Area-73 never slept. It rusted.
Factories vomited smoke into the sky. Sirens wailed at random hours. Drones patrolled the alleys with emotionless red eyes. People walked fast, heads down, praying they were invisible.
In Area-73, being noticed was a death sentence.
Inside a narrow, crumbling apartment, Rey Deskan, twelve years old, knelt beside a tiny clay pot.A fragile sprout pushed through the dirt — the only green thing in the entire building.
"Grow strong… please," Rey whispered, touching its leaf with care.
The door unlocked.
Rey looked up, smiling.
Zen Deskan stepped inside — nineteen, tall, sharp-eyed, his coat stained with dust and smoke. Tonight, a thin line of dried blood marked his jaw.
For Zen Deskan, the feared "Devil of Area-73," violence was routine.
But when he saw Rey, the edge in his eyes softened.
"You're back early," Rey said.
"Yeah," Zen muttered, dropping a black backpack onto the table. "Mom's working late. I'll take you to school tomorrow."
Rey nodded, but something in the bag clicked — metal against glass.
"What's that?" he asked.
Zen froze for half a second.
"…Just work."
But behind those two words hid a truth Rey couldn't imagine:
Zen had just stolen a fossil from one of the biggest mafia logistics hubs in the Sector.People called them fossils, stones, meteors, energy cores — no one truly understood them.Except Avalon.
Zen didn't know its value.He only knew one thing — the mafia wanted it protected like a god.
And that made it worth stealing.
Rey frowned at Zen's silence. "Brother… don't do dangerous things."
Zen knelt, placing a hand on Rey's shoulder.
"For you and Mom," he whispered, "I'll survive anything."
He stood again, grabbed the backpack, and headed for the door.
"Zen?" Rey asked. "Did something happen today?"
Zen hesitated.
Images flashed in his mind — gunfire in the dark warehouse, men shouting, alarms blaring, him sprinting through corridors with the fossil in one hand, fighting his way out.
"…No," Zen said. "Nothing happened."
He walked into the hall.
The door closed.
Rey stayed beside his tiny sprout, unaware that the stolen stone in Zen's bag would soon change the fate of the entire world