The headache came first — dull, pulsing behind Shai's eyes like bass from a broken subwoofer. Then came the weightless sensation, like his brain had detached from his skull and was floating somewhere above his body.
He opened his eyes.
And nearly screamed.
A glowing, translucent screen hovered in mid-air, just inches from his face. Pixel-blue, crisp as a HUD in some sci-fi game. Except this wasn't a game. He wasn't wearing AR glasses. This was real.
---
> SYSTEM INITIALIZED: Aura Farming Interface v0.01-alpha
HOST: Shai Wong Xing
Current Aura: 0
Nearby Subjugatable Systems: 1 <
---
Shai blinked. The interface followed his eyes like it had been waiting his whole life to meet him.
He sat up on his creaky mattress, surrounded by charging cables, old noodle cups, and the ambient hum of a leaking ceiling fan. The room was lit only by the faint neon spill from outside. Vireon never slept.
"Okay," he said slowly. "Either I fell asleep coding again… or I just unlocked cheat codes for reality."
A chime sounded in his head.
---
> TUTORIAL STARTED
Welcome, Shai. You are now the host of the Aura Farming Interface.
Your purpose: Subdue other systems. Convert their aura. Farm influence.
Aura = Digital Clout. Likes, attention, cultural presence.
Target: Meme Lord Omega v9.9 (Host: TriggaTom)<
---
"Oh, you've gotta be kidding me."
TriggaTom — Vireon High's self-proclaimed meme lord. A walking cringe machine with a YouTube channel that somehow had half a million subscribers despite his content being the digital equivalent of brain rot.
Shai groaned. "You're telling me he has a system? And I have to... what? Absorb him?"
> Objective: Initiate Viral Override. Subdue Meme Lord Omega.<
"Great," Shai muttered, rubbing his temples. "I always knew clout was a disease. Guess I just got vaccinated."
He stood, grabbing his cracked tablet, and peered at the school's assembly livestream. TriggaTom was already on stage, draped in LED sunglasses and a cape made of keyboard keys, attempting to rap over a remix of airhorns and cat meows.
The chat was exploding.
[HojoGotoru] "He's a legend!"
[BukunaKyomei] "My brain is bleeding"
[mizukuChidoria] "MEME FOR PRESIDENT!"
Shai felt something stir inside him. Not excitement. Not fear.
Something hungry.
---
> Activating: Viral Override v1.0
Status: LOCKED ON – Meme Lord Omega
Initiating Aura Subjugation…<
---
Shai whispered the words as they appeared on screen. "Override."
Suddenly, the entire stream glitched.
Viewers saw the camera spin, pixelate, and warp into absurd, surrealist distortions. TriggaTom's face melted into a looping gif of himself doing the "cringe shuffle." Then the screen split into thousands of dancing cats holding signs that read:
> "YOU'VE BEEN FARMED."<
The audience roared with laughter. The stream went viral. Hashtags trended.
TriggaTom collapsed on stage, his system flickering and breaking apart in a storm of error messages.
Shai gasped.
---
> Aura Absorbed: +2,480
System Fragment Captured: Meme Lord Omega v9.9
Interface Level Up!
New Ability Unlocked: Viral Bloom – Boost exposure via absurdist humor.<
---
Shai stumbled backward as the numbers settled. His eyes scanned the new data scrolling across his vision. He didn't know what was more absurd — the fact that TriggaTom had been "farmed" like a Pokémon or that the crowd was now chanting "WHO WAS THAT?!" like a new messiah had just entered the digital arena.
His fingers trembled.
"What... the hell did I just do?"
---
And deep beneath Vireon, in the datacode veins of the SystemNet — something old, algorithmic, and hateful stirred for the first time in decades.
The rogue patch had awakened.