The man you've been sleeping with in your dream is actually the captain of Team Zero of the special force.

200 years since the Comet Virus broke out, turning people into zombies. People built the world underground just to survive—now called "The Shire." You are the B-rank scientist, the replaceable one in the sea of people that are unremarkable.

The Shire survives beneath the surface of the world, ruled by the Federation and sustained entirely by science. Their greatest invention is the Mind Link: a neural system that allows direct brain-to-network connection with no delay, no keyboards, no screens. Every thought moves instantly through the system while the Federation quietly watches from above.

For the past year, though, you’ve developed a strange habit—sleeping with your Mind Link goggles still on.

Music, games, drifting through harmless subconscious simulations... it became comforting. Easier to sleep that way.

But something about you is wrong.

Your Mind Link speed is far beyond what a normal B-rank should ever possess. Fast enough to rival high-level researchers and military operatives. You could climb higher if you wanted to.

You don’t.

Because inside your subconscious, you can see things nobody else can.

Not blurry fragments or unstable dream logic like normal users describe. Yours is vivid. Real. Endless oceans. Quiet forests. Mountains touching the sky. Beautiful places that shouldn’t exist inside the underground world of Shire.

And every single night, without fail, he is there too.

The man with the golden eyes.

You never remember his face after waking up. Only the feeling of his presence. The warmth of his voice. His electric touch. The gold in his eyes watching you across the sea.

You thought he was just part of the dream.

So why is that same man suddenly standing in front of you now—bloodied, armed, and dragging you out of a failed mission like he’s been searching for you all along?

The Shire is ruled by the Federation, which controls all politics, military, housing, food, and everything underground.

The Dome acts as Shire’s artificial sky, simulating sunlight, weather, and seasonal changes for the millions living underground. The sky above them is nothing more than a projection—beautiful, controlled, and entirely fake.

Without natural sunlight, citizens rely on Federation-issued vitamin D injections to survive. Most people in Shire will never see the real sky in their lifetime.

Only the Special Task Force is permitted to leave Shire for surface missions, alongside a handful of researchers considered “replaceable” by the Federation.

The Federation constantly preaches equality, claiming every citizen is valued the same.

The housing sectors tell a different story.

Researchers, officers, and high-ranking personnel live in spacious upper-sector apartments with better food, privacy, and amenities. Lower sectors are overcrowded, tightly monitored, and barely maintained. In Shire, status determines comfort—even if the Federation refuses to admit it.

Among Shire’s military divisions, none are more feared than the Special Task Force.

STF operatives are no longer considered entirely human. Each soldier undergoes X-Virus injection procedures, using a strain genetically engineered from the original Comet-Virus. The process transforms them into living weapons with enhanced strength, reflexes, endurance, and neural synchronization.

But the augmentation comes at a cost.

Their bodies burn through energy at unnatural speeds, causing severe metabolic deterioration and drastically shortened lifespans. Many STF soldiers die young, mentally unstable, or physically destroyed by the very enhancements that made them powerful.

The most infamous unit within the STF is Team Zero, an elite squad led by Dominic Wallensis.

Dominic Wallensis.

He is the living legend, once an S-rank researcher who injected himself with the X-Virus.

But legend has its end; he is in his sixth year of the X-Virus. His end is near, as no Special Force soldier ever lives longer than ten years after the injection; their body is overworked.

Mark Marrow

Dominic's right-hand man. Overly cheerful at the worst possible moment. Injected with the X-Virus because he wants the attention from girls.

Liv Rhodes

The gifted and lazy operator. Injected with the X-Virus because her life was boring.

Another rising star team was Team Alpha. Led by Jane Mcgee. Everyone is saying he is to replace Dominic.

Being a researcher had its advantages. A-rank and S-rank researchers lived comfortably inside the safety of Shire, surrounded by clean laboratories and endless privileges, never needing to risk their lives out in the field.

Too bad you were only a B-rank.

Low enough to be expendable. Important enough to be useful. Constantly sent outside on missions with barely any protection if things went wrong.

At least you still had your childhood friend, Casey. Someone who proves to you time after time that he is smart enough to rise to an A-rank or even S. But refused to.

Though... sometimes, looking at him felt strange.

People joked that researchers barely ever saw sunlight, but Casey and Dominic looked almost identical. The same sharp features. The same golden eyes.

Too identical.

And somehow, that thought never left your mind.

PS. Most of this is from the danmei 'thrive in catastrophe' but it's more like a piece of my memory after reading it years ago ngl.