Chapter 173: Digital Ghost

The hallway was full of noise and light.

BOOM! CLANG! BOOM!

Draven stood in the middle of the hallway. Energy shots hit his armor hard, each hit a loud explosion of sound. He didn’t move at all, but because of the constant attack, tiny cracks started to show up in his shield.

Behind him, Seraph stood guard, her weapon firing in sharp, controlled shots, taking out any soldier who got too close.

But Vanessa’s battle was completely silent.

She was kneeling in front of the small maintenance panel, her eyes closed and her fingers resting on a glowing interface she had projected onto the wall. To anyone else, it looked like she was just thinking very hard.

But in her mind, she was in another world.

She was in a huge, dark space, a world made of pure data. Streams of glowing green and blue information flowed around her like currents in a deep ocean. In the distance, she could see the fortress’s systems, massive structures of pure code that looked like skyscrapers.

She was aiming for a tiny light in the biggest skyscraper, which was the door lock.

She sent her mind flying through the streams of data. But as she got closer to her goal, something met her. It had no face or voice. It was just a big, cold mind. A digital predator. The fortress’s security AI.

Suddenly, a wall of crackling red energy, a firewall, came up in front of her, blocking her path.

I see you, little mouse, the AI seemed to say, not with words, but with pure, hostile code.

Vanessa didn’t back down. This was her battlefield. She was a Runic Engineer. Code, whether it was written in ink or in light, was a language she understood.

“You’re not the first firewall I’ve broken,” she muttered, her forehead covered in sweat.

Her mind went to work. She saw the AI’s firewall not as a wall, but as a complex knot of magical code. Her mind split into many glowing threads, and she began to unweave it. She found the core command, the line of code that said “Block,” and with a sharp pull of her will, she pulled it apart.

The red wall dissolved into harmless digital bits.

She moved forward again, but the AI was learning. The path ahead of her became a tricky maze with data loops and dead ends, all designed to trap her. At the same time, sharp bits of bad code, began to chase her.

Outside, the sounds of the battle were getting worse.

CRACK-SCREEECH!

A loud, metal groaning sound came from Draven as a heavy shot finally broke through a weak spot in his shoulder armor. His golden armor blinked on and off very fast.

“Vanessa, how much longer?” Seraph yelled, her voice strained.

“It’s fighting me!” Vanessa yelled back, her eyes squeezed shut. “It’s smart. It adapts. I can’t break through its main defenses and work on the lock at the same time!”

Jonah watched, his heart beating fast. He was a creator of living things, a weaver of flesh and essence. This digital world was a place he couldn’t enter. He couldn’t fight this enemy.

But maybe… he had a tool that could.

He looked at Vanessa, who was kneeling on the floor. Her face was pale because of the hard mental fight. He looked at Draven, a giant who was close to falling. Pure strength wouldn’t work here. He needed a different type of soldier.

“Vanessa!” he said, kneeling beside her. “Can you open a path for me? Not for me, for one of my Progeny. Can you pull something into the data stream with you?”

Vanessa’s eyes opened for a second. She looked confused, but she saw the fierce determination on his face. She trusted him. “I… I think so. It will weaken my defenses, but I can try. What are you doing?”

“Fighting a ghost with a ghost,” Jonah said. He closed his eyes.

He reached for his smallest, most specialized creation. He reached for the tool he had made for digital espionage.

“Cipher,” he commanded in his mind.

He focused his mind, not on calling the creature to the real world, but on pushing its spirit through his own mind and into Vanessa’s. He felt a weird, tingly connection as their thoughts touched for a second. He pushed Cipher forward.

In the digital world, Vanessa felt a new presence appear beside her. It was a glowing insect made of sparkling code. It was Cipher, a tiny ghost in the machine.

The AI immediately sensed the new threat. It sent a wave of its attackers toward the small creature.

“Cipher, distract it!” Jonah’s thought echoed in the data stream. “Vanessa, now’s your chance! Go for the lock!”

Cipher moved. It was impossibly fast. It didn’t fight the attacks head-on. It dodged and weaved, leading them on a wild chase through the maze of code. As it flew, it left a trail of corrupted data that confused the AI.

The AI, being a cold, logical machine, couldn’t ignore the new variable. It had to deal with the tiny, annoying insect that was messing up its system. It shifted its focus, dedicating a huge amount of its processing power to trapping the little ghost.

And that was the opening Vanessa needed.

With the AI distracted, she moved forward, straight towards the glowing skyscraper of code that controlled the fortress’s security. She arrived at the final firewall. It was a huge, swirling pool of red energy.

“Jonah, I’m at the final lock!” she said in the real world, her voice trembling with effort. “But it’s too strong! Cipher needs to do more than just distract it!”

Jonah understood. “Cipher, attack its core logic!”

The insect in the digital world stopped running. It turned and flew directly at the main structure of the AI. Cipher began to deconstruct the AI’s core programming, one tiny line of code at a time.

The AI let out digital scream of rage. Its full attention was now on the tiny Progeny trying to eat it from the inside.

CRACK!

In the hallway, another piece of Draven’s helmet broke, sending golden pieces flying. He yelled in pain and refused to give up.

“Now, Vanessa! Push!” Jonah yelled.

Vanessa yelled as she tried hard. She and Jonah put all their power into one last push together. She attacked the lock from the outside. Cipher attacked the AI from the inside.

For a second, everything seemed to stop.

Then, in the digital world, the swirling pool of red energy broke into a million pieces of light.

In the real world, a loud sound was heard over the noise of the battle.

The maintenance conduit door slid open.

Their escape route was clear.

Source: Webnovel.com, updated by NovelKeep