Don't Run!

In the hidden black-sites of 2035, scientists are slitting each other's throats to build the first genuine "Mechuro"—a top-secret, fully cybernetic human. Shawn Frickin' Heisen couldn’t care less. He peaked at six years old when he mastered calculus. Now? He’s a certified anti-genius. A blacklisted shut-in whose only useful skill is hacking encrypted servers and cracking shitty games from his messy bedroom just to afford a meal for the day. He's broke as fuck, surviving entirely on the tired patience of his older roommate, Remila. She used to be his paid tutor back when he actually had a future; now, she grinds through three dead-end jobs just to keep them from starving. Then one day, his phone buzzes. One message from his deadbeat father, and Shawn's rotting sanctuary is ripped apart. Suddenly, staying hidden isn't an option. To survive the fallout, Shawn needs to get into Novainé Phoenixä, an academy strictly for the global elite. But getting a dirt-poor, truant hacker into the most secure school on Earth is lowkey a suicide mission. If he actually manages to cheat his way in, his only cover is the school's Artist Club. In a tech-obsessed world, traditional art is slowly bleeding to death, making the club a perfect, dusty graveyard to hide in. There, he reunites with his estranged childhood friend Nico, and meets two girls, Nielle and Rosalinne—a group of damaged kids just trying to share a few quiet afternoons and maybe fix each other. But healing is a joke. Underneath the canvas, ugly secrets start to leak. The tragedy that originally shattered Shawn’s mind wasn't just bad luck. And the "friends" smiling to his face are hiding dark, twisted ties to the very cybernetic shadow-war he wanted no part of. The world is trying to build the perfect machine. But first, it’s going to break a very fragile boy.