Jax's stream had been running for just under an hour, the familiar rhythm already settled in: game sounds bleeding through his headset, his voice bouncing between sarcastic commentary and quick bursts of laughter, and the endless scroll of chat messages crawling up his overlay like ants.
He had just clutched a round in a way that made even him grin at the replay when a new tile appeared on the side of his display. He barely noticed it at first, more concerned with thanking a sub and queuing for the next match.
But chat noticed immediately.
[d3vgrind]: yo what's that logo on ur overlay??
[pinknoise]: corp ad? didn't u ban auto-sponsors?
[regulardude77]: lol new scam incoming
"Hold up, what are you guys talking about?" Jax muttered, dragging his camera feed to one side so he could actually see the tile.
It was clean, minimal. A sharp inverted triangle, a single vertical bar down the middle. Beneath it, three words in bold type: ATLAS CORPORATION. And under that, a tagline that seemed engineered to stick in your head: Power. Progress. Protection.
Jax blinked. "Atlas… Corporation? Did I—did one of you jokers pay to inject fake ads into my overlay? 'Cause if so, respect for the effort, but also: not cool."
Chat responded in a blur.
[glitchpop]: nah fr, saw this in town today. billboard on 7th street.
[overclocker]: lol i googled it, they're real
[echo_mist]: new tech company?? their site looks too polished for day 1
"Okay," Jax said, leaning back in his chair, the springs creaking. "Let's click this thing before I end up shilling for crypto-tanks or some new brain supplement."
He tapped the tile. A promo video unfolded across his monitor, glossy corporate production. Slow pans of factories glowing with sparks, engineers in lab coats moving through biotech labs, heavy cranes lifting steel against a washed-out sky. The imagery shifted to soldiers in exo-suits walking in lockstep, visors gleaming. The triangle logo pulsed faintly in the corner through every scene, as if watching.
A voiceover, low and measured: Atlas Corporation: forging the future through industry, biotechnology, and defense. From dust, we rise.
Jax gave the camera a look—the kind of half-smirk his audience loved. "Wow, look at that. A brand-new megacorp arrives fully formed, already saving the world. Totally not suspicious at all."
Chat erupted.
[hotchip]: HAHA "from dust we rise" bro who writes this stuff
[sixthgear]: yo those exos looked kinda sick tho ngl
[ratline]: i don't like it. defense + biotech + heavy industry? sounds like blacksite money
Jax dragged the promo to a side window and loaded up another game. "Relax, chat. Every company hires a voice actor who sounds like he sleeps on a bed made of stock options. Doesn't mean they're evil."
He unmuted just in time to get fragged instantly.
"Okay, maybe slightly evil."
Outside his narrow apartment window, the city looked normal: midday light on glass towers, cars threading below, the occasional drone delivery skimming rooftops. But as he squinted, he caught a flicker of something new. On a bus stop two blocks away, rotating digital ads paused on the triangle logo, sharp against the glass.
"Wait a second…" he said softly. "That's not just my overlay."
Chat caught on.
[datawave]: bro they're EVERYWHERE today
[overclocker]: rollout day??
[circuitbreaker]: corp speedrun: billboard any%
Jax leaned closer to his screen, pulling up the Atlas site that chat spammed in links. Sleek design, white backgrounds, heavy black font. Tabs lined the top: Domains, Programs, Careers, Press. He clicked Domains. Four divisions flashed into view:
Resource Extraction & Heavy IndustryBiotechnology & Advanced SystemsDefense & ArmamentsInformation Systems & Control
He whistled. "Oh, wow. They're not shy. Usually new companies start with like, 'hey we make good routers' or 'buy our smoothie packs.' These guys show up and claim the whole playbook. Mining, biotech, guns, and propaganda."
[biohazard]: "information systems" = news chokehold
[glitchpop]: dude they're speedrunning a dystopia
[pinknoise]: lmao don't act like you wouldn't take their sponsor $$
Jax clicked over to Programs. Four initiatives glowed in clean serif font: Program Aegis, Program Forge, Program Helix, Program Continuity.
"Okay," he said slowly, scrolling. "Aegis is defense gear. Forge is infrastructure. Helix is biotech. And… Continuity is… uh." He squinted at the copy. "Ensuring humanity's long-term future through novel transfer technologies. Yeah, that sounds ominous. Definitely not brain-uploading cult vibes."
Chat spammed faster.
[ratline]: yooo continuity is immortality, calling it now
[hotchip]: that's some sci-fi startup pitch right there
[datawave]: bro this is how every Black Mirror ep starts
Jax leaned back, rubbing his temples. "Look, we're not turning this into an Atlas analysis stream. I'm still trying to hit top 100 this season. You guys can conspiracy-theory in the Discord."
But the logo stayed in the corner of his overlay, triangle sharp, tagline humming in his head. Power. Progress. Protection.
When he glanced at his phone, trending topics confirmed what chat had said: #ATLAS already plastered across half the feeds he followed. A pinned post from a news outlet read: Atlas Corporation Announces Global Launch. Founders Briefing scheduled tonight at 20:00 from Atlas Tower, First Path District.
Jax exhaled. "Oh great. They've got a tower already. Love that. Totally not weird at all."
[pinknoise]: watch party on stream???
[glitchpop]: do it. co-stream corp cringe hour
[circuitbreaker]: bet their CEO is AI lol
Jax smirked. "All right, fine. If we hit the sub goal today, we'll stream the briefing tonight. If not, I'll just watch it alone and subtweet like the rest of you."
The counter started climbing immediately.
By midafternoon the stream had shifted from matches to chaos.
Jax had meant to keep playing. He really had. But every time a round ended, chat yanked him back to the Atlas window he'd parked on his second monitor. The logo sat there like it owned the corner of his desk, triangle sharp, tagline stamped under it like a dare: Power. Progress. Protection.
At first, he tried to brush it off.
"All right, chat, last Atlas mention. I swear. This isn't a corp review channel. This is a get-me-into-top-100 channel. You want corporate propaganda, go watch newsnet."
That lasted about five minutes.
[glitchpop]: dude check trending rn
[ratline]: atlas is literally all over feeds.
[biohazard]: my mom just sent me a pic. billboard went up outside our grocery store lmao
Jax sighed, dragging the tab forward again. "Fine. But only because you're all terminally online and can't be trusted with your own curiosity."
The Atlas site had already updated since the morning. The landing page played a new promo: bright, polished shots of engineers in clean labs, construction crews wearing exo-assist rigs, medics in sleek uniforms. The narrator's voice sounded like it had been fed through ten focus groups to find the perfect balance between comforting and commanding.
Atlas Corporation is proud to announce its global launch. Our commitment: to build a safer, stronger future for humanity. Our domains—industry, biotechnology, defense, information—stand united under one principle: Order. Stability. Together. Humanity.
Jax blinked. "Wait, those are their—what do you call them? Core values? That's the four words they went with?"
[pinknoise]: order stability together humanity 💀💀💀
[hotchip]: bro that's literally dystopia in a sentence
[datawave]: ngl, catchy tho.
"Catchy in the way cough syrup commercials are catchy," Jax muttered. He dragged the video aside and tried to queue another game.
He lasted one round before another flood hit chat.
[circuitbreaker]: THEY'RE ON THE NEWS TURN IT ON
[d3vgrind]: netcast 4 is running an atlas segment rn
[overclocker]: watch party let's goooooo
Jax groaned. "You people are insufferable." He opened a clean browser panel anyway and tuned into NetCast 4, the city's biggest mainstream channel. Sure enough, there it was: a split-screen interview with an Atlas rep.
The rep wore a charcoal suit, hair slicked back, triangle pin gleaming on the lapel. The chyron at the bottom read simply: Atlas Spokesperson – Public Interface Division.
"…and what we're offering," the rep said smoothly, "is not just another company. Atlas is a framework for the future. We're integrating resources, technology, and protection into one structure. The days of fractured industries and competing priorities are over. Humanity needs unity, and Atlas provides it."
Jax snorted into his mic. "Jesus, they talk like they're pitching a religion."
Chat erupted.
[ghostpost]: "public interface division" = PR cult
[ratline]: unity = monopoly lol
[pinknoise]: dude's voice is like 70% AI smoothing
The anchor asked about Atlas's Programs. The rep leaned forward slightly, reciting them like commandments.
"Program Aegis—security and defense for a volatile world. Program Forge—industrial infrastructure, rebuilding the foundations of our cities. Program Helix—advancements in biotechnology, from healthcare to human performance. And Program Continuity—our flagship project, ensuring humanity's survival for generations to come."
Jax muted the feed. "Flagship project, chat. Continuity. The one that sounds like a bad sci-fi plot. Guarantee you that's the one they actually care about."
[biohazard]: immortality scheme. 100%
[overclocker]: nah it's prob cloud storage for brains lmao
[glitchpop]: they're just saying the quiet part out loud
The interview wrapped up with the rep smiling in a way that made Jax's skin crawl. The logo filled the screen again, triangle and spine bold against a white background.
He exhaled. "Well, congrats Atlas. You've officially hijacked my stream. Hope you're happy."
[pinknoise]: they def are. bet their AI's watching rn
[datawave]: hey atlas sponsor this man coward
Jax killed the news feed, but it didn't matter. The momentum had already shifted. Chat spammed theories, screenshots, memes. Half his viewers were mocking Atlas; the other half were dissecting their programs like analysts. He couldn't get them back to gameplay no matter how hard he tried.
By early evening, his phone buzzed again with a trending tag: #ATLASCONTINUITY. A video clip looped across social media—an excerpt from a press briefing where a different spokesperson promised "the end of human limits."
Jax rubbed his face. "Oh great, they're already promising immortality. Nothing weird about that."
Chat spammed laughing emotes.
[ratline]: called it
[circuitbreaker]: bro imagine dying just before continuity drops 💀
[ghostpost]: i want off mr atlas's wild ride
He leaned back in his chair, staring at the triangle glowing on his screen. "I swear, by the end of the week, this corp's gonna be running ads in my dreams."
Chat loved that line. They clipped it instantly.
The countdown timer on the Atlas stream hit zero, and Jax's room filled with the kind of music that sounded like it had been composed in a lab: low, confident, cinematic.
"Okay, here we go," Jax said into his mic, leaning closer to the camera. "Welcome to corporate TED Talk 2077. Don't say I never gave you content."
His chat poured over itself in anticipation.
[glitchpop]: omg omg it's starting
[pinknoise]: co-streamer of the people 💜
[ratline]: betting 5 subs CEO is AI hologram
The feed cut from the logo to a wide shot of a stage. A massive screen formed the backdrop, white and sharp, with the inverted triangle suspended in the center. The stage itself was glassy and minimalist, the kind of place designed to make a single speaker look monumental.
A woman in a tailored suit walked to the podium. Her lapel gleamed with the Atlas emblem. The chyron introduced her simply: Public Interface Director – Atlas Corporation.
She smiled, perfectly rehearsed. "Good evening. Thank you for joining us on this historic day."
"Oh god," Jax muttered. "They always start like that."
[biohazard]: lmao called it
[circuitbreaker]: drinking game: take a shot every time they say 'historic'
[ghostpost]: we'll be dead in 10 mins if we do that
The director spoke with calm authority, her words rolling like polished stone. She described Atlas as a unifying force for humanity, a framework of stability in uncertain times. The screen behind her displayed sweeping shots of Atlas Tower in the so-called First Path District—a gleaming skyscraper that none of Jax's viewers had ever noticed until today.
"Bro, where did this building even come from?" Jax asked, staring at the footage. "I swear it wasn't there last week."
Chat spammed theories.
[overclocker]: construction montage speedrun
[ratline]: tower just spawned in like minecraft creative
[pinknoise]: texture popped in late 💀
The director moved on to unveil the Domains of Atlas: heavy industry, biotech, defense, and information systems. Each was presented with slick promo reels — welders, labs, soldiers, analysts in glass offices.
"See? Just like I said," Jax told his viewers. "Mining, meat labs, guns, and propaganda. A real family business."
[datawave]: adopt me atlas
[ghostpost]: propaganda division already working overtime
Then came the Programs. The room lights shifted as each name appeared one by one on the massive screen.
"Program Aegis," the director said, as images of armored security and drones filled the screen. "To protect our people and secure our future."
[glitchpop]: that's just robocop with PR
[ratline]: ngl i want one of those drones tho
"Program Forge," she continued, showing time-lapse footage of construction, cranes raising towers, new transit lines spanning cities. "Rebuilding the foundations of civilization."
"Program Helix," she said, her voice dipping slightly, "unlocking the full potential of biotechnology—for medicine, for resilience, for humanity itself." The reel showed surgeons, patients, then soldiers running faster than humanly possible.
"Yeah, not terrifying at all," Jax muttered.
Chat blew up.
[pinknoise]: helix is gene mods confirmed
[biohazard]: dystopia speedrun any%
[overclocker]: inject me daddy helix
Finally, the stage lights dimmed further. The director paused, letting the silence draw tight.
"And now," she said, "our flagship initiative. The program at the heart of Atlas."
The word appeared on the screen in huge black letters: CONTINUITY.
Jax felt his throat tighten without knowing why.
"Through Program Continuity," the director said, "we ensure that humanity will endure beyond every limit—beyond decay, beyond disaster, beyond death itself. Continuity is not a dream. It is a promise. And Atlas will deliver it."
The feed erupted into applause from the live audience, though Jax wondered if half of it was canned. His chat went feral.
[glitchpop]: BRO THEY SAID BEYOND DEATH
[pinknoise]: 🚨 IMMORTALITY ANNOUNCED 🚨
[ratline]: i knew it i called it PAY ME
[ghostpost]: oh hell nah continuity is def a soul printer
Jax leaned forward, rubbing his eyes. "Beyond death. Yeah, sure. Just casual immortality in the middle of your product roadmap."
The director closed her speech with another polished smile. "Atlas is more than a corporation. Atlas is humanity's next step. Join us. Together, we rise."
The logo filled the screen again: triangle inverted, a spine through its center, sharp and permanent.
Jax muted the feed, staring at it longer than he meant to.
"Okay," he said finally. "That was… a lot."
[biohazard]: bro ur face when she said beyond death lmao
[circuitbreaker]: he's scared 👀
[pinknoise]: atlas sponsor this man challenge
Jax tried to laugh it off. "All right, thanks for dragging me into corporate cult hour. Back to games—" He stopped.
For a split second, the Atlas stream glitched. The logo warped, edges bleeding into static before snapping back to normal. None of the anchors mentioned it. No chat message from the official feed acknowledged it. But Jax had seen it, and so had a few sharp-eyed viewers.
[ghostpost]: yo wtf was that glitch
[ratline]: stream lag?
[glitchpop]: nah man, that was something else
Jax shook his head, forcing a grin. "Probably just net hiccup. Don't go full conspiracy on me, chat."
But the triangle stayed burned in the corner of his vision, and for the first time, Jax didn't feel like laughing.