Code Breakers

Three centuries after the digital collapse, humanity scavenges a meager existence within the hollowed shells of 'Smart Cities' — concrete tombs where the old tech still hums but refuses to obey. The city's automated systems, from climate control to transit grids, respond only to the enigmatic 'Code-Breakers', a priestly caste who interpret the cryptic glyphs of software and command sparks of forgotten power. You are an apprentice Code-Breaker, sent into the rust-choked undercroft of a dead tower to decode a malfunctioning node. In your first hour, you trace glowing runes on a steel wall, whisper a forgotten command, and the elevator lurches to life — but the wrong floor opens, and a screen flickers your face with a message that reads only: 'User Unknown'.