Prologue: The Angler of the Information Abyss
Meow~ Hello everyone, this is Black Cat.
Of course, that's not my real name. In this steel jungle woven from fiber optic cables, data streams, and electronic neurons, names are both the cheapest and most dangerous labels. You can think of me as... an angler of the information abyss, an underground hacker specializing in the gray zones of the digital shadows. I navigate the murky edges of Neo-Chinatown Metropolis—this most dazzling yet most depraved cyberpunk capital along the Pacific coast in 2077—taking on all sorts of shady but lucrative commissions.
Neo-Chinatown Metropolis, huh, what a freak show born from the collision of human technology and ambition. The wisdom and capital of ethnic Chinese and overseas Chinese have piled up jaw-dropping skyscraper clusters and cutting-edge laboratories here, making it a hotbed for cybernetic modification, neural interface, and artificial intelligence technology. Beneath the neon lights flows not just rainwater, but massive amounts of credit points and encrypted data. This place is both a paradise for geniuses and a stage for madmen.
And the story I'm about to tell takes place right here, revolving around two key companies: "Stardroop" and "Longmen Tech."
The Stardroop System, operated by Stardroop Railway Company, is the revolutionary way humans travel long distances nowadays. Forget about cumbersome flesh and lengthy waits—just pack up your consciousness, thoughts, and memories with encryption, transmit them through that dedicated, "absolutely secure" "hyper-network," and you can instantly wake up in another prepared cybernetic body. Sounds wonderful, right? But the more perfect the system seems, the more tempting the cracks lurking in its shadow. And the company responsible for developing and maintaining the brain-computer interface—a crucial component of this system—is "Longmen Tech."
This tale has been pilfered from Royal Road. If found on Amazon, kindly file a report.
Longmen Tech, a modestly sized but highly influential tech outsourcing company, is run by Marcus Wong, a somewhat idealistic tech fanatic. My client this time, Charles Du, is one of the company's core engineers, 38 years old. A technically proficient, somewhat reclusive guy who just wants to focus peacefully on research, with zero interest in office politics or world conspiracy theories. Under normal circumstances, we should have had no interaction whatsoever.
Until that day, when his boss Marcus Wong mysteriously disappeared—both the man and his data package—while using the Stardroop transmission.
The company ground to a halt, wages were delayed, and various forces—police, Department of Transportation, intelligence agencies, the railway company, and private intelligence brokers like me—swarmed in like sharks sensing blood. Poor Charles, as the company's technical backbone and a close friend of his boss, unwittingly became the eye of the storm.
So, he found me. As for the price, besides a considerable amount of credit points, there was also the complete "story" of his upcoming experience. I implanted a small, harmless piece of code in his cyberbrain—one that would only record sensory data, lasting until the commission was complete.
I thought this would be just another routine investigation of corporate espionage or technical disputes, albeit somewhat dangerous for someone like Charles. I never expected that after Charles received my preliminary intelligence, he would ignore my warnings and make a crazy decision—he personally stepped aboard that Stardroop transmission heading into the unknown.
And what he boarded was not a shortcut to his destination, but a death train bound for hell.
Now, the code has been retrieved, the story recorded. Meow, I must say, what I fished up this time is something that even makes me feel a bit... chilled to the bone.
So, are you ready? Let us follow in Charles Du's footsteps and embark together on this journey into the abyss of consciousness...
Stardroop: Lost in Transit
Character Concept Art （1）
Character Concept Art（2）
