Chapter 23 · Neon Deadline: Glitch Hunt - Chapter 23: Deep Dive Protocol

"Don't let go. If you drop the link, I'm a vegetable in five seconds," Seth snarled, his voice sounding like it was being dragged through a meat grinder.

I tightened my grip on his wrist, my knuckles white. We weren't in the physical world anymore. We were submerged in the Deep Dive—a neon-black void where the architecture of the city's neural net looked like a shattered mirror. Around us, data streams screamed past like shards of glass.

"I've got you, you idiot! Just keep your head straight!" I yelled back.

I could feel the plug-in humming at the base of my skull, vibrating with a frequency that made my teeth ache. The God-tier code was fighting the server's firewall, and every time the system pushed back, Seth shuddered. He wasn't just my partner in this dive; he was the anchor. But the anchor was cracking.

"Something's... wrong," Seth gasped. He lurched forward, his boots sliding on the shimmering floor of the void. "The curse. It's reacting to the dive. I can't see the path."

I stepped closer, the distance between us vanishing. I could smell the ozone and the sharp, metallic scent of his sweat.