Episode 1

The collar dug deep against his throat, heavier than it should've been for someone his size. Metal,not cheap scrap but reinforced with rune etching that hummed like static against his skin. A low-voltage shock,a reminder:

You are a property.You are prey.

Kim Taehyung didn't stumble when the guard shoved him forward. Not this time.His bare feet slapped against the cold,damp,dirty floor as they dragged him down a hallway lit with flickering neon strips and hologram screens highlighting the next line of "merchandise".

Bodies.Half-living, half-machine. Twisted muscle, grafted limbs. Broken things in cages,slumped,snarling twitching.

And him. The only one without metal fused to his bones. No warped genetic visible. No extra arms. No expose plating. Just small. Human.

Mostly. Except for the collar. Except the brand burned into his wrist:

"Trash-class, contaminated Asset".

" Unauthorised bio-mage Dna:

Property of council Division 7.

Dangerous. Approach with caution".

It glowed on the hologram display above her head as the guard shoved him into place. What thay did not know was exactly how dangerous he was. Neither did he. The auction floor opened beyond the corridor like a corrupted cathedral,half scrap-metal ruins, half luxury. Velvet drapped over rusted steel. Giled chains hanging from the ceiling next to automated gun turrets.

Buyer sat in observation booths stacked along the walls, glass cages where monsters wore suits, draped themselves in silk, or fused themselves into throne-like machines.

Their voice were low, but Tae felt them watching, judging, calculating. A drone hovered above voice synthetic and cold.

"Now presenting Lot#999- Unauthorised Bio-mage. Male. Trash-class. Status: Defective."

The number burned red into the hologram above him.

"Opening bid: Fifteen thousand credits.

Bounty is currently posted at seventy thousand alive. Forty thousand dead". Silence. Then murmurs.

"Seventy thousand? On him?"

"He is..... tiny".

"That cannot be right. Is that a glitch?"

"No,no. Look at the file. Zone nine fire.

Killed over four hundred Malfunction event".

"He did that? No..... can't be. He looks..... breakable, fragile, weak."

A heavy laugh rolled through a far booth. Metal-scraped voices and bitter static followed. "He is a ticking bomb. Imagine what you could do with something like that in the right lab".

Tae looked straight ahead. Not at them. Not at anyone. His fingers curled into fists so tight his nails bit skin. His breathing was shallow, sharp and controlled. Do not show fear. Do not flinch. Do not fold. His gaze drifted upward past the buyers. To the balcony tier meant for VIPS. Private booth, glass darkened, except for flickers movement. Shadowed figures. More dangerous than the creatures below. And then.....a presence. No, a pulse, something pulling. A shift in the air.

His spine pricked as his eyes locked onto a figure standing at the edge of one of those upper windows. Tall, still. Watching him. No glow of screens. No voice. No movement. Just a gaze that felt like claws dragging over his soul. He swallowed - a mistake.

The collar buzzed, punishing him for instinct. His knees almost buckle,but he gritted his teeth. Still standing upright. You will not fall. Not here. Not for their pleasures.

To Be continue.....

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