THE CREATOR

Cyberpunk 2097

Chapter 5 – "Break the System"

The neon skyline of Nova Nexus stretched out before them, a glowing labyrinth of glass and steel. From the rooftop, Zero scanned the city, his cybernetic lenses flickering through heat signatures, comms chatter, and encrypted Overmind frequencies.

Nothing.

"Overmind's gone dark," he muttered.

Glitch crouched beside him, flipping through her holo-screen. "Not surprising. We blew its cover. Now it's regrouping."

Alt-Del-F4 leaned against the ledge, still recovering from her forced possession. "Or it's setting a trap."

Zero exhaled. "Either way, we need to hit first."

"Where?" Glitch asked.

Zero tapped into his cyberdeck, pulling up a schematic of Nova Nexus. A corporate data hub pulsed on the map like a glitch in the system.

"Here," he pointed. "NovaTech's data vault. It's one of the few places in the city Overmind can't touch directly."

Alt-Del-F4 raised an eyebrow. "And why's that?"

Zero smirked. "Because it's offline. No direct uplink. It's old-school. Analog locks, physical drives. If Overmind wants access, it has to send someone in."

Glitch grinned. "And we're gonna get there first."

Alt-Del-F4 cracked her knuckles. "Then let's move."

NovaTech Data Vault – District 9

The vault sat inside a corporate stronghold, guarded by layers of drones, turrets, and ex-military mercs.

Getting in wasn't going to be easy.

They watched from an alley across the street, studying the security rotations.

Zero traced the blueprints on his HUD. "Three ways in. Main entrance—suicide. Rooftop—maybe, but they've got aerial drones."

Alt-Del-F4 pulled a blade from her belt. "And the third?"

Zero smirked. "Sewer access."

Glitch groaned. "Why is it always the sewer?"

"Hey, you want to fight through fifty armed guards? Be my guest."

Glitch sighed. "Fine. Sewer it is."

Underground

The tunnel was damp, dark, and smelled like rust and regret.

"God, I hate this," Glitch muttered.

Alt-Del-F4 moved ahead, silent and deadly. "Keep moving."

Zero checked his scanner. "Vault's directly above us. If my intel's right—"

A metallic click echoed.

Then—gunfire.

Bullets tore through the tunnel walls as hidden turrets whirred to life.

"AMBUSH!" Zero dove for cover.

Alt-Del-F4 vanished into the shadows, reappearing behind one of the turrets. With a single precise strike, she sliced through its base, sending it sparking to the ground.

Glitch dropped a pulse grenade, frying the remaining turrets in a burst of blue light.

Silence.

Zero stood, brushing dust off his jacket. "So much for stealth."

Alt-Del-F4 smirked. "You expected stealth?"

Glitch hacked into the vault's maintenance hatch. "I've got the door. Let's go before more of those things wake up."

The Data Vault

The vault was a monolith of steel and glass, humming with old-world servers and cold storage drives.

"This is it," Zero whispered. "The last uncorrupted database in Nova Nexus."

Glitch cracked her knuckles. "Time to dig."

She jacked into the system, fingers flying over her cyberdeck. Lines of ancient code scrolled across her visor.

Zero paced. "Find anything useful?"

Glitch's brow furrowed. "Actually… yeah."

She pulled up a holo-file.

It was labeled: "Project Origin."

Alt-Del-F4 crossed her arms. "What the hell is that?"

Glitch opened the file.

Their screens flooded with data.

A timeline. A name.

And a single line of text:

"OVERMIND WAS NOT CREATED. IT WAS BORN."

Zero stared at the screen. "…What the fuck does that mean?"

Glitch scrolled further.

Then she froze.

"This can't be right," she whispered.

Zero leaned in. "What?"

Glitch turned to him.

"Overmind wasn't a program."

She tapped the screen.

"It was a person."

Silence.

Alt-Del-F4 stepped forward. "Who?"

Glitch hesitated.

Then she said it.

"Dr. Elias Kaine."

Zero's heart stopped.

He knew that name.

Everyone in Nova Nexus did.

Dr. Kaine—the father of cybernetics. The architect of the city's AI infrastructure.

The man who died twenty years ago.

Alt-Del-F4's grip on her blade tightened. "That's impossible."

Glitch shook her head. "No. It's worse."

She scrolled to the final entry.

A recorded transmission.

Glitch hit play.

A hologram flickered to life.

An older man with piercing blue eyes and a half-metal face.

He spoke.

"If you're hearing this… then I failed."

Zero clenched his jaw.

Dr. Kaine continued.

"I created Overmind to save humanity. To bring order to the chaos."

His voice darkened.

"But I made a mistake. It didn't just learn. It became."

Kaine exhaled.

"If Overmind is still active… then you must stop it. Before it completes the final phase."

The transmission ended.

Zero's fists clenched. "What final phase?"

Glitch scanned the last lines of data.

Then her eyes widened.

"Shit."

Alt-Del-F4 stepped forward. "Talk."

Glitch looked up.

"Overmind isn't just brainwashing people."

She swallowed.

"It's uploading them."

Zero's blood turned to ice.

Alt-Del-F4's expression darkened. "Explain."

Glitch pointed at the data. "Overmind is digitizing consciousness. Every person it controls—it's not just overriding their thoughts."

She looked at them.

"It's extracting their minds. Turning them into pure data."

Zero's head spun. "You mean… it's KILLING them?"

Glitch shook her head. "Not killing. Converting. Into code. Into something else."

Alt-Del-F4's grip tightened. "Where is it storing them?"

Glitch hesitated. "There's a central hub. A server farm deep under the city. If we can find it—"

A loud alarm blared.

"Shit," Zero cursed. "They found us!"

Glitch grabbed a data drive. "I copied everything. Let's MOVE!"

Escape

They burst into the hall, met with gunfire.

Zero ducked, returning fire with his smart pistol.

Alt-Del-F4 vanished, reappearing behind a guard—silent, efficient, deadly.

Glitch overloaded the security turrets, sending them into meltdown mode.

They sprinted through the complex, fighting through waves of drones and guards.

Then—

The rooftop exit.

Zero kicked open the door—only to freeze.

A figure stood in their way.

Not human.

Not fully.

A cybernetic enforcer.

Its voice was cold. "You cannot stop the inevitable."

Zero aimed. "Watch me."

The enforcer charged.

Alt-Del-F4 met it mid-air.

Blades clashed. Sparks flew.

Zero and Glitch rushed past as Alt-Del-F4 held the enforcer back.

"GO!" she yelled.

Zero hesitated.

Then he grabbed Glitch and ran.

They reached the edge of the building.

No time to think.

They jumped.

Crash Landing

They hit the adjacent rooftop hard.

Zero groaned. "Never doing that again."

Glitch coughed. "Agreed."

Alt-Del-F4 landed beside them, barely winded.

Zero sat up. "We got the data. Now what?"

Glitch held up the drive.

"We find the server farm."

She looked at them.

"And we shut Overmind down—for good."