In a satirical cyberpunk future built on the absurdity of modernity, belief is a biological plague and ideas are parasites. Dr. Julian Croft is the Cognitive Immunology Division's most unstable asset. As the only 'Hybrid' infected by two opposing ideological parasites, he desires only a moment of cognitive silence. His mind is a walking contradiction in the endless war of reason vs ideology. But when a city district mysteriously goes quiet, its citizens alive but mentally vacant, Croft is sent into the eerie silence to find the cause. The investigation spirals into a conflict far deadlier than any ideological swarm. The 'Hush Meme' is traced to a wellness drink sold by the untouchable Panacea Protocols, a megacorporation that profits from the very diseases the government fights. Pursuing this truth puts a corporate target on Croft’s back and forces him into the city's underbelly, far from his sterile labs. There, he finds the meme's creator, a brilliant and paranoid rogue scientist who reveals a shocking secret: the agent wasn't a weapon but a failed attempt at a universal cure. Suddenly, Croft isn't just hunting a bug; he's protecting the most valuable research in the world. As Panacea's lethal kill-teams and a purist faction from his own division close in, Croft realizes both sides want to twist the cure into an even greater weapon. He faces an impossible choice: surrender the scientist and her work, saving his own skin but condemning humanity to weaponized belief, or protect her. The price is absolute: he must sever his relationship with the only institution that gives his life structure and become a traitor. His only map is the flawed logic he builds in The REM Diagram, his mental sanctuary. In a world demanding absolute belief, can one broken man win a war for the soul of humanity?
31 chapters
In a satirical cyberpunk future built on the absurdity of modernity, belief is a biological plague and ideas are parasites. Dr. Julian Croft is the Cognitive Immunology Division's most unstable asset. As the only 'Hybrid' infected by two opposing ideological parasites, he desires only a moment of cognitive silence. His mind is a walking contradiction in the endless war of reason vs ideology. But when a city district mysteriously goes quiet, its citizens alive but mentally vacant, Croft is sent into the eerie silence to find the cause. The investigation spirals into a conflict far deadlier than any ideological swarm. The 'Hush Meme' is traced to a wellness drink sold by the untouchable Panacea Protocols, a megacorporation that profits from the very diseases the government fights. Pursuing this truth puts a corporate target on Croft’s back and forces him into the city's underbelly, far from his sterile labs. There, he finds the meme's creator, a brilliant and paranoid rogue scientist who reveals a shocking secret: the agent wasn't a weapon but a failed attempt at a universal cure. Suddenly, Croft isn't just hunting a bug; he's protecting the most valuable research in the world. As Panacea's lethal kill-teams and a purist faction from his own division close in, Croft realizes both sides want to twist the cure into an even greater weapon. He faces an impossible choice: surrender the scientist and her work, saving his own skin but condemning humanity to weaponized belief, or protect her. The price is absolute: he must sever his relationship with the only institution that gives his life structure and become a traitor. His only map is the flawed logic he builds in The REM Diagram, his mental sanctuary. In a world demanding absolute belief, can one broken man win a war for the soul of humanity?
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