All Chapters of The Caffeine System: Critical Heart Protocol: Chapter 101
- Chapter 110
164 chapters
Chapter 100: The Barista in the Woods
"Open the door, Luna! I can't keep the barista waiting too long! The service here is very exclusive, you know?" Raka shouted. His hands thrashed, trying to unbuckle the seatbelt that, in his eyes, felt like a constricting snake. The Toxic Goose had just come to a hard stop after crashing into a row of two-meter-high thorny bushes. The truck's front was dented, and its iron bars were covered in withered black leaves. But in Raka's purple-spore-contaminated eyes, they had just landed smoothly in the valet parking of a luxury building. "Raka! Don't you dare get out without a mask!" Vanya's shrill voice came from the rear cargo intercom. "The toxin level at this point has entered the neuro-destructive phase! You're staring at death, not a cafe!" Luna tried to grab Raka's left arm, but the machine in Raka's chest gave him an unexpected boost of strength. Raka yanked his hand free, man
Chapter 101: A Slap of Reality
The friendly barista was just inches away from embracing him in a welcome hug. Raka closed his eyes, ready to feel a warmth he had long forgotten.SLAP!A piece of metal struck Raka's left cheek with enough force to snap his head to the side. The pain pierced through the purple fog in his brain, but his vision was still distorted."Ouch! Hey! Mr. Barista, why did you hit me?!" Raka shouted, staggering back while holding his cheek.In Raka's eyes, the friendly barista had suddenly turned into a wooden statue. In reality, Vanya had just used a foldable mechanical arm to slap Raka from the doorway of the truck bed."Wake up, you dreg-addict!" Vanya's voice boomed through the truck's loudspeaker.BANG!The sound of Vanya's homemade rifle shot shattered the valley's silence. The small-caliber bullet whizzed right past Raka's ear and hit the Spore Walker in front of him square in the head.SPLAT!It wasn't coffee that spilled, but a lump of thick green fluid mixed with brain tissue that gus
Chapter 102: The Nightmare Night Shift
"One flat white, not too hot on the milk, and please, no fake smile. I'm in a hurry," said a man in a neat suit to Raka.Raka blinked his stinging eyes. He was standing behind the very familiar mahogany bar. The shiny La Marzocco espresso machine hissed softly behind him, releasing a hot steam that smelled of sweet milk.The warm yellow light of the hanging lamps illuminated the cozy coffee shop, a stark contrast to the darkness of the highway he had just left."Of course, sir. Please wait a moment," Raka replied automatically.His hands moved with practiced agility, grabbing the portafilter and tamping the coffee grounds.The vibration of the machine in his palm, the aroma of freshly ground coffee beans, even the sound of raindrops on the shop's front window."Sir, here's your order," Raka offered the white ceramic cup to the customer.But as the man turned to take his cup, Raka froze. The man's face was flat. No eyes, no nose, just a smooth, pale surface of skin like melted wax."Th
Chapter 103: Baginda Can Speak
Raka slowly opened his eyes. His world was no longer vibrating with digital distortion, but the colors remained strange. Everything had a pale purple hue. He felt incredibly light, almost as if he were floating above a pile of spilled coffee sacks. "Huh... where...?" Raka muttered, his voice echoing in a cave. He tried to look to the side. Vanya was sitting still in front of her row of monitors, but in Raka's eyes, Vanya was nothing more than a motionless plastic mannequin. Luna was also there, leaning against the wall, but her figure resembled a melting ice sculpture. Raka felt isolated, as if a thick glass wall separated him from the reality of his friends. Then, he turned toward the corner of the room, where Baginda usually huddled. Raka was stunned. His eyes widened. Baginda, the mutant swan, usually dirty and sooty, now stood with a
Chapter 104: The Talkative Luna
"Go away! Get that thing away from me, Baginda! I don't want to sleep right now!" Raka screamed, his hand jerking forward, swatting away the silver pistol his goose had just offered him.In the purple fog that was corrupting his brain's neurons, Raka saw the tuxedo-clad figure of Baginda fly away, disintegrating into a gray dust that was blown away by the wind.Its crystal wine glass shattered in mid-air, but instead of the sound of breaking glass, what was heard was the dissonant chime of a piano.Raka panted, his chest rising and falling wildly. He felt the reactor inside his chest trying to cool itself down with a painful hissing sound.Click-whirrr. Click-whirrr.9,050"Hah... hah... it was just a dream. It was just the gas," Raka whispered, trying to convince himself. "I'm still in the truck. I'm still with Vanya and... Luna."Raka turned his head to the right. There, in the dim, deepening purple light, he saw Luna. The girl was no longer sitting quietly against the wall. She was
Chapter 105: Back to Reality
"I-I... I was screaming at her?" Raka choked on his own saliva. [System: Yeah, you idiot! You're cursing out the real Luna in the real world! She's crying her eyes out trying to save you, and you're calling her a talkative monster! Wake up, or I'll shock your reactor again until the number hits zero for good!] That realization hit Raka harder than any opera note. He couldn't hurt Luna. She was the only one who had held his hand on that dirty operating table. She was the one who had caught him when he fell from the water tower pipe. Raka forced his eyes open. In front of him, Luna the opera singer was still there, ready to hit a climactic note that would shatter Raka's sanity. "YOU ARE A FAILURE~" the hallucination prepared to take a deep breath. "QUIET!" Raka screamed with all his might, not with fear, but with a rage directed at himself.
Chapter 106: The System as a Third Eye
"Vanya, why did you take off your mask?!" Raka shouted.His voice was hoarse as he watched Vanya angrily throw her military gas mask onto the metal floor of the truck bed."It's useless, Raka! This mask is garbage against this fungus's evolution!" Vanya retorted.Her hands trembled as she wiped the sweat from her neck."My sensor-glasses show that the size of these Neuro-Mutant spores has shrunk to a sub-micron level," Vanya said again. "They don't need your lungs anymore. They're seeping in through our skin pores! We're breathing and absorbing this poison through every inch of our bodies!"Luna flinched and immediately pulled her tactical jacket tighter. Her face began to look dazed. The sharp eyes of the archer were starting to lose their focus. She stared at the truck wall as if it were growing wings.Raka felt his own face. It was itchy, hot, and felt as if a million tiny ants were crawling under his skin. His mechanical heart beat wildly, sending overlapping warning signals.Clic
Chapter 107: Raka's Request to the System
Raka stepped out of the truck, his feet landing on the asphalt, which in his eyes was just a flat black plane with a green grid. The night wind hit his face.But his sense of smell had been shut down by the System. He no longer smelled coffee; he only smelled metal in his mind."Raka! Where are you?!" It was his grandmother's voice. The voice sounded so real, calling from the darkness on the side of the highway. "Grandma's favorite grandson, come here... the tea is ready..."Raka stopped walking. His body trembled. The longing was so strong that he wanted to let go of all this green data and run towards that voice."Grandma..."[System: RAKA ADHITAMA! THAT'S NOT YOUR GRANDMA! It's just a voice module triggered by the spores to make you walk off a cliff! Look up! That red line is about to pounce on you!]Raka looked up. On top of the green wireframe of "The Toxic Goose" truck, the red monster figure leaped down.In Raka's vision, it was just a jumble of fast-moving red lines. No detail
Chapter 108: Deadly Pac-Man
"System, why did the road suddenly turn into squares? And... am I hearing MIDI music?"Raka stood at the rear door of "The Toxic Goose". To his biological eyes, shielded by the System's digital filter, the terrifying purple valley had completely vanished.Instead, he saw a giant maze with glowing neon blue walls. The floor was pitch black with a green grid, and along the path, small yellow dots were floating.[System: Welcome to the bonus level, Raka! I just re-skinned your view to the 'Pac-Man Edition'. Those purple spores are slowing down your brain, so I'm using the simplest visuals to keep the reactor processor in your chest from overheating. Cute, right?]"Cute my ass!" Raka snapped. Even so, he stepped forward hesitantly. "This is so weird. Where are Luna and Vanya?"[System: They're behind you, but in these graphics, they're just two unimportant green boxes. Focus ahead, Barista! See those little yellow dots? Those are pure oxygen 'Pellets'. An emergency supply drop crate fell
Chapter 109: Giant Mutant Rafflesia
Raka ran towards the jelly monster, dodging its venomous tentacles with precise, acrobatic movements, all because the System was providing a navigation line on his 8-bit floor. SLAP! BONK! "Die, Inky!" Raka slapped the monster with the flat side of his cement trowel. The monster's jaw dislocated, and it collapsed. Raka stood on top of the dying monster's body, striking a victory pose at the empty air. "Raka, listen to me!" Vanya shouted, her voice trembling with horror. "Your brain activity shows total dissociation! You're experiencing a spore-induced psychosis! What are you seeing right now?!" "I'm seeing a beautiful world, Vanya!" Raka replied, picking up a rusty metal tube from the ground. In his eyes, the tube was a shiny red cherry. "I just ate a cherry! It's so refreshing!" In reality, Raka had just found a pure oxygen