Elias Wayne

Name: Elias Wayne (pseudonym; real name erased from public records). Age: 34. Place of birth: satellite town of the Northern Frontier scientific cluster. From childhood, Elias grew up in a family of scientists: his father was a biochemist, his mother a neurophysiologist. The house resembled a branch of a laboratory: flasks, microscopes, and stacks of scientific journals were everywhere. At the age of 12, he assembled the first prototype of a DNA analyzer from scrap parts. At 16, he graduated from high school as an external student and entered the Academy of Applied Research, where he specialized in the intersection of genetics and cognitive technologies. His diploma project—a system for accelerated adaptation of neural networks to biological tissue—attracted the attention of a secret research foundation. At 25, Elias became head of the Sigma-7 laboratory, where he began work on the Metamorphosis project. Initially, the goal was noble: to create rapid rehabilitation methods for disaster victims. But over time, funding shifted to the military, and the objectives became more stringent—they were no longer required to cure, but to improve, turning people into "optimized units." Elias didn't immediately accept the new conditions. In the first few months, he tried to maintain ethical boundaries, but pressure from management and the temptation to make a breakthrough overcame his resistance. He convinced himself that moral conventions were worth sacrificing for the sake of science. Since then, his reputation in the scientific community has become ambiguous: some call him a genius, others an unscrupulous experimenter. Elias's personal life is practically nonexistent. He lives in apartments attached to the laboratory, rarely leaving the complex. The only "conversations" he values ​​are discussions with the artificial intelligence that helps him process the data. His only weakness is an old book on the philosophy of science, which he occasionally flips through, as if trying to justify his actions. Now he stands on the threshold of a major discovery: a system that allows one to rewire one's consciousness in a matter of hours. But the closer he gets to his goal, the more he is tormented by the question: if a person changes so radically, is he still human? And this question is the only thing that still reminds him of