"This is a terrible idea." Kai adjusted the hidden compartment in his skates where Cipher's new modification chips nestled against the power core. "We're one week from my physical audit, and you want me carrying contraband through a security zone?"

  Cipher didn't look up from his workbench, where he was finalizing a compact data package. "The audit looks for integration abnormalities, not physical modifications. These chips are passive until activated."

  "Still," Kai said, watching Proxy check her gear by the door. "Couldn't this wait?"

  "No," Proxy interrupted. "Our contact only surfaces during specific network fluctuations. Tonight's window is narrow."

  He had arrived at the Undercut expecting a routine check-in. Instead, he found Cipher and Proxy preparing for what they called a "specialized pickup" in a dark sector—an area of Server Nova with minimal network connectivity, where physical transfer remained the only reliable communication method.

  "The package contains custom modifications that could make your audit... interesting," Cipher admitted, sealing the request packet. "But the upside is worth the risk."

  "How comforting."

  Proxy tossed him a small, matte-black device that looked like a wrist communicator. "Put this on. It masks your signature profile when activated. Not completely, but enough to blur recognition algorithms."

  "That doesn't exactly ease my concerns."

  She flashed a rare smile. "Good. Concern keeps you alert. Ready to roll?"

  The Upper Commercial District blazed with simulated evening activity. Corporate users and digital citizens filtered between entertainment venues and shopping plazas, their premium avatars throwing off subtle light effects that standard resolution couldn't achieve.

  Kai and Proxy blended in by keeping to the main thoroughfares, their skates retracted to match the pedestrian crowd.

  They passed beneath a massive holographic display playing a corporate news feed:

  NETWORK STABILITY INITIATIVE ENTERS PHASE THREE: SYSADMIN ANNOUNCES IMPROVED USER EXPERIENCE.

  Proxy snorted. "Translation: more surveillance, fewer access points."

  "You don't believe the stability claims?" Kai kept his voice low.

  "I've monitored the network long enough to recognize a security upgrade disguised as maintenance." She guided them toward the boundary between commercial and residential districts. "We're heading to Sector 37."

  "Sector 37? I don't think I've seen that on any maps."

  "You wouldn't. It was decommissioned during the third infrastructure upgrade. Officially, it doesn't exist anymore."

  As they moved away from the commercial center, the environment gradually changed. Pristine sidewalks gave way to less maintained paths. Building density decreased. Light quality dimmed as fewer resources were allocated to environmental rendering in these lower-priority areas.

  "How much farther?" he asked after twenty minutes of skating through increasingly sparse neighborhoods.

  "Almost to the transition point." Proxy slowed her pace. "Look ahead—see where the rendering quality changes?"

  In the distance, a visible line cut across the cityscape. Beyond it, buildings appeared slightly fuzzy around the edges, their textures less detailed. Street lights flickered intermittently rather than glowing steadily. The entire area had a distinctly outdated aesthetic, like digital architecture from a previous generation.

  "That's the partition line," Proxy explained. "Anything beyond that point receives minimal system resources. Perfect for operations that need to stay off the grid."

  They approached the boundary cautiously. Proxy activated her wrist device, and he followed suit. A slight tingling sensation washed over him as the signature masking took effect.

  "Security doesn't patrol regularly here, but automated scanners sweep the transition line," she warned. "Stay close. Move exactly when I do."

  They waited as a steady pulse of scanning energy swept along the boundary. The moment it passed, Proxy darted forward. He matched her timing precisely, and they crossed the partition line into Sector 37.

  The sensation was immediate and disorienting.

  Network connectivity dropped to near zero. His interface map flickered and faded, location services disappeared, and communication channels went silent. Even the air felt different—thinner somehow, as if the environmental simulation was running at reduced capacity.

  "Welcome to digital purgatory," Proxy said, gesturing at their surroundings.

  Sector 37 stretched before them—a decommissioned district frozen in time. Buildings from an earlier iteration of Server Nova stood in various states of digital decay. Some appeared mostly intact but with simplified textures. Others showed rendering errors—patches of missing detail, placeholder patterns, or wireframe structures visible beneath damaged surfaces.

  The streets followed an outdated grid pattern, designed before the current transportation methodology had been implemented. Plazas that once hosted vibrant social gatherings now stood empty, their fountains and decorative elements stuck in broken animation loops.

  "What happened here?" Kai asked, skating slowly through the abandoned landscape.

  "System optimization," Proxy replied. "When Server Nova expanded its commercial sectors eight years ago, they needed additional processing resources. Instead of adding capacity, corporate decided to decommission 'non-essential' areas."

  "They just... deleted part of the city?"

  "Not deleted—that would require recoding adjacent sectors. Too expensive. They simply cut resource allocation to absolute minimum and removed it from official maps." She pointed to a partially transparent building ahead. "Perfect digital ghost town. No corporate oversight, no security patrols, no monitoring algorithms."

  The world around them suddenly flickered. Buildings wavered like heat mirages, digital textures momentarily revealing their underlying code structure. Street lights dimmed, then brightened, then dimmed again.

  "Power fluctuation," Proxy said, quickly pulling him behind a glitching storefront. "Right on schedule."

  "This was planned?"

  "Not by corporate. These blackouts have been increasing over the past months." In the darkness, her profile was barely visible. "Official channels blame unauthorized resource usage, but that's just what they tell the general population."

  The emergency lighting kicked in, bathing the street in dull red. Through the semitransparent walls of nearby buildings, he saw that interior rendering had ceased completely, leaving hollow wireframe structures.

  "And what's the real cause?" he asked.

  Proxy's expression turned guarded. "That depends on who you ask. SysAdmin claims system capacity limitations as usage increases. Underground networks have... different theories."

  Before he could press further, she held up a hand for silence. In the distance, a security drone hummed to life, its backup power systems activating.

  "We wait it out here," she said, settling against the wall. "The blackout creates a coverage blind spot, but only if we don't trip proximity sensors. They'll be running standard sweep patterns until power returns."

  Minutes passed in tense silence.

  The abandoned storefront's degraded rendering created strange visual effects as emergency lighting played across partially defined surfaces. Proxy's eyes constantly scanned their surroundings, even in near-darkness.

  "Were you really a network administrator?" he finally asked, recalling a detail from her background that Cipher had once mentioned.

  She tensed momentarily, then relaxed. "Senior infrastructure analyst for GridCom. Eight years before... certain discoveries changed my career trajectory."

  "What kind of discoveries?"

  "The kind that get your upload privileges revoked if you ask the wrong questions." She turned to face him fully. "I specialized in network anomaly detection. My job was identifying and correcting data flow irregularities—the digital equivalent of finding water leaks in a complex plumbing system."

  "And you found something you weren't supposed to?"

  "I found patterns that contradicted official network architecture. Data flowing to destinations that shouldn't exist. Resources allocated to projects that weren't in any corporate registry." Her voice dropped lower. "But mostly, I found boundary inconsistencies."

  "Boundaries? You mean between sectors?"

  She didn't answer directly. "Information doesn't just flow through approved channels in Server Nova, Kai. There's an entire ecosystem outside corporate control—a parallel network built in the shadows of the official one."

  She pointed to a thin cable running along a nearby building's exterior, nearly invisible against the degraded texture.

  "See that? Not original infrastructure. Someone added it—probably years ago—to create a data pathway the official system wouldn't detect."

  "Unauthorized modifications to Server architecture? How is that even possible?"

  "The system wasn't designed to be as rigid as they pretend. The original architects created flexibility that corporate interests have been trying to eliminate for years." Proxy's eyes gleamed in the emergency lighting. "But you can't completely rewrite foundational code without rebuilding from scratch. The old architecture still exists beneath the surface."

  In the eerie half-light of the decommissioned sector, with red emergency lights casting distorted shadows through partially rendered structures, these revelations felt somehow both overwhelming and perfectly logical. His experiences since upload had already hinted at a system more complex than the corporate orientation had described.

  "Is that why you left GridCom? Because you discovered the shadow network?"

  "I left because I started asking questions about what I found, and suddenly my security clearance was under review." Her expression hardened. "Two colleagues who had access to the same data disappeared from the system entirely. Official explanation: 'voluntary termination of upload contract.'"

  The narrative has been taken without authorization; if you see it on Amazon, report the incident.

  "You think they were deleted?"

  "I think corporate interests protect corporate secrets." She straightened as the street lights flickered back to life. "Power's returning. Time to move."

  They continued deeper into Sector 37, skating past increasingly degraded structures. The restored power hadn't fully reached this area—many buildings remained partially rendered, environmental details fuzzy around the edges.

  "Low resource allocation," Proxy explained, noticing his gaze. "These sectors get minimum rendering priority."

  She navigated the deteriorating environment with remarkable confidence, taking turns into streets that looked identical to him. Without network connectivity, his interface map remained blank, forcing him to rely entirely on Proxy's guidance.

  "How are you navigating without network access?"

  "You don't need network to see flux lines," she said, gesturing to faint trails barely visible on the ground. "Learn to read them. When the visual rendering fails, they're often the only reliable markers."

  He activated his Zero-Point Vision, which revealed the flux trails with greater clarity—ghostly pathways left by previous travelers, some fresh, others fading with time.

  "Different signatures have different durations," Proxy continued. "Corporate security leaves dense but short-lived patterns. Independent couriers create thinner, longer-lasting trails. Learn the differences, and you'll know who's been through an area recently."

  A distant mechanical hum interrupted their lesson.

  Proxy pulled him sharply behind a partially rendered column as a security drone rounded the corner ahead. Unlike the sleek models patrolling upper sectors, this unit was bulkier, equipped with enhanced scanning arrays—a model designed specifically for low-connectivity enforcement.

  "Backup power patrol," Proxy whispered. "They operate on independent systems during blackouts. Stay completely still."

  The drone hovered in place at the street junction, its scanning beam sweeping methodically across surfaces. For a tense minute, it continued its survey, coming dangerously close to their position.

  Proxy slowly removed something from her jacket—a small device no larger than her thumbnail. With barely perceptible movement, she flicked it down the opposite street.

  The tiny object bounced once, emitting a brief electronic pulse. Immediately, the drone's sensors reoriented toward the sound, its propulsion system engaging as it moved to investigate.

  "Old trick," she murmured as they slipped away in the opposite direction. "Signal emitter mimics a communication burst. They're programmed to prioritize potential network violations during blackouts."

  They continued deeper into the decommissioned sector, where the architecture deteriorated further. Entire buildings existed as mere outlines, their internal structures visible through transparent walls. The ground occasionally showed rendering gaps—patches where textures failed to load completely.

  "Our contact is just ahead," Proxy said as they approached what appeared to be an old data processing center. Unlike the surrounding structures, this building maintained more detailed rendering, suggesting someone had redirected resources to maintain its functionality. "Maddox only surfaces during network fluctuations when security systems are temporarily offline."

  "Why all the precautions? What exactly are we picking up?"

  "Technical specifications for experimental flux manipulation. The kind of modifications that could make your skates do things they definitely shouldn't be capable of."

  The processing center's main entrance had been sealed with digital security barriers, but Proxy led them to a side access point hidden behind corrupted rendering artifacts. The panel responded to a complex sequence of inputs, sliding open to reveal a dark space beyond.

  Inside, banks of outdated processing units filled the room, most powered down or running at minimal capacity. In the center stood a makeshift workstation where a tall figure hunched over scattered components.

  "You're late," the man said without looking up. "Blackout's already receding. Six minutes until standard connectivity resumes in this sector."

  "Security sweep delayed us," Proxy replied, approaching the workstation. "You have the package?"

  Maddox finally turned, revealing a gaunt face with unnaturally sharp features. His avatar seemed deliberately under-rendered, the minimal detail making his appearance disturbingly skeletal. He held up a chip pack with the air of a magician performing a grand reveal.

  His eyes narrowed when he spotted Kai.

  "New associate? You didn't mention bringing anyone else."

  "He's with me," Proxy said firmly. "Cipher's latest project."

  Maddox studied Kai with unsettling intensity. "Interesting flux signature. Not standard Nova resonance patterns." He turned back to Proxy. "The package is ready, but there's something else you should see."

  He activated a holographic display that flickered unstably in the low-power environment. Data scrolled across the projection—technical readings alongside architectural schematics that Kai didn't fully understand.

  "System performance degradation near sector boundaries," Maddox explained. "Increasing frequency, expanding effect radius. These measurements come from the northeastern grid junction, but I've confirmed similar patterns in three other boundary sectors."

  Proxy stiffened. "How recent?"

  "This dataset is from yesterday. The degradation rate has accelerated 17% in the past week alone."

  Kai studied the readings, recognizing enough to understand the implications. "These show rendering instability at structural boundaries. That's not just resource allocation—it's system-level architecture failure."

  Both Proxy and Maddox turned to look at him with surprise.

  "Your new associate has unexpected insight," Maddox noted, his gaze on Kai seeming to pierce beneath his avatar's surface.

  "I worked in urban logistics before upload," Kai explained. "Infrastructure degradation patterns follow recognizable progressions, whether physical or digital."

  Maddox nodded slowly. "Perhaps not just a courier after all." He returned to the workstation, retrieving a sealed data package and handing it to Proxy. "The flux modification specifications you requested. I've included my boundary degradation findings as well. Cipher should find them... illuminating."

  "Appreciated," Proxy said, securing the package.

  "A word of warning," Maddox added, glancing at the steadily brightening lights. "Corporate security has changed patrol algorithms in response to these boundary issues. They're implementing what they call 'Protocol Alpha'—focused sweeps of sectors showing degradation signs."

  "Which means our typical routes may be compromised," Proxy concluded. "Noted."

  The building's emergency lights suddenly switched to standard illumination, and dormant systems began humming to life around them.

  "Network returning," Maddox warned. "You should leave. Now."

  They exited through the side access, skating rapidly back toward the boundary line. Kai noticed the rendering quality gradually improving as they approached the transition to normal sectors, environmental detail becoming more defined with each block.

  Near the partition line between Sector 37 and active districts, alert tones suddenly blared through the deteriorating streets.

  "Security sweep," Proxy hissed. "Power's back fully online. They're doing a standard post-fluctuation check for intruders."

  She pulled up a rudimentary map on her wrist interface—one of the few functions that worked without network connectivity.

  "This way. There's an old commercial plaza with multiple exit points. We can bypass the sweep."

  They raced through increasingly fragmented streets, navigating around rendering gaps and partially defined structures. Proxy moved quickly, never hesitating at intersections or checking her map twice.

  "How do you know this sector so well?" Kai asked as they passed buildings that looked like architectural sketches rather than completed structures.

  "GridCom infrastructure analysts mapped the entire system, including decommissioned sectors," she replied. "I helped design half these obsolescence protocols."

  They reached a plaza where four streets converged, just as security tones sounded from an adjacent avenue—patrol units rather than drones.

  "The boundary crossing is just ahead," Proxy whispered. "Once we're back in normal rendering space, their sensors can't distinguish us from regular traffic."

  The footsteps grew louder. A security team was approaching the plaza directly between them and their exit route.

  Proxy assessed the situation in seconds. "Follow my lead. Exactly as I do it."

  She approached a derelict information kiosk, placing her palm against what appeared to be a non-functional panel. Something in her wrist device pulsed, and the kiosk interface flickered to life.

  "System architecture includes backdoors for maintenance access," she explained, typing commands into the revealed terminal. "Most security personnel don't even know they exist."

  The approaching footsteps paused. Through the terminal interface, Kai saw security officers checking their scanners, which suddenly showed alerts in a completely different area of the sector.

  "Spoofed readings," Proxy said with grim satisfaction. "They'll pursue ghost signatures for at least five minutes before the system corrects itself."

  As predicted, the security team changed direction, heading away from their position. Once the footsteps faded, Proxy deactivated the terminal, the kiosk returning to its dormant state.

  "That was..."

  "Standard GridCom troubleshooting procedure, repurposed." She shrugged. "The system architecture includes hundreds of overlapping protocols, many of them forgotten by current administrators."

  They reached the partition line and crossed back into standard rendering space. The transition was jarring—like stepping from an abstract sketch into a high-definition photograph. Colors intensified, textures gained definition, and environmental details snapped into focus.

  "Network connectivity restored," Kai's interface announced as they rejoined the grid. The familiar flow of information returned, his maps and communication channels coming back online.

  The contrast between Sector 37's degraded rendering and the active district's pristine simulation was stark. Here, every detail was sharp, every texture immaculate, every environmental effect perfectly calibrated for user experience.

  "Strange, isn't it?" Proxy said, noticing his expression. "How different the system looks depending on where you stand. Same code base, totally different reality."

  They made their way back to Undercut through progressively busier districts. The package from Maddox remained secure in Proxy's inner pocket, its contents potentially valuable enough to justify the entire risky excursion.

  Cipher waited in his workshop, surrounded by disassembled skate components and diagnostic equipment. When they entered, he immediately set aside his tools.

  "Successful?" he asked.

  Proxy handed over the package. "Maddox included bonus data. Boundary degradation measurements from four different sectors."

  Cipher's expression changed subtly as he examined the additional information. He and Proxy exchanged a look that contained volumes of unspoken communication.

  "What?" Kai asked, catching the silent exchange. "What's significant about boundary degradation?"

  "The package has the modifications we needed," Cipher said, deliberately changing the subject. "These will give your skates capabilities that should theoretically be impossible within standard parameters."

  "You're avoiding my question."

  Cipher sighed, setting the package on his workbench. "Some knowledge is safer when compartmentalized, Kai. Especially with your audit approaching."

  "I just risked that audit by going to a dark sector during a security blackout," he countered. "I think I've earned some answers."

  "He has a point," Proxy said, settling onto a stool by the door. "And he recognized the degradation patterns immediately. Technical background, not just courier instincts."

  Cipher studied him for a long moment before speaking. "Server Nova isn't as... stable as corporate announcements suggest. Certain boundaries—both between sectors and at the outer limits of the system—are showing increasing signs of degradation."

  "Like the rendering errors we saw in Sector 37?"

  "Those are symptoms, not the cause." Cipher chose his words carefully. "The system architecture was designed with certain... flexibility that corporate interests have been actively suppressing. That suppression is creating pressure points throughout the network."

  "And the decommissioned sectors feel it first because they get minimal maintenance resources."

  "Precisely." Cipher nodded approvingly. "But boundary degradation isn't just about rendering quality or resource allocation. It indicates more fundamental structural issues."

  Kai thought back to Maddox's data showing accelerating deterioration at sector boundaries. "Is it dangerous?"

  "That," Proxy interjected, "depends entirely on your perspective. Corporate security considers it extremely dangerous. Others see it as... inevitable correction."

  The cryptic answer left him with more questions than answers, but something in Proxy's tone suggested pushing further would be unwise.

  "For now," she added, "develop system awareness before seeking system understanding. Learn to navigate what exists before questioning why it exists."

  Cipher returned to the package, extracting the modification specifications. "We'll integrate these after your audit. Safer that way."

  Kai nodded, accepting the temporary deflection. The night's experience had shown him glimpses of a system far more complex than he'd imagined—both in its technical architecture and in the competing interests shaping its evolution.

  As he prepared to leave, Proxy stopped him with a hand on his shoulder. "What you saw tonight stays between us. Not just for security, but for your protection. Questions about system architecture attract unwanted attention."

  "Noted."

  "And Kai," she added, "you have good instincts. Better than most couriers I've worked with. Don't lose that intuitive understanding by overthinking the technical details."

  He smiled faintly. "Is that your way of telling me to shut up and skate?"

  "It's my way of telling you that sometimes, surviving the system matters more than understanding it." Her expression softened slightly. "At least until you're in a position to do something about what you understand."