Chapter Thirteen: Just Short

"This really is one wave higher than the last."

Looking at the chaotic scene, one of the members muttered under his breath.

The situation had clearly gone beyond the scope of suppressing it through force. In fact, the greater their combat power, the more likely something was to go wrong.

"Memory loss" was merely an epidemic. Although it was serious, few people would lose hope and cause trouble just because they had caught a cold.

"Personality resets," however, were another matter entirely. Social personalities became antisocial personalities, corporate personalities became anti-corporate personalities, housewives became desperate housewives, and rich-woman enthusiasts became lolicon enthusiasts.

Just thinking about it was terrifying.

But to Public Security Section 9, the third wave, "neural theft," posed the greatest threat.

The reason was simple. Public Security Section 9 had the most combat personnel among the Six Sections, and it was the only armed department capable of deploying combat power on a global scale.

Once the cyberpsychosis caused by "neural theft" became widespread, Public Security Section 9 would obviously be the hardest-hit area.

A Section 5 logistics worker hurried past with a stack of paper documents. His cybernetic foot twisted, and he nearly took a nasty fall. In just one month, using "intelligent implants" and "intelligent cybernetics" had become extremely dangerous. There was a saying going around that the main reason waves such as "memory loss," "personality resets," and "neural theft" had emerged was that humanity had abused technology.

That was an unimaginable notion in the cyber testing grounds of the past.

The main reason was that corporate executives, super-rich second-generation heirs, senior overseers, cyber assassins, underworld kingpins—regardless of their power or status, strength or weakness, gender or age, whether they were androids or naturals—all won the lottery at random.

This time, those who relied on technology to