– Yeah, he didn’t add a cerebral implant to himself. Why did you have to move to the city centre? You could have found someone as dumb as him in the slums. – Her words, despite the distortion of her giant lips, were drenched in sarcasm.
Nova giggled, the sound of her laughter picked up by the room’s speaker system and scattered with silver bells:
– Oh, things are so mixed up in these corporate cities now, it’s a hell of a mess to know who came from where.
With a wink to Dash, which made her eye flash for a moment with the bluish light of the inbuilt lens, Nova sauntered out into the corridor. Anna had been silently watching the whole time, smiling at her friends’ jokes and tomfoolery.
Nova quickly caught up with Fazu at the end of the corridor, taking him under her arm and grabbing him by the sleeve of his leather jacket, which reacted to his touch by slightly changing the pattern of the backlighting. She laughed out loud, her laughter seeming to make the neon lights of the corridor flicker in time with it:
– Why are you so scared? Dash bought new implants on credit, she’s trying it out to find herself a handsome, strong, wealthy husband. And when you came in, she started fooling around to scare you. And she did! You’re kind of scary. You’re afraid of women, aren’t you? – Her words were half a joke, half a reproach.
They walked down the corridor towards the exit, their footsteps echoing off the walls, creating a bizarre melody. Faza, spreading his arms, which made the dragon on his back seem to spread its wings, excused himself:
– What an idea you’ve come up with! These implants come out new every week. I don’t know what’s on the market. You might walk into a room and there is no longer a human being, but some cyborg octopus. – He grinned nervously, clearly imagining the picture.
Suddenly, the imperious voice of the neural network controlling the entire building sounded in the corridor. The very air seemed to vibrate with the sound:
– Attention! At 00:00, the building will be closed as part of an anti-terror programme in accordance with Corporate Law #17—2913.14, «On NeuroHub Security and Cybercrime Countermeasures». All residents are advised to complete their business and leave public areas before the specified time.
Faze replied loudly without thinking, his voice echoing through the corridors:
– We’re going to a concert!
Neural Net, clearly teasing, her voice taking on a sarcastic tone, parried:
– Well, well, well, to a concert. You’re making citizens out of yourselves again. Maybe you should also go to the theatre? Or a museum? – In the artificial intelligence was clearly heard a fair share of irony.
Laughter could be heard from all the rooms of the NeuroHub. Panels on the walls displayed laughing emoji for a moment before returning to displaying data streams.
Nova, twirling her finger at her temple, a gesture that seemed to activate some sort of implant as her hair changed colour for a moment, whispered:
– Fool, why did you say that? Now the entire NeuroHub is going to laugh at us. – Her whisper, amplified by the acoustics of the corridor, could probably be heard several floors up and down.
And Faza, perplexed, his face expressing genuine incomprehension of the situation, replied:
– But we’re really going to a concert… Is that something bad? – He looked around, as if seeking support from the invisible spectators.
All around them was the life of NeuroHub, this hive of high technology and human passions. Groups of people stood in a spacious hallway with walls displaying pulsing streams of data that seemed to be the living embodiment of the digital world. Their conversations blended into a bizarre cacophony, augmented by the sound effects of numerous gadgets and implants.
Some were passionately discussing the latest corporate news, their hands drawing graphs and charts in the air, visible only through AR-lenses. A couple in the corner was flirting, exchanging virtual gifts via neural interfaces – the air around them sparkled with digital hearts and flowers invisible to the eye.
People walked past in outfits with inbuilt displays showing their mood and social media status. The dresses changed colour and pattern, adjusting to the wearer’s mood and the surrounding environment, creating the impression of a living, breathing work of art.
In the corner of the hall, a group of teenagers were playing an AR game. Their movements, chaotic to the uninitiated observer, were actually part of a complex virtual dance in which they were battling digital monsters visible only through their AR glasses.
Office workers crowded around the lifts, their eyes glowing with neon light – a clear sign of active work with virtual screens. They continued meetings and negotiations even when they left their desks, their consciousness divided between the physical world and the streams of corporate data.
This world lived to the rhythm of cyberpunk – technology permeating every aspect of life, neon lights reflecting in chrome implants, and a constant stream of information flowing through invisible channels. The air seemed electrified by the amount of data and emotion being transmitted.
Chapter 2
At the same time, in one of the modest rooms of the same skyscraper, Dash was reclining. This young girl, the same age as Nova and Anna, barely past her twentieth birthday, was the living embodiment of beauty.
Her slender, supple body, almost completely naked, was studded with tiny bioluminescent tattoos that shimmered in the semi-darkness of the room in all the colours of the rainbow. These tattoos created using nanotechnology. The girl’s black-blonde hair, able to change colour at will thanks to nanorobots implanted in the roots of her hair, now cascaded luxuriously over her shoulders, creating a bizarre contrast with her skin.
Dash played carelessly with her neural implants, light, almost imperceptible movements of her fingers activating and deactivating various functions. Suddenly, the silence of the room was broken by a melodious ringing sound that seemed to be right inside Dash’s head. The girl’s heart raced – she instantly recognised the special signal assigned to one of her many suitors. For a split second her pupils dilated as the recognition system identified the caller.
Taking in a full chest of air and mentally activating the implant responsible for modulating her voice, Dash tried to make her tone as seductive as possible. Her voice, low and velvety, as if enveloping the space, filled the room:
– Yes? I’m listening,» she said, stretching her words and adding a slight huskiness to her tone.
– Who? Vadik? – she thought for a moment, her eyes moving quickly as if reading an invisible text as she went through a long list of admirers in her enhanced memory. – Ah, Vadik! Of course I remember you, darling. How could I forget your enchanting voice?
Dash stretched gracefully, arching her back and showing off her perfect body as if to an invisible interlocutor. She cast a quick, sly glance at Anna, who was watching the conversation from her corner of the room with undisguised interest and a slight chuckle.
– What NeuroHub? – Dash giggled nervously, her fingers beginning to rapidly run through a strand of hair, changing its colour from black and blue to a deep, mysterious purple. – Ah, that… That’s our flighty neural network messing around again. Imagine, we’ve got relatives travelling all the way from the Far East, from the Eastern New Dynasty. And now this cyber-joker is calling our humble mansion a mirohab. You should see how many people live here now!
Dash tried to speak both cheerfully and seductively, her voice rising to a playful note or dropping to an intimate whisper. She hoped that Vadim on the other end of the quantum communication line would believe her improvised explanation.
– Yes, yes,“