Ghost Synchronization

I left Lucia sprawled across the bed behind me and stared at the blue window floating in the air.

Should I invest in my stats?

My eyes went first, as they always did, to Physique and Reflexes. In a world this rotten, raw strength and reaction speed were the only things that would keep me breathing. But what I needed right now wasn't long-term survival. It was immediate efficiency.

If I'm spending points, Intelligence or Engineering would be the right call.

Those would push my drug-crafting even further. Then I scanned the rest of the system and found something more important. The real key to beating this world was Perks — those broken abilities that only unlocked once you hit the required stat thresholds. And one of them had my full attention.

What if I put the points into Reason?

Raising Reason to 8 would unlock a perk called Cyberware Scan. A high-performance skill that cost two Perk Points. I read the description, and my mouth watered. It identified the exact model and defects of whoever's chrome you scanned, then recommended the optimal drug to fix it. And with a higher Reason stat, those undetectable zones I'd glimpsed through Ghost Signal would start to open up too.

Cyberware Scan is just too good.

I thought of Suji. Terminal-stage Chrome Syndrome. A ticking time bomb with ninety-two percent of her neural tissue already consumed by machinery. The immunosuppressant I'd made had put out the immediate fire, but that was a stopgap and nothing more. If I wanted her trust — if I wanted a ticket to the Upper District — I had to become irreplaceable to her. And the fastest way to do that was to find every defect in the chrome buried throughout her body and fix it.

Alright. Decision made.

The temptation to invest in Physique and keep myself alive was strong, but it was too early for that. First priority: lock Suji down as my backer. I dumped the remaining points without hesitation.

That's everything I need.

I turned my gaze to Lucia, still asleep on the bed. I'd pushed Reason to 8. Information that had been hidden from me before should be visible now.

Let's take a look.

The second slot of information had been unlocked. Trauma, huh. I supposed nobody in this line of work was without a story.

Then, beneath the system window, a line of text I'd never seen before flickered into existence.

"Synchronize a Ghost?"

The words slipped out of me before I could stop them. Was this a higher-tier function of Ghost Signal? When I didn't know something, the only way to scratch the itch was to throw myself at it.

Accept synchronization.

The moment I made the decision, the system answered.

Static tore across my vision, and the world went black. Every sensation in my body receded, as if I were sinking into a deep bog.

I don't know how long it lasted. Then a scream cut through.

"Sister!!"

Lucia's voice.

Is this a dream?

When I opened my eyes, I wasn't in my own body. The viewpoint was locked at Lucia's eye level. Standing in front of me was a woman who looked exactly like her, except for a mole beneath her eye. She was a ruin. One arm had already been severed, hanging in tatters, and her entire body was soaked in blood that may or may not have been her own.

"I'm sorry, Lucia. You can live without your big sister, right?"

The woman they'd called sister smiled, barely, and shoved Lucia backward.

"No! Sister!"

The body lifted into the air. From Lucia's falling viewpoint, the thunder of countless gunshots rolled down from above.

"Don't kill her — take that bitch alive!"

"Are you insane? How the hell are we supposed to capture that monster without killing her?"

A hail of bullets. Rough shouting. And the receding back of her sister, left behind, bleeding, alone.

So that's what happened to her.

I couldn't watch any more — the sight of her younger self, fallen to the Lower District, crying endlessly as she searched for her sister. I terminated the Ghost Synchronization.

Static. My vision snapped back to Lucia's room.

Come to think of it, she's never once mentioned a sister.

Did she already believe her sister was dead? I replayed the dream in my head. The men who'd come for her sister had clearly been shouting to take her alive. There was a chance she was still out there. And yet Lucia had shown zero desire to climb to the Upper District. No — if anything, she seemed to flinch from the word itself.

I'm no psychologist, but I could guess well enough. To her, the Upper District wasn't a dream. It was the hell that had stolen her sister. A trauma the size of a city.

Every time I use Ghost Signal, it leaves a strange taste in my mouth.

Peering into someone's innermost thoughts, piece by piece, wasn't exactly a pleasant feeling. It felt like I'd opened Pandora's box. Until she chose to tell me herself, I'd pretend I didn't know. It felt like the least I owed her.

I sat on the living room sofa, waiting for Lucia to wake, and switched on the TV. Sensational news poured through the crackling static.

The way this world ran was a spectacle. Gangs tore through the streets, and a defense contractor advertised people-killing hardware the way you'd sell a household appliance. After a few hours of watching the news, the structure of this world began to take shape in my head.

The government had long since ceased to function. Public authority had collapsed in the face of corporate capital, and the megacorps sat above law and order, running the world as they pleased. A place where money could make you a god — and without it, you woke up in a pile of corpses.

I was starting to understand the attitude this world demanded of me.

Lucia slept straight through to the next day. She was resting so peacefully I didn't have the heart to move her, so I curled up on the living room sofa and tried to get some sleep of my own.

"What time is it?"

Lucia came out ‍‍‌‌⁠​​⁠‌​​‍​​‍​‌​⁠‍‌‍⁠⁠‌⁠‌‍‌‍‌‌‌‍⁠​‌​‌​‌‍‌‌‌⁠‍​​‌‍⁠‌‌⁠⁠rubbing her eyes.

"Eight in the morning."

She tilted her head.

"Eight in the morning?"

"A whole day's gone by."

"What? A whole day? ‍‍‌‌⁠​​⁠‌​​‍​​‍​‌​⁠‍‌‍⁠⁠‌⁠‌‍‌‍‌‌‌‍⁠​‌​‌​‌‍‌‌‌⁠‍​​‌‍⁠‌‌⁠⁠You're lying!"

A laugh slipped out of me. Watching her panic like that, I figured the medicine had done its job.

"Glad you got some real sleep."

Lucia stood there in a daze for a long moment, then scratched the back of her head, looking embarrassed.

"It's thanks to that medicine you gave me, Mister. Thank you. I don't think I've slept this well since I got here."

At some point her form of address had shifted from Jinwoo to Mister. I was pretty sure she'd called me Jinwoo at first. Not that I felt like correcting her. Maybe it was because I'd glimpsed her trauma through yesterday's synchronization. I just wanted to be generous with her. To let her have this.

I got up from the sofa and stretched. My joints popped in protest.

"I should get going."

"Already? At least stay for breakfast."

"I appreciate it, but if I'm late, Suji'll take my head off."

Lucia let out a yelp and shoved me toward the door.

"Ah — no, you can't! That psycho would actually do it! Go, go!"

"Alright. See you later."

With Lucia's noisy send-off at my back, I stepped out of the shop and started walking. I headed for the abandoned factory that served as Nemesis Gang headquarters.

A crackle of static. I slotted the master key, and the sentry gun that had been trained on me drooped its barrel like a scolded dog. A moment later, the factory door groaned open on mechanical hinges.

"Hah! You actually showed up instead of running."

Dumdum stood at the entrance with his arms crossed, greeting me like a bouncer. From door guard to Suji's errand boy, this guy sure stayed busy.

"Hey, Dumdum."

"It's not Dumdum — it's Lord Dumdum!"

"Yeah, yeah. Keep up the good work."

I gave him a lazy wave and headed straight for the lab. Inside, the silence was total. I powered up the machines one by one. Steam hissed out in a thick white rush.

I was about to start prepping materials when a voice drifted down from above the lab.

"Just you wait! I'll make something better than your drugs!"

It was the former lab tech — the gang member Suji had chewed out and kicked to the curb yesterday. He glared down at me, his eyes full of venom.

"Big talk from a guy who doesn't even have a lab."

I smirked as I said it, and his face flushed red, then purple.

"Tomorrow! You won't even be here, you little prick."

He slung his pack over his shoulder as he said it.

Where does he get off acting so sure of himself?

It was almost impressive. Kicked out of a key post and still talking like that. Did he have someone backing him? Alright. Let's find out.

...You've got to be kidding me.

Raising my Reason stat had been worth it. The scan didn't just show his physical condition — it spit out the exact scheme he was cooking up, in data. Blow up the lab? So he was planning to take me with it.

If they can't have it, they'll smash it.

Classic third-rate villain thinking.

Let's take a deeper look inside that head of his.

The world went dark, and I synced to Jack's point of view.

"Hey, Jack. You really gonna jump ship to us?"

Jack shook the hand off his shoulder like it disgusted him, and spat the answer.

"That's what I said. That damn bitch Suji handed the lab I built over to some random asshole she just met! Of course I'm betraying her. What, you think I was gonna keep licking her boots?"

"Heh. And here you were, talking like you were Nemesis to the bone. All that crap about loyalty was just talk, huh?"

"Hah! That was when the old boss was still around! Fuck, am I supposed to wipe that ‍‍‌‌⁠​​⁠‌​​‍​​‍​‌​⁠‍‌‍⁠⁠‌⁠‌‍‌‍‌‌‌‍⁠​‌​‌​‌‍‌‌‌⁠‍​​‌‍⁠‌‌⁠⁠bitch's ass too? She's a cripple who'll go cyberpsycho any day now."

"For real? She's that far gone?"

"Yeah, that's what I'm telling you. Her eyes are already fried. That moron Dumdum still goes around calling her Boss, Boss. I give her three days, tops."

The Blood Bone guys exchanged looks and snickered.

"Then the timing's perfect. Blow the lab tomorrow night, and while everything's chaos, we slit that bitch Suji's throat."

"Yeah. Once she's dead, we rip out all the expensive Chrome in her body and split it among ourselves. Dump the corpse in the homeless district — they'll put it to good use."

"Heh, I like that. Especially if we neuro-record what happens to her corpse and dump it on the black market. The last moments of a gang boss? Demand'll be through the roof."

"Hell yeah. I love it."

Static. The Ghost Synchronization cut out, and the lab swam back into view.

"...Fucking trash."

A bitter taste filled my mouth. It wasn't that they wanted to kill me. It was the way they talked about Suji — like a tool, like her death was something to savor. The disgust rose in my throat.

Well. At least that killed any hesitation I had left. The immunosuppressant? That could wait. What I needed to make right now was a very special drug — one that would clean up this garbage, all at once, tonight.

Time to put my major to work.

I set up the chemistry equipment with practiced hands. Never thought my toxicology ‍‍‌‌⁠​​⁠‌​​‍​​‍​‌​⁠‍‌‍⁠⁠‌⁠‌‍‌‍‌‌‌‍⁠​‌​‌​‌‍‌‌‌⁠‍​​‌‍⁠‌‌⁠⁠studies would come in handy like this. And unlike back in Korea, this place was overflowing with dangerous compounds you couldn't have gotten legally if you tried.

A guide overlay slid into my vision.

"Don't need it."

I ignored the guidelines and adjusted the mixture to my own ratios. A regular explosion would be too tame. I was going to give these chrome-loaded bastards the death they deserved.

Everything was ready.