Chapter 1

I was human, for the most part. But growing up in Metroglade didn't give me much of a choice...

"~YOUR HEART HAUNTS ME CAUSE IT WANTS ME, SO DESPERATELY, I WANNA BE THERE FOR YOU BABY~" Dwayne shuts off the radio.

Another crappy love song. He thought to himself as he pulled his motorcycle up to a nasty, run-down apartment.

Dwayne parks his bike in front of room F20. Smoking on the balcony of the room above his was a sultry feminine woman with porcelain white skin and violet hair. She was dressed in expensive-looking knockoff furs and fishnets.

"Venelopy!" Dwayne calls out

"Again with the full name, D? I told you to call me Ve when we're in public" She taunts Dwayne a little before flicking him a cigarette.

"Props for the smoke, Ve, but I gotta jet. Big things are incoming, so call your producer and let him know!" Dwayne unlocks his room door and past the blackout curtains is a veritable Eden of electronics.

From the ceiling to the floor there are wires in every direction. Illuminated only by the blue light from the 6 monitors set up at the front of the room is what looks like a professional robotics setup. Mechanical arms fist bump Dwayne as he walks to his computer and takes a seat in a tall black chair.

With no time wasted Dwayne starts working on his next serious invention. Money's been tight since he's been busy working on this one project for a year and a half. Mods and plugins aren't going to pay for everything Dwayne wants, but the Prospector Mk. 2 was going to fix everything.

With this invention, Dwayne can calculate every possible outcome of any instance or event based on probability.

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He spends hours at the computer, no breaks for food, no breaks for the bathroom. But it finally pays off when his code is successful!

Through a generative algorithm, Dwayne developed a way to write an equation that adjusts its variables and effectively solves itself.

Dwayne reclines in his chair, his eyes have dark rings around them, and his stomach grumbles.

He turns around in his chair, but instead of getting food he pulls out Ve's cigarette and lights up.

"I just need to find someone willing to let me implant the Prospector into their brain." He says out loud thinking of potential candidates.

While lost in thought Dwayne notices a peculiar red light in the smoke... shit. Dwayne forces his chair over and a gunshot almost snipes his head, but the bullet sails right by his face and into the wall.

Dwayne scrambles to his feet and looks for his pistol.

From the ceiling descends a pitch-black figure with 8 circular red eyes. Dwayne identifies the distinct sound of a bullet being loaded. He dodged preemptively, but the stalker waited to fire, shooting Dwayne in the leg.

"AH!" Dwayne cries out in pain. Blood oozing from the fresh wound.

The glint of a sharp dagger shines in the dark as the stalker walks forward.

Metroglade was not the land of opportunity, every vote was rigged, every job assigned, every choice was between handcuffs or bullet holes.

Dwayne was presented with an option today, life or death. And he chose life.

Dwayne grabs the syringe containing the prototype Prospector and almost hesitates, but sees the stalker's blade approaching swiftly. Dwayne stabs the injector into his eye. The pain is unreal as the needle shoots through his pupil. But after hitting the injector, the nano-bots immediately took to reconstructing Dwayne's brain.

With a swift strike, the stalker's blade is inches from Dwayne's face, but suddenly it's as though the entire world stopped. Though he could only see with one eye, Dwayne could think at the speed of a thousand minds together. It's too much, he can see every future, every permutation, every possible reality.

But in a moment of brilliance, he puts it all together and allows his instincts to take over. In a perfect reaction akin to that of a karate master Dwayne counterattacks the stalker by breaking their wrist, positioning his leg, and performing a wrestling takedown on the stalker.

Dwayne wins in two moves knocking out the stalker. By probability Dwayne sees the stalker coming back again if he lives.

Dwayne is offered another choice, life or death, but for that of his foe.

It's not a hard decision for him. Dwayne grabs his gun from under his desk and executes the stalker.

"FUCK, WAIT" Dwayne was too late, he took too long to glimpse into the future of if he killed the stalker.

From their corpse is an explosion. A devastating inferno annihilates room F20. Alarms sound and the building is evacuated.

The police and the paramedics are hours away. But through the grace of Gaia, Dwayne is rescued. Ve recovers Dwayne's burnt remains. His limbs are torn apart and singed to black...

The nano-bots in Dwayne's system do something they're not programmed to do. Maybe it was the mix of neural activity and the changing algorithm. Maybe it was magic, but in any case, the nanobots kept Dwayne's brain protected and his heart pumping.