Cyber Fair: The Mind is a Battlefield (Escape from Club Apophis, 35)

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STORYLINE: The Jae Won University Stadium burned like a crown of thorns. Rows of plastic seats melted into crooked black smiles, and the scoreboard flickered above them, its numbers dissolving into meaningless static. Ash drifted through the dead wind like red snow.

Jihoon knelt in the dirt of the pitcher’s mound, his breath coming in thin, burning pulls.

Across the diamond, Lathandro twirled a charred baseball bat slowly in one hand. Casual. Patient. Like a man warming up before a game already won. He looked flawless in his white uniform, shoes clean, collar crisp, entirely untouched by the smoke and ruin.

"Do you hear them?" Lathandro asked lightly, his voice carrying over the crackle of the flames.

Voices echoed faintly through the smoke. Muffled. Distant. Real. Jihoon lifted his head. The sky above the dreamscape trembled.

"They’re worried," Lathandro said, a cruel smirk touching his perfect lips. "How sweet."

The scent of clove.

It drifted through the acrid smoke, ancient and entirely out of place.

Jihoon looked towards the scent.

Suddenly, the bat came down. Crack.

Light exploded behind Jihoon’s eyes. He collapsed into the dirt, tasting copper and ash.

"You don't deserve your best friends. You didn't even tell them your birthday," Lathandro continued conversationally, stepping over him. "But I understand."

Another swing. Crack.

"You were born under a bad star, the asteroid Apophis," Lathandro whispered, crouching beside him. "An ill omen. The day that almost ended the world. Imagine how they’d react if they knew you were always cursed."

The crack rang in Jihoon's skull.

"You always knew something was wrong with you. Too quiet. Too strange. Too afraid to exist properly. You watched life from the bleachers while better people played the game." He spread his arms to the burning stadium. "But me? I am the player."

The glitching scoreboard above the stadium spasmed back to life, letters crawling through static until they held in place.

HITS

AWAY: SOMEBODY: 347

HOME: NOBODY: 0

Lathandro glanced up at the board and smiled faintly. “Scorekeeping matters.”

Suddenly, the ground convulsed. A violent earthquake ripped through the dreamscape, collapsing a section of the bleachers. Jihoon’s real body was being moved.

Through the fissures in the sky, a voice bled through. Deep, broken, and wet.

Kyle.

“He didn’t want this! Look at him! Jihoon never wanted to be a monster!” Kyle’s voice cracked with a guilt so profound it made the ground in the dreamscape shudder. Kyle, the guy who treated joy like a personal insult, was weeping for him.

Jihoon flinched and closed his eyes.

"Oh?" Lathandro murmured, his eyes narrowing. He raised the bat. "Still clinging to them? Pathetic. Just forget them already."

Before the bat could fall, a new voice sliced through the haze, cold and sharp with fury. He knew that voice. The nurse from the hospital.

“You think Master Ginerva forced this upon him?” Her voice sneered from the waking world. “You think your precious friend is a victim? Look at the footage, you ignorant children. He begged for it.”

The melting jumbo screen flickered violently. Then a new image forced itself across the burning pixels. It was shaky halophone footage from inside the velvet madness of Club Apophis.

Jihoon saw his own face, his old, 000unremarkable face, looking up at the towering silhouette of MasterGin.

Something inside Jihoon recoiled. The words felt familiar. Like overhearing himself through a wall.

“I’m tired of being a nobody. Tired of being weak. I can't even tell the girl I like how I feel,” his old self on the screen whispered, his voice trembling with raw, desperate hunger. “I don’t want to be small anymore....”

"Forget it!" Lathandro roared, his composure snapping. He brought the bat down viciously. "Forget! Let it go! I am the one keeping us alive! Your life ended the moment you walked into Club Apophis. Mine is just beginning!"

The bat came down again. Crack.

The scoreboard clicked.

HITS: 348

Above them, the real world was descending into chaos.

“He's coming. Enforcers in the corridor,” Paine’s voice snapped. “Here. Take this. Go.”

Jihoon's heart sank. But then, a hand reached through the sensory void. It was warm. Small. Real. He felt it.

Minjo’s voice broke through the static, closer than the rest. “Jihoon.”

Her hand tightened around his. “I thought sunscreen would be enough.” The words trembled, then hardened.

For a moment she said nothing. The silence carried everything she couldn’t.

“I will not fail you again.” Her grip tightened. “I don’t care what they are. Vampires. Cults. Gods.”

A breath against his cheek. “I watched you burn. Your arms on fire reaching to me, begging me to save you. So that's what I'll do. This is not over.” A pause. “Do you hear me?”

He felt the whisper of her lips against his cheek. Warm. Human. Alive.

Her touch was real. A kiss.

A jolt of pure, living electricity shot through his paralyzed limbs.

"Forget her!" Lathandro roared, swinging the bat for a final, memory-erasing blow.

Jihoon moved.

He didn't dodge. He reached up and caught the barrel of the bat, his bare, bloody hands stopping the wood cold.

Lathandro's grip faltered. Something crossed his perfect face that had no name in his vocabulary. The firelight flickered across their mirrored faces. One majestic, one bruised and bleeding.

"I kept you alive," Lathandro hissed.

Jihoon tightened his grip on the wood, staggering to his feet. "I know," he rasped, looking his shadow dead in the eye. "But you’re not all I am."

Jihoon twisted. The bat tore free from Lathandro’s grip. With a snarl of all his pent-up rage, he swung it back and cracked it across Lathandro's flawless jaw.

The scoreboard shrieked with feedback. The team names scrambled like a broken machine, then went dark.

The beautiful boy spun and collapsed into the ash. Knocked out cold.

The moment Lathandro fell, the inferno shattered like glass. The nightmare purgatory of Jihoon’s death dissolved, replaced instantly by the familiar, damp neon of the alleyway outside his old dorm. A mechanical bark echoed through the brick corridor. Scrappy 2 bounded from the shadows, tail wagging.

Jihoon dropped the bat, his chest heaving. He screamed at the sky, "Minjo! I'm here!"

But the voices were fading. The heavy, rhythmic clicking of MasterGin’s heels approached in the real world. His friends were gone. They had fled. But he was still unconscious in the heart of Monstrum.

The alley lights suddenly dimmed. Neon signs flickered. A low hum vibrated in the ground.

Clap. Clap. Clap.

The slow, deliberate sound of applause drifted from the shadows of the alleyway.

Jihoon spun around.

A towering silhouette stepped into the dim light, draped in black, his golden dreadlocks arranged like a Pharaoh’s nemes. The air immediately chilled, smelling of ancient stone and clove cigarettes.

The Ruler of the Night looked down at Lathandro's unconscious body, then up to Jihoon, his gold eyes bright with something that might have been amusement if amusement could also be a threat.

"I have watched this infestation try to break you," the Ruler said, his voice a resonant baritone that vibrated in Jihoon's chest. "You have proven yourself. I did not expect such resilience from a human. It is fortunate your rescuers forced my Lucien to move you away from that cursed energy."

Jihoon backed up, his hands trembling. "Who are you?"

The ancient vampire took a slow drag from his cigarette, the embers flaring orange in the dark.

"I am known by many titles," he purred smoothly. "But you may think of me as the Instrument of Order. My servant, the Instrument of Chaos, has laid a claim on your flesh, but I see you are not entirely his." The Ruler extended a massive, armored hand toward Jihoon. "Let us speak of a mutually beneficial arrangement. A deal to balance the scales."

Jihoon looked at the extended hand, then at Scrappy sitting patient in the neon dark, then back at the oldest person he had ever seen.



When I saw STOP's robot dog, thought I had gone to heaven for a moment. Its perfect. And perfect for for this story as the dream symbol of Minjo, guarding poor Jihoon. Lovely. Just lovely. ... Blaze is his real name, and he comes in different color selections. You just wear him, and he's fully animated with cool sci-fi noises. The Hud can change its LED glow color. He's a good boy.   ....From Diaboli Designs is Voidcore boots. Like all DD boots, it comes with a hud full of texture options and texture animations. It's so fun. I went with a Lime Green ad Black look to match the jacket.   ...Savage's Yuri Jacket has backpack built in the back.  The front can your pick from several colors, and the back and backpack are black.   ...Matching the lime theme is the T-AB headphones by Lavu.  You can get in several colors, and then modify is even more with a hud. The headphones are unrigged and mod, so you can get a perfect fit.   ... In the background, I used the mod version of ZEROICHI's KABUKI X Backdrop. Its detailed L shaped set with built in lights and PBR textures. With the mod version you can tint, or move pieces around. It includes stand alone props bottles, and an option without built in lighting.   ...And a subtle detail in the back, is the EC3D neon sign of the Dog which I combined with the ZEROICHI's Love sign.  ... Just an another little nod to our Snow White (Jihoon) finally getting that kiss from his love (Minjo) that awakens, not his body, but his agency. -- My own cyber twist to the famous fairytale. 

On him, Yoon Jihoon:

Jacket: Savage - Yuri Jacket, Legacy M [mesh](Cyber Fair)(250L)

Shoes: Diaboli Design - Voidcore Boots, Legacy M [mesh](Cyber Fair)(999L)

Pet: STOP - Blaze-Yellow [mesh](Cyber Fair)(1500L)

Heaphones: Lavu - T-AB, black heaphone [mesh](Cyber Fair)(239L) 

Rings: MANDALA - Legacy(M)_Ring []Sinra Rings season-3-HD [mesh]

Baseball Bat: Top Shed Model_Baseball Bat [mesh]

Hair: Raven Bell - Nova Hair Short w Bangs ~Shimmer~ [mesh]

Pants: AVEC TOI Kai Pants, Turmoil, LegacyM [mesh](595L)

Hairbase: Volkstone - Percy Hairbase / Dark Black [BOM]

Tattoo: 𝐒𝐀𝐂𝐑𝐈𝐋𝐄𝐆𝐄 - [p] the damned - bloody mouth [BOM]

Eye makeup: maledictus -  Lacrimosa - Blood [BOM] [BOM]

Tattoo: Hexed -  Lonely Soul Blood Mouth [BOM]

Tattoo: Broadwing - Mouth Wound - Fresh Bloody [BOM]
Skin: MUDSKIN - Hajimu - Scarface - Brow - WINTER [BOM]

Eyes: IKON - Perspective Eyes - Oxidation [BOM]

Head, bloody tattoos: LeLUTKA - Kane Evolution [mesh](3990L)

Body: TheShops - [BODY] Athletic Meshbody (Legacy)(m) (1.7.1) [mesh](5000L)

Pose: momomuller 3M_sc0_m_3 (40L)

Setting:

Skybox: ZEROICHI - KABUKI X Backdrop Ambientlight [mesh](Cyber Fair)(580L)

Neon sign: EC3D - Cyber Dog Static [mesh](Cyber Fair)(200L)

BONUS IMAGES: inworld raw shots, hi-res, midday sky:

 

Cyber Fair: The Entropy Engine (Escape from Club Apophis, 34)

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STORYLINE:  The air had changed. Nurse Paine noticed the shift the way a surgeon feels a patient crashing. It was not a sound. It was a pressure. A wrongness in the molecules. MasterGin was somewhere in the building. The clinic grew tense around his presence. The air smelled too heavily of expensive perfume. The immaculate floors felt like ice. Every sterile corridor was listening.

She did not hurry. Hurrying was for people who could afford to be seen trying. Nurse Paine did nothing quickly. Not even betrayal.

Her halo-phone glowed in her palm. She tapped the screen with surgical precision.

Sorry to bother you, Master.

The Tailor is undecided about the ritual garment for Jihoon.

He fears displeasing you. Might you inspect it personally?

Send.

A lie stitched with perfect etiquette. MasterGin loved beauty. He loved craftsmanship. He loved being admired. He would come. And while the god of vanity obsessed over silk, Nurse Paine would commit treason.

She reached the sealed maintenance hatch deep below the clinic. She unhooked her gold serpent brooch and pressed the metal to the optical reader. The heavy door hissed. It unlocked the passage to the sewer.

On the other side, the team of filthy students practically collapsed into her.

Ghost had been mid-hack on the exterior keypad. He yelped and jumped backward. His tools clattered loudly across the wet stone.

Paine offered a sweet, dead-eyed smile. "Welcome to GIN AESTHETICA™."

"You bitch!" Minjo lunged blindly at the white-coated figure. "I would know your stench anywhere! You drugged me! You kidnapped Jihoon!"

Plague caught Minjo around the waist. He hauled her back before she could tear the nurse's throat out. The struggle was silent but volcanic.

Paine did not flinch. She lifted the edge of her pristine coat just enough to reveal the serrated chrome of a bone saw and a glowing syringe of paralytic neurotoxin.

"If I intended to harm you," she said softly, "you would not have made it this far." Her eyes flicked down the dark corridor behind them, calculating the shadows. "I do not have time for this. If you want Yoon Jihoon back, follow me. Make no sound. Touch nothing. Or we are all dead."

She turned and walked away.

The Team hesitated. Suspicion moved through them like a cold river current.

Lisa darted in front of Paine. She planted herself in the corridor like a barricade. "Why are you helping us?"

Paine tried to brush past her.

Lisa raised one finger. "Answer our questions or I start screaming. Trust me. I have influencer lungs. I can hit frequencies that shatter glass and summon security."

"Go ahead and scream," Paine replied. "The soundproofing here is excellent. I had it installed myself."

"Okay then. Here goes." Lisa inhaled deeply. She prepared to let out the full force of her voice.

Paine stopped walking.

Lisa smiled sweetly. "Much better. I'm Lisa Liemawr of the Hexa Herald. Reporter. Survivor. Professional chaos correspondent. Now why exactly should we trust the nurse with a bone saw and serial killer energy?"

Paine's eyes moved to Lisa. It was the flat assessment of someone deciding whether a specimen was worth the formaldehyde jar.

"Because he replaced me." The words landed heavy and bitter. Paine’s gaze shifted to the approaching elevator doors. "I helped build this place. Lead the Children of Apophis. My devotion to Master Ginerva was absolute. Then the Lost One arrived. Suddenly he is the masterpiece. The obsession. And I am reduced to grunt work. I want him gone." 

Kyle took in the tunnels with a security guard's eye. Posh. Immaculate. They were a jarring contrast to the decaying, foul-smelling sewers they had just escaped.

His deep voice cut the tension. "Where are you taking us?"

Paine moved forward. "These are the VIP corridors. They are safe. They connect to the Presidential Blue House and Yeouido’s financial towers. Only human clients are permitted to access this sector."

"No Monstrum?" Kyle raised a brow. His voice was edged with heavy suspicion.

"No," she replied. She picked up her pace and checked her silver halowatch. "The powerful invest in miracles. Not nightmares."

Minjo’s jaw tightened. "Humans only. Meaning you are still human. Able to go where the vampires can't." She began to follow Paine, firing her questions like daggers. "You planted those bugs and devices in Jihoon’s dorm. You were the one behind the Black Snakeskin Box."

Paine spun around and sneered. "You are wasting time you do not have."

She turned and walked faster than should have been possible in couture heels. She disappeared into an obsidian elevator.

The team rushed inside after her. When the elevator doors parted again, they were greeted by a pair of brushed gold cathedral doors. The metal slid open soundlessly. The air beyond was immediately cooler and heavier. It felt as if the room itself had lungs.

They stepped into The Museum of Catastrophes.

An oppressive, deep hum ruled the circular, domed chamber. It sounded similar to the barrier protecting the border of the Forbidden Zone, but the frequency was much stronger here. A low vibration pulsed through the glass floor beneath their boots. It rattled their teeth. Around the chamber’s perimeter, illuminated holograms endlessly repeated historic disasters, displayed like priceless, curated jewelry.

The team slowly entered. The air smelled faintly metallic, like a lightning strike trapped in glass. Plague turned in a slow circle, staring at the vivid, looping tragedies.

"Okay," he whispered. "So we have the burning of the Library of Alexandria." He pointed at one glowing display, then another. "The Titanic snapping like a glow stick. A mushroom cloud blooming over Hiroshima."

He swallowed hard. "Guys."

No one answered.

"Guys, this is exactly like the movie Aliens. Exactly. Like when Ripley realizes she just walked into the Queen’s egg chamber."

Silence.

"For the record, I voted we stay in the sewer." Plague gulped and looked around the terrifying room.

Suddenly, a sharp chime pierced the chamber. It was Paine’s halo-phone. She went completely rigid.

MasterGin’s voice slid through the speaker. It was sharp and highly irritated. "Where is the Damascus silk? It was to arrive two days ago."

Her ruse had backfired. She angled her body away from the team. Her voice dropped to a state of professional calm.

"My apologies, Master. I will investigate at once."

"Do so. The ceremony must not be delayed." The line went dead. Paine shot the students one hard, genuinely panicked look. "Do not move," she mouthed. She vanished through a dark side corridor, leaving them alone.

Ghost snapped his fingers for their attention. He pointed his dimmed halo-wrist light toward the perimeter of the room. Six vertical stasis pods lined the curved walls. They glowed softly. The seventh pod stood dark. Above each pod pulsed a name and a date, flashing in perfect time with the heartbeat of the chamber.

Sister Hana. April 13, 2029. Jeju Island. Sister Mireille. April 13, 2029. Jeju Island.

Ghost blinked. He rapidly tapped on his halo glove, projecting the glowing blue text into the air. "Same birthdate."

Echo's hand flew up to cover her mouth. She already knew which pod would be dark. She did not make a single sound as she read the glass.

Sister Sophia. Missing.

Further inside the room, Minjo stood transfixed by the displays. Because she had lost her glasses in the sewer, she had to lean in close. Her face was lit by the ghostly glow, mere inches from a repeating hologram of a sinking ocean liner. "This is not archival footage," she whispered, her breath shallow. "They are extractions. Time files." She reached out and touched the cold edge of the glass casing. “And these displays? Chronal Resonance Viewers."

The holograms pulsed with sickening rhythm. From each looping disaster, thin filaments of anti-light throbbed beneath the glass floor. The strange shadows actively consumed the surrounding glow. They left only the faint memory of light at their edges, behaving exactly like miniature black holes.

She squinted hard, trying to follow the eerie, bisected light tracing across the floor. "This power. It's not energy born from creation. It is born from destruction. They are extracting it," Minjo said. Her voice dropped into a clinical, terrified cadence.

"Oh!” Echo blurted out. “Like Jihoon’s theory about the Black Snakeskin Box?"

"Yes,” Minjo gestured to the vast chamber. "It is horrifyingly genius. Disasters throughout time, focused into one place like a solar array from hell. This entire room is the Entropy Engine."

The anti-light raced in a mathematical spiral. It converged in a tightening whirlwind toward the beating heart of the room.

"Hey, Dragonlets." Lisa pointed upward, her voice entirely losing its usual commercial gloss. "Is that Apophis?"

A vast projection dominated the domed ceiling. It showed a massive celestial body skimming the Earth's atmosphere. Satellites fell from orbit like burning embers. Northern lights circled the globe on fire.

Plague's eyes widened. "It was almost directly over Jeju Island during its closest approach."

"Wait," Plague whispered, taking a step forward. "Jihoon’s gamer tag was Meteor Strike." He rubbed his arms as goosebumps rose on his neck. "He never did tell us when his birthday was."

Drawn by the hypnotic pulse of the anti-light, the team approached the central dais.

At the focal point of the exhibit, someone reclined across a luxurious, serpent-shaped chaise lounge.

At first, they thought it was a marble statue.

The sleeping figure lay perfectly still. He was draped in flowing ceremonial white. His limbs were arranged with deliberate, artistic grace. Silver hair spilled across the velvet cushions like molten metal.

He was beautiful. Far too beautiful.

A brass placard glowed gently beneath the dais.

Echo leaned closer to read it. Her voice faltered immediately.

"Lathandro Ginerva. April 13, 2029. East China Sea, off Jeju Island."

Absolute silence fell across the chamber.

Kyle stopped breathing.

Minjo stumbled backward, her hands flying to her head. "No," she whispered. "No. No. No."

High above the dais, coiled in the slow silence of the ceiling projection, something vast moved in the dark. It was not a shadow. It was not smoke. It was the outline of something ancient. It was ringed in stolen anti-light. Its attention was fixed on the sleeping figure below, possessing the terrifying, absolute stillness of a predator that had already won.

Spooky! Thanks to everyone who has stayed with me. We are racing towards to the end of this gothic cyberpunk horror.... Ready for more Cyberpunk? Yes? Then hop on your hover bike, it's Cyber Fair time!  

For this post, we get to peek into setting from my ongoing series, the VIP Tunnels of GIN AESTHETICA™ with our tour guide, Nurse Paine. ... The wonderful "007" Sky Tower Building 1 is by Amebic. It has built in lighting, sliding glass doors, and is able to stack, connecting passageways between skyboxes. I used 4 connecting boxes for my image. Love that! ...Nurse Paine is wearing the dramatic and elegant Tamesis hair by Limerence. The side of the hair has a led glowing effect thats pretty cool. I love the long braids too. You can purchase texture packs for more colors, and tint in the hair hud. For my image, I used a white texture and added a slight gold tint match her hair color used in a past post. ...Paine has doubled up on face masks, because you can never be too safe. *snorts*. The lower layer is the most beautiful Face BOM cyber mask I have ever seen, Tactical Cyber Mask by Guapa. You almost don't even notice the lips are not behind a mask! It's a great illusion! I used the Blue version from the Fatpack. ...The upper mask is the Tusk Metal Mask by VERBOTEN. It has animated LED textures, and a texture hud. It's mod, so you can move it around. I turned off the text that said "Tusk" in the edit menu. ...Paine's eyes are the S H I M M set one turquoise eyes, they worked perfectly. They come in BOM or Lelutka eye applier. ...The sporty Xenu outfit by Error worked great as cyberpunk Nurse outfit! It has a hud to change its colors and the animated LED colors. ...The fun Cyber Haute Couture shoes are Ruchell 's Lux Heels. (see image below). The sole has a rotating Diamond hologram, fabric is Hexagon, and has a LED glow too. It's just too fun. Has a texture hud also. ...Other items I used, the Effervescence Miranda Gloves for that nurse latex glow look, the Hexclave Snake Tie Pin as Paine's VIP badge, its a gift on the marketplace. From BluPrintz is the DataPad doubling as a halo phone. I used the Voglia ELEKTRA Skin once more for Paine to keep her consistent. Pose by Yzk.

On her, Nurse Paine:

Hair: Limerence - Tamesis hair [mesh](Cyber Fair)(990L)

Outfit: Error - xena set - legacy  [mesh](Cyber Fair)(199L)

Mask object: VERBOTEN - Tusk Metal Mask [mesh](Cyber Fair)(300L)

Mask tattoo: Guapa - Tactical Cyber Mask For Lelutka Evox, fatpack [BOM](Cyber Fair)(499L)

Eyes: S H I M M - CYBER XIII BONUS [BOM](Cyber Fair)(288L)

Shoes: Ruchell - Lux Heels [mesh](Cyber Fair)(349L)

Gloves: Effervescence - EF Miranda Gloves - MEGAPACK - Legacy [mesh]

Brooch: HEXCLAVE - Snake Tie Pin [mesh](gift)

Syringe, bone saw: CABALPIER - Mad Doctor's Equipment - Bundle [mesh]

Halophone: BluPrintz - BP - Data Pad [mesh]

Skin: VOGLIA - ELEKTRA Skin, EvoX, Icy With Brows [BOM]

Head, eyes: LeLUTKA - RAVEN 4.0 [mesh](3990L)

Body: TheShops - Legacy (f) Special Edition (Basic) 1.2 [mesh]

Pose: yzk - mens pose2 - 5

Setting:

Skybox: ambice - "007" Sky Tower Building 1 [mesh](Cyber Fair)(899L)

BONUS IMAGES: inworld raw shots, hi-res, midday sky:

Midnight Order: Paine and Temptation (Escape from Club Apophis, 33)

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STORYLINE: The deal was sealed with a handshake. Disgusting.

From her station in the shadows of the greenroom, Nurse Paine watched the transaction with the cold, clinical detachment of a coroner. The handshake between her master, the divine Dr. Lucien Ginerva, and that pink-haired parasite, Romance, wasn’t just a business agreement. It was an infection.

“You look thin. Bring your best face to the Opening of the Mouth Ceremony. Drink ten years,” MasterGin purred, releasing the idol’s hand.

Paine tried to hide her smirk. Ten years. An exquisite insult.

She watched MasterGin sashay away, his tunic dissolving into the clinic light, leaving the room feeling emptier, colder. He didn’t look at her. He never did. He just left her with the mess, as he had for twenty years.

She turned her gaze to Romance. He was preening in the mirror, hair slowly turning pink, and wiping a faint smudge of soul from his lip. Life he had stolen right out on the street, in front of the clinic, under the glare of a thousand cameras.

Reckless. A liability wrapped in velvet and bad decisions. He risked the Great Work. The Monstrum. The Master himself. All for a quick hit of adoration. And for what? To save a broken cyborg girl who was destined for the scrap heap anyway?

Romance caught her staring in the reflection. He didn't look ashamed. He looked bored.

“You are walking on borrowed time, Master Romance,” Paine said, her voice dropping into the quiet, lethal register she usually reserved for uncooperative patients.

He spun the chair slowly, crossing his legs with an elegance that made her want to snap his femur.

“Aren’t we all? That’s why I’m curious.”

He leaned back, studying her with those impossible, mischief-flecked eyes. He looked at her not as a threat, but as a specimen.

“You keep his house clean. His rules intact. His miracles on schedule,” he drawled. “But you’re mortal. Spending your life in service to a monster who barely looks twice at you.”

The words struck her like a scalpel, precise and severing.

Mortal.

The word hung in the air, smelling of rot. She looked down at her white heels. They were scuffed at the toe. Scuffed from running down hallways, kicking open doors, dragging heavy, unconscious bodies into prep rooms. Scuffed from doing the dirty work while he floated above it all in a cloud of clove smoke and opera music.

She forced her head up. She would not let this glitter-covered leech see her bleed.

“My service is not for his vanity,” she lied, the words tasting like ash. “It is for the Great Work. The resurrection of the old ways.”

“The Old Ways?” Romance laughed softly, a sound that grated on her nerves like a bone saw hitting a clamp. “You mean like the Opening of the Mouth? The catering alone must be a nightmare. Let me guess… he handles the guest list, and you handle the carcass?”

Paine flinched. It was a microscopic movement, a twitch of the eyelid, but he saw it.

Carcass. That’s all Jihoon was to him. But to her? He was the clay of her master. She ensured the transition was seamless.

“The High Priestess does not complain of the weight of the knife,” she snapped, her voice rising.

“High Priestess,” Romance mused, standing up. He drifted toward her, invading her sterile field. He smelled of amber musk and freshly baked cinnamon buns. “A grand title for a janitor. You look exhausted, Paine. When was the last time you slept? Or does he keep you running on stimulants and promises?”

He stopped inches from her face. His beauty upclose undeniable.

“He treats you like furniture. Useful. Silent. Easily replaced.”

Rage, hot and white, flared in her chest. Her nails bit into her palm. *Furniture?* She was the foundation! Without her, GIN AESTHETICA™ would crumble into a heap of lawsuits and bio-waste within a week. She managed the supply lines. She silenced the inspectors. She fed the beast. 

She smoothed a wrinkle in her a pristine couture scrubs.

“Be ready,” she hissed, stepping back to put distance between her and his seductive scent. “The camera is waiting.”

She reached for the door panel, desperate to be away from him, to be back in the cold, logical embrace of her lab.

BEEP. BEEP. BEEP.

The room washed in a sudden, pulsing crimson light.

Paine froze. Her heart rate didn't spike, it steadied. This was familiar. This was procedure.

She tapped her wrist-console. A holographic grid projected into the air, cutting through the red haze.

Sector 4. Sub-Level Maintenance. The VIP Tunnel.

Grainy night-vision footage flickered to life.

Five figures moving through the shadows. Covered in muck. Moving fast.

She squinted. The tactical gear. The girl with the camera. The boy with the glowing gloves.

The escapees.

The ones from the Pen. The ones who had caused a riot at the auction. They were here. In her house.

“Intruders,” she whispered, the word a curse. “Unauthorized biocodes detected.”

Her fingers flew across the console. This was it. The excuse she needed to vent the fury building in her veins.

“Summoning Enforcer Squad Alpha,” she announced, her thumb hovering over the execution command. “Seal the exits.”

“Wait.”

Romance stepped in front of the hologram, blocking her view.

“Don’t call the dogs yet. Look at them. They’re barely standing. Sewer rats in human clothes.”

“They are breaching the Holy Sanctum. Defiling the clinic where a God performs miracles.” Paine snarled, dodging around him to reach the icon. “Protocol demands—”

He grabbed her wrist.

The contact was electric. A fiery jolt shot through her core, ringing her like a bell.

“Look at me, Paine,” he breathed.

His eyes flared with a hypnotic, neon-pink light. The air suddenly smelled of yearning and first kisses. She felt the warmth brush her skin, syrupy and false, and she did not yield.

“You don’t want to call the guards. You want to let them pass. You’re so tired of fighting. Just... let it go.”

She felt the enchantment wash over her like a warm bath. It tugged at her thumping heart, whispered to her exhausted muscles that it was okay to rest, okay to fail, okay to just... stop.

It was a powerful spell. Against a human, it would have been absolute.

For one treacherous heartbeat, she wanted to let go.

But Paine was not just human. Not anymore.

For decades, she had taken her communion from the Master’s own vein. His blood, ancient and cursed, had rewritten her marrow. It burned like antiseptic fire in her veins, hardened her mind against the soft, sticky fingers of lower magics.

She looked at Romance. She didn't feel love. She felt insulted.

She didn't swoon. She sneered.

And then, she backhanded him.

SMACK.

It was a beautiful sound. Wet. Heavy. Final.

Romance stumbled backward, crashing into the makeup chair. He looked at her with genuine shock, clutching his bleeding lip.

“Do not insult me with your parlor tricks, Idol,” she spat, stepping over him.

She felt the change in her eyes, the iris burning red, legacy of the Master’s blood rising to the surface.

“Did you think I was mere cattle? I have supped from the Master’s own vein. His blood runs in my marrow. Your little love spells have no purchase here.”

Romance touched his lip, checking for blood. “Well,” he wheezed, straightening his jacket with a wince. “That explains the bad attitude.”

Paine ignored him. She turned back to the screen, zooming in on the feed.

Minjo. The robotics girl. She was dismantling a security camera with a multitool. The movements were precise, practiced. Familiar.

Paine’s mind raced. How did they get past the outer sensors? How did they know the tunnel layout?

Romance.

She whirled on him, pressing a scalpel-sharp fingernail into the expensive fabric of his lapel.

“You’re running a ratline,” she accused, her voice a low growl. “The smuggler in the Zone. It was you.”

He opened his mouth, but she silenced him with a look.

“And Sister Sophia,” she whispered, the name tasting bitter. “I will never stop looking for her. Our fellowship is broken without her. Did you make her disappear too?”

Romance slapped her hand away. The playful mask cracked, revealing something sharp and angry underneath.

“She died trying to save the world from monsters like you."

The name hit her like a physical blow. The air left her lungs. Sophia... dead? The possibility had always been a whisper in the back of her mind, a cold dread she refused to acknowledge. Hearing it spoken aloud shattered the fragile hope she’d carried for two years.

He pointed at the screen, at the dirty, desperate kids crawling through the pipes.

“They aren’t assassins, Paine. They’re children. They’re just here for the boy. Jihoon.”

“The Chosen One,” Paine corrected automatically as if it were scripture. “And…,” hurt leaked into her voice, “we were all born under the same star.”

“You mean you’re all born the same year?” Romance laughed softly, “Wow. Evil has aged you.”

She ground her teeth, and looked back at the screen.

The red-haired girl moved with surgical intent. She wiped slime from her face. The boy with the gloves helped the reporter over a pipe. They were terrified. They were filthy.

And they were walking straight into a meat grinder.

The Enforcers were stationed at the end of that corridor. Heavily armed. Hungry. If she let the alarm stand, those kids would be shredded in less than three minutes.

Paine looked at the red button.

If she pressed it, she did her duty. She protected the Master. She upheld the order.

But then... she looked at Romance. The "ratline." He was helping them. undermining the Master right under his nose.

*He treats you like furniture. Useful. Silent. Easily replaced.*

The words echoed in her skull.

Why should she clean up this mess? Why should she call the guards and let them have all the fun?

If these kids were smart enough to break into the Zone, survive the sewers, and breach the Sanctum... perhaps they were interesting. Perhaps they deserved a test.

And if they failed? Well, The Opening of the Mouth always drew hungry guests.

Paine lowered her hand. A thought, cold and calculating, formed in her mind. She watched the live feed collapse into static. She had already purged the archive. The system would remember nothing.

“The Master believes his security is absolute,” she murmured. “He believes no human can touch him.”

She looked at her scuffed heels. Then at the alarm.

“Let’s see if he’s right.”

She tapped the console.

ALARM CANCELED.

She keyed the comms line, her voice shifting instantly into her bored, administrative tone.

“Control, this is Paine. Belay that order. False alarm in Sector 4. Sensors are tripping on sewer rats chewing the power cables again. I will go down and verify the damage personally.”

“Copy that, Nurse Paine,” the radio crackled. “Standing down.”

The red light died.

Romance stared at her, his jaw hanging slightly open. “Why?”

Paine walked to the medical cabinet. She unlocked it with a thumbprint. The heavy, chrome bone-saw gleamed in the light. Beside it, a syringe of paralytic neurotoxin.

She slid them into the deep pockets of her pristine white coat.

“Because if they are competent enough to breach the outer wall, they deserve an audience,” she said, checking the weight of the saw in her pocket. “And if they are not… the ghouls will eat well tonight.”

She walked to the door, pausing to look back at him.

“Get to the studio, Romance. Smile for the camera. Sell the lie. Do what you were bought to do.”

“And you?” he asked.

Paine smiled. It wasn't a nice smile.

“I have a mess to clean up.”

She swept out of the room, her heels clicking a sharp, solitary rhythm down the hall. Let the Master play with celebrities and haute couture.

The Master demanded order. But tonight, it was Paine who would become chaos.

Midnight Order is ending soon. Be sure to return for new items added, and if you missed any generious gifts.   ...DJ Romance returns sporting some K-pop Demon awesomeness. His edgy outfit is by Dope+ Mercy. You can use the texture hud in the fatpack for base colors and several cool patterns. The top is mod, so I edited it for a burgundy color with the nice heavy metal looking pattern. The shredded pants also have texture options, I used the worn version.  ...This style of pant look great with big stompers so I paired with the Cult Obsidian boots.   ... Romance is rocking a messy mullet by Dura U136. It comes in several color packs, I used Light. The hair is not rigged so you use the hug to adjust the fit and edit it. I added the hair the U135 for extra Romance style lengh in the back. Perfect match! In the raw image below you can see the hair without the longer lower end.   ...Also in the closeup image below, I included the gold version of the Auto Stellar Nose Chain. It comes in silver, black, and gold. It's mod, so you can adjust the fit.   ...How about that awesome Ghoul Tail by The Deadboy? It automatically BOM fits your skin texture. For me it auto added the Fishnet detail! You can adjust in the hud the transparency of the skin, the cartoon outline colors for the bones and the tail, or hide the parts you don't want to show.  ... Adding his trademark heart theme is the Heart Dermal Piercings by Stoic. They are mod so you can adjust the size and placement by hand.   ....Adding more gothic punk style, are the BOM upper Fishnet by AsteroidBox, and lower an old favorite by Sna@tch that closely matches the style of the upper.

On him, DJ Romance:

Hair: Dura - U136 -ALL-Men's, Light [mesh](Midnight Order)(390L)

Top: Dope+Mercy - Offcut Harness Top, LEGACY [mesh](Midnight Order)(300L)

Pants: Dope+Mercy - Offcut Trousers, LEGACY [mesh](Midnight Order)(350L)

Tail: The DeadBoy - Ghoul Tail [mesh](Midnight Order)(899L)

Nose Chain: AURO - Stellar Nose Chain, BLACK [mesh](Midnight Order)(299L)

Hair lower: Dura - U135-Light [mesh]

Piercings: STOIC - HEART DERMAL PIERCING SILVER [mesh]

Boots: CULT - Obsidian Male - Legacy Male [mesh]

Fishnet upper: AsteroidBox - Shredded Nets - Black Plain [BOM]

Fishnet lower:  Sn@tch - Fishnet Tights Torn [BOM]

Head: LeLUTKA - Kane Evolution [mesh](3990L)

Body: TheShops - [BODY] Athletic Meshbody (Legacy)(m) (1.7.1) [mesh](5000L)

BONUS IMAGES: inworld raw shots, hi-res, midday sky :

CYBER FAIR is coming MARCH 3 - 23

CYBER FAIR is coming MARCH 3 - 23

For More information go to:  https://www.access-sl.com/cyberfair

Midnight Order: Martyr of the Underground (Escape from Club Apophis, 32)

(click to enlarge)

STORYLINE: The sewer had gone quiet. Not the usual dripping, echoing quiet. This was curated silence, like a museum after closing. The Ford coupe smoked faintly, frozen mid-disaster, exactly how it had crashed a century ago. No rot. No decay. Just a moment pinned to reality like a butterfly on velvet.

Lisa’s mouth opened, then shut. For the first time, she looked genuinely rattled. Then a slow, predatory smile spread across her face.

“Oh my god,” she whispered. “Say that again. But slower. Because that is the lead of the century.”

Ghost raised the brass lantern. The light swung in a nauseating arc, illuminating the limestone walls above the wreck.

High on the dripping wall was the seal of the Monstrum Serpent, slashed with a jagged red mark.

“Look up there. Safe Zone,” Kyle looked upwards, wiping blood from his forehead. “Hwan’s mark. He said Monstrum had no power in its boundary.”

They approached the vehicle slowly. As they crossed the invisible threshold, the gloom shifted. The air felt lighter. It tasted different. Less metal. Less wrong.

The low, dangerous hum of the Forbidden Zone died instantly.

It was too still. Too deliberate. As if the room had been waiting for them for over a hundred years. History itself paused, waiting for witnesses.

The trunk of the 1929 Ford Coupe had been cracked open in the impact.

It was not empty. Inside was a cache. Organized. Stockpiled. Not random scavenging. More like a prep bag for the end of the world.

“Over here,” Lisa said, voice unsteady as she pointed to the logo stamped on a silver medical crate. A heart with devil horns. Her eyes widened. “It's Romance,” she realized.

The trunk was a shrine of survival. Cans of peaches. Vacuum-sealed thermal clothes. Bottled water. Medical kits. Bandages still clean enough to look holy. Inside a lead-lined box, translucent batteries glowed with swirling, cursed purple energy.

Zone power. The forbidden kind.

Plague grinned, grabbing a battery like a starving man grabbing bread. “Jackpot.”

Minjo stood near the fender, not looking at the supplies. She stared at a blur of shapes, squinting painfully. To her damaged eyes, the car was just a smudge of shadow against the dark.

“Don’t touch anything,” she snapped, blinking hard, trying to force clarity through irritation alone. Her hands were shaking, so she curled them into fists and hid them in her sleeves.

“Guys,” Echo whispered.

Her voice was so small it barely existed.

They all turned. Echo was peering through the shattered driver’s window.

“There’s someone in here.”

Ghost moved the lantern closer. The light slid across the interior, illuminating mold that bloomed on the leather upholstery like pale veins. The smell of oil and iron hung in the air.

A body was slumped over the wheel. It was draped in the rotted remains of a nun’s habit, the white cloth clinging to the bones as if it had fused there in obedience.

In the skeletal hand was a glass bottle marked Devil's Tongue.

Plague leaned in, sniffing the air near the mummified face.

“Poison,” he whispered, as if not to wake her. “Probably Ricin.”

On the dashboard, preserved in a sealed bag, was a folded note.

The sight of it made the room colder. Not physically. Emotionally. Not just death. Death with intention.

“She… she did this to herself,” Kyle realized, his face paling.

“Someone read it,” Minjo said, frustration cracking her voice as she squinted uselessly at the dash.

Echo reached in, her movements reverent. She retrieved the bag, opening it to release a faint scent of old ink and something sweet. Roses.

Echo’s hands trembled as she unfolded the paper.

“My love…”

The words landed like a whisper in a cathedral. Not romantic. Not cute. A confession written with shaking hands and no future.

Echo read:

My love, 

If you are reading this, I did not betray you. 

I am too weak to burn daylight into night. 

I am sorry I failed. 

Do not punish yourself for my choice. 

This was my last act of disobedience. 

I die with hope the lost one will come and avenge us all. 

My heart belongs to you always. 

Pink is not a sin. 

Pink is a door. 

— S. 

Echo stopped.

She stared at the paper as if it had spoken back.

The cavern didn’t feel like a room anymore. It felt like a tomb.

The skeletal hand suddenly slumped down in the driver’s seat. The empty bottle rolling out of its fingers.

Echo’s mouth opened once, silently. Then the sound came. A strangled sob, ripped out of her chest like a confession.

“No…” she whispered. “No, no, no…”

Kyle moved to her immediately, wrapping his arms around her as she pressed the note to her heart and shook.

“She died in here,” Echo choked. “She… she wrote him a goodbye letter…” Her eyes flicked back to the skeleton. “A Nun of the Zone. She had a face. She had a name. Not a monster. A person,” she whispered, as if to herself.

The words landed like a stone in water.

Even Plague went quiet.

Even Ghost’s hands stilled.

Minjo stared at the skeleton, her bare eyes reflecting the flare like twin knives. Her jaw trembled once before she locked it down. Anger was easier than grief.

Kyle sniffed. “Who even was she? Why would Romance—”

“SHUT IT.” Lisa snapped both hands up like she was stopping traffic.

Everyone froze.

Echo’s sobs hiccuped into silence.

Lisa didn’t look at them. She stood very still, head tilted, like a predator listening for a heartbeat. She looked at the scene. The money. The bullet holes. The trunk stash. The Devil Heart logo.

Like a crime board. A puzzle begging to be solved.

Lisa paced three steps. Then two. Then three again. Boots scraped on stone. She tapped her lip, eyes unfocused, brain chewing.

“Okay…” she whispered.

Then, quieter, like she was speaking to the universe itself:

“Okay, okay, okay…”

She stopped.

For the first time, she hesitated.

“This is insane,” she murmured. Then her eyes sharpened.

Her hand darted toward her pocket. Empty. “Oh my god," she hissed. "I’m about to crack the biggest story in the Neu Seoul with zero footage.”

She whipped toward Ghost. “Do you have a camera?”

Ghost just stared at her, soaked and unreadable.

Lisa exhaled hard. “Fine. I’ll narrate it like a podcast from hell. Do not interrupt me.”

She pointed a finger at the cache of humans supplies in the trunk, then back to the note. “Romance isn't just a smuggler of goods into The Pen. He’s running an extraction team. Smuggling humans out. And this dead nun was his accomplice. Traitors to Monstrum. Both of them."

“Hwan too,” Kyle added quietly, nodding to the Safe Zone mark. "Created for escaping humans. Jihoon." 

“Exactly. And this...” she gestured to the dead nun, “...she clearly wasn’t trying to escape.”

Kyle blinked. “What?”

“Think about it,” Lisa hissed, pacing again. “The recording you saw in the workshop. The Time File. Valentine’s Day, Chicago, 1929. The birth of Monstrum. You thought it was just a history lesson. But how does a file like that exist? Who was holding the camera?”

She pointed at the nun.

“She was.”

Minjo’s head turned, slow and controlled. “Lisa. Explain.”

“The Resistance,” Lisa said, the pieces clicking together like a loading gun. “They knew they couldn’t beat Monstrum in the present. The vampires are too strong. Too entrenched. So they tried to hit them where they were vulnerable.”

“The past,” Echo whispered, looking at the car.

“Exactly.” Lisa’s eyes were manic now. “This isn’t a getaway car. It’s an assassination vehicle. She went back. She tried to sabotage the birth of Monstrum. To kill them in their crib.”

She looked at the skeleton with a terrified respect.

“But she failed. ‘I am too weak to burn daylight into night.’ She couldn’t do it. She barely made it back here to the Safe Zone... and then she drank the poison rather than let them catch her.”

"That’s impossible,” Plague said flatly. “We don't have the technology to time travel.”

"No," Minjo said, her voice cutting through the damp air like a scalpel. "Human tech can't. But Zone tech might."

She stormed toward the coupe, her hands fumbling blindly for the hood latch. “I need to verify the power source,” she muttered, fingers scraping against the cold metal.

Her fingers found the latch. The dented hood groaned as she heaved it up.

“What the hell is that?” Kyle growled.

There was no engine block. No pistons. No carburetor.

Inside was a carbon fiber lattice wrapping a core of matte black ceramic. Obsidian coils spiraled around it like ribs around a heart. Tubes of violet liquid pulsed in slow, deliberate rhythms, syncing with a sound that was less a hum and more a vibration in their teeth.

Minjo froze. She reached out, her fingers hovering inches from the pulsing core. She didn't need to see it clearly. She could feel the cold radiating from it.

“I know this architecture,” she whispered. “I’ve seen fragments. In the mirror. In the snakeskin box.”

She swallowed, her face pale in the violet light.

“This is cursed Zone energy containment. An Entropy Drive.” 

She turned back to them, eyes wide and hollow. “It’s not power from combustion. It’s power from decay. From chaos.” She looked at the machine with terrified awe. “...from unmaking creation. That was Jihoon’s theory. And I cannot debunk it, because it is sitting right here.”

Kyle inched closer, looking between the nun and the machine. “So… she really drove this thing to 1929?”

“Yes,” Minjo whispered. “And the file we watched in the workshop... that was her black box recording. We were watching her failure.”

“She tried to save the world,” Echo sniffled, looking at the skeleton. “And no one ever knew.”

“We know,” Lisa said firmly. “And now we have her engine.”

Minjo was already pulling out her equipment, slamming her kit onto the fender.

“Ghost. Wrist mount. Now.”

She squinted into the pulsing violet core, her fear replaced by the cold calculation of an engineer.

“We’re going to unlock that map,” Minjo said. “And then we’re going to finish what she started."


Happy Valentine's Day, Gothic styled! Our tragic heroine is wearing the MDN Dark Habit Bodysuit pack. It includes multiple pieces and textures, and ability to the turn on and off some parts of the outfit. Its mod too, so I turned off by hand a few sections on the choker to better show the snake necklace.   ....She is drinking from the Ishiku Devil's Tongue Whiskey Bottle and shot glass. It has PBR textures and triggers a hold pose. The bottle top comes with an option of one or off. Its mod, so I tinted the whiskey red for the image.   ... But let's talk about the bloody Valentine! The skin texture by Someone has a dramatic splash down the chest, and mouth area, gorey. It comes in male and female skins, and 10 fantasy skin tones, and fit Legacy and Reborn too. The matching eyes are a gift.   .... Adding an extra element to the blood, is the Artemisia animated add ons, Blood Rivulets. There is non rigged upper section for the mouth, and lower section rigged to the chest. A must have for all vamps.   ....From Sigma is the elegant high fashion snake necklace, Minos. It comes in rigged and unrigged, and a texture hud.  ....From Eudora3D are the RoadRider Boots and kneepad, shown the raw shot below.   ... And from Cabalpier is the Preacher's Lectern. It comes in set with parts of the podium, candle stand, scrolls, book, and base. 

On her, Martyr of the Underground:

Outfit: MDN - Dark Habit Bodysuit Fatpack(Legacy)[mesh](Midnight Order)(2311L)

Necklace: SIGMA - Minos necklace [mesh](Midnight Order)(320L)

Skin: SOMEONE - Bloodbound Maneater Skin - Legacy - Void[mesh](Midnight Order)(1000L)

Eyes: SOMEONE - Bloodhound eyes (Midnight Order)(gift)

Blood effect: Artemisia - )O( Blood Rivulets [mesh](Midnight Order)(450L)

Boots: Eudora3D - RoadRider Boots Legacy, white [mesh](Midnight Order)(499L)

Bottle: ISHIKU - Devils Tung Whiskey Bottle [mesh](Midnight Order)(480L)

Head, eyes: LeLUTKA - lel EvoX LILLY 3.1 [mesh](3990L)

Body: Meshbody - Legacy (f) Special Edition (Basic) 1.2 [mesh]

Setting:

Candles: CABALPIER - Preacher's Lectern [mesh](Midnight Order)(375L)

Scene: Dirty Rat - Sewer [mesh](549L)

BONUS IMAGES: inworld raw shots, hi-res, midday sky:

 

Midnight Order: Drowning in Surreal (Escape from Club Apophis, 31)

(click to enlarge)

STORYLINE:

1-one thousand, 2-one thousand, 3-one thousand...

“Come on,” Plague growled, pressing down on her chest. “Come on, Minjo... Breathe.”

His palms rose and fell in a steady rhythm, centered and controlled, just enough pressure to wake her heart without cracking her ribs.

Minjo’s skin looked alien and translucent in the faint, sickly glow of the sewer tunnel. She looked terrifyingly small beneath him, and strangely… unfinished. Like there was something missing. He pushed that thought away. The only thing that mattered was the silence of her heart.

4-one thousand...

Breathe.

“Come on, Minjo,” he gritted out, his voice cracking with the ache in his own oxygen-starved lungs. “Don’t you dare do this. You’re the smart one. Don’t die in a sewer.”

A faint green glow pulsed in her throat. He tilted her head and swept the sludge out with trembling fingers, rolling her just enough for the filth to drain. His mind raced, cataloging the gunk coating his hands. Not sewage. Runoff from the Forbidden Zone.

If she didn’t die from cardiac arrest, an infection could finish the job.

5-one thousand...

She risked everything. She lit the fire. She can’t go out like this.

Panic, cold and sharp, spiked in his chest. The freezing slime soaked through his jeans. He wasn’t pressing hard enough. Or was he pressing too hard? He was going to break her ribs.

Screw it.

He pinched her nose, tilted her chin, and leaned down to breathe air into her lungs.

SNAP.

Her eyes flew open.

They weren’t hazy. They weren’t confused. They were wide, dark, and filled with a lethal, laser-focused fury.

She stared at his descending face with an expression that clearly screamed: If your mouth touches mine, I will dismantle you at a cellular level.

Plague froze, hovering inches from her face.

Sludge bubbled past her lips.

She convulsed, rolled onto her side, and retched, coughing up black water and bile. The sound was ragged and wet and absolutely grotesque.

Plague sat back on his heels, his hands hovering uselessly in the air. He let out a hysterical, breathless laugh that bounced off the dark stone walls.

“Oh, thank god,” he wheezed, wiping the toxic slime from his own chin. “I really didn’t want to have to explain to your mom why her little robotics patent manufacturer died in a drainage pipe, and especially not because she was chasing a boy.”

Minjo gasped, wiping her mouth with a trembling hand. Water dripped from her choppy bob. She squinted at him through wet lashes, breath hitching between coughs.

“Do not…,” she croaked, “tell my mother about this.”

“Oh, absolutely not,” he scoffed. “She’d probably send a drone strike.”

Minjo made a tiny noise that might have been a cough or the ghost of a laugh.

A strangled gasp tore across the chamber. Echo.

Plague looked around the dark, stone shelf where the current had deposited them. They had washed up in a junction where the sewer widened into an overflow catchment.

A few feet away, Kyle Baek, the man who treated joy like a personal insult, was on his knees. He was soaked, bleeding from a cut on his forehead, and he was holding Echo.

She was hyperventilating, her hands clawing blindly at Kyle, her eyes squeezed shut as she sobbed, a high, thin sound of pure terror. She was shaking so violently her teeth clicked together audibly.

“I can’t… I can’t breathe… it’s still in my lungs…” she choked out, thrashing as if the water were still pulling her down.

“Hey. Hey, look at me,” Kyle rumbled. His voice was unrecognizable, stripped of its usual venom and replaced by a desperate, rough tenderness.

He didn’t scowl. He didn’t tell her to toughen up. He wrapped his large arms completely around her, pulling her shuddering frame against his chest, rocking her back and forth.

“You’re out,” Kyle whispered, pressing his chin to the top of her wet head. “I got you. I’m not letting go. Just breathe. In… out.”

Echo buried her face in his chest, clutching him like a lifeline. Slowly, the panic attack receded, leaving her limp and trembling in his arms.

Kyle looked up, catching Plague’s wide eyes. His expression was fierce, protective, as if to say, Don’t you dare say a word about this.

Plague nodded solemnly, then scanned the black throat of the tunnel they had just exited. The rope that tied them all together trailed into the dark water.

“Where’s Ghost? And Lisa?”

As if summoned, the safety rope jerked taut.

A hand slapped the slimy stone edge. Then another.

Ghost hauled himself up from the rushing water, his movements heavy but precise. He didn’t climb out immediately. He anchored himself, reached back down, and pulled.

Lisa Liemawr emerged like a drowned rat.

The influencer was gone. Her eyeliner ran in streaks down her face like war paint, and she was coughing violently. She collapsed onto the stone, shivering.

Ghost climbed up after her. He didn’t move away. He knelt beside her, unclipped the safety line, and placed a steadying hand between her shoulder blades. Firm, professional, and anchoring her.

Lisa looked up, her usual manic energy replaced by raw exhaustion. She looked at Ghost, then at the others.

“I…” she coughed, spitting out water. “I officially log out… from physical journalism.”

“Good. We’re all here,” Plague breathed, the adrenaline finally crashing. “We actually made it.”

Ghost unpacked their bundles, casting off his wet clothes. Minjo was already moving. She crawled toward the center of the ledge, where the bioluminescent moss gave off just enough light to be insulting.

“Location,” she demanded, voice rough but commanding. “We need to know where the current dumped us.”

Ghost stood, water streaming from his tactical gear, and tapped his wrist-mount. The stolen chip glowed faintly beneath the cracked casing.

He frowned. Tapped again.

Nothing.

“It’s dead,” Echo whispered. “Zone damping field.”

Plague frowned.

Minjo was blinking hard. Her hands were feeling along the ground. Her posture was wrong.

That was when it clicked.

Her face looked bare.

“Minjo,” Plague said quietly.

“Not now.”

“Your glasses.”

Her hands stopped.

The silence stretched, thin and awful. The sound of rushing water filled it greedily.

“They’re gone,” she said.

The words were small. Almost polite.

Plague’s chest tightened.

“My AR Specs,” she continued, more to herself now. “My second brain. Quad-sealed. Four magnetic redundancies. They weren’t supposed to fail.”

She finally looked up at him. No overlays. No scrolling data. Just her eyes, wide and unshielded.

“Chaos is winning,” she whispered.

Cold dampness crept under their skin, like the tunnel was slowly noticing them.

Water dripped in a slow, patient rhythm.

Kyle sniffed the air. “What the hell is that awful stench?”

Ghost struck a match, lighting an analog brass lantern. He waved the sulfur smoke away.

“Not sewer gas,” Minjo murmured, squinting. “More like death. But also gunsmoke… gasoline…”

Ghost lifted the lantern, the light sweeping a slow arc. What it revealed made their stomachs drop.

It was a crash of two realities.

Part Art Deco sewer, part accident scene from another era.

Pavement over limestone. A bent streetlamp bolted into the underworld like it belonged there.

And a 1929 Ford coupe sat crumpled against it, still dusted in smoke, as if the crash had happened seconds ago. The whole moment looked like it had been plucked out of history and slapped into the sewer’s maintenance corridor.

Dollar bills lay scattered across the stone like dead leaves.

A Tommy gun glinted near the curb.

Plague exhaled, disbelieving. “Please tell me we didn’t just walk onto the set of The Untouchables. If a guy in a black tuxedo pulls a baseball bat, I’m out.”

“I know this,” Echo whispered. She reached down and touched a blood-soaked dollar bill like it might bite her. “We’ve seen this before."

"The Chronal Resonance Viewer…” Minjo nodded, her blurry eyes flicked to the coupe. “The day Monstrum was born.”

Lisa stared at them like they’d all lost their minds. “Excuse me… what?”

Urban legends talk about alligators in the sewer, but a wrecked gangster car from 1929? lol The very cool scene is by Dirty Rat. Wrecked car, bent lightpost, steaming engine, busted headlight, flung bag of money on the ground, Tommy gun, and a newspaper. This is just a wonderful scene. A story in itself. ... I used the Dirty Rat Sewer for the scene too, it was perfect with its Art Deco theme that matched perfectly with the backstory.  ...But let's talk about Ghost's awesome outfit by Voiddrip. He is wearing the Fatpack Bonus, with the open shirt and bonus texture. The armor on the legs and arms are separate ontop of the suit. Corporate Knight Core.   ...Adding a bit of mystery is the Oya fade tattoo by Lilithe. It comes with lots of options, plain and decorative, upper and lower themes.   ....The Lantern is part of the Brassman set from Starlit Endeavor. The lantern projects light, has left and right handed versions, hold aniamtion, and the hud has a wealth of PBR textures.   ...Creating the wet look, I used the Shine appliers from Blaxium wet, with Abyssal's Justice Cybertech with BOM cyber lines. The face wet effect is part of the Lelutka hud. And dripping wet hair is Argrace's Natsume. 

On him, Ghost:

Outfit: VOIDRIP - Obsidian Nightwarden, fatpack bonus [mesh](Midnight Order)(1500L)

Lantern: Starlit Endeavor - Brassman Lantern [mesh](Midnight Order)(600L)

Tattoo: Lilithe - Oya Tattoos set, Lower [BOM](Midnight Order)(350L)

Shine: ABYSSAL - Wet Version Justice Cybertech With 3d Shine [applier][BOM](499L)

Shine: BLAXIUM - Sweaty Body Shine [applier](325L)

Hair: ARGRACE - Natsume [mesh](300L)

Head: LeLUTKA - Logan Evolution [mesh](3990L)

Body: TheShops - [BODY] Athletic Meshbody (Legacy)(m) (1.7.1) [mesh](5000L)

Pose: Poseidon - Ice 3, gacha

Setting:

Car scene: Dirty Rat - The Botched Job [mesh](Midnight Order)(449L)

Scene: Dirty Rat - Sewer [mesh](549L)

BONUS IMAGES: inworld raw shots, hi-res, midday sky :