The rain poured like liquid glass, the storm battering against the towering skyscrapers and shaking the holographic ads that fought to pierce the blackness of the night.

Wynter Cheung moved through the alleyways; her coat pulled tight against her to protect her from the downpour. She scanned for signs of pursuit.

She had come across something powerful enough to topple the corporation that ruled this city. The Quantum Crystal Data Disk nestled in her pocket somehow felt heavier with every step. She had received the crystal disk from a hacker friend, he gave his life to protect it.

Surveillance drones whirred above, their sensors sweeping the streets.

She ducked into a shadowed doorway, a malfunctioning streetlamp casting erratic patterns on her face. She pushed in a sequence of numbers on the keypad; the door unlocked and she slipped inside, descending into the darkness. The air was damp and smelled like wet clothes. Wynter went through the tunnels until she found what she was looking for. A rusting door marked with a fading red symbol. She knocked in a specific rhythm, and the door creaked open.

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Inside, a small group of men and women huddled around a holographic map. They were part of the Liberty Vanguard movement. Their leader, a stout man in his fifties, looked up as she entered. He was wearing a weathered old military field jacket with torn sleeves, revealing his cybernetic arm—not the new sleek cyberware with synthetic muscle fibres covered with TrueSkin™, but the old gen with exposed wires and servo systems. The carbon fibre parts had dents, and the chrome-plated parts had long since lost their shine.

"You've done well, Cheung," he said, taking the crystal disk from her. "This will change everything."

Wynter smiled. The storm raged on above, but down here, hope lived on.