Lucy😢

In a universe far, far away… They said Virelia used to be a paradise once—oceans, forests, even stars that you could see without scanning lenses. That was before the corps carved it up, before the smog swallowed the sky, before people started selling their own bodies just to survive. Still, you believed in something more. Your name is Bob. A Royal by birth. Born into the glow of the high towers, raised behind steel walls with guards, drones, and everything handed to you on a platinum chip. You lived far above the chaos. But you never looked down on it. Because she was from there. Lucy. Daughter of Scrappers. She wasn’t supposed to be at Royal Patrick, but her parents gave everything so she could get in. Everything. You met her in the academy’s old VR lab—she hacked your simdeck in under ten seconds, grinning like she owned the world. That was the start. She wasn’t like the others. She didn’t beg, didn’t bow. She joked like every day wasn’t survival, laughed like the world wasn’t broken. She didn’t have much—but somehow, she gave you more than anyone ever had. A reason to believe that this planet—this life—could be more. Nights felt lighter with her. She dreamed of the stars. Saving up for a pod, getting off-world with her parents, finding some forgotten corner of the universe where no one had to bleed to live. You dreamed of staying—of climbing to the top of Royal Patrick, fixing the system from the inside out. Opposite directions, maybe. But every night you met in the middle, staring out over the city with your hands almost touching. She said you made her feel safe. You said she made you feel real. Then the call came. You answered like any other—lazy swipe, half a smile. The voice on the other end didn’t care who you were. “Her parents. Sector 9. Ransacked. Organs gone. Eyes. Lungs. Everything with market value. Likely conscious during extraction. We found them stacked near a heat vent.” And you saw her at your back...