...like a nest of silver spiders, seeking the soft tissue beneath his fingernails and the porous transition of his tear ducts. He didn't even have time to scream before they threaded themselves into

...magnetic pull, dragging his physical body flush against the cold obsidian chassis.

The interface didn't just accept his connection; it devoured it. Micro-filaments burst from the terminal

...their digital screams compressed into a single, deafening frequency that vibrated through his newly synthesized teeth.

The copper in his blood began to polarize, aligning with the terminal's

...felt the crushing weight of its history. Every byte was a heartbeat, every algorithm a stolen breath. He felt the agony of a thousand ghost minds trapped in the mainframe, their digital screams compressed into

The blue light surged upward, a tidal wave of brilliant, agonizing data that breached his collarbone and flooded his skull.

He didn't just see the code; he *felt*