đź“Ś Disclaimer:
This is a work of fiction. All characters, organizations, events, and locations are purely fictional. Any resemblance to real persons, places, or events is purely coincidental.
1. System Split
[System Alert: Multi-Rift Event Detected]
[Priority: Global Code Red – Triple Surge Activation]
🗼 Tokyo, Japan – Hive Echo Signature
🏙️ Manhattan, USA – Core Split Event
🕉️ Chennai, India – Static Bloom Class Rift
[Status: Raunak Virk – Echo-Bound Tier II]
[System Capability: Can anchor 1 Rift Site]
[New Directive: Recruit 3 Echo-Compatible Rankers to activate Phantom Link Protocol.]
Raunak stood in silence as the tactical feed hovered mid-air above a mountainous ledge. The K2 Isolation Veil was now behind them — and ahead lay the world unravelling.
Seo Jin-Tae broke the silence.
"Three cities. Three rifts. One of you."
"Not enough," Raunak muttered.
"You're not supposed to be enough," Jin-Tae replied. "The Echo doesn't pick saviors. It picks fragments — survivors who broke, but didn't stay broken."
Raunak turned to his System again.
[Search Initiated: Echo-Touched Profiles]
[Filter: Confirmed survivors of Rift Manifestation with latent Ranker potential]
Three profiles lit up like sparks across a burned map.
2. Profile 1: Hoshino Kaede – The Tokyo Phantom
[Location: Akihabara Sublevels, Tokyo, Japan]
[Occupation: Former Hacker turned Data-Smuggler]
[Status: Presumed Deceased in Hive Echo Incident]
[Anomaly: Sightings continue in closed-circuit networks only. No physical trace.]
[Potential: Echo-Hybrid | Skill Pattern: Digital Cloakstep, Mind-Fragment Bloom]
Tokyo's underworld had whispered about a "Ghost Hacker" for months — someone who could walk through firewalls like shadows, who appeared on dead terminals and flickered through AI surveillance.
She was more code than person now.
"I remember her," Jin-Tae said. "CyberNest tried to catch her before their collapse. Said she'd stolen neural blueprints meant for human cloning."
"Is she alive?"
"No," Jin-Tae said. "But she's still active."
3. Profile 2: Carter Rhys – The Manhattan Collapse
[Location: Queens Shield Medical Containment, New York, USA]
[Status: Brain-Dead. Rift Survivor – Core Fragment Lodged in Neural Cortex]
[Skill Pattern: Quantum Reflection, Core Split Evasion]
[Threat Level: Unstable Tier I Entity Host]
Rhys was a frontline EMT during the first Rift collapse in Manhattan. They said he saved 32 lives during the surge… before his body collapsed under psychic strain.
His brain died. His body remained.
Yet, cameras in the hospital sometimes caught him standing by the window. Watching. Waiting. Even though monitors recorded no brain activity.
[System Note: High risk. Possible latent Entity-X interference.]
4. Profile 3: Nivetha Rao – The Chennai Bloomwalker
[Location: Choolaimedu, Chennai, India]
[Background: High School Student – Disappeared during Static Bloom Rift]
[Recovered: Two weeks later. Changed.]
[Current Status: Urban Legend – known as "Paavai," a girl seen walking on rooftops in the rain, talking to echoes]
[Skill Pattern: Psi-Tethering, Memory Leash, Dream Projection]
[Remark: Echo power fully active but unstable. Shows symptoms of multi-consciousness.]
Raunak stared at her profile.
"She's just a girl."
Jin-Tae frowned. "So were most Rankers before the world broke."
5. Choosing the First Mission
Raunak looked at the map again.
Tokyo. New York. Chennai.
He could feel the pull of each Rift. Each city was unraveling under its own version of madness — Hive Echo, Core Split, and Bloom Manifestation.
But he could only go to one first.
[System Directive:]
"Choose your first target. You will be locked in this choice for 3 in-world days. The others… will evolve without you."
Raunak clenched his fist.
"We go to—"
🌀 (Reader's Vote Segment – optional for Webnovel interactive model)
If uploading on platforms like Webnovel, this is where you can prompt reader engagement.
👉 Which Rift should Raunak handle first?
đź—Ľ Tokyo (Kaede, the Ghost Hacker)
🏙️ Manhattan (Rhys, the Brain-Dead Echo Host)
🕉️ Chennai (Nivetha, the Bloomwalker)
6. Final Scene: The System's Warning
As Raunak prepared his choice, his System flickered violently.
[ERROR: SYSTEM INTERFERENCE DETECTED]
[Entity-X Message Intercepted]
A familiar whisper seeped through.
"You think you're recruiting? No… You're awakening them. And the more of you there are, the closer I get to being whole again."
Raunak turned to Jin-Tae.
"We're out of time."
End of Chapter 12