Chapter 178: Chapter 112: Serum

The camera was set on the chest.

The attacker installed an external lens disruptor, creating illusory lines and irremovable noise in the footage.

The subject was dragged into the trunk, thrown beside a sealed glass container, visible through the metallic reflections:

The person recording this video was the young man named John Chavez from the Tiebang Logistics archives.

The real John was inside the glass container.

The camera seemed to have been discovered.

The attacker crushed the equipment with his hand.

This is all Chavez’s chest camera recorded. Due to factors like signal coverage and connectivity, the video was uploaded and saved on a backup server at Silver Port.

John was wandering in cyberspace.

He watched the video footage, his mind racing, roughly understanding what happened afterward:

Tiebang Logistics reinforcements arrived on the scene, finding an unconscious and near-death John. The injured were sent to the company’s affiliated hospital, relevant personnel were purged, and he was notified of dismissal by the HR department…

[Main Mission: The Attacker]

[Description: Investigate what the attacker did to “Chavez” and the “cargo,” pursue the truth, and figure out who you really are.]

[Reward: Prosthetic Limb [Model-T01]]

The truth of the incident was not as clear as imagined.

The video had finished playing.

The screen froze at the destroyed equipment scene — Chavez collapsed, staring at the John inside the glass container.

Data waves rippled in cyberspace.

John’s mind was in turmoil.

He seemed to recall more memories: including his daily life over the past few years in Eden City, memorable social interactions and encounters, and various experiences before and after joining the company…

It felt like a damaged storage device was fully repaired, and the data was automatically decompressed, returning to its original place.

At that time, he was called John Chavez.

After awakening from the company, he had a new body, even forgetting his past surname, like an outsider, being reabsorbed by this dazzling city.

[You’re waking up.]

“…Huh, f*ck! Who’s there?”

John was taken aback.

He had no physical form in cyberspace.

To describe it, it was like his consciousness was impacted, or suddenly a new window popped up while surfing the internet.

[I go by many names, hold on, I need to access your contact list, maybe we’ve crossed paths.]

Something new was coalescing in cyberspace.

It should have appeared out of thin air and not exist in reality. It’s impossible for someone to be floating above the pool, right?

[So you are indeed another variable influenced by Black Light in reality.]

The entity was very close to John.

The voice sounded like the surround sound in a private cinema with no blind spots.

“Damn, if you really want to talk, don’t speak in riddles… I know, you’re the guy watching the scene from behind the camera, right? Did you arrange this surgery too?”

John responded somewhat irritably.

He had never spoken in cyberspace, only instinctively communicating according to biological instincts.

[Nice to meet you, John, I’m Serum.]

Data streams and noise converged into a blonde middle-aged woman.

She had a mechanical arm, wearing a cheap, faded sweatshirt, the hood hiding network connection ports and deep dive access points.

“Damn, it’s you, they clearly said you were missing.”

[Strictly speaking, it should be called death. Initially, Bismarck imprisoned me in Plato Laboratory. Later, I returned as a consciousness, lurking in the DaiOni’s intelligent program.]

She stood beside John’s outline.

[File retrieval and decompression, progress: complete.]

In the virtual world, all actions were built on data foundations, with every step in cyberspace being visualized.

John saw the woman called Serum gently lift her head, and a photo appeared in front of them.

In the distant background, a Butcher transformed into a mechanical monster was wreaking havoc in Plato’s Laboratory.

In a closer location.

Ironfoot Kelp stood before the Big Ghost Power Armor.

He had not yet undergone full prosthetic body modification for pilots, his face was full of flesh and blood, tattoos were glossy and vibrant, exuding a fierce and violent aura of the Exile leader.

Serum showed John the scenes she witnessed while lurking inside the Power Armor, then continued to speak.

[I was brought to Silver Port, unable to connect to the network, only able to reside in a backup server until…]

Kunbu transformed himself into a semi-mechanical body.

He became the Big Ghost Power Armor’s pilot and, upon first activating the internal intelligent program, made contact with Serum, who had become a consciousness.

“Hey, wait, so what are you exactly now?”

[I lost my physical body, becoming an AI capable of communication, a wanted internet hacker, just a wandering consciousness in cyberspace, you can call me whatever you want.]

“How did you become like this?”

[I was like this from the beginning, oh, it’s a long story, you have limited time to communicate with me, ask something with better cost-effectiveness.]

“Are you helping this madman with something? Sorry, I need to be sure whose side you’re on.”

[I’m trying to save a cyber mental illness.]

Kunbu’s physical and mental conditions worsened due to prolonged radiation exposure.

The side effects of the prosthetic modifications became increasingly evident.

He spent more and more time wearing the Big Ghost Power Armor.

Life after the Plato’s Warehouse incident was filled with bloody violence.

Kunbu fought with soldiers from major companies, battled with Wanderers in the wasteland, and escaped countless Lone Wolf teams’ pursuits…

Kunbu initially communicated with Serum and, following her instructions, began rebuilding the underground facility — rebooting power stations, setting up production lines, organizing spoils.

Source: Webnovel.com, updated by NovelKeep