Unlike most days when he trudged to school on an empty stomach, today Kael walked with a rare lightness in his step, full, satisfied. Thanks to the StreamCoins, he'd finally bought real food from the ShopNet. Not scraps, not ration bars. Actual food. Warm, filling, and impossibly delicious.
Kael was still streaming.
The camera caught every step as he entered the MegaCity Nyx, The Dome where the elites lived under artificial skies and clean air.
Towering structures of glass and chrome loomed overhead, humming softly with filtered energy. The guards at the gate didn't stop him. They didn't need to. Their eyes said enough.
Their disgust followed him like a shadow.
He was the only one from the Fringe allowed to enter the Dome, and only for a "special reason. "
A charity case. An anomaly.
Even inside, the streets parted around him. People in sleek attire and digital accessories veered away as if proximity alone would taint them.
The Viewers reacted instantly, the chat filling with a mix of outrage, sympathy, and cruel amusement.
But Kael ignored it all. He always did.
He knew who he was. Fighting back wouldn't change anything. It never had. So he walked forward, surrounded by luxury vehicles gliding silently along the road, while his worn boots echoed against the polished path.
Finally, he reached the school gate... A towering, AI-guarded archway that shimmered with access fields.
And there he stopped.
The realization hit him like static: if he entered, the stream would cut off.
Kael turned to the camera, his expression calm, but his voice carried the weight of a hundred silent mornings.
"I guess this is where the feed ends… So yeah… I'll see you after class"
Then he gave a half-smile, not bitter, just tired.
Kael reached for his tablet Interface to end the stream, his finger hovering just above the button.
Then it happened.
A notification blinked:
[StreamCoin Donation Received: 10,000 SC]
Attached is a message:
[SpectreDonor]: "Don't end the stream. Use this and buy a hidden camera or something. Just like how you got that armor before. There's gotta be a way, right?"
Kael froze.
The chat burst to life:
[ByteMuse]: "Yo someone actually donated THAT much??"
[PulseRider]: "This is gonna be fire"
[CodeKnox]: "Respect to the donor. Let him cook"
Kael's breath hitched for just a second. 10,000 SC… That wasn't just generous, it was monumental. It was enough for weeks of food, or gear.
He took a deep breath, opened ShopNet, and navigated instinctively.
Category: Surveillance Tech
Filter: Portable | Concealed | Stream-Compatible
One item stood out:
[C-Veil PinCam 3.1 - A high-res nano camera disguised as a badge, seamlessly linking to stream nodes and recording in 360-degree capture. Stealth mode enabled it to bypass common security scans]
Price: 8,400 SC
Kael tapped it without hesitation.
[Confirm Purchase?]
Without hesitation, Kael tapped [YES]
[Authenticating ID... Done]
[Processing...]
[Payment... Done]
[Balance Remaining: 1,608]
When the purchase process was complete, Kael felt a sudden jolt in his pocket, like a digital ripple in reality. Something flickered and glitched there as if raw data was being compiled from thin air.
Within seconds, the distortion stabilized, and a strange object materialized: a badge. It wasn't ornate or symbolic, just a smooth, featureless circle about the size of a coin, with a dull, metallic sheen. It pulsed faintly with an inner light, as though holding meaning only machines could decipher. Though it looked meaningless to the naked eye, Kael instinctively knew it wasn't just decoration.
He immediately attached it to the strap of his satchel with practiced ease. The device synced in seconds.
[STREAM NODE DETECTED - LINK ESTABLISHED]
[STEALTH MODE: ACTIVE]
[VISUAL FEED: CONTINUED VIA PINCAM]
The screen blinked once on his tablet, then went dark. No visible feed to the public eye. But Kael knew. The stream was still live. Still watching.
The chat roared again:
[GlitchWitch]: "LET'S GO!"
[NeoFlux]: "Sneaky streamer arc??"
[Hexroot]: "Big Brain Kael activated"
[JetEcho]: "He's really about to show us the inside…"
With all of that, he crossed the gate.
No alerts. No alarms. The guards didn't even glance up, either fooled or indifferent. Inside, the school gleamed like the rest of the Dome: white marble floors, semi-holographic banners welcoming students, interactive guide drones floating like jellyfish between the pristine halls.
Kael walked with purpose, eyes forward. But behind that calm, the gears in his mind spun like fire.
--------
Kael walked toward his classroom, with his eyes still looking at his tablet.
The stares didn't ease, they sharpened. Every step seemed to draw more contempt, more invisible blades of judgment pressed against his skin. By the time he reached the classroom door, the weight of it all pressed heavier than ever.
He opened the door.
Instantly, the chatter inside died.
What followed was worse: whispers.
Soft, cutting, and meant to be heard.
'Fringer'
'Stink, did he even wash up when he goes to school?'
'Look at his boots…'
Kael didn't flinch. He never did.
He walked to his seat, the last row, corner by the window. The farthest from the others, not by choice but by silent decree. No one ever sat near him. Even now, a few students subtly shifted their chairs further away as he passed.
The whispers didn't stop, but Kael kept his gaze steady, his expression unreadable.
The chat, however, was chaos.
[PixelStorm27]: "Why are they acting like he's radioactive??"
[KitsuQueen]: "Damn, this is hard to watch…"
[NoChillMax]: "I swear if ONE more person talks trash-"
[VoidSpectator]: "Yo… Who's that watching him??"
That last comment gave Kael pause.
He shifts his eyes from the tablet and then looks around.
And there, near the front... Someone was watching him.
Not whispering. Not laughing.
Just… Observing.
A girl with silver streaks in her braided hair and a sleek AR visor resting above her eyes. While everyone else looked at him like he was trash, she looked like she was trying to read him.
Kael blinked once, then looked away.
But his mind had already locked onto her face.
Kael kept his expression neutral, sliding into his seat as the whispers dimmed, replaced by the soft hum of ambient learning systems powering up.
The classroom's AR display flickered to life at the front, forming a hovering interface of formulas, historical timelines, and real-time data models. A synthetic voice welcomed the students, but Kael barely heard it.
His fingers rested lightly on his satchel, where the Smartphone, a device no one else in the Dome, or maybe the whole world had ever seen before.
They didn't know.
They didn't need to know.
Because the stream was still live, feeding everything, his walk, his silence, the sting of those whispers, to a hidden audience. A real audience. One that Kael thinks didn't exist in this timeline.
The past Earth.or perhaps on another dimension. A place of cities buried under the sky, a real sky, or laughter not measured by status, of chaos and compassion.
And they were watching him.
[PlotArmor99]: "Bro is the main character, fr"
[NeonCircuitz]: "This school's tech is crazy… But our boy's tech is impossible"
[LoreSeeker_X]: "We need a lore drop stream one day"
[TimeTwistTheory]: "Wait! In this setting, could we be in past?... I like it"
Kael glanced out the window, the synthetic sky beyond stretching into programmed daylight.
He wasn't just an outsider here.
He was a ghost…
And yet, someone in this classroom, the girl with the visor, thanks to the chat, Kael realized that someone in this classroom was watching him with a strange look...She wasn't judging. She wasn't pitying.
She looked like she recognized something.
Kael's eyes flicked to the chat again.
[SignalSnare]: "Yo, she looks like she knows. Anyone else getting those vibes?"
[XRiftWalker]: "Either she's gonna be a problem… or an ally. No in-between"
[SoftPunk]: "Mark my words, she's the first to break the silence. Watch"
[PrinceXD] "... Is she The Heroine?"
Kael tried not to dwell on it. But the idea dug in deep.
Someone here might see through the mask. Not just the one on his face, but the one wrapped around his life.
The classroom faded into white noise as the stream continued, still hidden, still observing.
....
...
..
.