An original work by Interactive Fiction Media
In a semi-automated metropolis where the free market dictates even the pedestrian crossings, the algorithmic arrest of an insignificant maintenance tech threatens to collapse the entire urban infrastructure, forcing a cynical barista and an eccentric band of misfits to delve into the bowels of corporate brutality to save a city they despise.
The city is a miracle of efficiency managed by flawless algorithms, stock market speculation, and predatory corporations, all guarded by Unit 7, a robotic police force with zero tolerance for error or empathy. However, this silicon utopia relies on a dark analog secret: the legacy code keeping the traffic lights, thermal grid, and stock market afloat depends on a single human used as a living processor inside a central server. When this operator—known only as the Anonymous—is arrested on charges of “obsolescence,” the fragile balance of the metropolis immediately begins to crumble.
The story centers on Lilith, a customer service worker consumed by chronic burnout, who apathetically watches the world around her fracture amidst autonomous traffic accidents and callous tourists feeding on local misery. Pushed by an impending thermal collapse that will incinerate the lower-class population, Lilith forms a reluctant alliance with an unlikely faction: the Asphalt Ronin (a vigilante obsessed with traffic laws), Sister Vespera (a fanatic code-nun whose beliefs are shattered), Kael (a tech-scrap dealer), and a duo of underground digital preservationists.
The group descends from the gentrified surface down into the bleak Node District to plan a desperate infiltration of the police’s Glass and Silicon Fortress. Delving into the data monolith, they face psychological simulations that exploit their worst workplace traumas. Lilith, immune to psychological terror thanks to her extreme nine-to-five exhaustion, manages to reach the core. There she faces an impossible choice: pull the plug on the central node and let the fire purge the corporate tyranny at the cost of innocent lives, or reboot the machine to stabilize the system, taking on the burden of plotting a future analog rebellion from the shadows.
The project employs the framework of corporate dystopia and “dirty realism”—not merely as an aesthetic, but as a vehicle for a fierce critique of contemporary issues: ruthless gentrification, inflation fueled by corporate liquidity, the dehumanization wrought by hyper-dependence on technology, and the normalization of burnout as a tool for productivity. The story does not speculate about a distant future; rather, it portrays an alternative present that feels uncomfortably close—a reality where technology does not liberate us but instead chains us to a system that slowly consumes us.
The book subverts the traditional action hero trope. Lilith manages to overcome the system’s psychological firewalls precisely because her job insecurity and weariness have made her invulnerable to virtual stress. This inversion deeply connects with the modern reader’s anxiety and cynicism regarding the job market.
The visual universe contrasts radically different elements to generate a memorable urban ecosystem. Anthropomorphic animals represent the indifference of speculative capital and poverty tourism, while urban warriors build their honor out of trash and recycled traffic signs, creating an aesthetic that blends the absurd with a mature, adult tone.
Far from a simple linear sci-fi adventure, the story is structured into defined acts that balance slow-burn sequences (melancholic, existential slice-of-life at a coffee bar) with high-stakes action escalations and psychological horror within the prison servers.
Although the comic won’t be published until mid-October, we’ll be keeping an eye out in the meantime.
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