#### **Opening**
The lower districts of Neo-Kyo were forever bathed in a dim, yellowish neon glow. Lin Shen hunched his shoulders, pulling the collar of his worn leather jacket higher to block the icy wind seeping through the cracks in the ventilation ducts. He glanced at the vintage digital watch on his wrist—1:47 AM. Above him, a suspended monorail thundered past, rattling the rusted billboard frames until their holographic dancers warped into grotesque skeletons under the flickering current.
"Brother, the medicine…" His sister Lin Xiaoyu's frail voice crackled through the communicator. Lin Shen froze mid-step, his fingers instinctively brushing the silver injector in his pocket—the last dose of neural painkillers, worth three months of his wages on the black market.
"Hold on for half an hour. I'll be home soon," he whispered, quickening his pace down the alley. At the far end, the crimson warning lights of a waste disposal station illuminated a group of drunks pounding on a defunct vending machine. Lin Shen pressed himself against the wall, then paused. Wedged in the machine's cracked side was half a pack of compressed biscuits. After a moment's hesitation, he snatched the package and stuffed it into his backpack. Xiaoyu had been complaining that the hospital's nutrient paste tasted like sludge.
#### **The Catalyst**
Three blocks later, Lin Shen's blood turned to ice.
A holographic newsfeed looped on a billboard at the intersection: *"Mayor Zhao Tianlin announced today that the Genetic Optimization Act will usher in a new era of human evolution…"* Beneath the screen, four figures in black tactical gear surrounded a young woman.
Her silver-white hair glinted coldly under the neon lights. The code "E-07" branded her exposed left arm, and her golden pupils locked onto the masked leader. Dark, fog-like tendrils coiled around the man's fingertips, dissolving the asphalt wherever they touched.
"Surrender the Entropy Core, Subject E-07," the masked man rasped, his voice like grinding metal.
Lin Shen retreated, only to recoil as his back hit cold steel. The alley's exit was sealed by the same swirling black fog. Sweat dripped down his spine. His hand fumbled for the stun gun in his backpack—useless against whatever these creatures were.
#### **Desperation and Awakening**
The girl suddenly smiled. She raised her hand, and a blade of condensed light particles materialized, slicing through the dark fog. The masked man staggered, his chest armor scorched, but the wound quickly healed with writhing shadows.
"How much longer can you last?" he sneered. "Every use of photonic energy shreds your DNA a little more, doesn't it?"
The light blade flickered. The girl collapsed, coughing up golden-tinged blood. Lin Shen glimpsed a black crystal embedded in her neck, pulsing faintly.
As shadowy tendrils coiled around her throat, Lin Shen lunged without thinking. He slammed into the masked man's arm, knocking it aside.
Agony exploded in his palm.
#### **The Entropy Core Activates**
Lin Shen stumbled back, his hand fused to the black crystal on the girl's neck. Blue light erupted from the gem, and a thousand needles seemed to pierce his spine.
*[Host vital signs detected… Entropy Reversal System activated.]*
The mechanical voice echoed inside his skull. His vision flooded with azure data streams. He "saw" the octopus-like shadows coiled within the masked man's body and the girl's disintegrating DNA strands.
*[Warning: Host genetic compatibility insufficient. Forced use will cause irreversible damage.]*
"Shut up!" Lin Shen roared in his mind. He grabbed the girl's wrist and dragged her toward the billboard. The black fog grazed his ear, corroding the metal frame into a honeycomb of holes.
#### **Escape and Questions**
They tumbled into a maintenance shaft behind the screen. Lin Shen hauled the girl through the labyrinth of pipes as molten metal hissed behind them. At the third turn, she suddenly pinned him against the wall, a photon dagger at his throat.
"Why save me?" Her breath carried a metallic tang.
Lin Shen raised his trembling right hand. Beneath the dim light, crystalline veins glowed beneath his skin. "Because of this," he rasped. "Now it's lodged in my bones."
The girl's pupils constricted. An explosion rocked the tunnel.
"To Trench District—the Rust Belt Factory," she hissed, yanking him toward a vent. "Unless you want the Entropy Shadows to tear you apart."