Kōto was dying.
The streets were cracked, flickering with broken code. Buildings once filled with life were now hollow husks, draped in Konran's crimson banners. Public zones were patrolled by black-armored enforcers—faceless agents whose only mission was compliance and control.
But Ren, Aiko, and Botan moved like ghosts through the shadows.
They didn't fight every battle. Not yet. They weren't ready.
But they liberated safehouses. Freed glitched NPCs. Restored terminals. Each action reignited pieces of the Resistance's old network. Some AI remembered. Others had been reprogrammed and needed to be reawakened by force.
Ren saw it all.
Citizens begging for help from blank-faced enforcers. Shops once run by friendly vendors now occupied by Konran bots. Archives scrubbed clean. Friends lost.
It filled him with fury.
"This city used to be ours," Ren said as they entered a hidden safezone in Sector 6.
"It still can be," Aiko replied. "But first, you must go where it began."
"Vault 7," Ren said. "That's where Kenji's signal broke."
Aiko nodded.
And so they prepared for war.