THE CEO'S APOCALYPTIC EDEN

5

Vada Nathasea stared at the array of advanced medical instruments in awe. Before her, Shane Hilgord stood silently, his back to Vada, gazing at the view of the dead city beyond the giant glass screen.

"Chief Medical Officer—that is the position I am granting you, Vada. But the condition is simple. I need an answer that conventional science cannot provide."

Shane pulled up a metal chair and sliced his fingertip with a silver scalpel. A drop of thick, pitch-black liquid, dark as the ink of night, dripped into a petri dish.

"Analyze this. Do not ask how I obtained it. Just tell me... what is happening with my genetics?"

Vada swallowed hard. Her fear faded, replaced by the passion of a scientist discovering the greatest mystery of all time. She immediately got to work, inserting the sample into the Quantum Spectrometer. The monitor screen began processing data at a speed that made the server system groan.

For ten minutes, the laboratory was filled with the sounds of busy machinery. Vada went silent, her eyes widening as she looked at the graph appearing on the screen.

"This... this is impossible! This is not part of the radiation infecting people out there. This is... a key."

"Explain," Shane demanded.

"Your blood is not infected by the Arcane, Mr. Shane; it is absorbing it," Vada pointed toward the highly complex molecular structure. "Your genetics are a filter. While others mutate into monsters because their bodies fail to integrate the radiation, your blood actually reinforces the cellular structure itself. Your blood is an antidote and a blueprint for creating humans who transcend limits."

Shane smiled faintly. "Good. Then begin the synthesis. If I can create a serum from my blood, I can turn my followers into beings who can walk through the middle of a radiation storm without losing their minds."

However, their conversation was interrupted by a piercing alarm. Aura appeared above the main console.

"Mr. Hilgord, Level 2 alert. There is another uprising in Sector B!"

"Open the doors!" screamed a director whose expensive clothes were now ragged. He struck the Sector B steel door with a metal chair. "Shane, you bastard! We have shares in this company! We have rights to food! We haven't eaten for three days, the same goes for my family in the apartment! They are all weak! What difference does it make being here if we have to die anyway!"

The sound of metal clashing filled the lobby. They began using heavy construction tools to try and breach the securely locked main gate.

In the control room, Shane observed the CCTV screen without emotion. "Aura, activate the Sector B defense system. Use low-grade tranquilizer gas."

"Sir, the Sector B ventilation system is experiencing technical issues due to manual sabotage by the residents," Aura replied.

"Sabotage? So there are rats who know how to work. Sloane, take care of them. Don't let anyone damage the reactor core support infrastructure. If they resist, incapacitate them! We need humans with high survival rates; only three days have passed, we can't yet see who should be chosen to be our members."

Sloane, who had just removed her power suit, nodded briefly. She grabbed a pair of electric batons and stepped toward the elevator.

Meanwhile, in the depths of an underground server farm located ten kilometers from Eden—a place leaking with Arcane radiation that seeped through cracks in the concrete—a young girl named Nyx sat curled up behind a pile of crackling cables.

Nyx was an underground hacker. Her face was pale with dull silver hair. She wore an old gas mask. In front of her, an old, modified laptop screen displayed lines of chasing code.

"Found you," she whispered.

On the screen, she saw a stable internet signal. The signal originated from the giant blue dome that appeared to satellites as an energy anomaly. Eden.

"The only internet left in the world, and it belongs to a madman named Shane Hilgord," Nyx typed with agile fingers. "Let's see what you are hiding in there, Mr. CEO."

Nyx was not looking for food. She was looking for data. She knew that if she could hack into Eden's access, she could obtain information on how to stop this radiation, or at the very least, find an entry point to steal medical supplies that could save her life from the radiation wound on her shoulder.

Eden's defense system began to react. Aura detected the intrusion.

"Anomaly detected," Aura's voice echoed in Nyx's server farm, through speakers connected to the network she was hacking. "Unauthorized access identified. Location tracker active. Identity: Nyx. Location: Sector-7, high-radiation zone."

Nyx jolted. "Damn! He has a guardian AI?"

Nyx tried to close the connection, but her hands were trembling. Her laptop screen turned red. Aura began hacking back.

"You cannot hide behind ancient encryption, Nyx. I have found you."

In Eden's control room, Shane watched the screen. He saw Nyx's profile. A girl, thin, with rare coding abilities.

"She is capable of breaking Eden's high-level firewall alone in the middle of a radiation storm? Aura, do not delete her. Lock her location. Send a surveillance drone. I want to see if she is tough enough to be pulled into Eden."

Nyx, on the other side, felt her breath hitch. She pulled out her storage drive and immediately packed up. She knew she had attracted the attention of the "God" of the Eden district. She had to move.

"You rich bastard!" Nyx exclaimed.

Meanwhile, in Sector B, Sloane had arrived. She stood before hundreds of angry people. They carried improvised weapons: iron pipes, broken glass, and chairs.

"Back off! We will destroy this place if Shane doesn't come! We need an explanation from Shane why he has to lock us in here without food! Our families are suffering too! This place already smells with dead mutants!"

Sloane said nothing. She activated her electric batons. Bzzzt! The sound made the crowd retreat slightly.

"Shane Hilgord does not have time for you. You are a burden. And in the Eden system, burdens must be cleared."

The crowd attacked. Sloane moved. She didn't kill them, but every strike was highly accurate. She struck solar plexuses, hit joints, and incapacitated everyone with lethal efficiency. Within five minutes, the apartment lobby turned into a field of people groaning in pain, sprawled on the floor.

Sloane stood on the lobby podium, staring at the remaining people with sharp eyes. "Who else wants to try? Just believe in Mr. Shane! The people here will be chosen to experience the new world; it is proven as they are already decreasing, whether attacked by mutants or dying from their own immunity?"

No one dared to move. Fear now replaced their anger.