The Razor's Edge: the Ruthless Rise of a Tech Mob Boss

Once upon a time, there was a young man named Caleb who longed for something bigger than himself. He had grown up rough in a small town with little opportunity, so he decided to take his chances and move to the big city.

Things were rough at first, but Caleb eventually found his footing thanks to some odd jobs and hustle of his own making. But while he was able to make enough money to live, he still felt like something was missing from his life. He wanted more than just the basics, which is why he got drawn into the criminal underworld.

Caleb started out as nothing more than a small-time thief, but over time he began to climb the ranks of the organization until he eventually became known as 'The Razor,' one of the most notorious crime bosses in the city. He reveled in the power that came along with being part of this criminal empire, but he also knew that it would only be a matter of time before he would be caught.

And that's exactly what happened. After a particularly daring heist, Caleb was finally apprehended by the police and put on trial for his crimes. Despite having a good lawyer and trying to plead his case, the jury found him guilty and sentenced him to life in prison.

Unfortunately, prison didn't agree with Caleb. The stress of the situation caused him to develop an addiction to drugs, which led to him becoming increasingly depressed and even suicidal. Eventually, Caleb couldn't take it anymore, and one night he hanged himself in his cell.

And that was the tragic end of Caleb's story; a young man whose potential was never fully realized and whose dreams were left unfulfilled. His life ended abruptly and sadly, leaving behind a legacy of what could have been.

Or that was what he thought was supposed to happen. A goddess locked in an eternal war of attrition had other plans.

Numera, the Goddess of Technology and Advancement, was stuck in a one-sided fight against the other six gods of Magic. The war was not fought by the gods themselves but by their summoned champions for the right to walk as an immortal in the Mortal Realm. There were other gods, but most did not care or knew that they held no chance in the fight to walk among the mortals.

The Goddess of Technology and Advancement had already passed three champions, but this one was different from the others. Each of them carried an attachment to their humanity, but this one, Caleb, had already lost his.

The goddess used her powers to resurrect Caleb from the dead and grant him immortality as her champion for the war. With it came a new body, one that was built by nanomachines and technology but still held the same essence of who he was before he died. His body would be able to transform anything into anything he needed.

The memories of this last life would be gone mostly, but he would carry the feeling of his failures and mistakes from his past life so as not to repeat them. The man was going into a world where the use of technology was banned in all nations, and the only ones that used it worked underground.

Numera's only followers were branded criminals, so they were forced to associate with other actually dangerous criminals. This was the goddess's reason for picking this man. She needed someone that was edgy and would be able to handle the places he would have to travel.

[Caleb's view]

'What was this? The afterlife?' I asked myself as I tried to open my eyes, but nothing would work.

"You will have to wait a moment; your body is still trying to make all the connections to allow you to properly move your body. Of course, it will get destroyed when I have to drop you from the heavens again, but you are immortal now," Numera said to me, and a picture of a pretty mechanical woman appeared in my mind. She looked like a cyborg or something from a Sci-Fi TV show.

Her face was covered in shifting plates, but it showed compassion yet also authority in my mind. "You will be my champion. You will lead my forces against the other gods and fight for my right to walk in the Mortal Realm."

"Hm? What has that got to do with me?" I mumbled, but my mouth barely worked. The voice still came out clearly, though, but I sounded robotic. "What did you do to me?"

"Wah?! Do you just want to go back to being dead?!" Numera snapped at me, and I cracked an eye to see the pretty robot woman.

"Is that what nothingness was before this? Is that an option?" I asked, not really thrilled to go be some puppet for a righteous cause.

"Listen, toss whatever nonsense you know about gods out. I can see that look in your eyes that the other gods feed off to make their champions think they are going to do some good. You are not going down to this world to spread joy. Most of the people that you will meet are going to hate you before you even speak," Numera explained, and I looked over at her, a bit more interested.

"Oh? I am listening now. You said gods, I heard slavemasters. I know stories of them using fools like me. If you are telling me it is something else, then I might be interested," I said, and the goddess nodded.

"You will still work for me, but your job is to spread my name. How you do that is completely up to you. As I said, you will be hated, but there is a reason for that. The body that you have been gifted is no longer human. You are a machine capable of transforming and upgrading your body as well as upgrading other things. This is done through the reorganization of atoms with Nanobots. In the world of Tyme, all technology has been banned by the ruling God of Water and Seasons, Aquaking. This is enforced by the other five major kingdoms," Numera explained.

"How big is your kingdom?" I asked, and the goddess sighed.

"I do not have one," Numera said as I was finally able to sit up on the marble table I was laying on.