The flicker of a broken lightbulb bathed the cramped apartment in a weak, uneven glow. Kaius Steel sat hunched over his cluttered desk, surrounded by piles of crumpled papers—dreams scribbled hastily, only to be thrown away like discarded wishes. His hair, dark and matted, stuck up in every direction, as if it, too, rebelled against the world. His eyes, swollen and rimmed with exhaustion, were bloodshot from sleepless nights, dark circles etched beneath them like battle scars of a life spent trying and failing.
The desk was a chaotic battlefield. Old coffee mugs, some still half-filled with cold, forgotten dregs, sat among stacks of notebooks. The pages, covered in sketches of futuristic technologies and half-formed ideas for inventions, were filled with potential—but lacked any real direction. One note simply read: "Millionaire by 25", now smudged and barely legible under the weight of his failures.
Kaius slumped back in his chair, his hands running through his hair in frustration. What am I even doing? He thought, staring blankly at the mess in front of him. He had the drive to dream, but lacked the discipline to follow through. Each time he thought he'd found the answer, the universe seemed to snatch it away—another shattered hope, another wasted effort.
Outside, the hum of Neon Edge's distant skyline could be heard through the thin walls of their decaying apartment block. But to Kaius, the city wasn't the glittering paradise advertised on the holoscreens. Neon Edge was a dystopia wrapped in neon and steel—a place where the rich, with their perfectly polished chrome bodies and neural upgrades, lived high in the glimmering towers above, while people like him were left to rot in the alleys below.
From his window, Kaius could see the lower streets, where the real Neon Edge lived. The city was alive, but not in the way he imagined as a child. Below, thugs patrolled the alleys, their eyes glowing with synthetic enhancements. Narcotic drifters, their minds warped by digital drugs, staggered between the shadows, looking for their next trip—a quick escape from reality, just for a moment of pleasure. Above them, towering billboards flashed with ads for the latest body modifications or pleasure simulations. The divide between the rich and poor wasn't just financial—it was physical, carved into their very flesh and bones.
"This place is a prison", Kaius thought, staring out at the flashing lights and hopeless faces below.