The knuckles struck the lion-head hilt of the “Lion Guard Column,” and the alloy’s resonant hum rippled along the neural interface, coursing straight into her skull. Karina stared at the flashing red alert on the display, her fingertips already gripping the cylindrical handle of her short blade. As an elite bodyguard to the Interstellar Federation’s Regent, this blade is not only a symbol of her rank but also a relic of the Old Era—a tactical killing tool whose intricate spiral grooves on the blade can disrupt the neural signals of cybernetic implants. At that very moment, she was deep within the shadowy tunnels of a border fortress, tracking down the rogue researcher who had stolen a neural synapse core. As the mechanical guard’s laser beam swept past her ear, she spun and flung her blade; a pale-blue energy pattern spread along the blade’s edge⚡, precisely slicing through the mech’s power core. When she picked up the blade again, the lion’s eyes suddenly projected a holographic image: the researcher, clutching the core, screamed into the camera, “The Federation wants to turn everyone into puppets!” Her superior’s orders came in rapid succession over the comms: “Eliminate the target and recover the core.” Karina tightened her grip on the blade; the lion’s silhouette glowed with a cold, metallic sheen in the dim tunnel, and she slowly turned to walk in the opposite direction.🔦