Inside Cyberspace—The Voodoo Church Core Node
The tension inside the distorted sanctuary of the Voodoo Gang’s cyber fortress was suffocating.
Bright pulses of corrupted code flowed across the vaulted walls like liquid neon. Everything flickered like a half-glitched game screen.
In the center of it all, the Voodoo Gang’s second-in-command—Placid—stood with his arms crossed, surrounded by layers of encrypted shields. His avatar towered like a digital monolith, his eyes glowing with predatory light, and his voice laced with venom.
He had just finished delivering a long, scathing warning to Qi Wei—an attempt to intimidate her into backing off.
His words were clear, heavy, and filled with mockery.
"Don’t think your little ’David Team’ gets to stomp around Night City like kings. You’re nothing more than a temporary glitch in our system."
"You think just because you’ve got some flashy toys and taken down a few low-level cyber dens, you’re qualified to meet our boss? A third-rate netrunner like you isn’t even worth the bandwidth!"
He took a step forward.
"So if you’ve come here just to puff out your chest and brag about your team’s so-called rise, I’ll tell you now—"
Placid’s voice dropped into a cold snarl:
"You’ll be leaving here in a data coffin."
This wasn’t an empty threat.
Placid was a known killer in both the real world and the Net. His code had left trails of collapsed minds, frozen in deep sync comas. The Voodoo Gang didn’t tolerate disrespect. They didn’t believe in mercy.
They deleted threats. Permanently.
But what Placid didn’t know—what he couldn’t know—was that he had just chosen the wrong person to threaten.
Qi Wei’s expression didn’t flinch.
Instead, frost seemed to spread across her masked cheeks as she slowly tilted her head, eyes glowing cold under the robe’s shadow.
Then came her answer, unshaken and sharp:
"You want to talk to me instead of your boss? Fine. Then listen closely, Placid."
Her tone was ice-cold. There was no hesitation, no polite negotiation. Just raw intent.
"I’m not here for diplomacy."
"The David Team isn’t looking to partner
"Join us—or be erased."
She let the words sit there, echoing across the digital space like a sonic blade. Clear. Uncompromising.
"You either align with David and fall under our banner in Night City... or you cease to exist. There is no third option."
The digital aura around his avatar flickered erratically for a moment, as if even his own processing struggled to respond to the audacity of it.
It started as a low chuckle and erupted into a full, unhinged cackle. Code shimmered around his form like steam.
"Hahaha! Oh, that’s rich!"
"You walk into our sacred Netspace, toss around a few empty threats, and think you get to dictate terms? Do you have any idea who we are?!"
The mockery in his voice sharpened like a blade.
"We’re the kings of cyberspace! The Voodoo Gang controls this plane of existence. Even the corporate watchdogs don’t dare tread where we rule."
"And you—some bootstrapped hacker with a team full of nobodies—think you can come in here and talk war?"
His voice dropped, venomous now:
"You made a mistake logging in today. A fatal one."
Without another word, Placid raised his hand.
Instantly, a stream of corrupted data surged from the altar behind him, shooting toward Qi Wei like a digital tsunami. A cloud of garbled characters—0s and 1s twisted into razor-sharp patterns—rushed forward, coded to destabilize neural sync, crash avatar integrity, and tear through firewalls like they were paper.
It was a kill command. One designed not just to kick her from the Net—but to fry her neural pathways in real life.
But Qi Wei was ready.
Her eyes shimmered as she calmly raised her hand behind her head.
With a sharp flick of her wrist, her fingers brushed the slot at the base of her cybernetic spine—and triggered something deep in her code.
Even in cyberspace, her [Source Plan: Alliance] combat suite had been preloaded, waiting for her command.
In a flash, glowing light erupted around her body. Layers of gray-white hexagonal plates materialized, encasing her digital form in full armor. A reinforced helmet dropped over her head. Her frame expanded slightly—her limbs outlined in glowing seams of defensive energy.
Qi Wei’s combat form had activated.
The corrupted data storm slammed into her—
—and dissolved on contact.
Like a wave hitting a fortress, the hostile stream scattered into dust, vanishing into the void.
His mouth opened, but no words came out at first.
He had seen dozens of hacking defenses. Had witnessed elite netrunners summon AI guardians and deploy layered firewalls, but this—this was something else.
This armor didn’t just block data.
His voice trembled, the arrogance fading slightly:
"What kind of... armor is that?!"
Qi Wei finally spoke again, her voice modulated by the suit, deeper and colder than before:
"This is David’s legacy."
"[Source Plan: Alliance]—the firewall that walks."
She stepped forward, the cyberspace beneath her boots cracking with each motion. Her presence caused the nearby code to shudder—recognizing authority.
"You wanted to talk face to face?"
"Then brace yourself—because I don’t do polite conversation."
Without hesitation, Qi Wei raised her right arm.
From her palm, a brilliant sphere of digitized fire launched forward—a packet disruptor, modified with David’s code signature. The blast surged like a comet, tearing through Placid’s defensive field and smashing into his avatar with concussive force.
His body staggered back—his shields dropped to half integrity in seconds.
He tried to retaliate, launching two viruses at once—a black ice
A radiant barrier pulsed outward from her chest—nullifying the attacks instantly.
David’s tech didn’t just protect—it adapted.
Placid’s pride was shattering. He had underestimated her.
No—he had underestimated the entire David Team.
"You’re not just a hacker," he hissed, slowly stepping backward. "You’re a weapon."
"Damn right I am," Qi Wei replied.
With a blink, she summoned a virtual blade—sleek and curved, its edge humming with compressed code.
She stepped into a sprint.
The battle had begun.
Meanwhile – Real World, Team David HQ
David sat in the command chair, his fingers resting on the control surface of a circular data rig. The holographic display in front of him showed Qi Wei’s neural sync stats, armor deployment status, and cyberspace integrity.
A smirk tugged at the corner of his mouth.
"Show them why we don’t just log in to cyberspace, Qi... Show them why we own it."
His team stood around him—tech support, analysts, snipers, scouts.
This mission wasn’t just about diplomacy.
It was about sending a message.
Cyberspace – Endgame Sequence
Qi Wei was already halfway through Placid’s final firewall.
His avatar was flickering, data bleeding from multiple wounds. His rage had turned to fear—and then to bargaining.
"Wait—WAIT! We don’t need to fight! We can make a deal—!"
Qi Wei’s blade surged with a final burst of energy.
Placid’s avatar exploded into fragments—no permanent kill, but a total system crash. He would be forcefully logged out, his digital shell destabilized, and his mind needing hours—if not days—to re-sync.
Qi Wei stood alone in the digital ruins of the Voodoo Church, breathing steadily, armored and unscathed.
Above her, the broken glyphs flickered one last time.
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