The year was 2048. London skyline had changed—neon veins pulsed through towering steel, drones buzzed like insects above the streets, and rain carried the scent of ionized metal. Beneath it all, in a quiet flat overlooking the Thames, Anderson Zorin turned twenty-one.
He didn't know it yet, but this birthday would mark the beginning of everything.
A package arrived that morning, unmarked and old. The kind that shouldn't exist in a world of digital deliveries. It bore no return address—just a wax seal with a Z burned into it.
Inside: a worn journal, a vial of dark amber liquid, and a note.
"Anderson, if you are reading this, then I am gone. What you hold in your hands is both a gift and a curse. The formula I created defies nature—it grants stamina beyond mortal limits and adds decades to life. But it must never fall into the wrong hands. Drink it only when you're ready to learn why I disappeared. —Dr. Z"
Anderson stared at the vial. It shimmered faintly in the morning light, pulsing like a heartbeat.
His great-grandfather, Dr. Zach Zorin—long presumed dead—had vanished before Anderson was born. Rumors painted him as a madman, a myth. But the journal said otherwise. Inside were formulas, coordinates, sketches of machines that didn't exist yet… and one line repeated again and again:
"It's in the blood."
That night, unable to resist the weight of legacy, Anderson drank the formula.
Pain followed. And visions.
He saw shadows—cities burning, a man in a black suit watching him, and a voice whispering: They're coming for you.
By dawn, Anderson was no longer just a student. He was the last carrier of the Eternal Formula.
The city blurred as Anderson weaved through crowded alleys and neon-light streets. Digital signs flared warnings in every language. Surveillance bots tracked heat signatures, facial patterns, DNA. Anderson had only one thought—disappear.
He reached the underground metro station at Bank Junction and jumped onto a late-night cargo train. It wasn't safe, but nothing was. As the train roared into the dark, he pulled the hood of his thermal jacket tight and stared into the reflection of the window. Who were those people? How did they know?
Across the city, news anchors speculated on a tech leak. A stolen formula, whispers of bio-alchemy. Word spread fast. By the next morning, Anderson's image was circulating across black-market networks. A billion-credit bounty was placed on him—alive, preferably.
The world elite took notice.
In a high-rise tower above Dubai, a corporation manager named Elias Rendell studied the formula files from a stolen satellite link. "Immortality," he whispered. "Or something close. Find the boy. Bring me his blood."
Meanwhile, in Geneva, an underground council of biotech leaders convened in secret. Their verdict: eliminate the formula inheritor before he chose to share it with the public. They dispatched their
Top—Agent V, trained in psychic manipulation and cybernetic warfare.
Anderson fled London using a fake ID and scrambled his DNA signature with a black-market skin patch. His destination: Edinburgh. He remembered something from the files—an encrypted image of an ancient oak tree marked on a satellite map.
There, under the branches of the oldest tree in the kingdom, might lie the first true answer to the riddle of Z.
But unknown to him, a silent figure had boarded the same train. A woman in grey, watching, waiting.
Edinburgh winter fog clung to the city like a secret. Old cobbled streets curled between Gothic buildings and neon storefronts. Anderson walked with purpose, eyes darting toward every camera, every hover-bot scanning the crowds.
He arrived at the edge of the ancient forest surrounding the Royal Botanic Garden. The massive oak tree gnarled, and older than the city itself—stood like a guardian of forgotten knowledge. Beneath its roots was the spot marked in Z files.
Anderson scanned the tree trunk. A handprint symbol glowed faintly under his touch. The ground trembled. Roots shifted. A hatch revealed itself among the tangled roots. He stepped into the dark.
A spiral staircase led down into the earth. As he descended, the air grew warmer. Lights flickered on along the stone wall activated by his presence. At the bottom was a chamber lined with steel and glass, humming softly.
Dr. Z hidden lab.
Inside were shelves of ancient books, bioluminescent plants, and sleek consoles pulsing with encrypted files. A preserved hologram flickered to life: a recording of Dr. Z himself.
"If you are seeing this," the projection said, "then my blood flows in your veins. I knew the world would come for what I created. I knew I had to leave behind more than science. I had to leave behind a choice."
The recording paused. A small chamber in the wall opened, revealing another vial—identical to the first—and a metal ring embedded with nanotech. A genetic reader.
Just as Anderson reached for it, the door at the top of the staircase slammed open.
"You've led us right to him," a cold voice said.
Anderson turned, heart pounding. Standing in the entrance was the woman in grey. Behind her: armed mercenaries.
"Run," the hologram of Dr. Z whispered.
Anderson grabbed the vial and the ring, smashed the emergency escape panel, and dove into the shadows of the lab. Alarms howled. The underground trembled as energy surged through ancient machines.Somewhere in the darkness, a new path opened. One that would test every ounce of his courage And somewhere deeper still, the ghost of Dr. Z waited.
The emergency tunnel curved downward into a corridor lined with dormant machines, their surfaces humming to life as Anderson passed. Blue-white lights blinked along the walls, casting long shadows that danced with each of his steps.
Behind him, faint echoes of pursuit—boots on steel, muffled orders. He tightened his grip on the vial and nanotech ring, his breath shallow. He didn't know what this place was, but instinct told him it had been waiting for him for a long time.
At the end of the passage stood a steel door etched with the Z insignia. Anderson pressed the ring into a slot on the control panel. The ring pulsed, scanning his DNA. A moment later, the door groaned open.
Inside: a circular chamber bathed in bioluminescent light. Floating in the center was a sphere of crackling energy. Around it, suspended in glass pods, were test subjects—frozen humans in stasis, all seemingly untouched by age. One of them looked no older than twenty… but was marked "Subject: 1984."
Anderson stepped forward, drawn to a console beside the sphere. A file blinked open:
Project: Eden Seed
Phase III: Neural Replication + Memory Transfer
Test Subject Alpha: Zephyrus Cain see
A voice rang out behind him. "So this is what your great-grandfather was really working on."
Anderson turned. The woman in grey stood at the threshold, alone now. She held her weapon lowered but ready, her expression unreadable.
"Who are you?" Anderson asked.
"Agent V Biotech Enforcement Division, Geneva. I was ordered to kill you." She stepped closer. "But now that I've seen this she gestured to the room, I need answers too."
The hologram of Dr. Z flickered into being once more. "The formula was only the beginning," he said, eyes flicking between them. "The real gift is not just stamina or time. It is memory consciousness legacy. A way to preserve the soul."
Anderson voice cracked. "You put yourself in the machine?"
"I had to. They would've tortured the knowledge from me. But you—Anderson—you are my echo. I encoded pieces of myself into your mind. They'll awaken... when it's time."
Agent V stared at the hologram, stunned. "He's living inside you."
The light pulsed. A tremor rocked the chamber. Anderson looked up warning sirens flared across the walls. "They found us.Dr. Z voice was calm. "Let them come. You now know what you are. What you must protect."
As explosions shook the lab, Anderson turned to Agent V and ask are you with me
She hesitated, then nodded. "For now. But I want to know the truth."
Anderson activated the chamber escape route.A magnetic elevator buried beneath the floor. As the platform descended, the lab collapsed behind them in a storm of fire and memory.
And above ground, the world was about to change.