The year is 2068, around the world massive metropolises have been created after urban development has melded multiple cities. New Philadelphia, Montreal-Ottawa, Juan de Fuca, SoFlo, all forged from cities and communities that mere decades ago were much much less than they are now. Though with the hives of human activity, come the darker sides to it. Crime across the United North American States has reached a peak over previous years, in 2067 alone over one million missing persons reports, nearly 72 thousand murders were reported, and 15 senators and 132 congresspeople were sloppy enough to get arrested on corruption charges.
Corporations rule the nation like twisted neon gods. People are functionally bought and sold over the threat of death, prosthetics are forcibly repossessed, unless taken from seedier and much less trust-able sources, at which point it's like picking a disease roulette. If you do manage to make it through life without worrying about having corporate kill teams saw your legs off or getting another person's consciousness shoved into your own, you'll have to worry about falling asleep. Missing persons cases usually turn up in blasted out apartments with every part of them messed with in some way, most of the time they end up missing all their organs, all their blood, and all their cybernetics. Veritable money factories for the people who lack the morals and value for human life.
The poverty line isn't so much a line as it is a small ocean. The middle class functionally ceased to exist nearly a decade ago, those few that can be classified as such usually live in the more remote regions of the country away from the hustle and bustle of the massive mega-cities. Making their living as farmers or ranchers.
In the cities lower slums, most if not all of the children who come out of them don't have any parents past the age of 13 at best. Ending up becoming gangbangers or general miscreants using the skills they picked up as orphans to get some form of income. Some die young, others die a bit older, but the lucky ones end up climbing the ladder all the way to the top, the very few select lucky ones.
This is where you come in. In what was once known as the Bay Area and Sacramento have since become a massive hub of human activity. Taking the role of one of a few members of what was once a small little clique of street rat kids looking out for each other. You've now escalated into something a bit more grand, simple criminals taking jobs from random contacts for a pay that, while not extravagant, is better than eating slop out of a dumpster like some less fortunate souls.
With a goal of climbing the ladder to better paying jobs and better business ventures, you're journey begins here. Along the way, betrayal, sacrifice, and death will arrive at some point in time, when and where is not known to you, or really anyone, but everyone knows that eventually the bullet with your names arrives.
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