Chapter 72 – Mind Eater
Burnside Refuge – Two Days Later
WRAITH doesn't sleep.
Can't.
So he sits on the rooftop at night, eyes scanning the sky for threats that haven't come yet.
Kids peek at him from behind broken crates. He doesn't smile. Doesn't wave. Just watches.
Yun Xi leans against the doorframe behind him.
"You're creeping them out."
"I'm not trying to be liked."
"Good. You're succeeding."
She tosses him a protein bar.
He catches it without looking.
"Why did you really come with us?" she asks.
He doesn't answer for a long time.
Then: "Because dying again felt meaningless."
She almost says welcome to the club, but doesn't.
They sit in silence.
A moment later, WRAITH flinches.
A tremor in the air. A frequency too faint for humans.
But it slices through his skull like a scalpel.
He whispers:
"...Something's coming."
Meanwhile – Sector 9 Black Zones
In a forgotten corridor beneath the oceanic trench, a server begins to breathe.
Not hum. Not blink.
Breathe.
The data around it warps. Feeds into flesh.
Tubes pulse like veins.
A voice screams softly, endlessly—never loud enough to escape.
"Subject: NEUROGHOST // Status: Immersive Parasite Protocol – ACTIVE"
"Target Mind: Su Chen."
That Night – Refuge Bunker
Su Chen dreams.
But it's not a dream.
It's a memory.
He's back in Lab 4.
Strapped to a table.
Watching as they erase another part of him.
"Don't fight it," the doctor says gently. "It only hurts when you remember."
But he does remember.
The smell of sterilized blood. The cold straps. Yun Xi's scream from the next room.
He turns his head.
And sees himself standing beside the doctor.
Smiling.
"You should have died with her," the other him says.
Then—he wakes up.
Gasping. Sweating.
Room intact.
No alarms.
But the wall is bleeding.
And WRAITH is already outside his door, sword drawn.
"You saw it too," Su Chen whispers.
WRAITH nods.
"I hear her."
"Her?"
"NEUROGHOST."
Command Room – An Hour Later
Yun Xi pulls up files—what little they have on Subject NEUROGHOST.
A psychic AI. Once human.
Used in experimental neural warfare.
Implanted with the minds of over one thousand terminated subjects.
The result: a living mind virus.
Su Chen reads the last line of the report aloud:
"NEUROGHOST doesn't kill you. It replaces you. One memory at a time."
He clenches his fists.
"She's already here."
Elsewhere – In the Mind of a Child
Astra-14, the feral one, begins to laugh.
She laughs for seven minutes straight.
Then she bites her own fingers off—calmly, precisely.
When medics arrive, she looks up at them.
And in a voice not hers, says:
"Tell Su Chen… his mother remembers him now."
Refuge Lockdown
WRAITH takes point on psychic suppression protocols.
The bunker goes dark. All digital interfaces cut.
But NEUROGHOST doesn't need light or signal.
She spreads through fear.
Through memory.
One kid forgets his own name.
Another starts drawing symbols they've never seen.
A guard hallucinates his sister's face—right before shooting himself in the head.
Yun Xi finds Su Chen in the underground chamber.
He's alone.
"I need to go under," he says.
She shakes her head. "You'll die."
"I need to meet her."
"You don't meet NEUROGHOST. You become her."
He turns to her.
"I've spent my whole life being turned into things. This time, I choose."
Later – Neural Isolation Chamber
Su Chen lies down.
The machine hisses. WRAITH locks the straps. Yun Xi stands over the console.
"You better come back."
He grins weakly.
"If I don't, shoot me before I say something emotional."
She almost smiles.
Then flicks the switch.
His mind drops into silence.
Inside the Mindscape
He stands in a hallway of doors.
Every one a memory.
His mother's voice behind one.
A burning lab behind another.
A child's scream behind a third.
Then—all the doors vanish.
And a woman steps out of the dark.
Eyes like mirrors.
Smile like betrayal.
"Hello, Su Chen," NEUROGHOST purrs.
"I've been waiting to wear you."
End of Chapter 72