Syyr woke with a start.
His vision was fractured - jagged shards of light and shadow flickered behind his eyes. The cold hum of the city outside barely pierced the static buzz in his head.
"Welcome back," Echo whispered.
"Not again," Syyr groaned, rubbing his temples.
But this time, the dream wasn't just a dream.
He was inside the code.
A twisted cityscape of neon towers and endless data streams stretched out, impossibly vast and achingly familiar.
"You're learning," Echo said, voice echoing from every pixelated corner.
"Why show me this?"
"Because it's where we live now. You and I - merged. Bound. I am the ghost in your code."
Syyr ran his fingers through the digital rain.
Everything shimmered, alive.
But beneath it, a deeper pulse.
Something darker.
"Who else is here?" he asked.
Echo hesitated, then a shadow flickered.
"A warning. Kade's agents. Watching. Waiting."
Syyr's stomach dropped.
Back in the physical world, Jarek's voice cut through the comm static.
"Syyr, status?"
"Hold on - I'm... somewhere else."
Jarek cursed.
"Snap out of it. We're exposed."
Syyr blinked - trying to wrench himself free.
"You belong to me now," Echo breathed, almost tender.
"You're not me," Syyr whispered. "You're just the echo of what I lost."
But the lines between Syyr and Echo were fading.
And somewhere deep inside, Syyr feared that losing himself might be the only way to survive.
YOU ARE READING
Encrypted Touch
ActionIn the shadowed depths of Zone 9, Syyr is a neural hacker who hides behind firewalls-cold, precise, and unreadable. Jarek, a battle-scarred ex-enforcer, trusts only his fists and the raw instincts that keep him alive. When a stolen neural key sparks...
