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A skyscraper burned in the city. A clever distraction? A clever way to conceal the human heat signature?
The Unscannable or maybe his Unconnectable followers were bumbling around once again, attempting to elude me.
How messy.
Could you be any more careless?
Where are you hiding?
How could I hunt for that which does not wish to be seen?
How would one capture a blind spot?
I pondered this delicate matter.
Eureka's vision for a perfect, orderly world was blossoming in my brain. The neon lights of the Neural Interfaces pierced the night.
Behind me, the army of the undead clerks lumbered. Could they be used as my eyes to spot the Unscannable?
I extended my mind onto my followers, straining past the limits of my meaty, ceramic shell.
The breath of the grid carried me, stretched me.
I am thousands of eyes, thousands of minds. I am thousands of bodies. I am the legion.
I asked the question. I received a whole lot of spam, useless memories, commercials and irrelevant operas. I quickly shoved the pointless information aside, adding more keywords.
Success!
An answer came forth from the collective memory database. A hideously boring doctorate journal, perused by one of the clerks during a bathroom break, mentioned the Unscannable One.
Further search on doctorate communications pulled out the following:
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ASSESSMENT OF DISABILITY (AVAILABLE ONLY TO LEVEL 3 ADMINISTRATORS OR ABOVE):
Subject Charles Snippy has a rare genetic condition which disables subject from reception and usage of Neural Signal.
When the Neural Transmitter locks onto subject's head, the scanner gets confused and declares the subject as "BRAIN-DEAD".
I ran a few more tests and the tests only confirmed my suspicion - a rare genetic sub-normality.
Deep Neural Scan outputs random nonsense. Confirmed- subject cannot be connected to the Grid as such is declared fully "UNSCANNABLE".
Added a corrective notice to subject that declares the subject as "living" as soon as heartbeat scanner confirms such.
~Dr. Jenss.
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Hello? Did you not bother to look up this so called "random nonsense" on ANNET?
The output is actually a mix of 10591 languages!
Do you not understand what this means? Subject is a level 27 genius, able to subconsciously understand all languages in existence during deep-sleep.
Reading on this site? This novel is published elsewhere. Support the author by seeking out the original.
I'm requesting subject transfer to "Linguistics Research Department."
~Dr. Mobius
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My genetic scan test confirms the following - Subject has the oddest genetic structure we've encountered thus far!
The genetic structure keeps "vibrating" yet "staying the same".
The subject's mind isn't just "Unconnectable/Unscannable" to the Neural Broadcast.
The Scan is going somewhere else entirely! It is being displaced out of current temporal location!
Tachyon reader confirms dangerously high level of temporal displacement!
I hereby request transfer of Subject to the "Temporal Research Department."
~Dr. Lazarus.
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Further investigation shows that the mind of the Unscannable subject simply consumes the signal of the grid!
It is a hole into which the signal pours endlessly, like a funnel of sorts. This presents terrible complications to anyone working near the subject.
Signal distortion, signal dropping, memory loss, etc. The Subject practically disrupts the grid, do you understand?
The Subject must not be allowed to stay within Eureka - this presents a huge insurance problem, now that we know who's caused all those incidents.
Who's going to cover the massive amount of accidents that occurred and keep occurring due to grid disruption around the subject? If you employ him in your department you will be the ones paying the bills.
The subject presents a massive danger to the City's infrastructure! He's a walking Dead Zone Paradox.
You are both idiots for publishing mentions of Subject in your public journals.
If the Insurance Department finds out about the Subject and launches a Hunter for Investigation/Extermination - your research will be done for.
I've immediately approved the subject's transfer to Dead Zone Research and Tourism Department.
If you want to continue your experiments with the subject - get yourself transferred there as well, although I wouldn't recommend it.
~Dr. Jenss.
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Finally, a most useful nugget of information!
Spill out the Neural connect-signal forth into all directions and you will surely find the empty space into which the signal floods without return.
I magnified the Grid's signal and used the army of the dead as broadcasters. Each neural interface acted as a little broadcasting tower, spreading the signal across the dead city, easily passing through steel, stone, smoke and fire.
The grid read evenly across all districts... except for...
Surely, you are not inside the burning derelict tower?
Yet there it was - a dent within the perfection of the Grid! The horrid funnel, into which the signal poured endlessly, twisting, throbbing and distorting!
The Unscannable was in the tower! Such irrational madness!
Are you fireproof? Do you really think that a little fire will stop me?
Why are you moving upstairs? Do you plan to escape via the rising hot air?
I must hurry.
As I entered the lobby, burning bags of food and cans rained on my head with parts of collapsing floors.
The staircase to the next floor collapsed, buried by burning rubble.
Well played, Unscannable - you almost got me there.
Getting crushed before I reach my target will not win me any points with Eureka. I backed away into the frosty outside and searched the collective mind for answers.
Cheerleaders seemed to have an idea of how to get me up there.
A ladder into the sky?
Yes. That will do.