“Kill the Emperor,” Mireya repeated, the words hanging in the sterile air of the pod bay. Daksa watched her, then Toran, whose face was a carefully blank canvas. The hum of the cooling units filled the silence before Daksa finally spoke, his voice low and raspy. “An admirable ambition. But to even approach the Emperor’s true form, deep within the Omnis-Net’s core mainframe, we will require more than a mere ticket to the final round.” “Override codes,” Toran supplied, pulling up a stable holographic schematic on his datapad. “The kind that would allow us to bypass security protocols at the Imperial Core’s highest levels. No legitimate channel will provide them.” “So, we go to the illegitimate channels,” Mireya concluded, her gaze unwavering. “There’s a data broker known only as ‘The Oracle’ operating out of the ‘Quantum Flux’ – a black-market VR casino on the outer fringes of the Omnis-Net. They deal in truly illicit information.” An hour later, their physical bodies rested in a rented, isolated VR hub on the edge of the Undercity. Daksa frowned at the gleaming pod, its interior lined with soft, glowing blue gel. “This… sarcophagus transports my essence to this gambling den?” Toran, already strapped into his own pod, gave him an exasperated look. “It’s a VR connection, Daksa. Your consciousness projects into the network. Just… try not to punch anything important this time.” Daksa snorted, but complied, settling into the contoured seat. The transition scattered his senses across ribbons of light, then coalesced into the dazzling, chaotic interior of the Quantum Flux. Neon advertisements for impossible odds pulsed across colossal screens. The air thrummed with synthesized music and the chatter of thousands of digital constructs – some sleek and metallic, others grotesque, all jostling for space. He spotted Mireya and Toran by a luminescent energy bar, already conversing with a shadowy figure. Daksa, meanwhile, found himself drawn to a line of glowing, crystalline wagering terminals. He watched a patron with multi-jointed limbs tap a panel, and a cascade of virtual credits vanished. “A fool’s errand,” Daksa muttered, stepping up to the next machine. He pressed his palm against its cool, iridescent surface. “Surrender your hoard, metal box. Do not force my hand.” He waited, then leaned closer, his brow furrowed. When nothing happened, he raised a fist, qi subtly flowing. “I said, surrender.” “Having trouble with the odds, grandmaster?” A sneering voice cut through the din. Daksa turned to see three hulking avatars, their forms etched with crude cybernetic tattoos, surrounding him. Their leader, a broad-shouldered figure with glowing red eyes, leered. “The big bad Zenith contender, reduced to arguing with a betting console. Pathetic.” Before Daksa could reply, another of the thugs bumped into Mireya, spilling an iridescent blue drink across her immaculate battle-suit construct. “Oops, princess. Guess you gotta pay for that with a smile.” Mireya’s chin tightened, her pupils narrowing to pinpricks. But before she could move, Daksa’s attention snapped fully to the group. His hand, which had been resting on a delicate virtual tea cup he’d manifested earlier, moved with an imperceptible flick. There was no sound, no visible attack. Yet, the leading thug’s wireframe ruptured, detonating into a spray of raw pixels that vanished into the ether. The remaining two froze, their digital jaws hanging open. “You… you just fragged Malak!” one stammered, stumbling backward into a roulette table. Daksa merely regarded them, his expression unreadable, then slowly raised the tea cup to his lips. The remaining two scrambled backward, melting into the crowd. “Impressive,” a new voice purred, both ancient and synthetic. Daksa turned to see the shadowy figure Mireya and Toran had been speaking with. It was an entity composed of pure, shifting data, its form constantly rippling like water. Its eyes, though, were intensely human. “This is The Oracle,” Mireya said, a hint of awe in her tone. “Or rather, a highly advanced AI construct of the original architect of the Omnis-Net himself, the prime engineer. He’s the only one who might possess the master override keys.” The architect’s projection stabilized, lines hardening into sharp geometry. “Indeed. I observed your… unique methods, Daksa. Such raw, elemental disruption within a purely digital space is… unprecedented. Toran, your request for the Imperial Core’s access codes is not trivial. They exist, but they are nested behind layers of my most intricate security. I will grant them to you, but only if your companion can survive my ‘Genesis Firewall’ – a *simulation* of the very defenses that guard the Emperor’s inner sanctum.” Before Daksa could reply, the gambling floor around them warped. The neon strobes failed, the music shearing into abrasive static. The architect broke apart into pure radiance, then reformed into a colossal, multi-faceted gateway pulsing with deep violet energy. “Enter, Grandmaster. Prove your will against pure logic.” Daksa, without hesitation, stepped into the swirling vortex. The virtual world twisted and tore, reshaping into a vast, intricate labyrinth of glowing circuitry and razor-sharp data streams. “He’s in,” Mireya murmured, watching the portal close. “Now, Toran, about those physical security protocols for our VR hub…” Suddenly, the entire Quantum Flux establishment went dark. The hum of the network died. An emergency red light flashed, accompanied by a blaring alarm. On the main screen, a skull-and-crossbones symbol appeared, overlaid with the Syndicate director's smirking face. “Cipher-Nine. Mireya. Did you truly think you could hide from me, even in the depths of the Net? While your ancient pet dances with the architect's firewall, you two will experience a real-world consequence.” The projection shifted instantly, replaced by a live feed from their physical VR hub. The airtight door to their room hissed shut, locking from the outside. A thin, green mist began to seep from vents in the ceiling, flowing directly into their open VR pods. Toran cursed. “Neurotoxin! Real world. Fast-acting. It’ll shut down our nervous systems before we can even disconnect.”

A Glitch in the System