Year 2045 – Seven years after the collapse of Project A.U.R.A.


    The streets of the city were a reflection of its history: a strange balance between the old and the new. Glass skyscrapers towered over ancient structures, remnants of a world trying to move forward without erasing its past.


    Ren never felt like part of that shining modernity.


    He was fascinated by forgotten corners, places where history still breathed, where buildings weren’t just made of steel and glass but bore scars—stories trapped within their walls. That’s why he explored.


    He had heard rumors about an old tech laboratory on the outskirts of the city. A place that had once housed innovations that never saw the light of day. They said it was in ruins, abandoned abruptly after a disaster.


    That afternoon, he decided to go.


    The building loomed like a sleeping giant, covered in the dust of time and indifference. The sky was overcast, painting the scene in a dull gray. The entrance was sealed with faded warning tapes, now torn by the wind.


    Ren pushed open one of the broken doors and stepped inside.


    This content has been misappropriated from Royal Road; report any instances of this story if found elsewhere.


    The air was heavy, thick with the scent of rusted metal, dampness, and burnt electronics. Every step made the debris-covered floor crunch beneath his feet. Fragments of what had once been holographic screens hung from the walls, frozen in their last flicker of light before the collapse.


    His flashlight illuminated what seemed to be the main laboratory. The tables were still there—some overturned, others cluttered with destroyed equipment. In the center of the room stood a massive command console, now lifeless. A ghost of the technology that had once thrived.


    Ren ran his hand over a dust-covered surface. A keyboard, half-buried under metal fragments, crunched as he brushed against it. The room had a strange aura… almost as if something inside it was still waiting to be discovered.


    And then he saw it.


    On the floor, half-hidden among the debris, a small black glimmer reflected the beam of his flashlight.


    Ren crouched, carefully moving a broken panel that covered the object. His fingers touched something cold, smooth… plastic.


    A USB drive.


    He held it in his hands, examining it. There were no labels, no identifying marks. Just a small scratch on the casing, like an old burn. What was something so small doing in a place like this?


    He turned it between his fingers, deep in thought. At first glance, it didn’t seem special, but something about it unsettled him.


    Maybe it was the fact that all the other equipment was destroyed, corroded by time… yet the USB drive was intact. As if fate had protected it.


    What was inside?


    Ren slipped the device into the pocket of his jacket and took one last look around. Nothing but dust, ruins, and silence.


    He had no idea that he had just found something that would change his life forever.


    And even less, that something inside that tiny device was waiting to be awakened.