The sky was a dull grey not stormy, not calm. Just... silent.
Benson sat on top a broken rail pillar on the southern edge of a newly open shuttle station in Verkehr, watching the old hyper loop tracks vanish into the fog. His boots were covered in dust from the nearby scrapyards. His hands calloused, steady. In one of them, he held a small, black device: the TabScoop.
It looked like nothing special. Just an old tab, barely the size of his palm. The screen was scratched, the edges dented, but when he tapped it — it came alive like a soul waking from a century-long sleep.
Ping...
Welcome back, Benson Kazan.
Ancestral Entry: "Chronicles of the Division."
A soft hum filled the air as the TabScoop projected a translucent screen in front of him. Words began to scroll. Images formed. Videos blinked into life. Voices, screams, explosions all compressed into echoes of a past that wasn't supposed to be forgotten.
*The War of the Division*
There was a time before the war a golden age where the Seven Islands lived as one. But they were ruled by a man who called himself King Tara the Unified.
He wore a crown made of obsidian and data chips, sat on a throne of stolen knowledge, and spoke with honeyed words dipped in poison.
He did not lead. He consumed.
"Give me more from Jiàn Kāng. Double the exports from Mtaalamu. Gijutsu Shinpo!. Upgrade my palace's AIs before you upgrade your schools."
He weaponized progress. He made one island compete against another, always promising more but delivering less. He turned allies into rivals, and loyalty into chains.
One by one, the people began to question.
Then resist.
Then revolt.
The first sparks began in Méi Zhī Jiā, where the miners refused to ship out uranium to the king's private labs. Tara responded by sending drones from Gijutsu Shinpo not to negotiate, but to subdue. What came back wasn't ore. It was blood.
That was when the war truly began.
*The Fall of Unity*
Entire cities burned. AI turned on AI. Farmers armed themselves with plasma scythes. Philosophers in Mahira became generals overnight. The Hall of Potential was bombed. The Velocity Nexus collapsed.
Even Jiàn Kāng, with all its devotion to life, began to experiment with death birthing bioweapons to end the madness.
And all the while, King Tara remained hidden in his mountain fortress surrounded by machines, protected by silence.
The war lasted 12 years.
When it ended, nothing was whole. The Seven Islands, once united under one flag, fractured. No treaties. No reunification. Just silence… and new borders.
From the ashes, each island crowned its own ruler. Not kings. Not dictators. Just leaders, chosen by the people.
The Age of One ended.
The Era of Seven began.
*Genesis of One – The Birth of Benson*
The screen flickered. A new file opened.
Entry: Operation Heirloom
Subject: Kazan – Legacy Preservation Protocol
A dim video appeared. It was a man, bloodied, missing his arm, breathing heavily as if death sat beside him. His name was Kazan.
Benson had seen his face before... in fragments. In mirrored reflections. In his dreams.
"If you're watching this, then the world I knew is long gone."
"My name is Kazan. Soldier. Engineer. Survivor. And… your father."
"I knew I would not live. I knew our generation would burn. So I left behind what little I could — one final chance."
Kazan pulled something from a case. A sealed glass vial, fogged from condensation.
"Inside this is... my legacy. My DNA. Preserved. Viable."
"My closest friend, Rami, has taken it. He's sworn to protect it, preserve it, until the world can handle something new. A new soul born from war... in a time of peace."
The screen changed again, time passed. You could see a lab, sterile white, pulsing with gentle blue lights. A pod opened. Steam hissed out.
Inside, a child was born not in a womb, but in a chamber. Not with pain and screaming, but with silence and awe.
"We called him Benson."
"Not created by chance. Not born by tradition. He was... built from hope."
The child grew quickly. Artificial gestation systems raised him. Knowledge was fed into his brain through immersive neuro-education. But emotion, pain, and loneliness those were his to learn on his own.
He moved between islands. Worked every job. Slept in temples, shuttles, caves, farms, clinics. He learned not from tutors, but from life.
A man raised by no one yet shaped by everyone.
Benson wiped his face and closed the final video. The TabScoop dimmed... then pinged again.
New Notification – Public Labs Division, Gijutsu Shinpo.
He blinked. Gijutsu Shinpo rarely contacted outsiders.
The message opened.
Subject: Experimental Volunteer Request
"We are searching for eligible participants to test a new neural-interface prototype."
Qualifications:
– Age 18–30
– Must have lived or worked in multiple islands
– High adaptive intelligence
Profile Match Found: Benson Kazan
Apply at your nearest HubPoint. Transport and accommodation included.
That was it. No grand destiny. No emotional flares.
Just a message... with his name on it.
He leaned back against the slab, heart still processing everything he'd seen this isn't his first time hearing and seeing all this but still....his father, the war, his artificial birth a
and now, this offer.
"Why me?" he murmured, again.
But there was no answer.
Just a notification, glowing quietly in the corner of the TabScoop.