Drive A

In the near-future world of Drive A, people can sell up to 49% of themselves in IPOs to cover expenses such as college tuition, medical insurance, and housing payments—all of which have become largely unaffordable for the middle and working classes. Cable Rostenfarm went public when he was twelve to escape a deteriorating, nightmarish public school system and now works as an analyst for a human capital hedge fund, Navarium, that buys and short sells other people.

His first trade is Traeger Logan, a disillusioned livestreaming star, who went public himself to avoid a medical bankruptcy, and who recently had a high-rise jumping suicide attempt thwarted by a proactive group of his stans. Cable and his colleagues are tasked with rehabilitating Traeger, growing his subscriber base, and increasing shareholder value.

Cable’s high sincerity and trustworthiness scores are initially instrumental in convincing Traeger to go along with the makeover. However, when they start falling and Traeger’s mental health takes a turn for the worse, Cable realizes there might be deeper pockets than his own at work in the trade.