Novels by Alan Buana

The HRD Recon SUV tore across the concrete pier, its tires screaming before it slammed into the surface of the silver sea with a metallic thud against the dense liquid. But instead of sinking like a normal car, the SUV remained suspended in the thick density of the Liquid Cooling.The silver fluid crept upward, covering the hood and seeping through the door cracks, but it didn't feel wet. It felt like thousands of ice needles stinging the nerves, piping raw data directly into the passengers' brains."RENDY! WHAT ARE YOU DOING?! I’M NOT READY TO BECOME A ZIP FILE!" Alana screamed, gripping her seat so hard her knuckles turned white.Rendy didn’t answer. His eyes were wide, his pupils dilated until they nearly swallowed his irises. He gripped Coach Udin’s book with trembling hands. The golden glow from the book merged with the silver radiance of the sea, creating a vortex of energy that began to siphon th

The sky over Senen was no longer a dull gray; it had shifted into a neon orange that blinked like a midnight mall clearance light. The electric blue fire Giko sent didn't burn asphalt or concrete in the usual way; it devoured the very texture of reality. Everywhere it touched, the old buildings of Pasar Senen transformed into stacks of giant empty cereal boxes or limp, hanging data cables."RENDY! FLOOR IT, YOU IDIOT! THE FIRE IS ABOUT TO OVERTAKE US!" Alana screamed, glancing back. In the rearview mirror of the HRD Recon SUV, the wave of blue flames crawled forward rapidly, deleting the shops behind them into hollow white pixels.Rendy slammed his foot on the gas. The SUV's engine roared, making a sound more like a high-speed photocopier than an internal combustion engine. "Cool it, Al! The clutch is lagging! I think Chaos Dynamics is hijacking our transmission!"In the back sea

The roar of The Liquidator did not sound like a lion or a dragon. It was a cacophony of a jammed photocopier, the screech of a thousand incoming faxes, and the sound of paper being slowly shredded. The thirty-foot-tall monstrosity stepped forward, leaving a trail of pitch-black ink that instantly dissolved the white marble beneath it."Rendy! That is no ordinary monster, it is a walking paper shredder!" Alana yelled. She dove behind a stack of frozen files, dodging a spray of giant paperclips launched from the monster’s arm. The clips embedded themselves in crystal pillars, shattering them into jagged shards.Rendy rolled across the floor, clutching Coach Udin’s book, which was now vibrating violently. The heat began to sear his palms. He opened a page that had just appeared in glowing ink.'Chapter 24: Mass Strike Procedures and Workflow Sabotage. Tip #108: "The Liquidator is a

The rumble in North Jakarta no longer sounded like waves; it sounded like millions of industrial paper shredders working in unison. The blood-red sky wasn't just an apocalyptic backdrop; it was a 'delete' command running in the background of reality. Before Rendy’s eyes, distant buildings began to fragment into gray particles, as if someone were using a Photoshop eraser at 100% opacity."WE’RE RUNNING OUT OF TIME!" Rendy yelled, his voice nearly drowned out by the howling wind carrying the scent of burnt wiring. "Everyone, open Chapter 20! We need a mass recruitment drive!"Alana wiped sweat and digital dust from her forehead. "Ren, you seriously want to stack these zombies into a ladder? That makes zero sense physics-wise! They're rotting meat, not bricks!"Rendy opened his book with shaking hands. The page emitted a sharp neon-blue glow, displaying an architectural blueprint that violated every law Newton e

Jakarta didn't smell like hospital disinfectant this morning. Instead, it was thick with the scent of jasmine perfume, the aroma of freshly printed books, and—most torturous for Rendy—the smell of his mother’s home-cooked noodles. It was a side effect of the Patch Update: Ex-Reunion. The CEO of Existential Corp had apparently realized that if bureaucratic logic couldn't break humanity, nostalgia certainly would."Boss, that’s her! My ex-wife, Lastri!" Bang Gondrong shouted, his voice cracking between terror and longing.In front of a ruined coffee shop at the Bundaran HI landmark stood a woman in a green batik house-dress. She wasn't holding a plate; instead, she gripped a massive machete forged from stacks of court-sealed legal papers. She was beautiful, but her eyes flickered with a neon blue light, accompanied by the sound of digital static buzzing from her mouth.&n

Post-bureaucracy Jakarta was a weird place to live. If the city had previously felt like a cold, rigid mega-office, the atmosphere now felt like a dimly lit cafe during a thunderstorm, with a playlist of sad songs on permanent shuffle.The rain fell with a lazy rhythm. Rendy stood on the hood of his HRD RECON SUV, which he’d since modified. He ripped the "HRD" logo off the door and replaced it with permanent marker: "WANTED: HAPPINESS (SALARY NEGOTIABLE)".All around them, along the main drag of the city, thousands of zombies—now better described as the "Heartbreak Battalion"—were doing things that made his skin crawl. Not because he was afraid of being eaten, but because of the sheer level of their secondhand embarrassment.There was a male zombie in a tattered dress shirt kneeling in front of a puddle, trying to write poetry with fingers that were mostly bone. Another gro