Chương 1: An Unfortunate Run-in

The year 2760, Earth

On the busy freeway in the Outer City where automated cars and bikes were racing across the streets. On the narrow pathway meant for pedestrians, a barely adult young man was walking with his head hung low along the foot traffic, lost in his own thoughts. The common black hooded garb, paired with trendy loose trousers, he was practically indistinguishable in the similar crowd.

Common techo-mask on face, that was an essential part of clothing nowadays to clean the air from the toxic fumes and other harmful grains in Outer City atmosphere, a consequence of its proximity to Wastelands. Also along with this mask, he was also wearing a small earpiece, an id watch, and airtight goggles - all maintaining the current fashion sense of the city. For him along with every inhabitant of this Outer City, these things were must have to survive here.

Crey Morgan was striding with a slow and unhurried speed along with the flow of the crowd as he was not in any particular hurry to reach his destination. Actually, he was on his way home(or shop), as both of them were pretty much the same, after a quick delivery of the gadget they had repaired. With evening setting in, the bright neon signs of the stores along the street were beginning to glow, glimmering to attract attention of any potential customer.

He was strolling forth, lost in his thoughts when suddenly a fight broke out in the front breaking the relative calm of the surroundings. Commotion occurred as curses and whistles ignited the atmosphere while crowd parted to give a comfortable space to the aggressors, for them to duke it out between themselves. But still, the eager audience snuggled to form outer ring, just a few meters away to enjoy this crass duel.

"Beat him, Jim…"

"Ooohhh…."

"Kill! Kill! kill!"

"Pfff, babe! I can beat him in two seconds...huh... "

Random jeers and shouts floated out among the loud din of incoherent voices and noises. Though the surrounding mob was interested in the scuffle, the young man, who by chance was pushed into the inner band of the audience due to random shoving, was not in the least interested in watching a street fight.

He halted himself forcefully, pushing against the current, to prevent himself getting shoved to the center. Crey cursed under his breath but as he was about to turn back, to disappear back in the crowd, he suddenly realized that it was too late. The stage and audience were already set. He was now practically in the middle of the bordering ring of these transient spectators. And to get out, it would be more hassle than just waiting for this fight to end.

"Ah! Come on…..I don't want to watch some cockfight. I am getting late for Dinner at the shop."

Crey grumbled but his complaint went unregistered in the ears of the adrenaline-fueled crowd. Thus as the victim of the sentient prehistoric urge of revelling in the chaos, he was doomed to wait here till either the two men finish their fight or the audience loses interest.

Fights like these were very common in outlawed Outer Cities where law and order was just as fleeting as smog clouds in the sky. Becuase any fight which broke out has a ninety percent chance to end up in blood gore violence thus it contributed to the main reason behind their massive popularity among crude audiences. Though it was 28th century now, people still were as crazy to witness a murder as they were in ancient times.

'F*ck! I am tired of these already. I should …'

Lanky youngster thought but still stayed put in his place, carefully taking care to not get pushed into the middle of a fight by some chaos lovers. But suddenly the fist fight which was happening a few meters away turned into something else. The bald man howled in anger and suddenly grew sharp bony claws out of his fingers, popping out with splash of blood and tissues. He pounced forward and ripped apart the throat of his opponent, who had already pissed his pants, watching his just normal rival suddenly turning into an 'Evolved'.

'Evolved Humans', are the humans who have taken the expensive, regulated( or non-regulated) , and rare military-grade gene recombination drug which enables the modification of Human genes toward their peak potential. And unlocking such potential often leads to some mutations in the human body which bestows special superhuman abilities to Evolved humans along with an improvement in basic strength, durability, and speed.

"...level 2 Evolved?" Crey raised his brows in confusion.

But alas! Activation of this drug was not a pleasant occasion as it often leads to loss of sanity temporarily just like this case. The sudden disruption and panic that broke into the crowd, drowned the barely audible whisper of Crey as the onlookers got apesh*t terrified upon realizing that one of the quarrelers was actually an Evolved. And if he was here…..in the outer city that could only mean three things and not one thing was good for them.

Therefore, rather 'reasonably' fearing for their lives the audience that was earlier encouraging the fight, began to flee from the place like a group of headless chickens in various directions, all while praying to not get chased by the Evolved devil. Of course, such an abrupt stampede led to the crushing of one or two onlookers in the crowd. The young man who was stuck inside the mob was sadly too close to fight to run away at first chance.

"Damn! And that is why I was earlier hoping to not get caught up in this mess. Now, y'all are going nuts after seeing red. I hate these street fights. F*cking Nuisance!"

The boy cursed all the while he tried to follow behind the mad crowd in a random direction, maybe because he was the only one with a cool head among the panicked mob, he managed to escape the chaos of the herd without getting stepped on and also not stepping upon someone. As for helping people - come on! Here his own life was in jeopardy. Who has time to play hero?

The furious Evolved, who due to awakening had lost his mind, chased after the crowd to rip them with his claws. He right now was nothing more than angered beast with no rationality. And during such circumstances except for relentless slaughter or a rough brawl, there was nothing that could calm this 'Human with one hand of the devil' down.

While he was completely acting on instincts, as fate would have it, the direction where the young man was, he chose to chase towards it. And in one fast dash, he was among the stagerring group slashing widely to slaughter the defenseless people.

Among the cries of pain and terror of victims and a frantic shower of blood and gore, the Evolved lunged for the Crey who was now in front of him.

Crey who suddenly found himself as the next victim in line, to get chopped by a monster, didn't lose his mind in horror like other people. Except he just sighed at his bad luck and stopped running to confront the Evolved.

"Ugg...I am surely going to be late."