Time: 9:03 AM, January 10, 2020
Place: Brooklyn, New York City, United States
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It was the kind of morning that made most people stay in bed — steel-gray skies, bitter winds funneling through the streets, and a layer of snow that had turned to slush overnight. But for Jack Hill, it was the perfect kind of day to begin something the world would never see coming.
He stood silently on the rooftop of a three-story industrial building that he had just purchased with funds from an anonymous shell company. His dark coat flapped behind him, and steam curled up from a coffee cup in his gloved hands. Across the skyline, Manhattan's skyscrapers pierced the mist like titans. But Jack wasn't looking at the skyline. His gaze was fixed inward, deep into the calculations playing silently across his enhanced mind.
The building beneath him — formerly a textile warehouse — was now gutted and in the early stages of becoming the headquarters of his first real company: Eidetech. He could have easily taken a top-level seat in Hill Financial, the family empire. He could've been chauffeured in armored limousines, held meetings with heads of state, and controlled entire industries with a phone call. But he didn't want any of that. He wanted to build something — something real — with his own hands.
That meant starting at zero.
Inside the empty first-floor space, dust hung in the air like a memory. Metal piping was still exposed along the ceilings. Several contractor teams were scheduled to arrive in the coming days. Jack had personally selected each one, down to the last electrician. Every detail mattered. Not because he couldn't afford mistakes — but because he demanded perfection from himself.
And unlike the rest of the world, Jack had more than intelligence. More than drive.
He had power.
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Ten Minutes Earlier
Jack finished a quick workout in the second-floor loft — a warm-up that would have broken Olympic records. A normal man would need machines, recovery time, supplements. Jack used nothing but gravity, sweat, and his own finely tuned body.
He hadn't always looked like this. He wasn't born with a chiseled physique or superhuman reflexes. But ever since his abilities awakened in late adolescence, he had reshaped every aspect of his body with exact, calculated intent. A single punch from him, even at 15% output, could fracture steel. His healing was so efficient that he had stopped seeing doctors five years ago. And his Haki — Busoshoku and Observation — had become an invisible layer of awareness that tracked threats, motives, and energy shifts like a radar fused to his soul.
Of course, no one knew that. Not even his family.
Jack kept it all buried beneath a cold, quiet surface.
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12:21 PM – Midtown Manhattan
Back at Hill Estate, his older brother Vincent Hill stood in a private boardroom, closing another multi-billion dollar partnership. Vincent was the rightful heir — charismatic, ruthless when needed, beloved in media circles. Jack respected him. Even liked him. But he had no intention of standing in that shadow.
His mother, Clarissa Hill, had known what Jack intended. She hadn't tried to stop him.
"You're not like the others, Jack," she had whispered a month ago, the night he told her his plan. "You were never meant to inherit a throne. You were meant to build your own world."
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2:03 PM – Brooklyn
Jack sat in his newly installed desk — a minimalist, carbon-fiber design with integrated monitors and a biometric interface coded by himself. His fingers danced across a keyboard, programming the foundation for what would become HERA — his proprietary AI.
The idea was simple: code that could evolve.
Unlike traditional machine learning, which relied on input sets, HERA would mimic biological neuroplasticity. It would learn like a person. Adapt. Predict. Create. And once complete, it would be the key to unlocking the next phase of technology: true artificial cognition.
He leaned back, letting his eyes drift across lines of code.
> "One day," he thought, "the world will think AI changed everything. But they'll never realize it started in a dusty Brooklyn warehouse, written by a man they forgot to watch."
His phone buzzed.
INCOMING CALL: UNKNOWN ENCRYPTION
Jack narrowed his eyes. Only one person in the world used that signal.
He answered. "Gate."
On the other end, a woman's calm voice answered. "So it's true. The ghost prince of New York is alive and coding."
Jack smirked, the smallest flicker of warmth in his otherwise expressionless face. "And the lioness of London's pretending she's not watching."
Yusni Gate.
Daughter of one of the most influential tech dynasties in Europe. Sharp, deliberate, and brilliant enough to be dangerous. Their families had met many times at global summits and banquets, but Jack and Yusni had only ever exchanged words privately — encrypted emails, chess games across continents, late-night encrypted video calls. Rivals. Friends. Maybe more.
"Tell me," she continued. "Are the rumors true? You're launching a startup with no seed funding and no name recognition?"
"It's called Eidetech," he said, fingers already typing a firewall patch. "And I won't need seed funding when I finish what I'm building."
There was a pause. Then: "You're not just aiming for software, are you?"
Jack didn't answer.
"You're going for the root. The foundation," she guessed. "The backbone of post-digital infrastructure. Medical algorithms. Cyber-security. Maybe even biotech interface…"
Her voice drifted off, thoughtful.
"Don't get in my way, Yusni," Jack said, but without venom. It was a challenge. A quiet dare.
"You'd know if I was."
The call ended.
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5:41 PM – Brooklyn Warehouse, Rooftop
Jack returned to the roof to watch the sun set behind the city.
He could feel it. Something stirring. Like a storm building far out at sea.
Below the surface of society, the world was already shifting. People had started using serum tech in elite military, private security, and even corporate espionage circles. The tech was flawed — it enhanced physical stats temporarily, came with side effects, and had to be taken in doses. Governments denied its existence. Corporations hid it. But Jack had seen the reports.
He didn't need serum. He was the prototype. The anomaly.
And now, he was going to build the most powerful company the world had ever seen.
Not with hype. Not with serum.
With precision.
With vision.
With power.
And maybe, just maybe… with someone like Yusni by his side, when the time came.
But that was for the future.
For now, Jack Hill was just a man with a warehouse, a vision… and a secret no one could match.
The game had begun.
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End of Chapter 1