Kaito took a deep breath and stepped forward, his form dissolving into a cascade of shimmering data as he entered the vortex. For a fleeting moment, the world around him was nothing but a whirlwind of code, a storm of fragmented scripts and unstable algorithms. Then, suddenly, the chaos solidified.

  He emerged in the Black Market.

  The air crackled with an unnatural energy, a sensation that sent a thrill through his digital form. This was no ordinary sector of the Net Realm. It was an ever-shifting labyrinth of forgotten data, a place where illegal programs, forbidden knowledge, and rogue intelligences converged. Hackers of every caliber lurked in the shadows, their avatars masked behind layers of encryption.

  Towering structures of pixelated steel and neon sprawled in every direction, forming a chaotic maze of information exchanges and clandestine deals. Holographic signs flickered with cryptic advertisements: "Zero-trace exploits for sale," "AI combat constructs available," "Memory wipes – erase your past today!" Kaito felt a chill run down his spine. He had heard stories of this place, but witnessing it firsthand was another thing entirely.

  Erebus led the way through the maze, his presence an enigma. Unlike most avatars, whose designs revealed something about their nature or allegiances, Erebus’s form was in constant flux, shifting between shadow and static, as though even the Net Realm itself struggled to define him.

  “Keep up,” Erebus said without looking back. “We’re almost there.”

  Kaito followed in silence, his dark purple eyes scanning every inch of their surroundings. The deeper they went, the more the Black Market changed. The neon glow dimmed, replaced by a darker, more ominous atmosphere. The crowds thinned, and the alleys grew narrower. Security constructs patrolled in the distance—guardian programs designed to keep order in the lawless domain. Even they avoided certain areas.

  Finally, Erebus stopped before a massive door embedded within a structure that pulsed with raw, unfiltered data. It was unlike anything Kaito had ever seen—a living algorithm, shifting and evolving with every passing second. A single word appeared on the surface: Access?

  Erebus reached out, his hand dissolving into lines of code that interfaced with the door. A moment later, it responded: Granted. The door unraveled, data streams peeling away to reveal the chamber within.

  Kaito stepped inside and found himself in a darkened room, illuminated only by the soft glow of holographic screens. Figures sat around a circular table, their forms obscured by masks of shifting code. At the center of the table hovered a massive block of encrypted data, pulsating with an eerie light.

  Erebus turned to face Kaito, his voice measured. “This is your test.”

  The figures at the table regarded Kaito with silent intensity. One of them spoke, a deep, modulated voice cutting through the tension. “You’ve proven you can breach high-level security. But raw skill means nothing if you can’t handle what’s inside.”

  Stolen novel; please report.

  Kaito frowned. “What’s inside?”

  Erebus gestured to the floating data block. “A sealed archive, containing classified intelligence. We don’t just need it cracked—we need it understood. Decryption is the easy part. The real challenge is seeing beyond the data, understanding the truth hidden within.”

  Kaito’s fingers twitched at his sides. He stepped forward, reaching toward the archive. As his hand connected with the data, a surge of raw information flooded his mind.

  The first layer was basic encryption—something Kaito recognized immediately. It was AES-256, a nearly unbreakable algorithm that major corporations and governments used to protect their secrets. He could see the initialization vector, the symmetrical key structure—it was all there. But Kaito knew that encryption, no matter how strong, had a weakness: the key. Without it, brute force attacks would take centuries. But if he could locate a vulnerability in how the key was stored or transmitted, the entire system would collapse.

  Lines of code unraveled before him, shifting, reshaping. This was no ordinary encryption—this was something ancient, something beyond mere security protocols. It whispered in fragmented voices, half-formed memories lost within the digital abyss. A name surfaced amid the chaos: Project Deus.

  His pulse quickened. He had heard rumors—whispers of a project so classified that even the Aeternis themselves kept it buried. A project tied to the very foundations of the Net Realm itself.

  He barely had time to process before an alarm blared. The screens around them flickered violently, warning symbols flashing across the room. Someone—or something—had detected their intrusion.

  Erebus’s form shifted erratically, his voice edged with urgency. “They know we’re here.”

  The chamber trembled as firewalls locked into place, digital constructs materializing like spectral guardians. Kaito’s grip on the data tightened as he fought to maintain the connection. The figures at the table disappeared, vanishing into encrypted exits, leaving only Erebus and Kaito behind.

  “Can you finish the decryption?” Erebus demanded.

  Kaito’s jaw clenched. “Almost.”

  “Then do it fast,” Erebus said, summoning a blade of pure code from his arm. “Because we’re not alone.”

  From the darkness, figures emerged—security enforcers, their avatars clad in obsidian armor, their movements precise and lethal. The Net Realm had sent its hunters.

  Kaito’s mind raced. He had bypassed the encryption, but the real challenge was understanding what he was seeing. He recognized hashed signatures—cryptographic fingerprints of past hackers who had interacted with this data before. Whoever had touched Project Deus had tried to erase their traces, but remnants of their digital fingerprints remained. Using a technique called rainbow table attacks, Kaito began reversing the hashed data, searching for identities hidden within the layers of obfuscation.

  Without hesitation, Kaito’s fingers danced across an invisible interface, bypassing final layers of encryption with a near-instinctual precision. The archive splintered open, revealing fragmented records of clandestine experiments, abandoned blueprints, and the names of long-forgotten hackers who had disappeared without a trace.

  A voice resonated from the archive itself, distorted yet oddly familiar. "They were never supposed to know."

  The words sent a chill through Kaito’s code-bound form. He had seen many security measures, but never had an archive spoken to him.

  Erebus dodged an incoming strike, his blade clashing against an enforcer’s weapon, the force sending static ripples through the air. “Kaito, now would be a good time to run!”

  Kaito’s eyes flickered as he compressed the decrypted data into a secure partition. "Got it!"

  The moment the process completed, Erebus grabbed him by the shoulder, dragging him backward. “Hold on.”

  A surge of data erupted beneath them, distorting their surroundings into pure static. Kaito barely registered the sensation of free-falling through the Net Realm before they crashed into another sector. His vision blurred as his avatar re-stabilized, his mind still processing the overwhelming flood of information.

  Erebus pulled him to his feet, his expression unreadable. "You just uncovered something bigger than you can imagine."

  Kaito exhaled sharply. "Yeah? Then tell me. What the hell is Project Deus?"

  Erebus stared at him for a long moment before turning away. “Not here. We need to move. Now.”

  With the echoes of security alarms still ringing in the distance, Kaito knew one thing for certain—he

  Had just stepped into something far beyond his control.

  End of Chapter 2