Synopsis
In the future, social class is no longer determined by bloodline or wealth, but by the level and permissions of the chip implanted in one’s body. First-class citizens possess the most advanced neural implants. Their consciousness can directly interface with the city’s central system. Thought becomes command. Authorization becomes reality. Some can even reconstruct matter and reshape the world itself. Second-class citizens use standard functional chips, limited to education, labor, and daily life management. Third-class citizens are barred from high-level systems, restricted to low-frequency or damaged implants. At the very bottom are human–animal hybrids, officially classified as “maladaptive entities.” Aurelia Montclair is the most flawless heir of a first-class family. She carries a top-tier core chip, fully compatible with her brain. It allows her to process massive streams of data, precisely regulate emotion, and shut off pain and fear at will. Wealth, authority, and chip rank have taught her to control everything—until her family finalizes an unavoidable political marriage. To tear that arrangement apart, and to prove she still has the power to choose, Aurelia publicly keeps a “maladaptive entity” as her own.A hybrid werewolf named Lior. He has no surname, no legal identity, no access to the city system. He is barely recognized as human. Aurelia uses high-level authority to lock a control collar around his neck, suppresses his instincts through technology, and sustains him with money—demanding absolute obedience and loyalty in return. It was meant to be a precise, rational transaction. But Lior submits too easily. He calls himself her “puppy,” kneels without hesitation, accepts every restraint without resistance. As time passes, this hybrid—meant to be fully contained—begins to display strength and adaptability far beyond system predictions. Control remains. But the direction is quietly shifting. When a being labeled inferior begins to evolve, when chips are no longer the sole source of power— who, exactly, is training whom? And how long can a world built on chip-based order remain stable?