As Luca made his decision, the main hall of the base's central building shook violently.
Out of nowhere, in the middle of the once completely sealed hall, a staircase leading upward appeared. Without the slightest hesitation, Luca stepped onto the stairs.
The staircase stretched endlessly upward. Luca did not pause for even a moment. He climbed, step after step, for what felt like an eternity before finally reaching the end.
At the top, he pushed open a door. A blinding flash of white light swallowed his vision, rendering him momentarily blind.
When the brilliance finally faded, he found himself sitting in his own home—in the real world.
He was seated at his desk, and a faint numbness lingered in his arm. It felt as if he had just woken from a midday nap. Everything he had gone through seemed nothing more than a long, harrowing nightmare.
"What the hell is going on? Could it be… that everything I experienced was fake?"
