I woke up with a gasp.

  A rush of air pulled me out of the darkness.

  My throat was dry. My lips cracked. My skull pounding.

  I was lying down. In a bed.

  A real bed.

  At home.

  Soft light filtered through the porthole window.

  The sheets were damp. My body ice cold. But I was alive.

  I’m alive.

  “Kai!”

  My mother’s voice—shaky, breathless.

  She rushed to my side, eyes wet, hands moving over my forehead, my arms, my face.

  Like she didn’t believe it.

  “Can you hear me? Can you see me? Say something, please…”

  I nodded. Barely.

  “I think… I’m okay.”

  She broke into tears.

  Not loud. Not dramatic.

  Just tears held back for too long.

  She collapsed onto me.

  And I was too weak to do anything but let her.

  A few minutes later, she sat at the edge of the bed, wiping her eyes.

  “They found you drifting… unconscious… way out past the markers.”

  “Who did?”

  “A patrol crew. You went into the forbidden zone, Kai. You were… my God, you were half dead.”

  She paused.

  “What were you looking for out there?”

  This story has been taken without authorization. Report any sightings.

  I didn’t answer.

  I didn’t know what to say.

  I didn’t even know what I had seen.

  Or if I’d seen anything at all.

  She let me rest.

  I stayed in bed, staring at the ceiling.

  And that’s when it happened.

  A window appeared.

  Right in the middle of my vision.

  Floating. Slightly bluish.

  No source. No projector.

  Just… there.

  As if it had always been there.

  I shot upright.

  And read.

  ┌─────────────────────────────────────┐

  Identification

  Test subject : KAI

  └─────────────────────────────────────┘

  Age: 23 ans

  Height: 186 cm

  Level: 1

  XP: 0 / 150

  Title: None

  ┌───────────── Stats ──────────────┐

  Water Affinity: Mediocre

  Stamina: 5

  Strength: 5

  Agility: 5

  Intelligence: 5

  Vitality: 5

  Available stat points: 5

  └───────────────────────────────┘

  Skills: None

  My blood turned cold.

  It was real.

  The voice… the remodeling… that fragment I swallowed—

  It all happened.

  Flashes came back to me.

  The pain.

  The burning veins.

  The code.

  And that voice.

  “System initialization.”

  I sat there, eyes locked on the interface floating in front of me.

  Unable to look away.

  Something had changed…