The world was not always broken.
Long before the age of ruins and silence, before the air shimmered with radiation ghosts and automated sentries roamed forgotten battlefields, Earth was a place of promise. Cities stretched into the sky, powered by endless energy. Diseases had cures. War was a simulation. Humanity had conquered almost everything.
Then came the Fall.
No one alive remembered what started it. Historians, what few remained, argued between theories: an AI uprising, a mutated virus, and an interdimensional rift. Some whispered of divine punishment, others of alien interference. The truth, like everything else, was buried beneath ash and time.
Now, the planet was no longer called Earth. Not officially. Every continent had been divided, reorganized, and renamed by the remnants of global superpowers. The land Kael lived on was known only by a designation: Zone 5X-44. A sector buried deep beneath the domes and solar rings of MegaCity Nyx.
The atmosphere was breathable, mostly. Mutated flora grew among the cracked concrete. Ruined skyscrapers stood like gravestones, overrun with vines and rust. Tech ran on borrowed time, scavenged, and reprogrammed by survivors. Drones zipped through the air occasionally, scanning for life signs, or sometimes hunting them.
Monsters roamed freely.
Not the kind of beasts from fairy tales, but horrors born from viral mutation, artificial biology, and centuries of chaos. Some had once been human. Others were crafted in labs as weapons, abandoned when their creators died. But humanity had adapted too. Military-grade technology remained, distributed to the highest classes, and domed cities protected those deemed "worthy" of salvation.
Society fractured.
At the top were the Dome Citizens, wealthy elites who lived under shielded skies, with access to clean food, medicine, and history. Below them were the corporate soldiers and technicians who maintained order. Then the surface-dwellers, ordinary folk struggling to live in the shadow of forgotten wars. And finally, the Fringe. The fifth tier. Scavengers. Orphans. Unwanted.
It was in the Fringe that our story began.
Kael was sixteen, though he looked older. Hard years did that.
He lived in the remnants of a maintenance hub beneath an abandoned magrail line. The place stank of ozone and mold. But it had four walls, a roof, and the occasional spark of power. That was more than most Fringe kids got.
He was a high school student, technically. The scholarship he'd won in a corporate-run aptitude test granted him access to Central Tier Schooling. He was smarter than the average child, maybe even gifted. But intellect didn't protect you from fists or hunger.
Every day, Kael walked through the ruins to reach his school. And every day, he returned bruised and bloody. His status as a Fringe orphan made him a target. The Dome kids saw him as a cockroach. A living reminder that paradise was built on bones.
This day was no different.
Kael limped across a rusted walkway, one eye swollen shut. His satchel hung heavy at his side, filled with cracked tablets that he assembled himself and scraps of food he'd managed to save.
By the time he reached his shelter, the sun was setting behind thick clouds of dust. He dropped through the floor hatch, the door groaning with fatigue.
Inside, it was dim. Cold. But safe.
He threw his bag down, collapsed onto his makeshift bed, a pile of old wiring wrapped in insulation foam, and let out a slow breath.
Then, as Kael was about to drift off to sleep, something caught his eye.
A glint. Something... Out of place.
He stood up, swaying slightly from exhaustion, and shuffled toward the far corner of his shelter where the shadows seemed deeper. Beneath the twisted piles of old tech, half-buried under discarded cables and rusted equipment, something gleamed.
A metallic edge. Polished. Too pristine for this place.
With some effort, he pried the object free. A small rectangular device, sleek and thin, yet solid. It was the size of his palm, its surface unmarred by time or the harsh world around it.
A smartphone.
Kael's heart skipped a beat. This... This was rare. Tech from the old days, before the Fall. It is worth more than most things in The Fringe.
He ran his fingers over the smooth surface, uncertain whether it was still functional. The world had moved on from these relics, scavengers like Kael only finding bits and pieces of old tech, all long dead or too corrupted to use.
He pushed a button.
Nothing.
Kael frowned. Of course, it wouldn't work. It was just junk, another useless piece of the past.
But then-
A flicker of light. The screen buzzed to life. The low hum of power stirred something in Kael's chest.
"ReLink OS: Initializing"
The interface appeared smooth and familiar, an old-world design, simple yet elegant. It felt like something from a dream.
Three apps.
Broadcast+
ShopNet
Gallery
His finger hovered over the first one. A broadcasting app?
Curiosity tugged at him. He pressed it.
The screen shifted. A camera view opened. His battered face appeared on the screen. A red button blinked at the top of the app:
"You are now LIVE"
The camera light flicked on. A small timer started counting.
Kael blinked at the screen. "Is this some kind of… Augmented cam?"
A ping.
Then another.
He looked down.
[User12345] joined.
[PastWatcher88]: Whoa. Is this the new ARG thing trending on StreamHub?
[MikaLuv]: That filter is insane. The bruises look so real.
Kael stared.
"ARG?" He muttered.
The comments kept pouring in.
[NeoRetrovibe]: Damn, where'd they film this? That broken city vibe is so tight.
[AetherKid]: The acting is wild. Dude looks like he's really suffering"
Kael narrowed his eyes. "They think it's fake?"
He looked back at the camera. The lens shimmered. A soft warmth pulsed from the device, but it was subtle. Unnatural.
"Can you see me?" he asked.
[CatnipQueen]: OMG he talks back?
Interactive?
[VXCloud]: You're bleeding, dude. 10/10 realism.
[AxelPrime]: This ARG is next level.
More pings.
The viewer count jumped from 30 to 500 in seconds.
Kael looked into the camera again, confused. The world was watching. Or… Some world.
He was about to end the stream when something outside shifted.
A sound. Like metal scraping against concrete.
Kael froze, his heart pounding in his chest. His eyes flicked toward the door, the only exit in the dilapidated, flickering room.
Slowly, he rose to his feet, every movement deliberate, as his fingers tightened around the phone like a lifeline. The screen illuminated his anxious face, casting deep shadows across his features.
The hatch groaned, the rusted metal scraping against its frame, sending a shiver down his spine.
Kael's breath caught in his throat.
He grabbed a broken pipe from the corner, its jagged edges catching the dim light as he gripped it in both hands. The phone trembled in his other hand as he pointed it at the entrance, its weak flashlight flickering.
The door swung open with a groan, its hinges protesting the strain.
Then it dropped through.
A creature.
Pale and emaciated, its skin stretched like thin plastic over its bone-thin frame. Its eyes glowed a faint, unnatural green, like the faint afterglow of decay. The Feral. One of the infected, remnants of the bio-plague that had ravaged the Old Earth and left humanity teetering on the edge of extinction.
Kael's heart hammered in his chest as the creature clattered onto the floor, its limbs twitching as it staggered upright, its head swiveling unnaturally.
"Shit…" Kael whispered, his voice barely a breath, the weight of fear pressing down on him. He tightened his grip on the pipe, ready to defend himself.
But the Feral didn't move. Not yet.
The comments exploded.
[NeoRetrovibe]: Yo WHAT-
[PastWatcher88]: That is NOT CGI. That is NOT.
[AshenSoul]: Bro RUN!
Kael swung the pipe with all his strength, a desperate, wild arc aimed at the creature.
The Feral twisted, moving with unsettling speed, its gaunt form bending like a broken doll. It hissed, a sound sharp and animalistic, before it lunged, faster than Kael could react.
He fell backward, his hands flailing, the pipe slipping from his grasp. The phone, still clutched in his hand, clattered to the ground, its screen flickering but continuing the broadcast. The camera, now caught in the chaos, captured nothing but a blur of motion, shadows, grotesque limbs, and the Feral's distorted face, contorted in malice, just a flash in the frame.
Kael's heart raced as he kicked out, his foot catching something hard, but it wasn't enough to push the creature away. He scrambled, his fingers searching for the pipe, his breath coming in ragged gasps. Finally, he found it, gripping it like a weapon forged from desperation.
He swung again, the pipe connecting with the Feral's jaw with a sickening crack. The creature recoiled, staggering back with a shriek, high-pitched and terrible. Blood sprayed across the floor, dark and thick, staining the cracked tiles beneath them.
Kael didn't hesitate. He brought the pipe down once more, the weight of it crashing into the Feral's skull. There was a sickening crunch, followed by a final, eerie silence.
The Feral crumpled to the floor, motionless.
Kael collapsed to his knees, his chest heaving. The taste of bile rose in his throat, but he forced it down, trembling as he stared at the creature's lifeless form. His hands shook, his entire body quivering from the adrenaline that had coursed through him moments ago.
The phone screen glowed beside him.
[MikaLuv]: … Was that real?
[PastWatcher88]: Holy. Shit. That was real.
[System] You have received your first gift: x5 StreamCoins.
Kael's eyes widened.
A soft glow appeared beside him. Something shimmered into existence, a small glowing coin icon, hovering.
He reached out. Touched it.
It vanished.
His phone buzzed.
[ShopNet] You now have 5 Coins available. Welcome, Streamer]
Kael stared at the screen.
The bruises on his face hurt like hell.
But his hands trembled, not from pain, but from possibility.
"What the hell is this…"
He looked up.
The stream was still going.
And the viewer count had just passed 700.