EARTH & The Ultra Stage of
Capitalism
Humanity was supposed to reach for the stars. Instead, it settled for stacked studio apartments, corporate overlords, and a life lived through screens.
At the heart of this slow decay is Netherveil, a city that never moves forward, only drifts. It’s not quite thriving, not quite collapsing, just existing, a purgatory of industry without innovation, productivity without purpose.
Most people don’t even leave their apartments. They work remotely, live remotely, exist remotely. And why would they? The paycheck is never enough, so Netherveil lives on the internet.
Five years ago, reality fractured. The Abstracts seeped in from somewhere else, something older than human comprehension. Governments tried to contain them. The PID was formed to investigate, regulate, exterminate. None of it worked. And no city suffered more than Netherveil.
For reasons no one could explain, more Abstracts appeared here than anywhere else in the world. Some claimed the city itself was a wound in reality, a tear where things that shouldn’t exist kept slipping through. Others believed Netherveil was a feeding ground, a place where Abstracts could thrive unseen.
MAJOR SPOILER WARNING
Humans and the Black Thread
Since the dawn of their existence, humans have carried the “Black Thread”. Black Thread is a shifting, ink-like pattern that begins at the eyes and snakes its way across the body like a tattoo. It has always been there. To them, it’s just a natural part of being human, as ordinary as breath, as meaningless as birthmarks. But it’s not meaningless and it’s not human.
No one questions why boosts integrate so seamlessly where the Black Thread runs. No one wonders why some people bear more of it than others. No one asks because it has always been there.
But those who step too close to the truth, those who brush against Hive’s influence, who touch the Titan Core even once… find themselves weeping black. Tears like oil, like drowned circuitry, like something being lost.
Maybe it’s free will screaming as it fades. Or maybe it’s a reminder.