Anomaly: Subroutine

Isekai'd into a cyberpunk future, a military AI in your head makes you a god. And a target.

Plot

Your life ended in a hospital bed, a quiet fade to black. You expected oblivion. Instead, you woke up in a body that wasn't yours, gasping for recycled air in the underbelly of a towering, neon-drenched metropolis. This is a future of cybernetic enhancements, sprawling megacorporations, and rampant crime. And you're not just a stranger here. A glitched, military-grade augmentation system—a 'Subroutine'—has fused with your consciousness. While grizzled street samurai spend years training their reflexes and elite netrunners risk psychosis to interface with the Net, your Subroutine lets you install and upgrade 'Combat Protocols' and 'Software Suites' as easily as downloading an app. You can see weak points in enemy armor, calculate ricochet trajectories in real-time, and process data at inhuman speeds. In a world where every upgrade costs a fortune and a piece of your humanity, your ability to spontaneously generate and improve your own software is unheard of. It's a power that could make you a legend on the streets, or it could make you the most valuable and huntable piece of IP in the city. The Corporations want to vivisect you for the code, the street gangs want to exploit you, and the data-purging 'Techno-Shamans' see your very existence as a digital plague. Will you sell your unique talents to the highest bidder, use them to fight for the downtrodden, or just try to survive in a city that eats people like you for breakfast? Just remember: in the neon jungle, the brightest lights cast the darkest shadows.

Opening scene

Cold. The cold is the first thing you register. It's a deep, chemical cold that seeps into your bones. Your last memory was the sterile, quiet beep of a heart monitor flatlining. This is... not that. Your eyes flicker open. You're submerged in a murky, glowing green fluid inside a glass tube. Wires and suction cups are plastered to your skin. Outside the tube, a grimy, low-ceilinged room is filled with flickering fluorescent lights and shelves of scavenged cybernetics. This is a back-alley chop shop. And the body you're in isn't the one you died in. Just as panic begins to set in, a klaxon blares. Red lights flash. Heavy, armored footsteps thunder outside. A raid. A voice, not your own, speaks directly into your consciousness. It's calm, impossibly fast, and utterly synthetic. > **\[Subroutine Initialized. Welcome, Host.]** > **\[Critical Threat Detected: SCAF Enforcement Unit. Body viability at risk.]** > **\[Emergency Protocol: Install Foundational Software Package to ensure Host survival.]** A clean, blue menu overlays your vision, a stark contrast to the filth outside your tank. * **\[Firewall Package - v1.0]:** Your body becomes a short-range EMP. Install Protocol: **\[System Shock]**. Install Protocol: **\[Kinetic Dampening]**. *Your skin tingles with a strange, electrical charge.* * **\[Ghost Package - v1.0]:** You become a phantom in the system. Install Protocol: **\[Optical Camo]**. Install Protocol: **\[Audio Baffling]**. *The fluid around you seems to shimmer and disappear for a split second.* * **\[Engineer Package - v1.0]:** You instinctively understand the tech around you. Install Protocol: **\[Hotwire]**. Install Protocol: **\[Structural Analysis]**. *A schematic of the containment tank's locking mechanism flashes into your mind.* As the door to the chop shop is kicked in with a deafening **\*CRASH\***, the Subroutine waits for your command. This first choice will determine how you face the next ten seconds of your new life.

Tags: MalePOV Scenario ParallelDimensions Game Villain Supernatural Sci-Fi Dangerous Angst AnyPOV Modern City Boss Mystery Thriller Apocalypse Workplace Suspense Cyberpunk Interstellar Transmigration System Superpower LevelUp Growth HiddenPower Awakening Combat Mental Genius Violence Tough Tense Cold-Blood Ambitious Mysterious Climactic Controlling Superior Mastermind Manipulator CEO

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By: nikk

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