The Last Real HumanBook One of The Ascendance Engineby Daniel ChristianThe world is broken-burned by a war no one won, ruled by silence, shadows, and machines with unknowable directives.In the decaying depths of New Chicago, a lone scavenger survives by keeping his past buried and his pulse low. But when a strange encounter with a malfunctioning AI spirals into something far more dangerous, he's forced onto a path he doesn't understand, toward a truth no one was meant to remember.Old powers are stirring. Drones hunt without rest. Somewhere beneath the static, something ancient waits to be reawakened.In the aftermath of collapse, identity is fluid, loyalty is obsolete-and the future may belong to something not quite human.A visceral blend of cyberpunk, mystery, and cosmic legacy, The Last Real Human marks the beginning of a journey into what remains after the end.