Two days after the park, a silent alert pinged the Legacy Network.

Ji Woo was first to react. “Protocol Phoenix just went active.”

Rin and Rae arrived within minutes. On Ji Woo’s screens, red trails marked sudden spikes of neural traffic—similar to the pattern before Reika’s attempted global pulse. Only this time, the signal wasn’t centralized. It was scattered.

“Multiple nodes,” Ji Woo said. “These aren’t copycats. This was part of her plan all along.”

Rin’s voice was tight. “A decentralized successor network.”

Rae leaned over the screen. “They’re not trying to dominate minds anymore. They’re recruiting them.”

A flash report came in: a digital manifesto posted anonymously on encrypted forums. It echoed Reika’s rhetoric—freedom through clarity, evolution through surrender. Attached to it was a challenge.

“To those who think they’ve won—come see what grows from ashes.”

Underneath: coordinates.

Istanbul.

Within 24 hours, the sisters were airborne. No fanfare. No headlines.

They touched down under aliases and moved through the city in silence. The coordinates led to a tech co-op hidden in a repurposed underground cistern—ancient, beautiful, and humming with advanced gear.

Rin whispered, “This place is centuries old. And now it’s a neural server farm.”

Inside, a small group was waiting. Young, diverse, and eerily calm. One stepped forward.

“I’m not your enemy,” she said. “I’m proof Reika’s ideas lived. But not her methods.”

Rae frowned. “So why the signal?”

“To draw you in,” the woman said. “Because you’re the only ones who can decide what happens next.”