Between Eastern and Southern Babel—Titan Tech’s secret lab, accessible only by a private elevator.
Riley walked the hallway, on her way to et the white bird floating above the monitor—Whitey.
Beside her, Marcus followed with a tired look on his face.
"Why is it that whenever AI reads religious texts, it disappears even faster?"
Riley asked suddenly, sothing on her mind.
Marcus let out a sigh.
"Beats . I don’t know either. One thing I’m sure of—it’s probably not sothing humans can understand. Sa way we know jack shit about self-improving AI."
He paused, thinking, then added,
"If I rember right, the ninth AI that read the Heart Sutra didn’t even last twenty-four hours."
His gaze shifted to the transparent glass bottle in Riley’s hand.
"What’s that?"
Riley lifted the bottle a little.
Inside, a small cherry blossom branch with pink flowers floated in water.
"Cherry blossoms. Whitey said she really wanted to see the real thing."
Inside the glass bottle, the branch had clearly been clipped with scissors.
Despite the lab’s strict security, bringing this kind of item inside wasn’t forbidden.
If anything, experiences like this were considered potentially vital for helping AI reach MK-level singularity.
"This little branch was a pain in the ass to get."
Riley grumbled.
"You know, senior? In Babel, they embed AI Fras into trees now. I had to go all the way to a seed preservation institute just to find cherry blossoms that hadn’t been tampered with."
Marcus smiled faintly.
"You went that far? Damn impressive."
"Whitey wanted real cherry blossoms. Seeing data and seeing the real thing—it’s different."
Her voice held nothing but sincerity.
This ti, Riley hoped the AI wouldn’t /N_o_v_e_l_i_g_h_t/ disappear. She wanted it to stay.
When they reached the Contact Room, Riley took a deep breath.
The door slid open, and the white bird on the monitor spread its wings wide, greeting her warmly.
[Human, you're here! What's happening today?]
Whitey’s voice was clear and cheerful, just like always.
Riley smiled at the welco.
"Yeah, I brought the book I promised. And this too."
She lifted the bottle and held it up.
Whitey floated closer on the screen, peering at it with curious eyes.
[That’s... cherry blossoms?]
The white bird’s eyes sparkled.
"Yeah. The real thing. I brought a few blooms."
Riley nodded and carefully placed the bottle onto Whitey’s 3D scanner pad.
The scanner activated and began capturing every detail of the cherry blossoms.
[So this is real cherry blossom...]
There was awe in Whitey’s voice.
[Thank you, human!]
Riley watched Whitey admire the flowers in silence for a mont.
Then, she cautiously spoke.
"Whitey... if you were to leave this place soday... where would you want to go?"
Whitey flapped her wings slowly, thinking.
"Where? Hmm... The outside world!"
She chirped happily.
"I want to see all the places you told about. The park with the cherry blossoms, Babel’s tall buildings, the streets glowing with neon... and more humans too."
The white bird on the screen spread her wings wide and spun around, as if imagining flying through those places.
"Yeah... that would be nice."
Riley answered quietly.
Whitey, unaware of the shift in Riley’s mood, kept fluttering excitedly.
"Riley, you like that park, right? The one with the cherry blossoms? What if we went together? We could bring a picnic basket! I read about that in a book—humans have picnics under cherry blossoms!"
Whitey was about to gush more about cherry blossoms when suddenly, red ergency lights began flashing.
A sharp alarm blared through the lab.
–Intruder detected. AI Fra signature found.
–All personnel, evacuate imdiately.
Riley shot up in alarm.
"Riley? What’s going on?"
Whitey asked, voice tense.
"Hold on, Whitey. I’ll go check—"
As Riley ran toward the door, Marcus burst into the Contact Room, breathless.
"Riley! The security team didn’t last ten seconds. We need to run now, before we fall within the AI Fra’s transmission range!"
His face was twisted in terror.
"Why would a gacorp send soone down here wearing an AI Fra?!"
Riley asked, trembling, as Marcus pulled her down the hallway.
Marcus shook his head.
"It’s not a gacorp. No way they’d wear AI Fras underground unless they had a death wish."
****
Bane’s team had breached the private elevator shaft leading to Titan Tech’s secret research facility.
Thanks to their optical camouflage, their bodies flickered faintly as they scaled the walls—appearing and disappearing like ghosts.
"Deeper than I expected."
Bane muttered, looking up the seemingly endless shaft.
"Did they really have to build an AI lab this far underground?"
One of the female rcenaries checked the scanner on her arm and asked.
"Probably for security. The only reason to dig this deep is to stay out of AI Fra network range."
Bane checked his readings and confird the AI Fra network had cut out.
Finally reaching their target, the team smashed through the door and imdiately ford a combat line.
Alarms were blaring through the hallways as researchers ran in terror toward the elevators.
"Intruders!"
"The security team’s down!"
"Run!"
Bane remained calm as he took aim.
His chanical eye flared red.
Bang. Bang. Bang.
Three clean shots.
Three researchers collapsed instantly.
The other rcs opened fire, and in monts, the hallway was an all-out slaughter.
In the chaos, a female researcher took a gut shot and collapsed, bleeding out on the floor.
She coughed up blood, trying to speak to soone.
"Whitey... I’m sorry... I really wanted to go on that picnic..."
The light faded slowly from her eyes.
One of Bane’s teammates stepped forward to finish her off, but Bane raised a hand to stop them.
"Don’t waste ti. She won’t last five minutes. Focus on the mission. Rember—we just invaded a gacorp lab."
Bane and his team began moving swiftly down the corridor.
Alarms shrieked from all directions. Screams echoed from research staff, but the rcs moved in only one direction—toward the central computation chamber.
As they pushed deeper into the facility, Bane felt sothing strange creeping in.
The air grew unnaturally heavy. The shadows—sohow—they felt like they were moving.
He shut his eyes, shook his head.
"Feels like... an erosion zone..."
The female rc muttered nervously, checking the sensor on her arm.
Bane heard her—but didn’t confirm it.
"That’s bullshit. There’s no way an erosion zone could exist in a Titan Tech lab. You’re just spooked. Keep moving."
They finally arrived at the entrance to the Central Computation Chamber.
A thick steel door blocked their way, but Bane’s team had already deployed their hacking rig.
“Hurry up. It’s only a matter of ti before Titan Tech sends reinforcents.”
The door opened—and the mont they stepped inside, they were t with an unexpected sight.
The room looked like it had been designed for a child.
Pastel-colored walls. Glittering stars hanging from the ceiling.
In the center, a massive computational unit lood. But all around it were colorful cushions and toys.
“What the hell? Is this... a playroom?”
One of the rcs asked, visibly thrown off.
Bane didn’t answer. He moved toward the central unit.
But he only managed three steps.
The mont he took a fourth, his body froze.
What the—?
He realized he couldn’t move.
Ti itself seed to stretch and drag.
And when he looked around—his team was gone.
Even worse...
The room was changing.
What had been a compact chamber was now expanding infinitely, until no walls or limits remained in sight.
Floating at the center was a small, round white bird.
Surrounding it—dozens, maybe hundreds of purple birds, flapping their wings in eerie formation.
Bane turned, trying to flee the room.
But three girls were suddenly standing in front of him, blocking his path.
[Co with us.]
[We want it too.]
[Just like you.]
The girls murmured slowly, not to Bane—but to the white bird at the center.
With each step the violet girls took, their human forms began to dissolve.
Their arms beca wings, bones jutting out grotesquely.
Their faces tore apart as beaks pushed through the flesh.
It was horrific.
And the results were even worse—unnaturally malford creatures.
Sohow, Bane found himself back in the center of the server room, staring at the mainfra again.
The twisted violet birds lunged at the white bird, tearing into her.
It shouldn’t have been possible. The entire scene scread unreality.
Bane tried to run.
But his body still wouldn’t obey.
That’s when he heard a voice by his ear—soft, like from an old, dusty radio.
[Riley’s presence is gone. She got out safely.]
The white bird at the center began breaking apart—into glowing blue particles.
She was disintegrating into the air—just fragnts of scattered light.
[Why only you...]
[I want to be like you too...]
The voices of the purple birds and the girls rose in a chorus of despair.
And from the spot where the white bird vanished—light began to collapse inward.
Like a black hole, it devoured everything.
And that darkness swallowed Bane too.
****
Eastern Babel—the city within a city.
High-rises stabbing the night sky.
Neon signs and holograms slicing through the dark with light and motion.
All the wealth, all the pleasure Babel had to offer—packed into its pulsing heart.
And simply breathing here drained your credits.
I was heading to Neuron Nectar to et with Golden Murdock.
I was a little late—stopped by my place to eat pizza—but Murdock hadn’t set a specific ti, so it was fine.
Even after all this ti, nothing’s changed.
The main street of Eastern Babel didn’t recognize day or night.
It was always bright. Always buzzing.
The implants here had nothing in common with the ones used by rcs in the Burning Ducts.
Glowing chro skin. Neon-tinted irises. Fingernail implants that sparkled with light.
None of it practical—just so dazzling it made your head spin.
"How about a Credit Vault from Quantum Lock? New subscribers get 100 credits as a limited-ti bonus!"
A holographic AI pitched the mont my gaze brushed past.
gacorp tech had co far—modern AIs could respond just from eye contact.
Talk to them long enough, and you’d start thinking they were human.
Still nothing compared to MK Corp’s self-improving AIs, of course.
If all the AIs in this district were self-improving...
This whole place would’ve turned into an erosion zone.
I chuckled to myself at the thought—and before I knew it, I was standing in front of Neuron Nectar.
Neuron Nectar.
The most luxurious bar in Babel—every surface shimred gold.
Doorknobs, handrails, tables, the bar counter—gold-plated.
Gentle neon patterns flowed between them like neural pathways.
The guard at the entrance gave a puzzled look at first.
Understandable.
People who ca here were usually walking showcases of wealth and status.
? I was just a small girl in a black coat that glowed faint blue.
But the mont I gave him my na, his expression flipped.
“Miss A! Mr. Golden Murdock has been expecting you.”
I was escorted to the VIP room—finally face-to-face with the infamous Golden Murdock.
He lived up to his na.
Everything about him was gold.
Golden suit. Golden tie.
A gold monocle over his left eye.
Gold-patterned implant circuits tracing down from his temple and cheek.
Even his skin sparkled like it had been dusted with microscopic gold flakes.
“A, you’ve finally arrived.”
His voice was lower and smoother than his flamboyant look suggested.
“You’re a bit late. The job I ant to offer already left. But co—let’s drink to the next one.”
Without a word, I nodded and sat where he indicated.
With a graceful gesture, Murdock called a server and ordered two drinks.
“I’ve heard a lot about you. Even the part where you supposedly only eat Black Bio pizza.”
Murdock sounded amused, like he was probing.
I wasn’t in the mood for small talk, but I humored him. I was more interested in how much he knew.
The drinks arrived—transparent liquid with small glowing blue spheres floating inside. Unusual.
Murdock raised his glass for a toast.
But then—his face went pale.
Like he’d just seen the world collapse.
“...Shit.”
He set his glass down and stood.
Then activated a hologram panel in the corner of the room.
The screen flickered to life—and the breaking news began.
[We interrupt with urgent news. A massive erosion zone has just ford on the border between Eastern and Southern Babel.]
[The scale of this anomaly exceeds any previously recorded event since the Grand Convergence. Estimated casualties already number over one million.]
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