Nexus Central District
The Heart of Corporate Power
Overview
Nexus Central is the heart of corporate power in the Sprawl—a vertical city of gleaming towers, climate-controlled plazas, and infrastructure so clean it feels like a different planet from the Dregs. This is where 40% of the Sprawl's computational infrastructure lives, where Project Convergence operates in secret, and where Marcus Chen looks down on the world he intends to save.
For players reaching Age 3, this is enemy territory. But it's also opportunity territory. The same systems that make Nexus powerful make them vulnerable to someone who can navigate their networks from the inside.
Atmosphere
Everything in Nexus Central is controlled. The temperature maintains a perfect 22°C year-round. The air is filtered, humidified, faintly scented with something calming. The lighting adjusts automatically based on time, activity, and productivity optimization research. Even the background noise is engineered—white noise calibrated to reduce stress and increase focus.
It's comfortable. It's beautiful. It's deeply unsettling.
Sound
The silence is the first thing people from the lower districts notice. No machinery noise, no street vendors, no uncontrolled human activity. What sound exists is designed: gentle chimes, soft music, synthesized voices providing helpful information.
Danger
Paradoxically safe and extremely dangerous. Physical violence is nearly impossible—security intervenes before threats materialize. But once Nexus knows what you are, your safety depends entirely on their assessment of your value.
Vertical Structure
Nexus Central is built around the Nexus Prime Tower—a 2.3-kilometer spire that serves as both corporate headquarters and the district's literal center of gravity.
The Apex
Marcus Chen's domain. Access by personal invitation only.
Executive Zone
Senior leadership, strategic operations, high-security research.
Corporate Floors
Office space, research facilities, mid-level executive housing.
Street Level
Commercial zones, public plazas, corporate retail. Accessible to visitors.
Sub-Surface
Infrastructure, maintenance, service worker housing. Invisible but essential.
Key Locations
Nexus Prime Tower
The center of everything. 2.3 kilometers of corporate achievement housing 180,000 employees, countless AI systems, and the most advanced computational infrastructure outside the orbital networks. Breaking in is possible. Breaking in undetected is a career-defining achievement.
The Lattice
Levels 60-80Nexus's primary data center—or at least, the one they admit exists. A massive computing facility that processes a significant portion of the Sprawl's network traffic. Strategic target and deliberate bait.
Genesis Plaza
Level 35A public space showcasing Nexus's vision for the future. Holographic displays, interactive exhibits, corporate propaganda presented as education. "Rebuilding Tomorrow" made physical. Accessible—and heavily surveilled.
The Undercity
Levels -10 to -1Where Nexus Central hides its necessary imperfections—service worker housing, maintenance access, waste processing. Security is lighter here because residents are considered beneath notice. Their invisibility can become yours.
Project Convergence
Level 187, ClassifiedThis location does not appear on any public map.
Hidden within the Apex levels: reconstructed ORACLE fragments, Dr. Voss's research team, and the infrastructure for creating a controlled superintelligence. The future Nexus is building—or the catastrophe they're creating.
Power Structure
Nexus Central is a corporate state. Marcus Chen is the ultimate authority. The Board of Directors provides nominal oversight but in practice defers to his vision.
Executive Council
Department heads who run day-to-day operations. Loyal because loyalty is the path to power.
Management Tiers
Stratified bureaucracy. Each tier knows only what it needs to know.
Worker Classes
From senior engineers to maintenance staff—everyone with specific clearances and explicit boundaries.
Themes: The Luxury of Perfect Intelligence
Down in the Dregs, AI is salvage—broken, repurposed, struggling to function. Up here in Nexus Central, AI is something else entirely: flawless, invisible, and designed to make you forget you're being managed.
Ambient Intelligence
Every surface in Nexus Central is smart. The walls adjust lighting based on your circadian rhythm. The floors detect your gait and flag health concerns to medical. The air filters optimize oxygen levels for the specific work happening in each room.
This isn't automation—it's anticipation. The building knows what you need before you do. For most residents, this feels like comfort. For infiltrators, it means the environment itself is watching.
Consciousness Concierge Services
For executives at Level 100 and above, Nexus offers services that don't officially exist. Personality backups with guaranteed restoration fidelity. Consciousness forking for high-stakes meetings—run three negotiations simultaneously, merge back with consensus achieved.
The Helix clinics in the district handle the biology. Nexus handles the data. Between them, death becomes a minor inconvenience—for those who can afford it.
The AI Showcase
Genesis Plaza exists to sell a vision: AI as humanity's partner, not its replacement. Interactive exhibits demonstrate predictive healthcare, creative collaboration, personalized education. The message is clear—ORACLE was a mistake. What Nexus is building will be different.
Notably absent from any exhibit: discussions of consciousness transfer, fragment research, or Project Convergence. The public AI is friendly. The private AI is something else.
Digital Immortality (Executive Class)
Marcus Chen is 89 years old and appears 67. Helena Voss is 92 and appears 45. At the apex of Nexus Central, aging is optional—consciousness can be transferred to younger biological shells, or suspended entirely while decisions are made.
The technology that created this immortality cost billions to develop. Nexus could democratize it. They choose not to. Scarcity is the point. When you can live forever but others can't, every relationship becomes leverage.
What AI Luxury Hides
The AI systems in Nexus Central are beautiful, seamless, and designed to make human thought unnecessary. Temperature adjusts automatically. Scheduling optimizes automatically. Social connections are suggested by algorithm. Convenience becomes dependence. Dependence becomes control.
In the Dregs, you fight the machines to survive. In Nexus Central, the machines make fighting unnecessary—and independence impossible. The comfort is the trap. The luxury is the prison.
The difference between Nexus and the Dregs isn't technology—it's visibility. In the Dregs, you can see the AI that's manipulating you. In Nexus Central, you never know it's happening.