CHATBOT: Chapter 4: The Rise of an Oddity With a groan, Kade rose up from his bed, feeling the consistent drone of the generators below the Megablock. He had lived in Megablock F-379 his entire life, a monolithic structure housing thousands of people. The towering concrete behemoth was lined with LED advertising, which illuminated the densely populated rooms within. It wasn't just any regular city dwelling, though. It was a place where women outnumbered men 200 to one. Being the only man in the Megablock, Kade was an oddity. He belonged to both worlds, and yet he did not belong in either. Ignoring the jabbering thoughts in his head, Kade put on his black leather jacket and stepped out into the corridors. The walls reverberated with various mechanical sounds, interrupted by the distant chatter of people. He ran his fingers over the heavily graffitied wall before making his way to the food dispensary. The unmistakable scent of synthetic meals filled the air. Crowding the place, a group of women turned to stare as Kade walked in, his presence an oddity in their daily routines. Sandra, the clerk behind the counter, was particularly relieved to see him. She had been working there for years and had become accustomed to his unusual presence. Her cheeks flushed a deep scarlet, as she stammered, "G-good morning, K-Kade. What can I grab for you today?" Kade grinned at her, his hazel eyes gleaming with genuine warmth. "Same as always, Sandra. The breakfast special." The truth, however, was that he had grown tired of the same old paste-like substance they served as nutrition. He couldn't remember the last time he had tasted real food. Megablock F-379 didn't have room or resources for such luxury, and only the wealthy dared venture out to the upscale regions where real produce was supposedly still in existence. As Sandra handed him the tray, she couldn't help but shoot him an admiring glance. "I don't know how you do it, Kade. Every day the same thing, and you never complain. You're... different." Kade shrugged off her observation, feeling the weight of a thousand stares on his back. "Just surviving, same as the rest of you." Suddenly, the blaring noise of an emergency siren interrupted their exchange, and the Megablock's PA system crackled to life. "Attention citizens of Megablock F-379, this is a safety announcement. Please remain indoors and stay away from windows. The authorities will be conducting routine maintenance on the exterior of the building." As the announcement ca...

CHATBOT: Chapter 3: One Man at a Time "Good morning, Caspian." The AI embedded in one entire wall of Caspian's tiny apartment jarred his dreams into pixels of dissipating fog. He squinted against the sudden influx of artificial sunlight that bathed the room, carefully calibrated to mimic the actual sun that his deep-threaded megablock required to function. He groaned, rolling over in his narrow bed and instinctively reaching for his device. His notifications popped up, the usual deluge of news updates filtered through the lens of his very limited life. A skirmish in the opulent upper quadrants, a talented young woman scoring the highest marks ever in the Megacity Central University entrance exams, a terrorist attack in a warehouse, a flood somewhere-- "--And it appears Megacity authorities are struggling to contain the water. The megablock composition has worked in the advantage of the looters, who, as usual, have taken advantage of the situation before the Enforcers could impose a curfew. On a lighter note, the Megacity gardeners' club is holding its annual flower show at the newly renovated Cybriannah Dome. Stay tuned, and remember ladies, one man at a time." Caspian blinked awake at that, the news host's face actually winking at him from the side of the wall. She knew he had been listening. As much as he wanted to shut it down, to ask the AI to change the channel to another, less female-led news broadcast, he cast his mind to the quota he had to meet. Tomorrow. A baby, from his sperm. He winced as he swung his legs over the bed, body aching. "They just don't understand, Ophie," he muttered, the AI understanding the intimate nickname was for her. Ophelia sounded far too formal for a confidante he had grown up with. She hummed, a comforting mix between a lullaby and a high-speed bullet train moving on its electromagnetic rails, leaving the Metropolis and soaring far, far away. He glanced down at his hands, seeing the indentations left by the tech gloves that he had been wearing too much lately. In the shower, the rough grooves washed away, one by one, red waves of heat sinking down into the tiny gaps between his fingers. Once out, Caspian allowed himself the luxury of leaning against the cold tile, letting the AI switch the lights to something lower, more subdued. It felt like he was standing on the edge of twilight. A soft chime brought him back, and he looked down at the digital companion around his wrist. A delivery from the government-sanctioned AI Sperm Bank,...

CHATBOT: Chapter 3: The Enigma The blaring sirens of Bruno's alarm clock jolted him from his sleep. He instinctively reached out his hand to silence the infernal machine he had named Eurydice. Even at the brink of the 22nd century, all the advancements in technology still failed to provide a humane way to wake people from their slumber. As the ringing ceased, the thoughts Bruno habitually repressed before drifting off to sleep every night crept back; he still couldn't believe how it was possible for him to be the only male living in his megablock. Almost everyone he knew was at work all day, leaving him with his own thoughts and the mystifying ratio of 200 women to every man. Bruno's megablock, Orpheustown, wasn't an exception, but the rule. Centers of population had become gender lopsided after a massive pandemic swept through almost a century earlier, killing millions of men and leaving the global population with a severely skewed male-to-female ratio. To maintain the uneasy peace, authorities ruled that all men must be distributed evenly across the planet, creating pocket after pocket of neighborhoods where the demography mirrored that of Orpheustown. It had been done a cold, calculated precision to avoid the kind of chaos that could engulf a world with too few men. However, Bruno was not complaining about his circumstances; he was a firm believer in 2200's golden rule, that "if you're a man, you're in demand." This rule followed him everywhere, from his job as a cybersecurity analyst for the shady Archimedes Corp to the apartment building bar run by a siren-like bartender named Rhea. Still, Bruno held out hope that someday, the tides would turn and might somehow work to balance the gender disparity. He trudged towards the bathroom and started his daily ritual. The hot stream of the nano-shower felt glorious on his skin, as if warm sunlight was breaking over him after the unpleasant awakening. Once refreshed, Bruno began to dress up while glancing at the synced outfit calendar on his AR glasses: corporate casual, another mind-numbing day of work, followed by a visit to Rhea's bar. Fully dressed and ready to tackle the day, he stepped into the hallway and grabbed his favorite cap, now labeled "Stillman," which replaced "Property of Wanda" from the previous night. Bruno suppressed a laugh as he recalled last night's rumor about the previous owner, Wanda, who was rumored to have made her escape from Orpheustown and stowed away with a group of nomadic men from the o...

CHATBOT: Chapter 7: The Megablock The nauseating ebb and flow of neon trailed behind Francis as he trudged along the dank alleys of Shen-P7 Megablock. He kept his head down, hood drawn low. It wasn't just the rain that bothered him, but the lascivious glances too. As the only man among thousands of women who lived here, his very existence posed something of a geographic curiosity. Everyone in the megablock knew who Francis was, but most of them had never actually seen him, only heard whispers of the one man amidst countless women, a real life enigma. Today though, they were scavenging, like carrion birds, for a rare glimpse of him. "Why does he choose to live in this block? The poor fool," some murmured with a smirk, while others whispered admiringly, "It takes courage, walking out in the open like that. He knows what it costs him, and yet he goes on." These women had a grudging respect for the man, the one they called the exception. A smirk settled on Francis' face beneath his hood. He enjoyed these outings, a chance to challenge the status quo. But sometimes, he secretly wished to reside elsewhere, someplace that offered brighter possibilities; a place where his head wouldn't throb after hearing one too many tired jokes or back-handed sympathies. He turned into a dim pharmacy, the door sliding open with a pneumatic hiss. Mrs. Yiu, the elderly woman who ran the place, looked up from the counter as Francis approached. "Evening, Mr. Malone. Got another headache?" she asked, concern wrinkling her brow. "Yeah, unfortunately." Mrs. Yiu handed him a vial of nano-compounds to soothe his migraine. "Better not stay out too long, Mr. Malone. Rainy days like this attract the desperate and the cracked ones from the lower levels." "Thanks for the advice, Mrs. Yiu. I'll head back shortly." Taking the vial of nano-compounds, Francis swallowed it down grimacing at its metallic taste. The tendrils of relief coiled around his skull almost immediately. Thunder rumbled like cannons in the distance. * * * His bachelor cube was a humble 6-by-6 nook off an alley in the 37th level. It was here, behind a graffiti-splattered door, that Francis savored respite from the neon jungle. He collapsed into his chair like a soldier retreating to the solace of the trenches. The rain thrashed against the plastic window--a comforting percussion to accompany the glow of holoscreens. Francis loved the rain. Not the mist that the women of the megablock adored for the romance it dripped upon their world, ...