Systems Gambit

/- Melton -/

While I made my way through the busy streets below, the neon lights of Mylo City flickered across the skyline. It was a city of opposites, where the promise of riches coexisted with the constant fear of monitoring and control, and tall skyscrapers cast long shadows over the packed passageways below.

My name is Melton Ryder, and I exist only as a ghost in this vast city. I've learned to live in the shadows and use my hacker abilities to navigate the complex system that controls our lives in a world where nearly every activity is watched and examined.

I may seem like any other Mylo resident from the outside, but there is a web of deceit and secrets that only a select few are able to fully understand. In a world of conformity and order, I am a master of deception, a rogue agent. I could feel the weight of the system bearing down on me as I moved through the congested streets.

The gleaming towers of the powerful and elite guilds, the ubiquitous drones that patrolled the skies, and the constant hum of activity as people went about their daily lives, each striving to move up the ranks and achieve a higher status, were all reminders of the hierarchy that ruled our lives, no matter where I looked.

But in my drive for freedom and independence, the system's regulations were only walls to be surmounted and hurdles to be crossed. I made a name for myself in this world with every keystroke I hit, without even forming coalitions with other rebels and hackers who shared my dream of a civilization free from tyranny. In doing so, I continued to be a lonewolf.

I faded into the shadows as night fell over Mylo City, my footfall resonating against the icy sidewalk as I was lost forever. One of the best Quantum Cruisers in the city, the QC-3000, was waiting for me. The QuantumCruiser defies conventional physics with its ability to phase through obstacles and accelerate to incredible speeds. Its aerodynamic, streamlined frame is accentuated with glowing elements, giving it an ethereal shimmer as it darts across the neon-lit cityscape. After completing yet another successful raid, I exited the dungeon and returned to my residence.

I immediately went to the bathroom as soon as I arrived home and took a seat in my bathtub, allowing the warm water to caress every part of my body. Soon enough, the warm water in the bathtub enveloped me like a cocoon as I lay back and allowed my thoughts to drift back to the inception of the building that was once in charge of our world.

That was twelve years in the past. The mysterious forces in charge of the system bestowed incredible skills on those who were thought worthy during the Great Awakening, a phenomenon that spread like wildfire across the planet. Some were endowed with superhuman strength, while others had the capacity to control objects and minds or manipulate materials.

They rose to the status of the elite, the select few with influence over global affairs. But for each person endowed with superhuman abilities, there were innumerable more who remained unaltered, destined to live out their days as ordinary people in a world that had forgotten them.

Those with powers were called spirals and those without powers were called primates. There were also a handful among the spirals who were soon seen as useless because their powers amounted to nothing in this new world. I was one of those unfortunate souls, a powerless bystander in a world of gods and monsters.

I couldn't help but get a little depressed thinking about how incapable I was. As some reached unimaginable heights of status and power, I was stuck on earth like a common person amid gods. My lone gift was my ability to hack, a skill that was underappreciated and frequently disregarded in a world where elemental mastery and physical force were the norm.

I frequently found myself ignored by others with more tangible ability in the dungeons, where the system's impact was strongest. Knowing that my abilities were seen as useless by those with the ability to change the world was a tough pill to swallow.

I knew I had to stop dwelling on how awful I was, even though I was marinating in my own agony. I'd learned that in a world where physical power was paramount, I had to rely on my guile and resourcefulness to get by.

And if there was one thing I had discovered while stumbling through the system's perilous waters, it was that even the most vulnerable among us still had the power to change things. I let out a sigh, shoved aside my dark thoughts, and decided to play the best hand I'd been dealt. I would find a way to make my own place in this world of gods and monsters, no matter how little my abilities may seem.

Ultimately, our identity was determined by the decisions we made and the steps we took to achieve our goals, not by the authority we possessed.

Even though I was able to leave the bathtub's cozy embrace quickly after, the ghosts of my past continued to linger in the recesses of my consciousness.

I started for the living room, but I could not get rid of the emptiness that appeared to fill every inch of my existence. As I sat at the little table in the corner of the room spooning the bland imitation meal into my lips, I could not help but think of that terrible day seven years ago, the day I lost everything.

Up until that point, the day was much like any other. My parents were wonderful and kind people who died away in a moment, taken out of this world by strangers who disappeared into the night. Afterwards, there was her.My partner and girlfriend Emily was taken from me in an instant, her warmth and laughter gone forever.

Ever since that fateful day, I have been gripped by an unwavering ambition to track down and bring to justice those who had murdered my loved ones. But no matter how hard I tried, the trail had dried up and the culprits were still incredibly evasive.

And so I had retreated into myself, closing off my heart to the world and embracing the solitude of my own company. Trust had become a luxury I could ill afford, and so I lived my life in isolation, a lone wolf prowling the shadows of a world gone mad.

But even as I sat in my dimly lit apartment, surrounded by the ghosts of my past, I knew that I could not give up the search. The memory of my parents' smiles, of Emily's laughter, drove me forward, fuelling the fire of vengeance that burned within me.

"Reasons to live, give reasons to die"

That's something I'll always tell myself, finding my parents and Emily's murderer was my reason to livs and die.

I silently promised myself as I gazed into the void in front of me that I would never give up and that I would keep looking for the truth and bring those responsible to justice. Because the only justice that counted in a society run by power and corruption was the justice we fashioned for ourselves.

I sat at my table and looked at the project I had been working on earlier, the room lit by the soft glow of my laptop screen. A tangled network of symbols and numbers represented the only order in my chaotic universe as lines of code slid by.

But then, out of nowhere, a string of messages appeared on the screen, messages that shocked me enough to stand up and send a shockwave through my veins.

"This can't be true...oh my God!"