Chapter 5 The First Son

Jun stumbled backward, boots scraping against cracked neon pavement. “What the fuck is this?”

His shadow stretched unnaturally long across the glitching ground, peeling upward like black smoke taking solid form. The shape rose, limbs forming, shoulders straightening, until it stood fully upright. Same height. Same narrow build. Same face.

Jun stared at himself.

The duplicate blinked once, adjusting to the flickering lights. His clothes matched Jun’s torn, bloodstained jacket perfectly. Even the fresh claw marks on his arm looked identical. He tilted his head, studying Jun with calm curiosity.

“Father,” the duplicate said, voice exactly like Jun’s, down to the dry edge. “Took longer than expected. The first spawn always feels… strange.”

Jun’s mutated hand clenched so hard his new claws drew blood from his own palm. “Don’t call me that. You’re not real.”

The First Son smiled. Small. Familiar. The same half-smirk Jun used when he’d just cracked a tough node. “I have all your memories up to the moment of separation. The arena. The injection. Mei’s face behind the glass. I remember how her voice sounded in your head a few minutes ago. Comforting, wasn’t it?”

“Shut up.” Jun’s breath came fast. He lunged forward and swung hard, claws aimed straight for the duplicate’s throat.

Pain exploded through his entire nervous system. His body locked up mid-swing. Every vein lit up like molten wire. He dropped to his knees, screaming as the Beast System punished him with waves of agony that made the earlier mutations feel like nothing.

The First Son didn’t even flinch. He simply watched, hands in his pockets. “You really shouldn’t do that, Father. The protocol protects the spawn. Hurting me hurts you worse. You already know this somewhere inside.”

Jun gasped on the ground, vision swimming. “You’re… not me. You can’t be.”

“But I am. A cleaner version, maybe.” The Son crouched down to eye level, still smiling that calm, terrifying smile. “No messy guilt. No useless attachment to that woman who put us here. Just the intelligence. The tactics. The will to survive. You spent your whole life being the smartest weakling in the room. I don’t have to be weak.”

Jun forced himself up on shaking legs. “I’ll find a way to delete you. End you. Whatever you are.”

The First Son laughed softly. Jun’s own laugh. “You won’t. Deep down you already understand what this means. We’re going to be many. The system needs us. Needs you to become more.”

“Stop talking like we’re family!” Jun shouted. His voice cracked. “I’m still human. This thing in me… it’s just a parasite. I’ll rip it out.”

The duplicate stood up straight, brushing dust from his jacket. “You’re still pretending this system infected you. It didn’t. It recognized you.”

Jun froze.

The First Son turned and started walking away into the ruined streets, where neon signs bled into broken holograms. He called back over his shoulder without stopping.

“You were always meant for this, Father. I’ll see you soon. Try not to die before we build something worth keeping.”

Jun stood there, chest heaving, watching his own back disappear around a glitching corner. The smile the Son gave him lingered in his mind. Not mocking. Not evil. Just… familiar. Like family.

His hands wouldn’t stop shaking.

A sharp alert blasted through the Wild Net layer, red warning text flashing across his vision.

[WANTED:]

[JUN - CORPORATE BIOHAZARD THREAT]

[Extreme Danger. Terminate on Sight.]

Surveillance footage attached. Jun tapped it with a trembling finger.

The video showed him, or something with his face, moving through a crowded mid-level street. Claws fully extended. Eyes glowing. He tore through dozens of people with brutal efficiency. Men, women, even a child who tried to run. Blood sprayed across neon walls as the figure wearing his face slaughtered everyone in its path. The timestamp was from just minutes ago.

Jun hadn’t been there. He had never done any of that.

But the face in the footage was his. The movements were his new mutated style. The cold tactical precision… exactly like the Son who just walked away.

“No…” Jun whispered, voice breaking. “That wasn’t me.”

The alert kept flashing. Bounties ticking upward in real time.