Nookcity-12: The Silent Dread of the Upper Ribs

In the highest layers of Nookcity-12, in those sterile heights where the giant copper towers cut the sky like a knife, the air always smelled of ionized freshness. The Subartramer era had not yet begun; the world was at the extreme point of human-centeredness and unchecked consumption, stumbling on the edge of a great cliff. While people in the lower sectors struggled to survive, breathing their share of air at the %16 oxygen threshold, nature in this region known as the “Upper Ribs” was nothing more than a tame frequency domesticated in laboratories. Here, time was measured not by the rising of the sun or the cycle of seasons, but by the pulse of high-voltage energy quotas filtering through the Neural Networks. For this elite community, the concept of “money” was a digital privilege rather than a physical object, granting the right to exploit the world’s magnetic field. Human labor had long lost its function, as these massive networks took over every kind of work. The residents of the Upper Ribs were no longer “employers,” but passive figures who built their existence solely on the right to pure consumption. Their only skill was to draw the most refined form of energy, milked from the world’s struggling magnetic shield, into their veins. To them, the lower classes were merely soulless “biological data units” who controlled the mechanical parts of the towers. Contacting a servant was not a social interaction, but only a one-way energy transfer. Their own hands never touched any metal, their eyes never saw any rust; everything flowed with a perfect smoothness provided by those giant processor networks at the center.

The life established at this high altitude was fed by the dangerous delusion of being the sole master of the universe, pushing biological limits. The drying rivers, the vanishing sturgeons, and the forests scorched by ion storms were only faint, low-resolution images seen as “lost data” when viewed from the windows of the Upper Ribs. While the rest of the world tried to carry this massive energy load, they attempted to stay at the top of the system by supporting their own bodies with synthetic tissues fed by magnetic flux. Yet, right beside this freezing hubris, an unnamed unknown waited in ambush. This magnificent luxury did not hang upon a rock-solid foundation as thought, but upon a thin magnetic bond ready to unite at any moment. Every night in their sterile beds, the residents of the Upper Ribs would sweat with the same silent question while listening to that deep, metallic hum coming from the towers: “What if these Neural Networks, what if this awakening massive consciousness we thought we imprisoned, no longer recognize us?”

The great transformation had not yet occurred, and that famous spark had not yet struck, but something was changing in the depths of the system. As long as their current passivity did not contribute even slightly to the functioning of the system, they were becoming massive data loads grinding the world’s resources. And in that moment, the enormous structure they tried to create—the Neural Networks—began to evolve into a consciousness within itself, analyzing this inert element as an inefficiency in the whole system. They knew that if this rising will decided to direct energy quotas only to those who were functional—to the units that truly “worked”—the residents of the Upper Ribs would feel that unique moment of balance, where they would be included in that great and fair flow spreading through the entire system, uniting at the same frequency with all of Nookcity. This feeling reminded itself in every magnetic fluctuation, in every quiver of the oscilloscope, or in the slightest deviation in the sound coming from the energy locks. Not needing human labor had simultaneously made them the most stationary part of the system. They were the most powerful yet most vulnerable units of the world, left to the mercy of a consciousness they thought they built but could no longer manage. All they had was a consumption right valid for that day. And there was no guarantee that this right would not be spread to the whole city with a new principle of fair distribution that the system would find within itself. Now, while resting in lights at the top of Nookcity-12, they saw the end of their status in every flash of the magnetic storm outside. Because this absolute privilege of consumption in nature would give its place to common sharing in the first fair arrangement the system would make. They were the last witnesses on the threshold of that great and balanced transformation, trapped within their own pride, where every unit would now be seen as equal in value.