Cyberpunk: Ultimate Cyborg System-Chapter 486: Ghost Stories.

A single lamp cast a patch of fluorescent light from above. A man sat at its center, elbows on his legs, his head hanging.

From the shaved head to the muscular body and the clothes he wore, one could tell at first glance that he was a soldier out of combat. Despite how lightly dressed he was, the freezing temperature of the room didn’t seem to bother him.

The room itself wasn’t very large, and beside the large window on one of its walls, it lacked anything that could be called decorations. The window was made from one-way glass, and beyond sat a man approaching retirement age, dressed in military garb, the expression on his face grim.

Robert Grimes was the head of security at the facility where he worked. In this day and age, security systems are mostly automated, with even the maintenance being handled by drones. It was both safe and convenient, lowering the risk of trouble that human errors might cause. This facility was different, however.

Despite having one of the most robust security systems modern technology has to offer, it still employed hundreds of people, most of whom had to be Basic to Intermediate, with no bionics linked to their brains. For a long time, Robert was under the impression that the humans were there to seal any gaps in the system, but yesterday’s incident proved him wrong.

TINGGG!

A strange sound entered his ears, causing the folds of his wrinkles to deepen. It was the sound of a coin being flicked into the air repeatedly. Again, and again, and again. In the silence shrouding the room, that sound felt rather ominous, and that feeling spiked when the sound suddenly stopped.

"He vanished, huh?"

A few words caused the temperature to drop further. Feeling as if frost was forming on the white hair of his beard, the old man spoke in a trembling voice.

"Twenty had made it to the scene at the time. They all-"

TING!

The coin was tossed once more, and the old man pressed his mouth shut.

"They all had their human eyes," The coin shot up once more. "None had optical implants, right?"

"Y-yes. That is correct."

TING!

Though he felt his stress levels rise, Robert kept his gaze forward and didn’t dare to turn around.

"They may return to their posts." The voice said. "This case has been closed."

"Understood."

Robert stood up and saluted, still facing the one-way glass. Confusion struck him when he heard the hiss of the automatic door behind him opening a moment later. Hearing it again, he hesitated before turning around. When he saw that he was alone, overwhelming relief washed over him, and he dropped onto his chair with fain huff.

The facility he worked at had no name. He guessed that, whatever was taking place on the lower levels, it was likely something those in charge wanted to keep off the records. Those who came to work at such a place knew that there might come a time when they’re all disposed of, yet they still took the job anyway.

The pay was more than good for spending a few months in the frozen continent, and since all they do is sit around when they aren’t making the rounds, there wasn’t much to complain about.

"Ghosts." Robert clicked his tongue. "Just what I needed."

Besides its strange location, the secrecy surrounding it, and the general eeriness of the place, one thing that always managed to unnerve him and his crew was the ghosts hunting the strange facility. Most insist on them being nothing more than a rumor, and Robert was once among them. That ended the day he met him—the Coin Man.

Every now and then, the strange entity would arrive along with the supply shipment. He always wears a normal blue suit, as if the freezing temperatures don’t bother him at all. No one ever saw his face, even when he walked right in front of them. Not even the people from the lower floors know who he was. Because of that, the rumors about him not being human persisted till this day.

Some believed he was a mind-controlling alien, others claimed that he was a powerful Genome with similar powers. The most popular theory by far was the one about him being a ghost. Though it was the most ridiculous of all, what happened a couple of weeks ago gave it some credibility, and Robert found himself believing it more and more.

A couple of weeks ago, an earthquake hit the area, and a piece of the outer wall fell. When they sent people to check it, they found out that someone had infiltrated the facility. The problem was that none of the countless sensors scattered around had picked up anything. Even then, twenty people still swore that someone was there.

This wasn’t a case of seeing a vague silhouette in the distance—the guards did see the intruder. They had surrounded him, and they had attempted to interrogate him. He even replied to their questions with some of his own. However, just when they moved to capture him, he vanished as if he had never there.

An internal investigation had been held, but the witnesses still claimed that they had seen the same red-haired young man. One of them even drew a portrait of said young man, but even though they included it in their report, nothing came out of it—at least until the Coin Man showed up.

One thing that had been confirmed was that said man had a very high security clearance, maybe the highest in the facility. He was the only one with access to the bottom floor. That meant he was a very important person, and that person had taken an interest in what people were starting to believe was an elaborate hoax. 𝓯𝓻𝓮𝙚𝙬𝓮𝙗𝒏𝙤𝒗𝙚𝙡.𝒄𝒐𝓶

The one person people believed to be a ghost took interest in the appearance of another ghost. If that wasn’t enough evidence of the latter being real, then Robert didn’t know what it was.

BEEEEEP!

A loud notification came from the watch on his wrist, startling him just as his nerves were starting to relax. The notification that appeared on its screen showed that someone was trying to access the bottom floor, but having just talked to the person, Robert knew not to be concerned.

Whenever he came to visit, the Coin Man would always head through the same route, pass the same corridors, and board the same elevator. If anyone was in there with him, they would leave the instant they heard the sound of a coin flipping.

The elevator would head straight for the twelfth basement floor. It was the deepest in the entire facility, separated from the rest by a seventy-meter-long elevation shaft. As the coin continued to flip, several security scans were performed in quick succession.

The man paid them no mind, exiting the elevator as soon as the doors opened. Walking through another corridor, he arrived at a large metal gate which opened as soon as he approached. Three more followed behind it, but the last one opened up to a spacious room with a high ceiling.

A massive, spherical construct rested at the center. Its surface was mostly covered in frost, and the tubed and bundled cords sticking out from several spots seemed to have been frozen entirely.

Putting away his coin, the mysterious man walked over to the spherical construct. The floor cracked under his feet, the ice covering it crumbling under his weight.

The weather outside didn’t bother him, and neither did the room’s frozen temperature. His breath had turned a misty white, however, and frost was starting to form on his suit. Standing before the construct, he looked up and observed its round form. The only sound that could be heard was the hum of complex machinery, and because of that, his voice seemed much louder when he spoke.

"Your brother has been giving us a lot of trouble lately." He said, continuing to stare at the sphere.

The silence returned following that last word, and whatever response he was waiting for never came.

"You were the one who brought him here, weren’t you?"

Once again, there was no response. A smile slowly pulled on the corners of his mouth.

"I will make the seal stronger this time." He said. "You won’t be able to pull the same trick another time.

Silence followed his words for the third time, but unlike the last two, it was short-lived. A tremor spread out from the construct, and soon after, the entire room seemed to be shaking. The violent vibrations spread to the rest of the underground facility, and soon enough, they reached the surface.

The earthquake seemed to last for a few minutes, but eventually, it lost its strength. Calm returned to the bottommost floor, and the smile on the man’s face only continued to widen.

"Thank you," He said. "For making this easier."

His eyes seemed to peer through the ice and the alloy shell beneath it, passing the countless gears and mechanisms working in tandem to create a seal that isn’t easily broken.

Beyond the outer shell, in the darkness filling the minuscule space at the core of the construct, a pair of silver eyes fluttered open and turned to meet his gaze. The hatred contained within them was enough to burn the entire world, but the eyelids surrounding them seemed far too heavy to stay up for long.