alone.
But because nature itself had swallowed the district whole.
Damien walked carefully through the abandoned streets.
The holographic path continued guiding him forward.
A faint red line hovering in the air.
His footsteps echoed softly against broken pavement.
Every building around him looked dead.
Some had partially collapsed.
Others leaned at dangerous angles, barely standing after centuries of neglect.
And yet…
Something about the area felt watched.
Not by cameras.
Not by drones.
Something else.
Damien kept moving.
Eventually, the holographic trail stopped.
Right in front of an old building that looked like it should have collapsed decades ago.
The structure leaned slightly to one side, its walls covered in cracks and creeping vines.
Half the windows were shattered.
Rust stained the lower levels like dried blood.
There was no power visible.
No signs of life.
Nothing.
Damien stared at it for a moment.
“…Seriously?”
This was the secret meeting place?
It looked more like a place homeless ghosts would avoid.
Still, he stepped forward.
The old entrance doors barely reacted when he pushed them open.
A cloud of dust shifted through the dim interior.
The building was dead silent.
No lights.
No movement.
Only darkness stretching inward.
But the holographic path continued.
Straight ahead.
Toward an old elevator at the end of the hallway.
The elevator looked ancient.
Its metal doors were worn and scratched deeply with age.
One side hung slightly unevenly, and the call buttons no longer existed.
It looked completely nonfunctional.
Damien approached slowly.
The holographic map suddenly blinked once.
Then vanished.
The card in his hand vibrated softly.
For a moment, nothing happened.
Then a symbol appeared on its surface.
A pine tree.
Damien immediately recognized it.
Verdancy’s emblem.
“…So you really are connected to them,” he muttered quietly.
His suspicion tightened instantly.
Dr.
Frost.
Verdancy.
Area Verdancy.
None of this was coincidence anymore.
Damien stared at the card for another second before finally placing it against the center of the elevator door.
The reaction was immediate.
A violent red light exploded outward from the cracks of the elevator.
The entire hallway trembled.
Mechanical sounds roared alive beneath the building like a sleeping monster awakening underground.
Then—
The elevator doors snapped open.
A blinding crimson glow erupted from inside.
Before Damien could even react, a powerful force pulled him forward.
The sensation hit instantly.
Like being vacuumed through a tunnel at impossible speed.
His body moved before his brain fully processed it.
Darkness.
Lights.
Metal.
Motion.
The world blurred into streaks around him.
Tube connections rushed past from every direction, glowing with streams of flowing energy.
Massive underground transport systems intersected beneath the city like artificial veins beneath Earth’s skin.
Damien felt gravity distort briefly.
Then stabilize.
Finally—
The motion stopped.
His feet touched solid ground again.
Damien’s eyes adjusted slowly.
And what he saw froze him completely.
A secret underground base.
Not small.
Not hidden in the way he imagined.
Massive.
The underground structure stretched farther than he could immediately comprehend.
Metallic walkways crossed over gigantic chambers below.
Screens displayed endless streams of information.
Mechanical transport systems moved weapons and equipment between different sectors with machine precision.
Armed robotic units patrolled elevated platforms.
Heavy mech frames stood docked along massive loading bays.
Androids moved beside humans naturally, carrying equipment, monitoring systems, or operating advanced machinery.
Some humans wore full-body armor with only their heads exposed, their armor marked with the same pine tree symbol Damien had seen on the card.
Verdancy.
Not a ruined terrorist group hiding in shadows.
An army.
A functioning organization.
A very advanced one.
And far more dangerous than the public probably knew.
Damien slowly stepped forward.
His eyes moved carefully across everything.
Nobody stopped him.
Nobody questioned him.
Almost like they had been expecting him.
Which honestly disturbed him more.
“Well,” a female voice said nearby, “you actually came.”
Damien turned.
A woman approached from the end of the pathway.
Blond hair.
Sharp eyes.
Calm expression.
She wore full-body combat armor, sleek and modern in design, though lighter than military-grade suits Damien had seen online.
Embedded lines of green energy ran across parts of the armor’s surface.
And on the right side of her chest—
The pine tree emblem.
Verdancy.
She stopped in front of him.
“Welcome, Mr. Gray,” she said politely.
Damien studied her carefully.
“You know who I am.”
“Of course we do.”
That answer came far too quickly.
The woman turned slightly and gestured forward.
“If you would follow me,” she said, “Dr. Frost will meet you shortly.”
Damien didn’t move immediately.
His eyes shifted around the underground facility once more.
Weapons.
Mechs.
Advanced systems.
This was far beyond what any ordinary terrorist group should possess.
The blond woman noticed his expression.
“You’re surprised,” she said.
“A little.”
“That’s normal.”
She began walking.
After a brief pause, Damien followed.
The deeper they went, the stranger the base became.
Some areas looked hyper-advanced, filled with technology beyond public standards.
Others looked intentionally old-fashioned.
Paper documents.
Natural plant life growing indoors.
Actual wooden furniture in certain corners.
It was like two completely different worlds had been forced together underground.
Humans and androids moved around each other with disciplined efficiency, though Damien noticed something interesting.
There were fewer androids than expected.
And the humans seemed to be the ones in control.
Not the other way around.
Eventually, they reached a massive reinforced doorway at the end of a long corridor.
Two armored guards stood silently beside it.
The blond woman stopped.
Then looked toward Damien.
“The lobby is through these doors,” she said calmly.
“Dr. Frost is waiting inside.”
Damien stared at the entrance.
For some reason, his heartbeat had become slightly heavier.
Not fear.
Anticipation.
The feeling that once he stepped through those doors…
Something in his life would change permanently.
The blond woman pressed her hand against the access panel.
The massive doors began unlocking with deep mechanical sounds.
Slowly.
One lock after another.
Damien stood there watching the opening line of light appear between the doors.
And then—
The chapter of silence before answers finally began.