Malfunctioning Utopia

Chapter 40: The Mine

Hearing what King Kong said, Sun Jack's expression turned grim. “So, what you're saying is that the one who hacked into my system was someone else? The cyber psychosis killer isn’t just one person but two?!”

“I knew this wasn’t going to be simple,” Four Ai said, walking over with her gun. “Hacking a system like that requires complete focus. There’s no way a cyber psychotic could pull that off.”

Sun Jack approached the woman’s corpse, now growing cold under the pouring rain, his expression complicated.

“What now? Can we just hand her over to the 6th Unit and call it a day?” Four Ai asked.

“Do you think the 6th Unit are idiots? They’ll want that hacker uncovered before they hand over a single coin,” Song 6PUS replied with a helpless expression.

Tracking down a hacker with no leads was no simple task, leaving the mission at a frustrating deadlock.

“Ugh, what a mess. Let’s head back for now,” Song 6PUS muttered, glancing up at the acid rain still falling, then quickened his pace toward the car.

But Sun Jack didn’t move. He stared at the unborn child within the woman’s transparent abdomen, feeling conflicted. If they left it there, the baby was sure to die. “Tapai, is there any way to save it?”

Tapai crouched beside Sun Jack, quickly assessing the situation. His sensory cables extended, slicing through the woman’s body with precision. The transparent abdomen was tough from the front, but the back yielded easily to his tools.

The others noticed what Tapai was doing and gathered closer.

“Bro, seriously, what kind of kink is this?” Song 6PUS said, visibly nauseated.

“Can you help? No? Then shut the f*** up.”

Four Ai knelt beside them, pulling a scalpel from her thigh and swiftly cutting along the transparent stomach. Soon, the tiny, reddish premature baby, no bigger than a palm, was cradled in Sun Jack’s hands. It appeared lifeless.

“Let’s give it a shot,” Sun Jack murmured as he cautiously began performing CPR.

“Wait... this... this texture feels off.” Sun Jack, though inexperienced with newborns, realized the baby’s body felt unusually firm.

Examining the baby more closely, he discovered a tiny port inside its left ear.

“Are you kidding me?! What kind of psycho installs a neural system into an unborn baby? Was this really necessary?!” Sun Jack’s voice rose in frustration, but something about the situation felt off, though he couldn’t pinpoint what.

Suddenly, Tapai understood and pointed at the baby. “Jack, it’s the hacker!”

“The hacker?! It’s him?” Sun Jack stared at the infant in disbelief. How was that even possible?

King Kong, another hacker, was the first to connect the dots. “That premature baby? It’s a botnet pawn! That wasn’t amniotic fluid in the womb—it was cooling gel!” ṟ𝙖₦óᛒÊＳ

“Quick! Somebody give me a serial port! I’ll see if I can trace it!” King Kong’s voice rang out in the team comms.

“I have one. Over here,” said Father, who clasped his hands together and softly chanted, “Amitabha.” King Kong crouched swiftly, pulling a data cable from his forearm and connecting it to the port behind the baby’s ear.

Meanwhile, Sun Jack accessed his neural system to review what "botnet pawn" meant. Hackers would often refer to fully controlled systems as “botnet pawns,” and theoretically, a human equipped with a neural network could be hacked and controlled.

But looking at the premature baby in his hands, Sun Jack’s anger flared. “What kind of monster turns an unborn baby into a tool?!”

In this depraved world, Sun Jack had forced himself to adapt to countless bizarre and perverse situations. But this crossed a line. He couldn’t stomach it.

Then, King Kong’s massive frame suddenly convulsed. “Amitabha! This godd*** b****** stuffed this system with Black ICE viruses. Lucky for him, I’m not just a vegetarian monk!”

Father’s body stopped shaking and regained stability. “Got it. I’ve pinpointed the location! He’s on the move—go after him!”

With the location pinged on his interface, Sun Jack wasted no time and leapt onto Tapai’s back. “Let’s go! When I catch this scum, I’ll skin him alive!”

Tapai’s wheels spun furiously, splashing through the puddles as they raced out of the dark C3 Zone. Tapai was the fastest in the group, with only Four Ai’s drone managing to keep up.

Four Ai’s voice crackled through the drone’s speakers. “Jack, grant eye-sharing access so we can sync visuals! King Kong’s holding him off online—we’re almost there!”

“Got it!”

The coordinates led them to C5 Zone, in an underground parking garage not far from their previous location. As Sun Jack entered, he saw the marker King Kong had provided, situated deep within a large storage unit.

Without hesitation, Sun Jack raised his weapon and blasted the garage door open. Freezing cold air spilled out, illuminated by harsh, bluish-white lighting. The first thing Sun Jack noticed was a row of people sitting with their backs to him.

“Tapai, switch to infrared. I’ll stick to my eyes. Let’s tread carefully.” Sun Jack issued the order as he cautiously advanced.

The space was enormous, as if the entire parking lot had been gutted and unified into one facility. Approaching closer, Sun Jack saw more details: the seated individuals were covered in data cables plugged into their spines and skulls. Despite the bone-chilling temperature, their faces were flushed, with steam rising from their heads.

Judging by their tattered clothing, they were likely homeless, just like the ones Sun Jack had passed earlier outside.

“What the hell is this?” Sun Jack muttered uneasily, his breath turning into frosty white mist.

“These are ‘human mines,’” Father’s voice came through his comms.

“The hacker’s mining @coins using their brains, which is why the area needs physical cooling. This is an artificial mining farm.”

“F***! That’s revolting!” Sun Jack shouted, his stomach turning as rage boiled within him.

This hacker wasn’t just exploiting unborn babies as tools—he had turned living people into machinery. Sun Jack’s fury reached its peak. What kind of depravity was this monster capable of?