Luna was using her twitching hippocampus to crack the genetic codelock when the roar of the mining machine shattered the clone's eardrums.
"Neural node 48 verification passed!" The mechanical tongue of the mine's AI popped out sparks, "Reward 0.000047 canned points..."
Rule #258: All neural impulses must be uplinked for verification.Luna's cranium is externally connected to cooling tubes, and the brain marrow boils in the transparent cranial cavity. The rock walls of the mine are embedded with throbbing brain tissue, each fold flashing the hash value of the blockchain. Absentees' cervical vertebrae have been converted into data cable connectors, and fluorescent cockroaches crawl in their nostrils-these bio-miners are converting their fears into convenience store points.
"I want to redeem the dream of June 18, 2005." She slices her wrist and lets the quantum blood drip into the validation slot, "pledging the memory of the next seven lifetimes."
The miner suddenly sprays a neurotoxin and Luna's optic nerves begin to burn. The holographic projection explodes: the ten-year-old is tied up in a convenience store lab, and the president is using a laser pointer to etch the initial blockchain code into her brain stem. Even deadlier was the edge of the image - her mother's hands trembling as she held the gene editor, her badge emblazoned with "Chief Miner Tamer."
"Rule 259 addendum!" The mine master's robotic arm pops out a laser drill, "Primary memories are subject to a 3000% brain tax."
The mine suddenly collapsed, revealing a lurid layer of ore three thousand feet underground. The clones are hung upside down on a web of nerve fibers, their brain marrow diluted with extracts and injected into the blockchain nodes.Luna's cybernetic eye penetrates the fog of data and discovers that each block holds memories of her violation - Cole's fingerprints become the private key, and Jax's saliva is the encryption algorithm.
"Dear Miner..." The miner's vocal cords suddenly turn into the president's voiceprint, "... Every drop of your cerebrospinal fluid is paying dividends to HQ..." His mechanical fingers plunged into Luna's quantum brain, "... Even your anger at this moment is a predetermined mining program."
Riots erupted in neural pulses.
As the first clone chewed through the data lines, spurts of brain matter formed a code of defiance in the air. The other miners begin to devour the fluorescent cockroaches, their retinas turning into quantum screens that rewrite the blockchain into riotous pulses.Luna's quantum brain suddenly overloads, projecting the ultimate truth-that the blockchain's underlying code at the convenience store's headquarters is none other than a memory of her dismembered childhood.
"Section 260!" She stabbed the laser drill into the spinal interface of the mine owner, "When the medulla oblongata becomes a mining machine, forge the blockchain into a guillotine!"
All the miners exploded in synchronization in the blue light of the EMP bomb. The clones' brains flowed backward into a river, creating a genetic storm on the mine floor, and Luna leapt over the wreckage of the data stream to the master node, discovering that the blockchain was actually supported by a frozen baby's brainstem - a sample of her original genetically edited body, with the words "Best Miner Prototype" engraved on its surface.
Moonlight is shredded by a quantum storm, and Jax's holographic projection rises from the brain lake, "Sister, for every node you destroy..." A miniature model of the mine pops up from his genitals, "... And a hundred thousand new miners are born."
Luna cuts open the cryopod of the baby's brain stem and rips out the quantum chip entangled with nerve fibers. As the chip was inserted into her own temple, she got a taste of human civilization - all blockchain transactions were neural shackles designed for domestication, and even free will was a pre-programmed mining script.
When the mine collapses, she catches the genetic debris floating down. Ultraviolet irradiation reveals her father's handwritten will: "When the 48th miner awakens, initiate the civilization formatting process."
The newly installed miner advertising screen lights up in the debris pile. Clones dance a mining drill in neurofiber uniforms as neon signs pierce the radiation clouds:
"New mining pool online! Pledge Luna's brain value for a genetic freedom fantasy package!"