El-Miru
In 2040, deep beneath the Pacific Ocean near Point Nemo, a dark pact was sealed by the shadow architects of the League of Erythros. The discovery of an ancient power matrix sparked a corporate war, an obsession with the legendary Cardinal family, and the ultimate subjugation of Malaysia into an autonomous zone.
Twenty-two years later, twenty-year-old Hairul Azhar (Hanza) arrives in the neon-drenched Merah Dian City after a grueling bus trip. Shuffled through fifteen schools in ten years across the empire-infamous only for stopping a bank robbery with his bare hands-Hanza arrives a year late to enroll at the prestigious Meridian Vocational University (MVU). He possesses zero experience with the city's atmospheric nanite system, M.A.N.A., which allows others to perform superhuman feats via handheld Oculus devices. To this hyper-advanced world, Hanza is an obsolete outsider.
But the sterile city fractures when a Tier-5 Abyssal Leak tears open reality. While elite students look on, Hanza is dragged into a lethal chase with a techno-organic beast. Relying on raw physical instincts honed by hidden deep-VR simulation training, Hanza destroys the anomaly with his bare hands.
Forced to navigate a gamified gig economy he doesn't understand, Hanza receives an Oculus calibrated with a dangerous, unpredictable main skill: Battle Stance. On the lawless backstreets, a simple act of kindness drags him into an official underground fight ring against a ruthless gang. Activating Battle Stance reveals a high-output, double-edged weapon that doubles the damage he receives. Yet, Hanza effortlessly leaves his augmented opponents in the dust, proving a double-edged sword is only deadly if the enemy can land a hit.
Pulled into the orbit of the chaotic yet guarded Saika Yamazaki, Hanza is caught in a web of street battles, corporate greed, and a bloodline legacy he was never meant to discover. Behind the city's hard science lies a multi-decade cryptographic algorithm.