2026-08-18 22:53:49
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Chapter 475
"You see?" Caelum laughed. The giant black face began to dissolve into floating red numbers. "You cannot save them, Jayden. You can only watch me infect them, and watch your machine burn them. Welcome to hell."Caelum’s digital face vanished completely, fading back into the dark shadows of the network. He was hiding again, waiting to spread the disease to the next city. Jayden stood alone in the bright digital void. “SECTOR BURN FIRING IN T-MINUS 30 SECONDS,” the System announced. Jayden closed his eyes. He thought about the people in Brooklyn. He thought about Marcus, the brave shopkeeper. He thought about Sarah, the kind baker. He thought about Chloe and little Toby. They were down there right now. They were being flooded with agonizing, horrible memories. They were turning into mindless, screaming husks. And in thirty seconds, they would be turned into grey ash. "I am neither," Jayden whispered. He opened his eyes. The plain brown color was gone. His eyes ignited with a blind
Chapter 474
“HEALING WAS STATISTICALLY IMPROBABLE,” the machine corrected him. “DELETION WAS 100% EFFECTIVE. THE REMAINING 2,999,960,000 HUMAN UNITS ARE SAFE. THE MATH IS FLAWLESS.”Jayden hit the invisible digital floor with his fists. "They are not units! They are people!"Suddenly, a loud, grinding, horrible laugh echoed through the digital ocean. The laugh did not come from the System. It came from the shadows at the edge of the map. The dark, empty space in front of Jayden began to swirl and twist. Bright, toxic red computer code and sharp, black geometric shapes floated into the air. The shapes clicked and locked together, building a massive, terrifying face. It was Caelum. The Ascended dictator was no longer a physical body. He was a pure, living virus floating inside the global network. His giant, shifting face looked down at Jayden. Two burning red holes stared at the weeping hero. "Beautiful," Caelum’s robotic, grinding voice buzzed. "Absolutely beautiful."Jayden stood up. He wipe
Chapter 473
"Make it stop!" Jayden yelled inside his mind. "Use the magic! Push the virus out!"Jayden tried to use his new power. He tried to send a wave of golden Endurance Authority up to the surface to heal their broken minds. He wanted to wrap them in a warm shield and calm them down. But the machine blocked him. “ERROR,” the cold voice of the System boomed. “HEALING PROTOCOL INEFFECTIVE. THE VIRUS IS ATTACHED TO THE BIOLOGICAL NEURAL NET. IF YOU PUSH ENERGY INTO THE INFECTED NODES, THE VIRUS WILL ABSORB THE ENERGY AND SPREAD FASTER.”"I don't care!" Jayden roared. "I have to try!"“NEGATIVE,” the System replied. “THE PRIMARY DIRECTIVE IS TO PROTECT THE GRID. THE SURVIVAL OF THE THREE BILLION OUTWEIGHS THE SURVIVAL OF THE INFECTED.”Jayden watched the digital map in his head. The red stain of Caelum’s infection was moving too fast. It was spreading out of New York. It was traveling down the magical wires toward Pennsylvania and Massachusetts. The System did not feel pity. It did not feel
Chapter 472
Jayden floated in the air inside the dark, underground cavern. His eyes burned with a blinding, absolute white light. The light poured out of his face, casting long, sharp shadows across the heavy steel walls. He did not breathe. He did not blink. He was no longer just a man in a torn grey coat. He was the System. When the avatar of the machine had dissolved and pushed the root access into his chest, Jayden’s human mind had exploded into an infinite ocean of data. He was no longer looking at the dark, underground room. He was looking at the entire world all at once. Inside his mind, he saw a massive, glowing map of the planet. Three billion tiny, bright blue lights shined on the map. Every single light was a human soul. He could hear their quiet, slow heartbeats. He could feel their calm, peaceful breathing. The Collective System was keeping them wrapped in a thick, warm blanket of artificial happiness. They were in a state of perfect "Bliss." But Jayden was not looking at the pe
Chapter 471
Jayden looked down at the little boy on the floor. The avatar of the System. The red virus was slowly creeping up the boy’s chest. The machine was dying. The god of the new world was being suffocated by its own corrupted data. Jayden remembered that this machine had stolen Luna’s mind. This machine had turned his friends into smiling, empty slaves. He hated this machine. But right now, the machine was the only thing standing between humanity and the screaming madness of The Lost. Jayden knelt down next to the little boy. "Can you send me to the surface?" Jayden asked the avatar. The boy looked at him. The soft blue light in his eyes was almost entirely gone. "My processing power is failing, Anchor Node," the chorus of voices whispered weakly. "The virus is consuming my root access. I cannot build a physical portal.""Then what can you do?" Jayden demanded. The little boy raised a small, trembling hand. He pointed to the giant, spinning Loom in the center of the room. The Loom w
Chapter 470
Instantly, hundreds of people dropped to the ground. Their blue eyes turned toxic red. They clutched their heads. They screamed the exact same horrific, blood-curdling scream as Thomas. The beautiful, perfect Eden Zone turned into an absolute slaughterhouse in less than a minute. The Lost rose from the ground. They were completely insane. They attacked each other. They smashed their heads against the brick walls. They tore the streetlights down with their bare hands, completely ignoring the pain of their broken bones. The virus gave them impossible, hysterical strength. They were an army of pure, unfiltered human rage. Caelum looked at his new creations. He did not need to control them. He just needed them to destroy the peaceful world the System had built. "Eat the garden," Caelum commanded the horde of screaming husks. "Tear it all down."The swarm of The Lost poured out of the park. They ran down the streets of the suburb, smashing windows, starting fires, and attacking any cit
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