The Seed of Khepri - Rough Draft Edition

Chapter 6 - The Spark

It had been over two days since Sebastian had taken the deal with Alpha Augmentations.

In that time, much to his morbid dissatisfaction, there had been no further murders for him to investigate. Neither from the KCPD, nor the anonymous tipper who guided him to the second incident. That said, this didn't mean that he got any rest in this space of time. In fact, he wasn't sure if he could remember sleeping at all; except maybe between the brief moments that his eyelids closed to blink, where he could've drifted off without being aware of it. After all, he had wholly lost track of time regardless. Pouring over the myriads of documents, and diagrams, and spreadsheets that he had been granted to help him solve the case.

The detective was ashamed to admit that, following reread after reread, much of the contents on those downloaded pages still went over his head. He would have had more luck understanding a random book from the Library of Babel, than trying to parse his way through corporate jargon and advanced technological breakdowns. That said, there were a handful of key things that he had managed to piece together. From enlightening confirmation, to further understanding about just what he was dealing with, and who might be involved.

For one, there came a conclusion to the mystery of those missing neck segments. These were the 'DREAM Cavities' that Hanbal had mentioned off-handedly during their meeting. The housing space for a piece of hardware that was aptly dubbed as the 'DREAM Drive'. There was no easy way to explain the function of this tech, but Sebastian had found a layman's description on one of those many files he had been given clearance too. A description that likened the DREAM Drive to 'a relay of sorts'.

At the current iteration, there are three essential parts to a Simulacrum: The body was of course the most simple. A fixed point, of mass and volume, that served as their very literal form of being. The more complex, second part was their mind. A collection of thoughts, and memories, and feelings, and anything else that a real person might have. A prebuilt brain, as it were. Something too intricate and dense to actually be stored on any portable piece of hardware that could be inserted into the Simulacrum. This was the reason for the third part. That ever important DREAM Drive. It served as the crucial link between mind and body; to allow for this faux intelligence to pilot a body, and in essence, become a full person. Both with a physical and mental portion to their existence. And whilst Sebastian still didn't understand the ins and outs of how all of this was technically possible, he did have enough clarity to confirm that the removal of these links were the killing blows he had suspected them to be.

Comparable to ripping a person's brainstem from their spine.

Beyond this, Sebastian was left mostly in the dark; having only drawn singular phrases and esoteric information out of the inner-circulated documents. There were mentions of some sort of Cyberspace, to which Sebastian had only heard about in myths, rumours and generic sci-fi. Apparently this was 'the only place vast and malleable enough to store an ANBS direct access copy', to quote the texts directly. ANBS, in this case, stood for 'Anpu Neuralnet and Brain Software'. Something that was barely a step above the acronym itself in terms of understanding. Then there were also infrequent mentions towards some sort of patented AI program that was helping to guide things on this front. Always referred to as only 'EVLN', though he was unable to find a direct translation to what this stood for. There were also several names alluded to in the same way - DD, JD, AA - with only one name being discernable to him, which was HT. Hanbal Teremun.

The more he looked for clarity on this case, the more it made his head hurt. He might have to accept that understanding everything was impossible, and that he should only stick to the core principles of tracking down a killer. Or, maybe he just needed to clear his head. Get a fresh perspective. Which is what led to him now standing outside, in the cold night, beneath an overhang that marked the front of a dive bar named Black Chrome. It didn't keep him warm, he still relied on his navy parka for that, though the bit of shelter did stop the downpour of rain from soaking him through. It also left him amongst the smokers who lingered around outside the front door. Accompanied by the occasional drunkard - of which he had seen two so far - stumbling out to vomit over the pavement.