Seoul Cyberpunk Story-Chapter 87: Nexus Node (4)

Victor’s entire field of vision was filled with the sight of the colossal Tower of Judgment collapsing.

The upper section of the tower, once soaring into the sky like it could pierce the heavens, was torn apart by the Mosasaurus and came crashing down to the ground with a thunderous roar.

“That almost killed me...”

Victor let out a sigh of relief before he even realized it.

Just 0.1 seconds ago, he had been caught under the direct threat of that red beam cannon, teetering on the edge of annihilation.

No matter how well he had memorized the attack pattern through training or how many times he’d run through simulations, the actual destructive power of the beam cannon defied imagination.

Its sheer force, enough to vaporize steel without a trace.

It was a terrifying weapon that fully displayed the true might of a megacorp—Nexus Node.

And with its precise blasts firing relentlessly every 0.5 seconds, dodging it continuously was simply beyond Victor’s capabilities.

“Sure, the plan was to take down the Tower of Judgment within three shots at most... But that was too damn close.”

Had A failed to destroy the tower during its first charge, there was a very real chance Victor would’ve been completely erased without even leaving a shadow behind.

“Nexus Node is definitely not normal...”

Ember had silently approached Victor’s side and muttered while surveying the surrounding wreckage.

“It really is messed up.”

Even Victor, who had nearly died just moments ago, nodded in agreement with Ember’s words.

There was a saying that even if Babel’s entire mercenary force was gathered, going head-to-head with a megacorp was suicide—because megacorps were just that powerful.

No matter how skilled a few elite mercs might be, they couldn’t hold out against sheer overwhelming numbers.

But strangely, as soon as the Tower of Judgment was neutralized, Nexus Node’s resistance vanished completely.

In a standard megacorp defense system, even if Plan A was taken out, there would immediately be a follow-up—Plan B, Plan C—booting up on standby.

At the very least, they’d buy time by unleashing suicide drones to fill the skies and unmanned robots to flood the ground.

But even to Victor, who had fought through countless battles, this bizarre silence was a first.

As he shifted his gaze, he saw a massive main gate reminiscent of a bank vault entrance.

Devoid of any decoration, made entirely of dense steel, the door itself exuded sheer intimidation.

It looked like it was sealed not just to keep intruders out, but to ensure absolutely nothing inside could ever get out.

And the fact that the building’s outer wall didn’t have a single visible window only heightened the claustrophobic atmosphere.

If not for the building’s sleek, futuristic design, it could’ve been mistaken for a prison without a second thought.

“They really changed the main entrance into that? What the hell...”

Ember muttered, staring at the brutish main gate that looked like it belonged on a bomb shelter.

And as Victor and Ember stood at the entrance, A slowly approached them.

Step, step.

With her signature carefree gait, she walked forward, flanked by a swarm of shadow dinosaurs trailing behind like a military parade.

Like a general returning from a victorious campaign, A finally reached them and opened her mouth.

“So now we just breach the inside, right?”

At that, Ember gave a nod.

There was tension flickering across her face.

“Yeah. But we have to be careful. Even if the exterior’s the same, the interior layout looks totally different from two years ago.”

Hearing that, A didn’t hesitate. She swung her blade-formed hand at the alloy main gate.

And just like that, the massive steel door split clean in half like it was made of paper and collapsed inward.

****

THUD.

The heavy steel door, cleaved in two, slammed onto the floor with a dull crash.

Beyond it was a massive lobby with a ceiling higher than anything they could’ve imagined.

A ceiling so distant it felt like it could touch the sky, lights that must have once shone brilliantly, and the wreckage of hologram displays that once lined the walls.

It was a grand and sophisticated space, almost exactly what I had imagined the ideal headquarters of a megacorp would look like.

But now, only faint traces of that glory remained.

The ceiling, on the verge of collapse, had gaping holes everywhere. Most of the lights were shattered or dead, hanging grotesquely like corpses.

And the wall-mounted holograms were in such disrepair that it was harder to find one still functioning than ones that were destroyed.

“Hmph...”

And in the gaps of that destruction, grotesquely twisted chunks of flesh had taken root.

As if the building itself had become a living organism, red and blue slabs of meat pulsated and writhed, embedded into the walls and ceiling.

Oozing a repulsive slime, they looked disturbingly similar to the worm monsters that had tormented Ember not long ago.

Most likely some relative species—or just another form of horrifying abomination.

Staring at those disgusting masses, I opened my mouth.

“All right, wipe them out!”

At my command, the shadow triceratops that had been waiting behind me rushed into the lobby all at once.

Due to division, their size had shrunk to that of large dogs, but their numbers were enough to completely flood the lobby.

The triceratops scattered in all directions, charging at the flesh stuck to the walls and ceilings, biting and trampling it without hesitation.

As planned, Victor stayed at the entrance to prepare for any emergencies, while Ember and I breached the building together.

The deeper we went, the more the interior was smothered in flesh.

Before long, the walls and ceiling were completely consumed by quivering meat, and a damp, metallic stench stabbed at our nostrils.

Just like Ember said, there were new kinds of security systems we hadn’t seen in the mission briefing.

But of course, they weren’t the usual advanced drones or automated turrets you’d expect in a megacorp.

Instead, they were grotesquely twisted monsters that looked like mutated flesh grown out of the walls.

With sharp claws, teeth, and multiple eyes, they shrieked and rushed at us—but crumbled under the charge of the shadow triceratops.

Most had no trace of humanity left in them, just monstrosities—but there was one that was different.

A fresh hybrid, half-human, half-creature, wearing a brand-new business suit.

Of course, that one too was skewered by the three solid horns of the triceratops and crushed under their small feet, vanishing with a scream.

“For Nexus Node to fall this far...”

Ember muttered, hollow, as she took in the carnage before her.

Her voice was laced with the bitterness of someone who had once ✧ NоvеIight ✧ (Original source) worked within this megacorp’s halls—resentful and mournful all at once.

“If the other megacorps saw Nexus Node like this, they would’ve erased it from the map without hesitation...”

I nodded slightly as I listened to her.

The only megacorps I’d dealt with directly were Hexa Core Armory, Titan Tech, and Jinlong Technologies—but based on their power, Ember wasn’t exaggerating.

The worm monsters had terrifying physical strength and endless regeneration, but even that didn’t measure up to Jinlong’s capabilities.

Just like my shadow dinosaurs, Titan Tech’s shadow abilities would bypass that regeneration and dig deep into their wounds.

And the Circle Energy of Hexa Core Armory, which specialized in obliteration, would be no different.

Just as I thought so this is how far Nexus Node has fallen, I caught sight of The Child clinging to Ember’s head, waving its antennae wildly in every direction.

Ah.

That moment, I remembered the one advantage these worm monsters had—something no other power could match.

Mental contamination.

For some reason, I had the feeling that this kind of psychic corruption could give even a megacorp a serious headache.

Still, since neither I, nor The Child, nor the shadow dinosaurs were affected by it, I suppose worm monsters and I just weren’t a good match.

****

The deeper we went into the Nexus Node HQ building, the more grotesque the scenery became.

The fleshy floor now writhed and pulsed like the esophagus of a living monster, squirming beneath every step, and a squelching sensation rose from underfoot each time I moved forward.

The air had grown even thicker, more humid, almost suffocating, and the stench was enough to numb the senses.

A vile mix of rotting innards and harsh chemical fumes.

Maybe that’s why Ember had pulled out and donned a gas mask at some point.

“If we go just a little further, we’ll reach the place where Nexus Node stored its next-gen tech—the very device that brought all this ruin.”

Ember’s voice came out low and heavy through the gas mask’s filter.

Following her, we arrived at the deepest core of Nexus Node.

And there, placed like the source of all this madness, sat a massive black cube.

Its surface was engraved with intricate circuit-like patterns in faint crimson, glowing with a subdued, eerie light that radiated a chilling yet mystical aura.

Just looking at the cube made me dizzy. A wave of unnameable anxiety rushed in.

Ember stared at the cube, her voice trembling as she spoke.

“This... is the result of Nexus Node’s research using MK Corporation’s tech. A network created to surpass AI frameworks—‘the Cube Network.’”

It wasn’t just a communication system.

It was an entirely different dimensional network—one that connected sentient beings directly to one another.

Far more stable than AI-frame networks, capable of linking across even greater distances, and even transferring energy. The ultimate communication web.

“It’s the tech that gave Nexus Node the delusion they could rule Babel. This direct link between intelligent minds—created possibilities we couldn’t even imagine.”

There was bitterness steeped in Ember’s voice.

“A power that manifested completely independently of the physical. Through this cube.”

She paused and closed her eyes, like the memory physically hurt.

“But because of that power... my colleagues...”

She shook her head violently as if trying to shake off the pain, then drew the anti-tank rifle slung across her back and aimed it at the cube.

Without a moment’s hesitation, she pulled the trigger.

BOOM!

With an explosive roar, the high-energy round shot toward the cube.

It had enough force to rip through heavy tanks like paper—but the black cube didn’t even twitch.

Not even a scratch appeared on its surface. It just kept pulsing, radiating that ominous crimson glow.

I could feel it now—the enormous current of power emanating from the cube. Invisible, yet undeniably real.

It was connected—connected to something beyond this universe. Maybe to another dimension entirely. Terrifying. Immense.

A connection between intelligent minds, huh...

But could whatever lay at the end of that connection really be called “intelligent”?

Following the flow of that power, I slowly lifted my gaze.

And then, far off—past the void—I saw it.

A massive tear, like a forced rupture between our world and another dimension.

From how it touched the hidden side of Babel, it looked like the dimensional rift caused by the Grand Convergence.

Or maybe that rift was the very reason the Grand Convergence happened to begin with.

For the first time, I could perceive it—and see beyond it.

On the other side of the rift stretched a vast, alien cosmos. Crawling, pulsating with bizarre and twisted beings in every unimaginable color.

A portal that could easily summon annihilation.

And the black cube was linked directly to that place—to that thing.

The host of all these worm abominations and grotesque phenomena.

That monstrous bastard—

I reached out toward the cube, and the shadow beneath me rose like a massive tentacle and wrapped itself tightly around it.

And then—squeezed.

With the sound of something being crushed into pieces, the black cube shattered and crumbled.

In that instant, the force that had been flowing from the cube snapped, like a wire cut clean through.

And everything started to fall apart.

Everything that could never have existed under normal physical laws.

The pulsating flesh covering walls and ceilings.

The grotesque worms that had controlled people.

Even the giant eyes staring at us from the walls.

Like a sandcastle collapsing, everything disintegrated in an instant, drained of all power.

The entire Nexus Node building began shaking violently as if hit by an earthquake.

Well, considering the meat structure supporting the interior had vanished, that made perfect sense.

I grabbed Ember’s hand, and we rushed to escape the crumbling Nexus Node HQ.

****

Seoul Dino Park. Always-cozy break room.

The TV blared with flashy sound effects as the news played.

I was lying sprawled out on a soft bed, eating pizza.

Onscreen, the anchor was breathlessly reporting on the collapse of Nexus Node HQ.

[Breaking news! Citizens of Babel, we are witnessing a historic moment. A portion of the Nexus Node HQ building has collapsed!]

[This is unprecedented in Babel’s history—a megacorp HQ has never before been attacked and damaged by outside forces!]

The anchor paused for breath, then continued in an even more frenzied tone.

[Alongside the appearance of giant shadow dinosaurs at the scene, the infamous ‘Pizza Demon’ has been identified as the main perpetrator of this attack.]

[The BPD has immediately raised the bounty from 10 million credits to 100 million. Dead or alive!]

[Nexus Node’s pride and joy—the ‘Tower of Judgment’—was instantly destroyed by a giant shadowy marine reptile. The interior of HQ was reportedly overrun by unidentified biological contamination. How did the Pizza Demon manage to pierce through a megacorp’s impenetrable defenses?!]

[Ah—new updates just in. A Nexus Node director is issuing an emergency statement—]

In one corner of the screen, footage of the devastated Nexus Node HQ played side-by-side with a wanted poster—mine.

The bounty on my head had increased exactly tenfold.

Well, I had just succeeded in attacking a megacorp’s HQ. Guess that kind of escalation made sense.

After all, I’d pulled off something completely unprecedented in Babel’s history.

With that news playing as background noise, I reached for the last slice of pizza in the box.

But strangely, there was nothing there.

I was sure there had still been one slice left.

There’s no way I miscounted the pizza... right?

Feeling something was off, I sat up and checked inside the box.

...!

And saw a sight I could hardly believe.

A giant green caterpillar was lying in the pizza box, loudly munching away on the final slice.

Its mouth was smeared with pizza sauce.

The fuzzy caterpillar stared straight at me with its lifeless, glossy black eyes.

I stared blankly at it for a moment—then slowly, I felt rage bubbling up.

Quietly, I gave an order to the shadow kiwi.

“Bite.”

At my command, the shadow kiwi napping in the corner of the break room snapped awake—along with the regular kiwis.

Like a pack of starving piranhas, they all lunged at the caterpillar at once.

The caterpillar squirmed, clearly panicking at the sudden assault—but with its stubby little legs, it had no hope of escaping the agile kiwis.

Surrounded and brutally pecked and gnawed at, the caterpillar met its end.

I watched, satisfied, as the kiwis relentlessly attacked the worm.

The chaos didn’t end until Iris ran in, startled by the noise.

Heehee.