Chapter 1: The Boy Who Hacked the Sky
In the year 2147, the neon lights of New Tokyo glowed so brightly they turned the night into a restless, humming day. Skyships zipped between towering spires, and the streets below bustled with humans, androids, and hybrids alike. Technology had blurred the lines between flesh and machine.
Seventeen-year-old Kaito Ren stood on the rusted balcony of his apartment, his black hair tousled by the synthetic breeze from the air purifiers that lined the megacity. His almond-shaped eyes, sharp and bright, scanned the endless layers of holographic ads and data streams spiraling into the sky.
Kaito wasn't just another teenager dreaming of freedom in a world ruled by corporations. No — he was special. He could see the cracks in the city's omnipresent digital shield — cracks that no one else seemed to notice. When he was younger, Kaito thought it was just a glitch. Now, he knew it was something more: a hidden world woven beneath the digital skin of reality, a secret waiting for someone bold—or foolish—enough to reach into it.
Tonight was supposed to be his breakthrough.
Clutching a slim, black device no bigger than a credit card — a homemade quantum decrypter he named Shadowseed — Kaito hacked into the city's Core Grid from the roof of his school. He wasn't looking to cause chaos. Not yet. First, he needed to find the truth about Project Riftborn — a rumored experiment that could alter the very nature of humanity.
"Almost there," he whispered, fingers dancing over his worn-out holo-keyboard.
Suddenly, alarms blared. Red light flooded the rooftop.
The Skyguards had found him.
Kaito's heart pounded. He slid Shadowseed into his jacket and took off running, his cybernetic-enhanced sneakers propelling him in gravity-defying leaps over vents and ducts.
But he wasn't fast enough. From the shadows, a drone with a sleek, spider-like design lunged, firing a stun net.
Before Kaito could react, a figure appeared—a girl no older than him, with short silver hair and a glowing blade of pure data-light. In one swift move, she slashed the net in half, grabbed his hand, and pulled him into the night.
"Come with me if you want to survive," she said, voice calm but urgent.
"Who—" Kaito gasped.
"No time. You're Riftborn too, aren't you?"
The word hit him like a shockwave.
Riftborn. A name whispered in hacker forums and erased from the official records.
As Kaito stumbled after her into the labyrinth of the neon city, one thing became clear: his life — and the future of humanity — was about to change forever.