Chapter 1317:

🍙 🍙 🍙 🍙 🍙

Julian’s holographic avatar appeared in the center of the circular hall, pacing the digital floor with the same restless energy the man had possessed in life. He looked younger in the projection, his eyes bright with the manic brilliance of a man who had just solved a problem the rest of the world didn’t even know existed.

“Ouroboros is a virus, Skye,” the hologram said, his voice echoing in the vast chamber. “It’s a decentralized intelligence that thrives on secrecy and the gaps between jurisdictions. To kill a virus, you don’t use a hammer. You use a predator. You use an organism that can mimic its DNA, infiltrate its cells, and then… delete it from the inside out. Chimera is that predator.”

He gestured to the screens, which began to display the complex architecture of the AI. It was a swirling vortex of code, a living entity of logic that seemed to pulse with a dark, predatory intent.

“Chimera doesn’t just watch the web; it consumes it,” Julian’s image continued. “It infiltrates every node, every account, every secret chat room used by the Ouroboros board. It learns their patterns, mimics their signatures, and then wipes them from existence. Not just their money, Skye. Their identities. Their histories. Their very ability to communicate. It turns them into digital ghosts.”

He stopped pacing and looked directly at where Skye was standing, his gaze piercing even through the holographic medium. “But Chimera has no soul. It’s a beast. It follows the path of least resistance to its goal. If left to its own devices, it would burn half the internet just to catch one target. It needs a rider. Someone with the empathy to know when to stop, and the ruthlessness to know when to start. I couldn’t be that person. I was too close to the dark for too long. I would have let the Chimera eat the world just for the satisfaction of winning.”

He paused, a sad, knowing smile touching his lips. “But you… you have Liam. You have the boy. You have a reason to keep the world turning. Sit in the chair, Skye. Take the reins. The Chimera is hungry, and the world is full of ghosts that need to be put to rest.”

Skye took a deep breath, her heart pounding in her ears. She looked at the chair, a sleek black throne in the center of a digital universe. She knew that once she sat down, once she plugged in, she would never be the same. The Oracle was a role she played; the Chimera was an entity she would become.

She sat in the chair. Immediately, a neural interface lowered from the ceiling, humming with a soft, inviting light. It didn’t use needles; it used high-frequency induction to bridge the gap between her brain and the mountain’s massive servers.

𝖨𝗇𝗌𝗍𝖺𝗇𝗍 𝖺𝖼𝖼𝖾𝗌𝗌 𝗈𝗇 𝗀𝖺𝗅𝗇𝗈𝗏𝖾𝗅𝗌.𝖼𝗈𝗆

The sensation was like being plugged directly into the sun.

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