ZONA ZERO — Lore Database

ZONA ZERO LORE DATABASE

Entities · Tech · Factions · Timeline

This page collects the core lore of the ZONA ZERO universe: who PUKINO is, what the Symbiosis Glove does, how Ali fits into the larger plan, and why a simple motorcycle courier in Bucharest becomes a key in a psychotronic war.

No major spoilers — more like a “codex” for fans who want to dig deeper.

Timeline · Where the Christmas Special Fits

Short version: Season 1 shows Shini’s everyday courier life and the first hints of foreign tech leaking into the city. The Christmas Special is the bridge between Season 1 and Season 2 — the moment where human–AI–alien symbiosis becomes real.

Season 1: Shini notices the first “anomalies” – the stick, glitches in memory, strange appearances, people being followed, shady corporations, cameras and UFOs.
Christmas Special: The villa infiltration, the Christmas market, Ali, the giant bodyguard and the underground lab where PUKINO is kept alive.
Season 2: Symbiosis Glove v0.x, PUKINO fragmented into code, humans starting to become hybrids without fully understanding the price.
Season 3 (teased): The explosion in Ali’s lab causes waves of anomalies: new monsters and mutations appear. Some people gain abnormal abilities and Ali herself becomes the mother of a new species.

            // UNIFIED TIMELINE (REDACTED)

            S1: street_level_ops(courier="SHINI");

            S1: detect("alien_tech_hints");

            XMAS_SPECIAL: infiltration("villa");

            XMAS_SPECIAL: meet("ALI");

            XMAS_SPECIAL: first_contact(PUKINO_FRAGMENT);

            S2: deploy("SYMBIOSIS_GLOVE");

            S2: signal_spread(city="Bucharest");

            S3: anomaly_wave();

            S3: classify("hybrids", "monsters", "new_species");

Core Entities & Tech

ENTITY

PUKINO

Psychotronic Uplink for Kinetic Interference and Neural Operations.
An extraterrestrial entity, wounded and kept alive in a suspended tank filled with special fluid, fed by a radioactive rock. It cannot breathe Earth’s atmosphere, but it can interact with the human mind through a psychotronic uplink — a direct neural link between its brain and the host’s brain.

In the Christmas Special, PUKINO only has enough energy left for a single greeting: “Hello, Shini. You finally came.”

DEVICE

Symbiosis Glove v0.7

A semi-transparent biomechanical glove, built by Ali. Inside it, a living chip: a fragment of PUKINO, embedded into hardware. Its purpose is to create a symbiosis between human DNA and alien intelligence — the body becomes the hardware, and consciousness becomes the software.

The “pin” that pierces the skin is not copper, but a bio-hybrid metal — derived from their technology.

OBJECT

The Physical Stick

A seemingly normal USB stick, always carried by Shini. In reality it contains living matter, a piece of non-terrestrial technology. The code inside was intercepted, partially decrypted and reassembled by Ali, with the help of a missing Russian researcher.

Without the stick, the glove cannot be activated; without PUKINO, the code on the stick is incomplete.

HAZARD

The Radioactive Rock

A small chunk of radioactive material installed under PUKINO’s tank. For us it’s poison — for it, it’s food. Without it, the alien body starts to degrade.

Long-term exposure of humans to this rock doesn’t have a fully documented effect yet. Seasons 2–3 will explore the consequences.

NETWORK

Psychotronic Mesh

The invisible network of neural links and electromagnetic fields that appears when PUKINO connects to a human via a device (glove, implant, chip). It allows:

predictive combat (augmented reflexes)
partial reading of intentions (not full “thoughts”)
energetic fingerprints of places and objects

CLASSIFIED

“Chosen Protocol”

A set of rules (written and unwritten) derived from PUKINO’s communication: who can become a host, under what conditions, and at what cost. Ali doesn’t see Shini as “the strongest fighter”, but as the only one empathic enough to keep the symbiosis stable.

Character Files

Subject: SHINI

Occupation: motorcycle courier (Bucharest area)
Profile: empathetic, reactive in abusive situations, avoids pointless violence
Skills: fast reflexes, spatial awareness, urban improvisation
Moral trigger: can’t stand seeing children or vulnerable people being hurt
Christmas Special: becomes, without knowing, a “host candidate” for the Symbiosis Glove.

Shini is not chosen because he “hits hard”, but because he refuses to hit unless there is absolutely no other way. That’s what makes him compatible with an intelligence that would otherwise crush his mind.

Subject: ALI (16)

Age: 16 · IQ: above documented ranges (estimated)
Field: neuro-nanotech, biohacking, AI-augmented research
Attitude: calm, cynical, talks about blowing up an apartment like it was “just a test”
Goal: unify human biology with alien code in a stable form of symbiosis.

Key line: “Yeah… I’m the one who blew up your apartment.”
For Ali, destroying Shini’s home is a side effect of a bigger experiment. For Shini, it’s the trauma that drags him fully into the war.

Factions & Shadow Players

CORPORATION

Marllo BioPharma (hint Season 2)

The company behind multiple “medical projects” that on the surface look like drug development and genetic therapies. In the basement: experiments with DNA, medical AI and technology that doesn’t appear in any public manual.

Ali is connected to this world — either as an heiress, or as a rogue researcher who knows exactly where the money really comes from.

GOV / AGENCIES

“CIA / Russian / Chinese” – ZONA ZERO version

The Christmas Special only hints through dialogue that PUKINO and the stick passed through the hands of several powers: Russia, China, CIA-type structures.

In the series, real names can show up as references — but the real actors are parallel structures, shell companies and “independent labs” used as cover.

STREET

Courier Network

The network of couriers (motorcycles, bikes) who know the city better than any map. Shini is one of them, but without realizing, he also becomes the “corridor” through which alien tech enters Bucharest.

UNKNOWN

The Observers

They don’t appear explicitly yet, but the hints are there: unregistered cameras, people who seem to know more than they should, background figures that show up in multiple scenes. Their future role: monitor how far the symbiosis spreads.

Psychotronic Log (PUKINO & Glove)

Below is a stylised “internal log” for the connection between the Symbiosis Glove and its human host. It’s not real code, but a visual representation of what happens inside the ZONA ZERO universe.

Think of it as the “internal documentation” for the glove’s API.

          // SYMBIOSIS GLOVE v0.7 · INTERNAL API

          const host = "SHINI";

          const core = PUKINO.fragment("biochip");

          const rock = loadRadiationCore();

          function initSymbiosis(host, core) {

            if (!DNA.match(host, core)) return error("REJECTION");

            if (!host.consent) return warn("HOST_NOT_READY");

            link.neural(host, core);

            unlock("combat_reflexes");

            unlock("kinetic_prediction");

            log("SYMBIOSIS_STABLE");

          }

          initSymbiosis(host, core);

          // NOTE: PUKINO consciousness still active in background…