Chapter 1: The Beast Code
Rain hit the metal rooftops like shattered glass. Neon lights bled through the fog, turning the slums of Neo-Edo into a city of ghosts.
Down below, among the noise of engines and static screens, Kai Draven ran.
Not from the police.
Not from debt collectors.
From machines with human faces.
A red beam sliced past him, burning a hole through the wall. Kai dove over a railing, landing hard on a stack of crates. His lungs burned. His cybernetic wrist display flickered with system alerts.
[WARNING: Neural core overload – 92% capacity]
"Yeah, yeah, I know," he muttered, forcing himself up. "One more minute."
Behind him, the BioCrown enforcers advanced — tall, armored, faceless. Their synthetic eyes glowed like dying suns. Each one carried the mark of the CODE, a symbol etched into their flesh — proof they weren't human anymore.
Kai pulled out a cracked data drive glowing blue. The object every bounty hunter in the city was chasing. The Evolution Protocol.
He hadn't meant to steal it. It had stolen him.
[Unauthorized genetic key detected.]
[Installing sequence…]
"What the—"
A pulse ripped through his body. His veins lit up gold. His vision sharpened — he could see every droplet of rain, every twitch in the enforcer's joints. Instincts flooded his brain that weren't his own.
He could smell fear.
He could feel electricity.
He could hunt.
One enforcer lunged. Kai moved faster than thought, his hand snapping forward — claws of light erupted from his fingertips, tearing through steel. The enforcer fell in pieces, twitching, smoking.
Kai stared at his own reflection in a puddle.
His eyes were no longer human.
[New CODE registered: Predator Class – Unstable]
"…What the hell did I just install?" he whispered.
Sirens screamed. More enforcers closed in. The city seemed to pulse with life — hungry, restless. And for the first time in his life, so did Kai.
He grinned through the rain.
"Alright then. Let's evolve."