Chapter 4: The First Crack

The rain fell again.

The drops tapped the roof of the small house non-stop.

Aiden was still standing in the backyard.

The black file Raven had left was in his hand.

However...

He didn't open it.

Instead, he looked towards the fence, which was now quiet again.

Raven was gone.

So were the three agents who had come with him.

As if they had never appeared.

"Brother?"

Lia's voice from inside the house startled him from his thoughts.

"Why are you standing outside? It's cold."

Aiden immediately hid the file under his jacket before entering the house.

"It's nothing."

Lia looked at her brother's face for a long time.

"Brother..."

"Hm?"

"For the past two or three days, you've been acting strange."

Aiden smiled faintly.

"I'm just tired."

Lia shook her head.

"You're not telling me the truth."

The atmosphere returned to silence.

Lia knew her brother better than anyone.

She knew that whenever Aiden said, "I'm okay" he was hiding something.

But he chose not to ask again.

"I have class tomorrow until the afternoon."

Aiden nodded.

"I'll get it later, brother."

"No problem."

"I'll get it."

Lia laughed a little.

"Stubborn."

"Come down with me, brother."

"Yeah..."

Seeing Lia go back into her room, Aiden let out a long breath.

He really hoped his sister wouldn't find out who he was.

The night was getting late.

The clock showed 2:17 in the morning.

The house was dark.

But Aiden still hadn't slept.

He sat alone in the living room.

The black file was finally opened.

Inside were only three pictures.

The first picture...

A boy about ten years old.

His face was covered in bruises.

The second picture...

The same boy holding a gun for the first time.

The third picture...

A teenager in a black uniform was standing in front of the NEXUS logo.

On the back of the third picture was written a sentence.

"A weapon can never choose its own life."

Aiden's hands were shaking.

"That..."

"That's me..."

But...

He couldn't remember when the pictures were taken.

The next morning.

As usual, Hale Garage began accepting customers.

"Morning, Aiden!"

"Morning."

A customer handed over the car keys.

But before Aiden could check the engine...

A black luxury car pulled up in front of the garage.

An old man got out.

Neatly dressed.

Leather shoes.

Not like a regular customer.

He looked at the HALE GARAGE sign for a few seconds before smiling.

"You still like fixing broken things, it seems."

Aiden raised his head.

Their eyes met.

For some reason...

Aiden felt like he had seen the man before.

But he couldn't remember where.

The man walked over.

"Can you fix my car?"

"If there's any damage."

The man smiled wider.

"Good."

"Then..."

"...can you fix your own life, Orion?"

Aiden's heart stopped.

His hand holding the wrench grew stiff.

The old man was no ordinary customer.

He knew the name, which had died five years ago.

And from across the street...

Someone was recording Aiden's every reaction with a high powered camera.

The atmosphere inside Hale Garage suddenly became quiet.

The sound of an engine being started by a customer outside seemed to disappear from Aiden's hearing.

He looked straight at the old man.

"...I think you're mistaken."

The old man just smiled.

"Really?"

Aiden placed a wrench on the workbench.

"If you want to fix the car, I can help."

"If not..."

"Sorry, I still have a lot of work."

The old man chuckled.

"Still good at acting."

He took out the keys to a black sedan and placed them on the table.

"Take a look."

Aiden took the keys without saying anything.

He opened the hood of the car.

At a glance...

The engine was perfect.

No damage.

He checked again.

Still the same.

Then his eyes focused on a small carving on the inside of the hood.

A crow.

The same symbol as on the card he had received a few days ago.

His heart beat faster.

The old man hadn't actually come to fix the car.

He had come with a message.

"What's wrong?"

Aiden asked without looking at the man.

The old man leaned against the car.

There's nothing wrong with the engine.

The problem is the owner.

Aiden finally turned around.

"What do you mean, sir?"

The man sighed.

"Five years."

"You've managed to hide for five years."

"Director Zero should really commend you."

Aiden slowly closed the hood of the car.

"If you don't have anything else to do..."

"I'll ask you to get out."

The old man nodded.

"Okay."

"But before I go..."

He took out a brown envelope.

"Someone asked me to hand over this."

Aiden didn't take it right away.

"Who?"

"The man who once saved your life."

Aiden frowned.

"I don't know."

The man smiled faintly.

"You really won't remember."

"Because part of your memory has been erased."

He placed the envelope on the workbench.

Then walked away.

As soon as the black car was out of sight...

Aiden immediately closed the workshop door.

He reached for the brown envelope.

No name.

No address.

Only one sentence was written in black ink.

"Don't let Lia know the truth."

Aiden opened the envelope.

Inside...

Only one picture.

The picture was clearly taken from a distance.

A girl was laughing while walking out of the university.

Lia.

On the back of the picture was written the time.

9:42 AM

The date...

Today.

Meaning...

Someone was following Lia at this moment.

Without wasting time, He reached for his phone.

"Lia."

The phone rang three times before the call went unanswered.

Aiden tried again.

Still nothing.

An uneasy feeling began to fill his chest.

He immediately grabbed his jacket.

Before leaving, a part-time workshop worker called out to him.

"Brother Aiden!"

"Where are you going?"

Aiden threw the workshop keys to him.

"You take care of the workshop."

"But the customer..."

"If anything..."

"Have them come tomorrow."

Without waiting for an answer, Aiden immediately got into his car.

The engine started.

The tires spun rapidly, leaving Hale Garage.

At Glenmarie University.

Lia was walking alone towards the campus bus stop.

She didn't realize...

A man in a blue shirt was walking about twenty meters behind her.

Another was sitting on a bench pretending to read a newspaper.

And a woman in a cafe was watching her through the mirror.

They weren't thugs.

They weren't openly carrying weapons.

They just watched.

Waiting for instructions.

The man in the blue shirt touched the small earphones in his ears.

"Target visual confirmed."

The voice on the other end of the line replied calmly.

"Continue observing."

"Don't act..."

"...it's not time yet."

Lia didn't even realize that her every move was being watched.

While a few kilometers away...

Aiden pressed the gas pedal as hard as he could.

For the first time in five years...

He was really in fear.

Not afraid for himself.

But the fear of losing the only person who still makes him believe he is still human.

Aiden's old sedan's engine roared on the road.

The speedometer needle exceeded the allowed limit.

But his face remained calm.

He wasn't panicking or confused. His focus had narrowed to a single objective which's Lia.

He pressed a button on the steering wheel.

The car radio screen suddenly turned black.

A few lines of code appeared before disappearing again.

The system installed five years ago...

Still working.

"Lia's phone signal..."

A blue dot appeared on the screen.

Glenmarie University.

Aiden breathed a sigh of relief.

"Still on campus."

But a few seconds later...

The blue dot began to move.

"Not towards the faculty..."

"But towards the back door of the university."

Aiden's forehead continued to furrow.

Lia had never used that route.

At the university...

"Lia!"

A classmate waved.

"I'll be back first!"

"Okay! See you Monday!"

Lia replied with a smile.

She put on her earphones as he walked towards the bus stop.

Without noticing...

A man in a black jacket walked behind him.

Not too close.

Not too far.

Just enough to make sure he didn't lose sight of him.

On the other side of the road...

A white van stopped for a moment.

Its sliding door was slightly open.

A man in the van was holding a camera.

Click.

Click.

Click.

Lia's pictures were taken from various angles.

"Target confirmed."

"Continue surveillance."

Aiden arrived in front of the university five minutes later.

He immediately got out of the car.

His eyes scanned the entire area.

Students crossed the campus while lecturers chatted nearby. Security guards stood near the buses.

Lia was gone.

His phone rang.

The name on the screen...

Lia.

Aiden immediately answered.

"Where?"

"Brother..."

Lia's voice sounded cheerful.

"Lia's behind the library."

"What are you doing?"

"Please lecturer, lift the box."

"Don't move."

"Huh?"

"Sit there."

"Okay..."

The line was disconnected.

Aiden continued running.

Several students looked at the twenty nine years old man running across campus strangely.

But he didn't care.

Behind the library.

The area was much quieter.

There was only an old store and a few large trees.

Lia was standing with a female lecturer.

"Thank you, Lia."

"It's okay, ma'am."

The lecturer walked away.

Lia reached for her phone.

"Why did you ask me to wait..."

Before she could finish her sentence...

A man in a black jacket walked past her.

Bam!

Their shoulders bumped.

"Uh, sorry."

The man continued walking without looking at her.

Lia just nodded slightly.

"It's okay."

She didn't even realize...

Her mobile phone was no longer in her pocket.

The man entered the men's restroom.

He took out Lia's phone.

Then opened the back cover of the phone using a small tool.

A microchip the size of a grain of rice was inserted into it.

Less than fifteen seconds later, the phone was shut off again.

"Done."

He came out again.

Walking towards Lia.

"Miss!"

Lia turned around.

"You dropped your phone."

"Oh my God!"

Lia immediately picked it up.

"Thank you!"

The man simply smiled before walking away.

At the same time...

Aiden finally arrived.

"His breathing was a little fast."

"Lia!"

"Brother!"

Lia smiled.

"Why are you running?"

Aiden held both of his sister's shoulders.

"Are you okay?"

"Haah."

"Didn't anyone disturb you?"

Lia thought for a moment.

"A man ran over me earlier."

"But he was good. He was ready to pick up my phone."

Aiden kept looking at the phone in Lia's hand.

For some reason...

His instincts told him something was wrong.

"That phone..."

"Let me take a look."

"Huh?"

"Why?"

Aiden picked up the phone.

Its exterior looked normal.

No scratches.

Nothing strange.

However...

When he turned on the screen...

His eyes kept getting smaller.

Lia's phone wallpaper had changed.

It was no longer a picture of the two of them.

Instead...

A black background with a white sentence.

WE ARE WATCHING.

Below the sentence...

A symbol was written.

A black crow.

The NEXUS logo.

Aiden looked around.

People were still walking as usual.

No one looked suspicious.

But he knew...

His enemy was here.

Very close.

And they had just sent a message.

"We can touch Lia... anytime we want."

Aiden gripped the phone until his fingers trembled.

For the first time...

He realized a terrifying truth.

The war had finally begun.

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