In the sprawling metropolis of Neo-Zenith, where crystalline towers pierce the perpetual mist of the upper atmosphere, memories flow like rivers of liquid light through the neural networks that bind human consciousness to the great Memory Exchange. The year is 2847, and the old currencies of paper, metal, and digital credits have long since been rendered obsolete by the most precious commodity ever discovered: pure, unfiltered human experience.
Memories, you see, are not merely the echoes of our past—they are the building blocks of reality itself.
Every joy, every sorrow, every moment of triumph or despair can be extracted, refined, and traded on the open market. A child's first laugh might purchase a week's worth of sustenance. A mother's final embrace could buy passage to the outer colonies. A warrior's dying breath might fund an entire revolution.
But not all memories are created equal.
The rarest and most valuable experiences come from those touched by the impossible—individuals who have glimpsed beyond the veil of ordinary existence and returned with fragments of otherworldly knowledge. These memories burn with an intensity that defies conventional neural science, carrying within them traces of dimensions that should not exist, of realities that contradict the fundamental laws of physics.
They call them Aberrant Memories, and they are worth more than entire planets.
In this world of cognitive commerce, Memory Merchants reign supreme. These gifted individuals possess the neural architecture necessary to handle raw memories without losing themselves in the process. They are the bridge between the ordinary and the extraordinary, capable of extracting the most profound experiences from willing donors and unwilling victims alike.
Most Merchants can handle standard memories—the everyday experiences that form the backbone of the economy. Some can process Enhanced Memories—experiences amplified by emotion or trauma. A rare few can work with Exotic Memories—experiences that touch upon the edges of human understanding.
But only one in ten million can handle Aberrant Memories without being consumed by them.
Kai Thorne was supposed to be just another street-level Memory Merchant, scraping by in the lower districts of Neo-Zenith, dealing in the small-time trades that kept the poor fed and the desperate hopeful. At seventeen, he had already shown remarkable aptitude for memory manipulation, able to extract and implant experiences with a precision that made seasoned professionals take notice.
What they didn't know—what even Kai himself didn't know—was that his neural patterns were unlike anything ever recorded. Hidden within the labyrinthine structures of his mind lay dormant pathways that shouldn't exist, connections that defied every law of neuroscience, and a capacity for processing memories that transcended the boundaries between dimensions.
This is the story of how a young man discovered that reality has layers, that truth is relative, and that some memories are powerful enough to reshape the very fabric of existence.
This is the story of how one Memory Merchant accidentally broke the universe—and then had to put it back together again.
But first, let us return to that fateful morning when everything changed, when a routine memory extraction in the bowels of Neo-Zenith unleashed forces that had been sleeping since the dawn of time. Let us witness the moment when Kai Thorne took his first steps into a larger reality, armed with nothing but his wit, his gift, and memories that belonged to someone—or something—that should never have existed.
The Memory Exchange towers above us all, its pulse the heartbeat of civilization itself. But in its deepest vaults, in the shadows between thought and dream, older powers stir.
And they are hungry for remembrance.
Welcome to the age of The Memory Merchant.