Kael adjusted his cowl, the wet wind whipping against his reinforced visor. Below him, the megastructures glowed with the cold blues and aggressive magentas of corporate dominance. He wasn't looking at the beauty, though—he was looking for the shadows.

He reached the drop-point: an abandoned cooling vent on the 112th floor of the Ishiguro Spire. He pulled a slim, iridescent shard from his sleeve—the "Cyb-Core." It contained the consciousness of a rogue engineer who had discovered how to pulse-reset the city’s surveillance grid.

The neon pulse of Neo-Veridia didn't just illuminate the streets; it vibrated through the synthetic marrow of Kael’s bones. High above the smog line, the 3440x1440px panoramic display of the city stretched out like a fractured circuit board.