Seoul Cyberpunk Story-Chapter 86: Nexus Node (3)
“I... I don’t see anything?”
Alex protested, but the Nexus Node staff didn’t care in the slightest.
Jackson grabbed Alex’s jaw and yanked it upward, rough and forceful.
In his other hand, he held something that writhed.
A grotesque worm, translucent and glistening, lined with sharp teeth.
It was dripping some foul-smelling fluid like it had just been dragged out of a tank.
“...!”
The moment Alex laid eyes on the horrific creature, he twisted and writhed, trying to break free—but it was useless.
The worm crept toward the back of his neck, slowly.
He could feel the thing’s jagged teeth sink into his skin—clearly, vividly.
Schrrrrk.
With a sickening tear of flesh, the worm began burrowing into his body.
Agony exploded through him, followed by a numbing sensation that spread through every nerve.
The worm squirmed along his bloodstream, crawling, inch by inch, toward his brain.
His vision blurred. Consciousness faded.
And the moment that worm chewed through one of his eyes and reached his brain—
Alex finally saw the true face of Nexus Node.
A grotesque, twisted space, like the pulsing guts of some enormous monster.
He witnessed the nightmare.
And then—his thoughts stopped completely.
****
Back at Dino Park, I was lying around, bored, with Agu cradled in my arms.
Everyone else was locked in a strategy meeting about infiltrating Nexus Node.
I never bothered with those kinds of tedious tasks during missions, so I couldn’t help even if I wanted to.
While I rolled back and forth lazily, my eyes caught sight of the Children huddled together in a corner.
The one with the blade-hands was earnestly teaching the other two something.
Like a mentor entrusted with a solemn mission, Blade Child demonstrated with a dead-serious expression.
[Like this!]
When Blade Child extended their hand, it shimmered with blue light—and morphed into a sharp blade.
The other two watched with shining eyes, trying their best to mimic it.
One of them squeezed their eyes shut, putting all their strength into focusing their hand, but only a few faint sparks popped at their fingertips—no blade.
The other gave up entirely after a few tries and started rolling around on the floor instead.
Is it a technique too hard for the others to learn?
I snorted quietly to myself at the thought.
Then it happened.
[I did it!]
[!]_
[!]_
From the child who’d been giving it their all, a blade finally erupted from their hand.
From both hands at once.
Though—its shape was slightly different from Blade Child’s version.
It didn’t look like the hands had transformed—it looked like something had burst out from inside them.
Still counts as a blade, I guess...
I shrugged and turned my gaze back toward Ember.
A detailed structure of Nexus Node’s HQ hovered over the glowing blue 3D map.
The twenty-meter-high outer wall towered like a fortress, and next to it, the massive spire stood looming and oppressive.
Ember manipulated the hologram and finally spoke.
“According to the recon, the security systems haven’t changed much since two years ago. Most of it looks degraded—like nobody’s even maintained it.”
As her fingertips moved, the hologram rotated, highlighting the security weak points in red.
Cracks in the fortress wall. Inactive surveillance cameras. Obsolete intrusion detection systems. One by one, they lit up.
Scarlet stood with her arms crossed, wearing a thoughtful expression.
“Still... we shouldn’t drop our guard. A megacorp being this careless? That’s what’s really suspicious.”
“We’ll know once we get there.”
Ember answered vaguely, zooming the hologram in.
“The real problem is the ‘Tower.’”
As the image of the massive spire zoomed in, energy waves being emitted from the top visualized into visible pulses.
A massive searchlight beam swept in a perfect 360-degree rotation like a lighthouse from hell.
“Like I said, that’s something only A can handle.”
Ember’s eyes turned to me.
I was still absentmindedly petting Agu in my arms, blankly staring at the hologram.
“?”
I tilted my head with a clueless expression.
Ember sighed lightly, gathering her patience.
“I’ll summarize it again. We’ll stage a diversion at the main gate. While that’s going on, you’ll sneak in and destroy the Tower.”
As she moved her finger over the hologram, the operation routes were displayed with directional arrows.
The diversion at the front gate and my infiltration path were marked in different colors.
I thought for a moment, then proposed the obvious solution.
“Can’t I just bulldoze the place with my shadow dinosaurs?”
In my head, I was already picturing a triceratops smashing through Nexus Node’s walls, with a swarm of pteranodons blacking out the sky.
What a beautiful sight that would be.
“No.”
With Ember’s firm response, the hologram changed.
This time, a simulation video began to play.
Onscreen, the shadow dinosaurs were being utterly annihilated.
A devastating energy beam fired from the Tower ripped the shadow-formed dinosaurs to shreds.
The scene of the triceratops collapsing one by one, letting out mournful cries, was especially heartbreaking.
“No!”
Even though it was just a simulation, I shouted without meaning to, overcome with sorrow.
I couldn’t stand seeing my adorable triceratops getting wiped out like that.
After watching the simulation, I immediately agreed to the plan.
“Fine. I’ll take care of the Tower.”
That Tower was now the sworn enemy of the triceratops.
Unforgivable.
As the strategy meeting neared its end, Ember looked around the group with a serious expression.
Her eyes carried both gratitude and guilt.
“I want to say thank you... for joining me in what’s basically my personal revenge. Nexus Node is something I should be handling alone...”
Before she could even finish, Victor let out a hearty laugh and clapped her on the shoulder.
“We’re teammates. Of course we’re in. Your problem is all of ours.”
Scarlet nodded in agreement.
I added my own words toward Ember.
“We need to get revenge—and figure out the connection between the blue corpses and the worms.”
Agu let out a chirp that sounded like agreement.
“Gyuu!”
And just like that, the plan to attack Nexus Node came together piece by piece.
****
BOOOOM!
A massive explosion rocked the Nexus Node HQ building, and all internal systems instantly went into emergency mode.
Red warning lights splashed across the halls in chaos, and an ear-piercing siren screamed throughout the entire structure.
[Uh... a-are we in trouble?]
Alex—recently “enhanced” with a worm implant and now a true member of Nexus Node—asked via telepathic wave.
His eyes, like the other employees’, were dull and unfocused, but some lingering fear still clung to him, like a buried instinct.
The rest of the Nexus Node staff looked eerily calm, despite the sudden blast.
Jackson manipulated a wall panel and brought up a hologram display.
Onscreen, a hulking man covered head to toe in implants was smashing through a structural weak point in the wall.
The wall looked like it could collapse any second.
Security drones and teams rushed in to stop him—but before they even got close, they were blown apart by sniper fire.
Green Lace’s sniping.
The identity of the big guy might be unclear, but that anti-tank rifle shot was all too familiar to Nexus Node.
Alex trembled even more, realizing the enemy was heavily prepared...
But Jackson simply gave his shoulder a light tap and smiled with unsettling ease.
[No need to worry. We’ve got that.]
He pointed out the window.
Alex followed his gaze.
Next to the Nexus Node HQ stood the massive Tower, soaring into the sky like it meant to stab the heavens.
It loomed ➤ NоvеⅠight ➤ (Read more on our source) like an obelisk, exuding an ominous energy as it pierced the dark.
[That Tower is our ultimate defense system, developed in collaboration with Hexa Core Armory. We call it the Tower of Judgment.]
Jackson’s voice brimmed with pride.
[Doesn’t matter if it’s Titan Tech’s heavy armor division or Jinrong Tech’s undying agents. In front of that Tower, they’re all dust.]
He looked up at the Tower with confidence.
And right then, a red glow gathered at its summit, and a blast shot toward the hulking man who’d broken through the wall.
As the red beam passed, it erased everything in its path like a goddamn eraser.
Had he been even a moment slower, that giant man would’ve been erased too.
Overwhelming firepower—enough to wipe out intruders in mere seconds, fired in all directions every 0.5 seconds.
But at that moment, a vast shadow began to spread across the sky.
Darker than the starless night itself.
Out of that darkness... came a jaw.
The maw of a massive reptile, crocodile-like in form.
Its size defied logic.
A mouth big enough to swallow the sky came down on the Tower of Judgment—their pride.
It bit into it.
Right at the exact 0.5-second interval during its recharge cycle.
CRUUUUNCH!
With a sickening rupture, the upper part of the Tower was shredded like paper and scattered into the air.
Shards of steel and concrete rained down like a storm.
“T-The Tower of Judgment...!?”
Jackson forgot to use telepathy. He just stood there, mouth agape, staring blankly at the scene.
