Seoul Cyberpunk Story-Chapter 85: Nexus Node (2)

Alex kept swallowing nervously as he stared at the Nexus Node headquarters.

His eyes were a swirl of excitement, anticipation, and just a hint of tension.

His heart pounded like it was going to explode, and his palms were already soaked with sweat.

I... I actually got accepted into Nexus Node!

Nexus Node—one of Babel’s megacorps, the overlord of the entire city’s communication networks.

To Alex, who’d grown up in a typical middle-class home, this place was the ultimate dream job.

When he’d received the acceptance notice, he had to rub his eyes over and over to believe it.

It was the most dramatic moment of his life—and now, he was about to cross the threshold into a brand-new one.

Like a wide-eyed tourist, Alex looked around with a nervous, thrilled expression.

The massive walls surrounding the Nexus Node HQ easily looked over twenty meters tall.

They rose, solid and unyielding, as if the building were trying to sever all connection with the outside world. In the center of the wall, a colossal gate loomed with overwhelming presence.

A sixteen-lane road stretched out from the gate, seemingly endless—like a highway to some enormous fortress.

And beside the main building of Nexus Node stood a tower that stabbed at the sky, gazing down on the city, flaunting its existence.

The sunlit spire glimmered faintly, as if to embody Nexus Node’s technological supremacy and authority.

“Holy shit... it’s huge...”

The words slipped out before Alex could catch himself.

He’d only ever seen the headquarters in photos or holograms. Seeing it in person, the scale was beyond overwhelming.

Lost in awe, Alex kept looking around—until someone tapped his shoulder.

Startled, he whipped around. A man with a cold, impassive face was staring down at him.

The man’s gray suit had a small Nexus Node logo stitched into the chest.

“Alex?”

The man’s voice was low and dry.

“Yes, that’s me.”

“I’m Jackson from HR. I’ll be your guide today. Follow me.”

Jackson gave a curt introduction and turned to walk off without hesitation.

Alex nodded awkwardly and followed behind him.

Jackson walked fast. Alex had to keep hustling not to fall behind.

Their destination was the front entrance of the main building.

But it looked nothing like the sleek, automatic glass doors Alex had imagined.

What stood before him looked more like a vault door from a bank’s underground chamber—massive and thick steel.

It was covered in intricate locking mechanisms and security systems, more like a classified military facility than a corporate front gate.

Krrkkk—

The heavy steel door slid open slowly with a groan, like some ancient relic being unearthed.

As it fully opened, Alex instinctively held his breath.

What unfolded before his eyes was a lobby of unimaginable scale.

The ceiling soared impossibly high, like a manmade sky. Below, a chaotic array of holographic displays and pillars of light tangled and danced, bursting with dazzling color.

The floor was polished marble, smooth as a mirror, faintly reflecting the footsteps and bodies of busy employees as they moved past.

On the walls, a massive hologram showcased what looked like the history of Nexus Node, shifting and transforming nonstop, impossible to look away from.

This was the pinnacle of communication technology—the overwhelming presence that was Nexus Node.

Boom.

A heavy sound echoed from behind him.

Alex turned in shock. The giant steel door they’d come through was closing again with a deep, mechanical thud.

Once even the last sliver of space had sealed shut, the lobby became a completely enclosed space, cut off from the outside world.

At that moment, Alex felt a subtle shift in the atmosphere.

The overwhelming grandeur from before had vanished without a trace—replaced by a strange, hard-to-describe chill and tension that slowly filled the space.

It almost felt like every pair of eyes in the lobby had suddenly turned to look at him.

Like invisible stares were stabbing into his back from every angle.

But Alex forced himself to ignore the unease.

They’re just curious about the new guy, he told himself. That’s all.

“This way.”

Jackson hadn’t noticed Alex’s discomfort. Still expressionless, he walked toward a corridor on one side of the lobby.

Alex swallowed dryly and followed.

As soon as they exited the lobby and entered the hallway, the atmosphere changed again—drastically.

Gone were the blinding holograms and sleek design.

What replaced them was something old and shabby.

The corridor walls were chipped and peeling in places. The fluorescent lights above flickered uncertainly, barely casting a dim, uneasy glow.

The floor tiles were cracked, broken in spots, and the air stung the nose with a mix of dust and mold.

Zzzzt.

As the lights sputtered, Alex caught something strange in the corner of his eye—just past the long row of windows lining the hallway.

A bizarre scene flashed across his vision.

Beyond the glass, there were eyes. Dozens—no, hundreds—of eyes, pressed close to the windows, all staring at him.

Like living things, those eyes moved in unison, focused, boring into him.

“Ghk—!”

Alex almost yelped out loud—but barely managed to slap a hand over his mouth in time.

The lights stabilized again.

And the view beyond the window had returned to normal.

Just a regular office.

Employees sitting at desks, silently working. An utterly mundane, boring sight.

Did I just... imagine that?

Alex ran a hand over his chest, trying to calm himself down, but the cold sweat running down his spine wouldn’t stop.

The deeper they went into the Nexus Node headquarters, the more Alex began to realize that the unease gnawing at him wasn’t just nerves or anxiety.

His vision flickered—intermittent static began to crawl across his field of view, like a broken hologram display.

At first, he thought it was eye fatigue or maybe a glitch in his implants, but the noise only got worse. Before long, even the environment around him began to distort.

The hallway walls would occasionally ripple like the insides of a writhing creature, only to snap back to normal again. The stains on the ceiling morphed into grotesque faces, sneering down at him.

The floor beneath his feet felt, at times, like a swamp—soft, wet, dragging at his steps.

And slowly, a headache started to split through his skull.

It had begun as a dull pressure, but now it pressed hard against his temples, pulsing stronger with each step.

Like someone had jammed an ice pick through the inside of his brain.

Something’s wrong. This place... it’s not right.

Alex felt it in his gut—pure, animal instinct.

This wasn’t the shining apex of cutting-edge tech he’d dreamed about.

No, it was something else. Something dark and ominous, like walking through a living nightmare.

But he couldn’t show it.

Couldn’t let the fear slip out.

Because every time he passed someone in the hallway, they were watching him.

Each employee he encountered stared directly at him with a blank, emotionless expression.

There was nothing in their eyes. That emptiness made it worse.

They watched him like predators sizing up prey. Like researchers observing a rat in a maze. Cold. Calculating.

And it looked like they were waiting.

Waiting for something.

Like they were watching to see if he’d break. If he’d flinch.

Thump. Thump.

His heart pounded against his ribs, too loud, too hard.

His chest was tight, his breath coming fast.

He took small, shallow breaths, trying to calm the chaos in his chest.

His palms were already slick with sweat. Cold sweat ran freely down his back.

Can’t let them notice. No matter what...

There wasn’t even a scrap of excitement or anticipation left in him now.

Alex had only one goal left.

Survive. Somehow, get out of this disturbing, dangerous company alive.

“This is the Central Data Server Room,” Jackson said, voice full of pride. “All of Babel’s information is collected and analyzed here.”

But to Alex’s eyes, the server racks didn’t look like machines.

They looked like massive tanks.

Tanks filled with something—something wormlike, squirming, repulsive.

The deeper they went, the worse it got.

From the server room to the control center, to the AI frame enhancement lab—every step unveiled something more horrific.

It was all wrong. None of it looked normal.

Organs suspended in strange, unknown fluids. Experiment subjects twisted in impossible shapes.

And at the very end of the tour, a glass wall. Pressed flat against it—completely skinless—was the body of a human being.

Alex nearly screamed.

He barely managed to choke it down. But there was no stopping the color draining from his face.

Jackson grabbed Alex’s arm and spoke in a low voice.

“You can see it, can’t you?”

“...What?”

Alex blinked, stunned, confused.

And that’s when all the employees—those dead-eyed watchers—suddenly moved as one.

They grabbed him.