CHAPTER 51: BLIND SPOTS

The tunnel smelled like copper and old darkness, the kind of stale air that had been trapped underground since before the fracture event turned the world into a RPG gone wrong.

Rin walked in front, his right arm still wrapped in the tatters of his sleeve, the skin underneath glowing with a faint, rhythmic gray light that matched the buzzing in his ears. It wasn’t painful anymore, just annoying, like a notification LED he couldn’t turn off.

"So," Joy broke the silence, her voice echoing too loudly off the wet stone, "we just beat a dungeon made of your childhood trauma."

"We beat a glitch construct that used my memory as a texture map," Rin corrected, stepping over a rusted mine cart. "It wasn’t deep, it was just procedural generation."

"It was a house made of tentacles, Rin," Tayo said from the back, tapping his splinted arm against his chest to test the pain. "That’s pretty deep."

"Can we focus on the part where we’re fugitives?" Nyx asked, sliding down a steep incline of loose gravel with annoying grace. "Thorne knows we’re alive, he knows we have Leo, and he knows Rin has the source code or whatever that gray sludge is."

Leo walked silently in the middle of the formation, looking less like a monster and more like a guy who hadn’t slept in a month. The shadow armor had fully retracted into his skin, leaving him pale and shivering, though Rin noticed the shadows on the floor seemed to reach toward his boots like eager pets.

"Hungry," Leo muttered.

"We just ate rations," Rin said.

"Not food," Leo looked at a patch of glowing moss on the wall. "Mana. I need energy, Rin. The battery is draining."

Rin checked his HUD.

[Party Member: Indra]

[Mana: 14%]

[Status: Stabilizing]

[Note: Entity requires constant mana intake to maintain physical form]

"Hold on," Rin said.

He stopped, closing his eyes. He didn’t reach for the purple void, he reached for the gray static, the new power he’d looted from the glitch bear and the house.

’Static Mastery.’

He pushed it outward, not as a force, but as a sense.

The world shifted.

He didn’t see the tunnel anymore, he saw wireframes. The walls were blue grids, the floor was a mesh of gray polygons, and the air was filled with particles of data. He could see the mana flowing through the earth like veins of gold.

"Found some," Rin said, opening his eyes.

He walked to the wall, punched his hand into the rock, and pulled out a chunk of raw crystal that was pulsing with blue light. It wasn’t a refined core, just raw crystallized dungeon runoff.

He tossed it to Leo.

Leo caught it, crushed it in his hand, and inhaled the blue mist that rose from the shards. Color returned to his cheeks, and the shadows at his feet settled down.

"Better," Leo sighed.

"You’re an expensive pet," Nyx noted.

"I’m a high-maintenance weapon," Leo corrected, flashing a grin that was almost normal, except his teeth were still slightly too sharp.

They continued for another hour until the air grew fresher, hotter.

"Exit," Rin said, pointing to a slant of moonlight ahead.

They emerged from the mine shaft into a canyon, the walls rising high on both sides, shielding them from the open desert. It was night, but the sky was still wrong, the stars smeared across the blackness like wet paint, blinking in and out of existence.

"We need to find Echo," Rin said, checking the horizon. "He’s the only one who can explain what’s happening to my arm, and probably the only S-rank left who isn’t trying to kill us or harvest us."

"Echo is blind," Joy said. "How do we find a blind guy in a desert the size of a country?"

"He finds us," Rin said. "He’s a Sensory Specialist, he probably heard us crash that bug shell from fifty miles away."

"Or," Tayo whispered, pointing up, "he’s already here."

Rin looked up.

Perched on the canyon rim, silhouetted against the broken sky, was a figure. He sat perfectly still, legs dangling over the edge, a strip of white cloth wrapped around his eyes.

Echo.

"You’re loud," Echo said, his voice soft but carrying perfectly down into the canyon. "For a group of ninjas, you stomp like elephants."

"We had a rough landing," Rin called back.

Echo slid off the rim, falling sixty feet and landing without a sound, absorbing the impact by simply bending his knees. He stood up, brushing dust off his robes.

"Rin Matsuda," Echo said, tilting his head as if listening to a song only he could hear. "You sound... dissonant."

"I feel dissonant," Rin said, stepping forward, keeping his gray arm behind his back. "We need help."

"Everyone needs help," Echo turned his head toward Leo. "Especially the dead boy who smells like the void."

Leo stiffened, shadow spikes erupting from his shoulders. "I’m not dead."

"You’re not alive either," Echo said calmly. "You’re a frequency that’s playing too loud."

"Can you fix us?" Rin asked.

Echo smiled, a small, sad expression. "Fix? No. The world is broken, Rin. The note has been soured. But I can teach you how to play in the new key."

"Thorne is hunting us," Nyx said, stepping up. "We don’t have time for riddles."

"Thorne is busy," Echo said. "He’s trying to patch the hole you punched in his server. The sky is bleeding mana, and if he doesn’t stabilize it, the entire Sperrgebiet will detach from reality."

"Good," Joy said. "Let it detach."

"And kill everyone inside?" Echo shook his head. "Director Tau is still in there, fighting a rearguard action to keep the monsters contained. If the zone collapses, he dies."

Rin felt a pang of guilt. He’d left Tau behind.

"We need to get stronger," Rin said. "Fast. Thorne won’t be busy forever."

"True," Echo turned, tapping his cane against the rock. "Follow me. We can’t stay here, the drones are sweeping the grid."

"Drones?" Tayo looked up.

High above, silent shapes drifted against the stars. Sleek, white, triangular drones with single red eyes scanning the ground.

"Architect eyes," Echo said. "They see heat, mana, and movement. But they don’t see sound."

He tapped his cane again, a rhythmic clack-clack-clack.

"Walk in my rhythm," Echo ordered. "Match your heartbeat to the tap. If you fall out of sync, they’ll see you."

"That’s impossible," Joy whispered.

"Try," Echo walked into the darkness of the canyon.

They followed. It was agonizing. Echo’s tapping wasn’t a simple beat, it was a complex, shifting rhythm, a code that seemed to confuse the very air around them. Rin focused on the sound, forcing his breathing, his steps, even his pulse to align with the noise.

Above them, a drone lowered, its red eye sweeping over the canyon floor.

The light passed right over them.

It didn’t stop. It didn’t alarm. It just kept moving.

"Stealth mode unlocked," Tayo breathed.

They walked for miles, deep into the rocky labyrinth of the Sperrgebiet, until they reached a cave entrance hidden behind a waterfall of sand—sand pouring continuously from a ledge above, concealing the opening.

Echo walked through the falling sand without getting a grain on him.

Inside, the cave was massive, lit by bioluminescent fungi that grew in spiral patterns on the ceiling. It wasn’t just a cave, it was a dojo. Mats were laid out, weapon racks stood against the walls, and in the center was a pool of still, dark water.

"Welcome to the Blind Spot," Echo said. "The one place on the map the Architect can’t see."

"Why can’t he see it?" Rin asked, looking around.

"Because it doesn’t exist," Echo said. "Not in the code. I erased it."

He turned to Rin.

"Show me the arm."

Rin rolled up his sleeve. The gray scars were pulsing, the pixelated skin shifting.

Echo reached out, running his fingers over the corruption. He didn’t flinch when the static sparked against his skin.

"You mixed Void and Light," Echo murmured. "Chaos and Order. You made Grey."

"Is that bad?"

"It’s impossible," Echo said. "Void deletes. Light creates. Putting them in the same vessel should have deleted the vessel."

"I’m sturdy," Rin said.

"You’re lucky," Echo corrected. "But now you have a problem. The Grey is eating you. It’s looking for a purpose, and if you don’t give it one, it will consume your mana, your health, and eventually your data."

"How do I control it?"

"You don’t control static, Rin," Echo stepped back, assuming a fighting stance. "You tune it."

He raised his cane.

"Attack me."

"What?"

"Attack me. Use the Grey. If you don’t use it, it kills you. If you use it wrong, I kill you."

"I don’t want to fight you," Rin said. "You’re an ally."

Echo moved.

He didn’t teleport, he just moved with such efficiency that Rin’s brain couldn’t track the frames. The cane struck Rin’s chest, a light tap that somehow sent a shockwave through his entire skeleton, knocking him backward onto the mat.

"I am not your ally," Echo said, his voice devoid of warmth. "I am a teacher. And right now, you are failing the test."

Rin scrambled up, anger flaring. The gray energy responded to the emotion, buzzing louder.

"Fine," Rin said.

He pulsed.

Gray static wreathed his fist. He didn’t try to form a blade, he just let it loose, punching a blast of raw distortion at Echo.

Echo didn’t block. He tilted his head, listening to the hum of the energy, and stepped two inches to the left.

The blast missed, carving a groove in the cave wall that looked like the stone had been erased by an eraser tool.

"Too loud," Echo said. "You’re screaming when you should be whispering."

He struck again, the cane hitting Rin’s elbow, hitting the nerve cluster that controlled his grip. Rin’s arm went numb, the energy fizzling out.

"The Grey is noise," Echo lectured, circling him. "It disrupts. It corrupts. You’re trying to use it like a hammer, like simple force. But it’s not force. It’s interference."

Rin gritted his teeth, feeling the sensation return to his arm. "So how do I use it?"

"Stop trying to break the target," Echo said. "Break the target’s connection to reality."

Leo stepped forward, his eyes narrowing. "Leave him alone, old man."

"Sit down, ghost," Echo snapped his fingers.

A wave of sound hit Leo, not a blast, but a frequency that disrupted the shadow mana holding his body together. Leo flickered, his form turning transparent, and he dropped to one knee, gasping.

"See?" Echo said to Rin. "I didn’t hit him. I just introduced a frequency that his existence couldn’t harmonize with."

Rin looked at his hand. The gray sparks jumped between his fingers.

Interference.

He wasn’t throwing punches. He was throwing errors.

"Again," Rin said.

He focused. He didn’t try to push the power out. He tried to vibrate it, to match the frequency of the air around him.

He lunged.

Echo swung the cane.

Rin didn’t dodge. He pulsed the gray energy into his own body, disrupting his own physical position.

He glitched.

For a microsecond, Rin wasn’t there. The cane passed through empty space.

Rin reappeared inside Echo’s guard, his fist stopped an inch from the blind man’s chest.

Echo smiled.

"Better."

Rin dropped his hand, sweating, the gray marks on his arm glowing softly but not burning.

"You learned to skip a frame," Echo said. "Useful. But you’re still leaking."

"Leaking what?"

"Signal," Echo pointed to the entrance of the cave. "You’re broadcasting your location every time you use that power. The Architect can’t see this cave, but he can see you when you light up like a beacon."

"So I can’t use it?"

"You have to learn to encrypt it," Echo walked to the pool of water. "But first, we need to deal with your brother."

Leo looked up, his eyes wary. "What about me?"

"You’re unstable," Echo said. "You’re eating cores just to stay solid. That’s not sustainable. Eventually, the hunger will outweigh the logic, and you’ll become a dungeon boss in a human suit."

"Rin invited me to his party," Leo said defensively. "The System manages me."

"The System is a band-aid," Echo dipped his hand into the water. "You need a new hull. Your current one is leaking memory."

"Can you help him?" Joy asked, stepping forward.

"I know a crafter," Echo said. "An artisan who lives in the Skeleton Coast. He works with materials the Association banned. If anyone can build a vessel for a shadow soul, it’s him."

"The Skeleton Coast is on the other side of the country," Tayo noted. "And it’s crawling with shipwrecks and fog monsters."

"And Thorne’s hunters," Nyx added.

"Then we better get moving," Rin said, wiping sweat from his forehead. "We have a road trip to finish."

Echo stood up. "I will guide you through the desert. But once we hit the coast, you’re on your own. I have my own war to fight."

"What war?"

"The one inside the Association," Echo said, his face grim. "Tau took the fall, but the rot is deep. I need to cut it out before it kills us all."

Rin nodded. "Deal."

He looked at his team. They were battered, tired, and wanted by the government.

But they were leveling up.

[Skill Acquired: Static Step (Level 1)]

[Effect: Short-range teleportation via reality disruption]

[Cost: High Mana + Gray Energy]

Rin clenched his fist. The gray static purred.

"Let’s go," Rin said. "We have a ghost to build."