Prologue: Book 0

SUBJECT: 595-t1

“Dis is Extraction 2.0

  So be a gud lil cog.”

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TRACE POINT: Data Case 011

TRACKING:  YEAR 240 - CYCLE 8 / PHASE 3 /  ROTATION 4

INCIDENT REPORT: Subject 746-k29:: Lost

 The client’s body shuddered once more, then went still, the man’s face slack and holy-looking. Kylon stood for a moment longer than required, letting the after-silence settle.

“Are you feeling good?” He asked gently. 

The client nodded, eyes glassy, smirking like he’d just been forgiven for something he couldn’t name. 

 Inside the cabin, the scent of sex lingered in the low light. Kylon dressed with the quiet precision of habit—shorts, harness, boots. Smooth movement. No wasted action. Breath rolling deep. When he turned to leave, the client reached for his wrist, mouth in a gasp, face still open. 

“Don’t go,” the man murmured.  

 Kylon gave him the smile that always worked. The kind that looked like a promise. Inside, it wasn’t. The session was over, the man’s credits had been spent.

 Kylon stepped back out into the corridor. The door hissed closed behind him. Beyond the soundproofing the noise swallowed him. 

 The Ring moved. Bass through the walls, bodies along the balconies, voices slipping through doors, occasional cries of pleasure, maybe pain. Heat and perfume layered with the faint metallic sweetness of juice from the vents. The Ring’s signature blend, keeping bodies open and minds pliable.  

 Performers passed him, some glowing, some already hollowed. A few nodded. He was known  by all who worked here. He’d been tasted by many who visited.  

He checked his slate as he walked. 

RANKING:

KYLON — PLATINUM TIER

↑ 3

 He exhaled, something close to relief loosening his ribs. A sense the floor was still beneath him, still holding. 

He didn’t linger on it. You never stared at good luck too long in this place.

The elevator waited at the end of the hallway, chrome doors breaking his reflection into clean pieces. He caught his own face just before the seam split it. His eyes were sharp, mouth still working. 

The doors closed him in. 

Inside, mirrors everywhere. Soft lighting that forgave you. Made you look like you could keep doing this. 

He selected sub-level -3. No response. 

Tried -2. Nothing. 

Then -4 lit up. 

The system, self-selected. 

Kylon’s stomach tightened. -4 was never open—

The elevator began to descend. 

Kylon shifted his weight. 

 The light flicked. 

The air thickened. 

As his breath stopped short. 

His pulse jumped. 

He watched his reflection in the mirrored wall. 

His eyes widened.

The drop continued. 

Something had been tilted. Something that didn’t tilt back. 

The numbers ticked down. 

His mouth felt dry. 

Something inside him tripped up, not panic yet, just the sense that a rule he relied on had quietly stopped working. 

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 On the massive holo-panel above the auction floor, names flowed in clean columns, ranked by demand, value and desirability. 

KYLON — PLATINUM TIER

His name flickered. 

Once.

Then it vanished. 

 A new name slid into the space, clean and eager. The rest of the names closed around like it had never been there. Business at the Ring kept moving. 

And somewhere below, an elevator reached the basement floor.

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AWARENESS FILE

META PULSE: Disappearance

No announcement was made. A name stops appearing. A profile photo never refreshes.

There are no alerts for removal.

There are no updates for absence.

The system does not need bodies forever. Only while they are legible. Only while they circulate value in the right way.

When a body requires containment rather than display, the system performs its most elegant function:

Removal.

Disappearance is a feature of the system.

And the most important part:

Nothing breaks. The work continues.

 Always.

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