The acrid scent of scorched obsidian and boiling synthetic blood still hung heavily in the air around the destroyed intersection.
Through the settling clouds of gray dust, the towering silhouettes of the corporate monoliths loomed like colossal sentinels guarding an exclusive paradise.
While the slums of Sector 9 remained buried in filth, poverty, and recycled despair, the upper districts hummed with silent, uninterrupted efficiency.
Thanks to the Class-A corporate intel package absorbed directly into his neural registry after subduing the vanguard beast, Deku Kwanoh now possessed a complete, unredacted map of Aether-Corp’s subterranean infrastructure.
He knew where the supply elevators were, where the security checkpoints had blind spots, and, most importantly, where they processed the raw, organic fruits harvested from the occasional Divine Trees into lethal combat gear and spatial-kinetic amplifiers.
Deku walked steadily through the quiet, rubble-strewn alleys, his posture upright and immaculate despite the dried grime and ash staining the tattered fabric of his school uniform.
His ruined leather shoes crunched softly on the gravel as he approached an unassuming, heavily reinforced maintenance hatch built into the base of a rusted industrial support pillar.
According to the system’s map, this was the secondary service intake duct leading directly into Sub-Level 3 of the Aether-Corp Weapon Refinement Facility.
[Bully system]
New quest: Infiltrate the Corporate Refinement Core.
Assert dominance over the facility floor supervisor and claim a high-tier Divine Tree weapon sample.
Time Limit: 30 minutes.
Failure Penalty: Temporary reduction of spatial tier to Level 1.
Rewards:
Spatial Distortion (Tier 3 Upgrade)
Inner Mutation Core Density +20%
Deku read the glowing system text manifest across his field of vision, a cold, detached smirk playing at the corners of his lips.
The corporate executives sitting in their pristine, glass-walled offices high above the clouds believed they were untouchable gods overseeing a lower-class zoo.
They harvested the fruits of the divine trees, manufactured instruments of war, and traded human survival like stocks on a digital exchange.
It was time to teach them who truly owned the campus.
With a casual flick of his wrist, Deku reached out and placed his palm flat against the heavy, titanium-alloy maintenance hatch.
He channeled his Tier 2 spatial distortion, twisting the micro-coordinates of the locking mechanism.
Click.
Whir-r-r.
There was no need for explosives or hacking tools.
With a soft, localized tear in space-time, the electronic magnetic seals snapped instantly, and the massive steel door swung open with a heavy, protesting groan.
Cool, sterile air smelling of ozone and purified nitrogen rushed out from the dark conduit, washing over Deku’s face.
Without a moment of hesitation, he stepped inside into the dim, clinical metallic corridor, letting the hatch slide shut silently behind him.
The interior of the facility was a stark, jarring contrast to the decaying slums outside.
The walls were constructed from seamless, brushed white polymer panels embedded with faint, pulsing blue indicator lights.
Deku moved with the silent, predatory grace of a seasoned apex predator.
When an automated overhead drone glided toward his position, its red targeting lens narrowing, Deku didn’t break stride.
He simply flicked two fingers upward, releasing a sharp, condensed pocket of Tier 2 spatial pressure.
Pop.
The drone’s optical sensor shattered instantly, its internal circuitry shorting out in a shower of tiny, harmless sparks before it dropped dead onto the polymer floor.
Deku stepped cleanly over the wreckage, adjusting the neatly knotted tie at his collar out of sheer, unwavering habit.
Minutes later, he reached the end of the conduit tunnel.
A heavy, reinforced glass observation window looked down into the main production floor of Sub-Level 3.
Below, the scene was staggering.
Massive robotic assembly arms moved with hypnotic precision, slicing, polishing, and coating raw, glowing emerald fruits harvested from the Divine Trees into sleek, high-frequency combat blades and spatial-amplifying gauntlets.
Dozens of technicians in crisp, sterile white uniforms hurried between workstations, supervised by elite corporate security enforcers clad in reinforced black-and-silver armor.
At the center of the floor stood Facility Supervisor Vance, a tall, arrogant man with cybernetic audio-implants glowing behind his right ear, reviewing production logs on a hovering holographic display.
Deku stared down through the reinforced glass, his dark eyes narrowing into cold, razor-sharp slits.
The system hummed warmly in his veins, vibrating with the anticipation of another lesson to be taught.
He raised his hand, channeling his newly expanded spatial-kinetic energy, and shattered the observation glass with a single, silent shockwave, stepping forward into the belly of the corporate beast.