Nerve Conductor

Neural accelerator, full-spectrum install — Cost me three months' credits and half a clinic call Surgeon said the mortality rate was thirty-eight percent I said "install it or find someone who will" and paid in rent Three weeks of vertigo while the dendrites fused Three weeks of blackouts while my nervous system rerouted And then it clicked. Like switching on a light in a room that's been dark since the day you were born. Zero point four seconds — the world slows down Zero point four seconds — I read every sound Every heartbeat, every footstep, every trigger drawn — before they've pulled it, I'm already gone Lower Grid ambush, six Admin tactical Neural jack running threat assessment, radical — before they've raised their weapons I've mapped the exit, calculated bone density and bullet trajectory complex I step left before the shot, duck right before the scan I am running three seconds ahead of the moment, man They're fighting me in real-time. I live in the margin. That's the doctrine now — not just strategy Nerve conductor installed, the body is the battery I'm not brave — I'm just early. I'm not strong — I'm just timed. Zero point four seconds — the world slows down Zero point four seconds — I read every sound Every heartbeat, every footstep, every trigger drawn — before they've pulled it, I'm already gone But here's the thing about living in the margin — you miss things. Real things. Human things. You're so far ahead of the moment that the moment doesn't feel like yours anymore. Mira laughed at something last night at base camp. By the time my neural jack processed it as "joy" she'd already moved on. I'm three seconds ahead of the world and somehow always arriving late. Zero point four seconds to read a room Zero point four seconds to map a wound But no accelerator for grief, for guilt — for the weight of what I've built Nerve conductor running at full capacity. Still can't outrun me.