Puff——

Smoke curled lazily in the air as Zhang Yuze took a long drag. He glanced at the side mirror, searching for whether he was being tailed, but the road behind him remained empty.

But it didn’t matter. His task was to relocate the vehicle and erase every trace of its presence.

"...."

No, the real objective was to act as a decoy while Nightreign bought time to plan their escape from Germany. If Yuze managed to escape, that was fine. If he died, that was fine, too.

"You’re surprisingly selfless, Mister Zhang."

"...?"

Yuze’s heart nearly leapt out of his chest. He snapped his gaze to the rearview mirror. A young man sat in the backseat, relaxed as if he had been riding along from the start. Yuze had no idea how he had even managed to get inside without him noticing.

He tensed, reaching for a photon saber, but the man only crossed his legs.

"Just drive. You think no one’s following, but that’s exactly what they want you to believe."

"...."

"The moment you stop, consider yourself already dead."

"...Who are you?" Yuze asked.

The man didn’t respond. He only looked out the window calmly, and from that alone Zhang Yuze understood.

"Let me rephrase my question," Yuze said, eyes narrowing. "How did you get our deep web access revoked?"

This man was the one behind everything.

"It’s not such a difficult concept, Mister Zhang. I simply clicked the ban button."

"...."

A chill crept up Yuze’s spine. There were no admins in the deep web. But if there ever was, it could only be its creator.

"You’re the one behind the deep web."

"Yes. Did you enjoy the services so far?"

"It’s certainly something, but you’re..." Yuze stared at him through the rearview mirror, taking in every detail.

No matter how long he looked, the man didn’t seem older than twenty.

"They seem to be getting close, Mister Zhang."

"...."

Yuze frowned. He checked the mirrors again, but the road behind them was still empty.

"Your mistake is assuming they’re on the road, Mister Zhang."

"Then..."

"That’s right." The man raised a finger and pointed upward. "They’re above us."

There were no sounds of rotors. Still, covert technology these days could cloak helicopters with holo-tech, hiding both visual and acoustic signatures. At night, such machines became even more dangerous.

Yuze’s grip tightened on the wheel. His breath came shallow as he scanned the night sky through the windshield.

"How do I lose them?"

Yuze had no choice but to rely on this man. Enemy or not, he was still inside the vehicle. If the car stopped, they would both be captured. Running was the only option, and the only person who seemed to know anything was the stranger sitting casually in the backseat.

"Turn left. Exactly twenty-four degrees."

Yuze jerked the wheel. The car veered into a narrow maintenance lane that looked more like a strip of forgotten concrete than an actual road.

"Right. Sixty-seven degrees."

Yuze adjusted the wheel again. The path curved sharply, and the tires skimmed dangerously close to the concrete.

"Left. One hundred nineteen degrees."

"Left. Twenty-two degrees."

"Right. Sixty-nine degrees."

Yuze followed each command without pausing for breath. His mind focused only on the angles and the road ahead. He could no longer tell if the helicopter was still above them. There was nothing to tell him whether they were still being hunted or not.

"Is it still following us?" he asked.

"Just keep driving, Mister Zhang."

Yuze gritted his teeth. Trusting a stranger who claimed control over the deep web had never been part of the plan, yet here he was, letting him guide every turn in a subterranean maze that shouldn’t exist.

Moisture dripped from the pipes. The maintenance lane dipped again, slanting into a deeper passage. Yuze could feel them descending. The tunnel lights became scarce, slowly fading weakly before giving way to complete darkness. Only the headlights carved a path through the darkness.

"What’s the endgame here?" Yuze asked.

"It’s funny you even think you’re part of the game, Mister Zhang," the man replied. "You’re a means to an end. You and Nightreign were simply the unfortunate group caught between a game I’m playing with someone else."

"...Someone?"

"Your client, of course." He leaned back slightly, speaking as though discussing the weather. "We’re playing a game of coincidence. Our paths keep overlapping. And you just happen to be stuck in the middle, Mister Zhang."

Yuze’s grip on the wheel tightened. The tunnel ahead continued to twist and turn. The implication behind the man’s words sank in slowly. Whatever this was, it was something that had been orchestrated long before this entire ordeal.

"So in the end, we’ve been nothing but pawns, huh?" Yuze said. He let out a low chuckle and took a long drag. "Who’s the client?"

The man didn’t answer. Moments later, the tunnel opened into a long, straight road.

"Just keep going straight."

Yuze glanced at him, then nodded and pressed on. The road climbed gradually until it reached the edge of a cliff. When the man instructed him to stop, Yuze killed the engine.

Both of them stepped out of the car. Cold air swept across the cliffside, the scent of salt and distant spray emanating from the ocean below.

The man stood near the edge with his hands clasped behind his back as he gazed out at the vast expanse of water, as though the world outside the sea held no interest for him.

Yuze remained by the open door, perched on the front of the car. He raised a gun toward the man while smoke drifted from his lips. The barrel stayed trained on that solitary figure at the cliff’s edge.

"Zhang Yuze... Zhang Yuze..."

"...."

Yuze’s grip on the gun wavered at the sound of that name. A tiny tremor ran down his arm. It wasn’t surprising. If the deep web was a vast network of information accessible for the right price, then its creator was something close to a god, able to comb through that endless ocean of data with nothing more than lines of code.

If this man wanted to dig into someone’s life, nothing was beyond his reach.

"Mister Zhang, what do you think of Germany?"

"It’s a shitshow."

However, Zhang Yuze had long since grown used to the filth that held the country together.

"From one angle, yes. But from those above, it’s utopia. A heaven." The man’s gaze never left the ocean. "You could’ve been up there, Mister Zhang. You had everything, yet you threw it all away for brief pleasures."

"...."

"Do you really think you didn’t deserve this kind of life?" he asked. "People like to say, ’We don’t get to choose how we live,’ but that isn’t always true."

Yuze took another drag, letting the smoke drift out slowly as he stared at the man’s back.

"You’re a prime example of it, Mister Zhang. Correct me if I’m wrong, but you see something in that scrap of metal... Rachel, wasn’t it?"

Yuze’s jaw tightened. "Watch what you say. I’m only listening to you talk to keep myself company. When I finish this smoke, I’m pulling the trigger."

"Zhang Yuze," the man went on, unfazed, "a prodigy from China, brought into Germany by Dream Industries. Then you were caught sleeping with an executive’s wife. You lost everything... and ended up a criminal."

"...."

"Do you really believe you did nothing wrong? That you were forced into it? That the system cornered you?"

"I didn’t kill him..."

The man finally turned.

"Will you cling to that lie forever? From another angle, you were the homewrecker, Mister Zhang."

Yuze’s grip trembled around the gun. The cigarette quivered between his fingers. Every word felt like a crack forming in the walls he’d built around his past.

"People love calling themselves victims," the man continued. "It makes running away easier. But pleasure... pleasure makes even the brightest lose reason."

Yuze swallowed. "You don’t know anything about her."

"I know enough," the man replied. "You didn’t love her. You loved being seen. You loved the attention, the validation, the escape."

"...."

The man stepped away from the edge and walked slowly, hands still behind him.

"Germany wasn’t hell. You just refused to climb. You had everything, connections, talent, a future people would have killed for. But you threw it away... to feel wanted."

He stopped and faced Yuze fully.

"In the end, you weren’t the victim. You were simply selfish."

"...."

Yuze’s vision blurred for a moment, his heartbeat pounding in his ears. The barrel of the gun dipped, not from intention, but from the shaking in his hand.

"And so, you killed them. Convinced yourself you’ve done nothing wrong. But that woman... she wouldn’t leave your head, did she? Haunted you in your sleep, in your dreams."

"...."

"And then you found a scrap of metal. Projected her onto it... even gave it the same name. Rachel."

"...."

Yuze’s fingers twitched. The cigarette slipped lower between them, its end burning unevenly as if his lungs had forgotten how to breathe.

"This is pathetic, Mister Zhang," the man said. "Is a life like this truly worth living?"

"...."

Yuze opened his mouth, but nothing came out. He stared at the ocean below, the endless black swallowing the moonlight, and suddenly the wind felt colder on his skin.

"She was never yours," the man went on. "You knew that. You were just... convenient distraction. A toy."

"Shut up..."

"You didn’t matter to her," the man said. "You were simply the easiest option. And when she stopped feeling lonely, you became disposable."

Yuze’s throat tightened. The gun wavered, lowered by an inch, then another.

"You ran because you couldn’t face the truth," the man said. "So you replaced her with something that couldn’t abandon you. Something that couldn’t hurt you. Something that couldn’t leave."

He stepped closer.

"But deep down, you know you’re still alone."

"...."

Yuze flinched. The cigarette finally slipped from his fingers and dropped to the dirt.

"This world doesn’t want you," the man said. "It never did. And you’ve spent all these years refusing to accept it."

He moved to the edge of the cliff and looked down, as if addressing the ocean itself.

"You keep talking about pulling the trigger," he said. "But guns are loud and messy. They don’t suit someone like you."

His gaze turned back to Yuze, speaking sympathetically.

"You’re a man who takes responsibility, aren’t you? A man who understands when his time is up."

"...."

Yuze’s gaze turned toward the darkness below. The ocean floor was nothing but a maw of black, swallowing everything that dared to fall like an abyss.

"...."

And when you gaze long into the abyss...

"You’ve suffered long enough, Mister Zhang."

...The abyss gazes back.

"It’s time for you to rest."