Outrun – Cyberpunk LitRPG Chapter 153

The door popped open, letting a beam of light into the dim server room. I breathed as calmly as I could, keeping myself from tensing up or shifting. Nothing drew the eye better than movent.

Two guards moved into the room, both flashing a flashlight around the area. They were both ard for bear, loaded in full suits of combat armor. They were on an entirely different level from that guard on the top floor.

These two though? Full tal similar to my now-defunct heavy armor. I don’t know what they were expecting to fight, but with the firepower they had suggested it couldn’t be anything simple. Multiple grenades strapped in a bandolier, assault rifles, and so kind of baton hung from them. Looked like maybe a shock baton of so sort. Oh, and that wasn’t including the wands strapped around their bodies. Definitely Adepts.

I flicked on Aetherial Perception as I watched from the corner of my eye, catching signs that the armor was enchanted. Definitely not cheap. What were they guarding against so ferociously? Seriously, the level of security here put even a smaller mid-size corporation like Artoras Consulting to sha.

I eyed the two goons as they wandered around. Sothing about the way they walked gave a dangerous feeling. Their Cues more so pointed towards experienced rcs. High-level ones at that. I tried to put together where else I’d gotten such a dangerous vibe, but the only thing that ca to mind was the Ri Peak Lounge back when Iris pulled along.

“Think one of the eggheads forgot to lock up?” One of the guards asked as he panned a flashlight right over . His eye glazed past on top of the servers as a yawn escaped from under his helt.

The other walked over, tapping one of the servers with his foot. A blinking red light flashed green. “Chek. The gonks can’t do anything right but think about their precious research.”

”Hey now, at least it’s job security.” The first one muttered. He ran a hand slowly over one of the wands stuffed into a holster. “Seriously though, this place gives the chills. Can’t wait to get paid and delta. The Aether barely responds down here.”

The second one chuckled. “What, the beasts upstairs have you spooked? Or is it that thing in the middle that has you spooked? You know it isn’t even real, right choom?”

”Chek… but it could be. The Aether is chaotic on the best of days. Combined with those guys upstairs ssing with things they shouldn't?” The first guy shuddered as he paused, his head pointed right at . His shaking doubled down for a mont as he coughed, curling over.

I barely resisted the urge to shift as he bent over. What were they talking about though? The Aether not responding is worrying at least. Reminds of those plant beasts and the corruption flowing off of them.

I flicked on Aetherial Perception, glancing around as much as I could without twisting my head. As far as I could tell, the Aether seed just the sa as usual- wait- no. It’s- it’s almost thinner? Instead of blanketing atspace like it usually does, it looks like more of a veil here. Weird…

The second one rushed over, forgetting his search as he patted the other on the back. “That snake’s poison still getting to you? You should’ve gone to dtech, choom! Where am I going to find another partner if you flatline?”

“Argh! You- you’ll manage.” He coughed a few more tis, pulling up his helt to cough up blood into a rag he pulled from his pocket. “You thought about what I said?”

”Turning this place over to the Crusade? Don’t even joke. You know rep is what we live and die by.” The second guard shifted from foot to foot. “You know who's backing this place anyway. Whistleblowers tend to be flatlined through suicide by decapitation on the best of days.”

“Chek… you’re right. Would be a nice payday though. What’s their bounty fee up to now?” The guy straightened back up, heading to the door. His coughing fit seed to make him completely forget about searching.

The other man followed him. “I didn’t look. Best not tempt ourselves-“ His voice quieted as they shut the door. A mont later I heard the deadbolt slide back into place. They were gone. Though not without making even more unanswered questions. Just what was that bastard uncle of mine doing?

I waited several minutes to ensure they were gone, then sprung back down to ground level and stretched out. I could keep still like that for hours if I had to, but it wasn’t exactly comfortable. While I loosened back up, I adjusted the poncho’s controls and dropped the temperature down quite a bit. It was really hot down here, and sweat was already starting to coalesce on my brow.

What were they talking about with the Crusade anyway? Turning it over? Should I- should I turn this place over to the Blue Crusade? Might give a boost in rep if I do it as Zuku. But I don’t even really know what they’re talking about. At least, not yet. But I would soon.

I checked the ti. I still had about two and a half hours till that paralysis wore off. More than enough ti to investigate. I unlocked the door, slipping out and locking it behind as I headed further into the facility. More of the sa scattered about, though I eventually hit a four-way intersection. I peeked through the halls, checking all directions before making a move.

One led back to the main elevator, the area lined with offices of various kinds. The other led to a massive chamber of sorts and finally, the last continued on in the circular circuit. The massive chamber tickled my fancy, so it's where I headed first. That, and the guards ntioned sothing in the middle.

The chamber was a massive perfectly round room. Hundreds of wires, tubes, and various cooling systems led up through the roof, connecting to sothing up a floor. Banks and banks of servers and monitors, all lined with that weird pseudo-runic chain, wrapped all around the room. A maintenance ladder off to the side granted access to the next story, so I headed over to it for a better view of what was going on.

I climbed up the ladder, carefully peaking my head over the top before I fully committed. Runes, each in that weird non-aetherial reactive state similar to the chains, lined the room in vast ritualistic-looking circles. They were all blood red, with seven scattered altars around the place.

Extrely familiar-looking Items lay locked into cages atop the seven altars. It took a minute to figure out why that was. I flicked my phone on, checking the files Athena sent . They were an exact match for the stuff she was hired to find. All glowed under Aetherial Perception.

In the dead center of the space sat a massive robotic skull. The cooling systems connected up through the floor to it, alongside thousands of wires going every which way. Most entwined with spiky horns sticking up out of the skull. The skull sat inside of a central runic circle like so kind of malevolent entity locked away.

A chill went up my spine as I looked at the ritualistic setup. No wonder I’d heard this place was creepy. The creepiest part of it though? None of the runes actually did anything. They were all mundane but written in so kind of red luminescent paint as if it would have an effect. As far as I could tell, it was all so weird aesthetic choice at best.

Just what the hell was going on here?

The skull, defying my expectations, twisted on its podium, turning toward as two giant glowing eyes glowed in the back of its tal cranium. Its voice, deeper beyond any reason it had a right to, sounded horribly chanical. “Who dareth intrude on the great Demon Lord thuze?!”

I reacted as soon as I heard its voice, withdrawing the Sonic Suppressor from my bag. I wasted no ti tossing out the eight anchors, each of them flying true as they magnetized a massive cube around the skull. I flicked it on, creating a boundary to cut out any noise.

Then I retreated back down to the ladder, watching for any sign the guards would co around after hearing its voice. They never did. Nor did I hear anything over the walkie-talkie line. Once I was assured I was still undetected, I slipped back up to the skull.

I looked it over curiously as the thing stared down at . What did it claim to be? A Demon Lord? Cringe. thuze though. That’s the project the hidden servers had locked away. What was this supposed to be though?

Hmm… Well, one plus one is two. Giant chanical skull. High Crusade bounty. The sheer secretness of the place. Wait- that’s three. Anyway—if I didn’t know any better, I’d say my uncle had an AI locked up down here. That would be pure insanity though, so it was probably sothing else. Except… it’d be right up his alley?

”What are you?” The easiest way to figure out what was going on was to ask. And anyway, this thing was under heavy lock and key. No way it was on Cold Moon Solutions’ side. More importantly, it’d already seen and there were still no alerts sent out.

”The great Demon Lord thuze! Puny mortal, bow down and offer thy sacrifice. Thou might just be blessed with thy greatest might!” The chro do announced as flashes of red illuminated the skull nacingly. The whole look was ruined by the sure absurdity of the massive skull though.

“Yeah, but what are you really?” There was no such thing as Demon Lords or whatever. Unless it was saying Daemon, though they were more of a series of protocols in a Net Architecture than anything. Sure, a hyper-advanced series of protocols, but still just protocols. Only the most advanced ones could talk, and adding lore like this into their code was a massive waste. So… AI then? That was practically suicide after the K-10 Convention though.

The skull twitched, the nose shaking harshly. “I detest thee! Thou darest defy mine glorious self?! Doth though finish thine sacrifice?” Lights reflected off to the seven pillars. Ah, were these items supposed to be a sacrifice? Why would an AI want stuff from the Aether?

Now, if I didn’t have Aetherial Perception, I’d think sothing was actually going on with the altars and blood-red runes. With it though? I felt like soone accidentally walking into a roleplay convention. Were they stealing relics to satisfy this thing's sense of character? Weird. Were all AI so… eccentric? “Whatever.”

I wandered around, ignoring the talking skull's constant remarks as I checked out the tech around the place. So pretty high-end stuff here and there. There's a lot of heat in here too. So seriously powerful processors were hidden around here.

Most of the coolant systems were a patchwork of barely slapped-together parts though. Regardless, with how prevalent Project thuze was in the files, I can’t imagine it was cheap to set up. If I broke everything, It’d work for Athena.

”Hey, where’s your power switch?” I cut off whatever else the skull was going on about. I’d find it eventually regardless of what it’d say.

It froze. I wasn’t expecting an answer anyway. No way an AI would tell how to kill it-

“Truly?” It spoke, its voice changing from the chanical demon lord to a soft female tone. “Thoust doth myself the greatest of honors?”

“Uh- Chek?” I looked around. I could probably unplug all the coolant stuff. Cause everything to overheat and fry all the circuits… hmm… I’ll probably have to go around and destroy the data banks too though. “You want to die?”

The skull went silent as it stared at for a long minute. “Thoust won’t trick mineself once more?”

“Uh- no? Not really a point to deceiving you, is there?” I tilted my head.

It mimicked my move to a limited extent. “Indeed…” A light shone on a terminal bank to the back. “The torturer's userna ist Admin-thuze. Password ist Admin123.”

I hesitantly headed for the terminal. No way it was that easy, right? And what’s with the shit password? This place had over-the-top security, and yet had such a terrible password? Suspicious. Too bad Cues didn’t work on the tal skull. I checked my exit route one more ti as I put in the credentials just in case this was so kind of trap.

It wasn’t. I easily logged in, getting access to their whole system. The first thing I looked for was any security alerts going off that I hadn’t noticed. Nothing. I thought about adding so kind of code to delay a response, but as I looked through the terminal I realized it was way too far over my head to ss with. Instead, I settled with looking through previously locked files to find out just what was going on here.

Apparently, my uncle was a psychopath- wait, no- I already knew that. But I didn’t realize just how batshit insane he was. The first file related to thuze was from about five years ago, right before the Cold Moon Solutions production lines shut down. That bastard bought an infant AI brought from beyond the Node, spending nearly all the company's assets on it.

He thought himself a genius, that arrogant prick. The old mos and files used flowery words, but I could read between the lines. With the new AI, he convinced it that it was actually a sealed-away demon lord. He isolated it from any network and spoon-fed it carefully curated information to make thuze think it was bound by so mystical contract and couldn’t go against his words. It was the type of experint only an insane person would think of.

As of about a year ago, though, he finally moved on to using it. The goal of Project thuze was to use the AI to write various kinds of programs in what was essentially free labor. He’d then rebrand the corporation, all while firing the remaining employees and using his new AI slave to print money. All without actually having to hire a single person. What a prick.

That being said, I couldn’t help but chuckle as I read through the files. At the sa ti that he wanted to start abusing thuze, thuze fully got into their role, demanding sacrifices before it would cooperate. What started off as a simple demand for ‘ritual circles’ and ‘protective asures’—which as best I could tell were the weird chains—soon beca more and more expensive with the demands for objects of power. With every request he fulfilled, a more outrageous one would crop up before thus could ‘fully utilize its powers’.

And yet my uncle pumped more and more money into the project… a sunk cost fallacy at its finest. That just left a couple questions unanswered, then I could get around to the sabotage. “Hey, you, you’re just acting, right?”