The next morning started too quietly. No alarms. No humming of the lab's turbines. Just the sound of Lee Hana's loud gasp.
"WHAT THE-!" she yelled, stumbling back so hard her chair screeched across the floor. "Kim Jisoo! Your eyes! What happened to your eyes!?"
Kim Jisoo blinked. Once. Twice.
He had just woken up, still groggy, hair disheveled, wearing the same gray shirt from yesterday. He rubbed his face lazily and looked at her in mild confusion.
"What about my eyes?" His voice was low, groggy.
"They're GREEN!" Lee Hana shouted, pointing like she'd seen a ghost. "As in bright, glowing, radioactive-chemical-spill green! You were all normal last night!"
That woke him properly. He stood up and walked to the lab mirror, still half-expecting her to be exaggerating. But when he caught his reflection, he froze.
The man in the mirror was him, yes, but something fundamental had changed. His pupils shimmered faintly, the irises burning with a deep emerald hue that almost pulsed. When he leaned closer, faint veins of gold flickered like circuits under the green surface.
"…Interesting," Kim Jisoo muttered.
Lee Hana threw her hands in the air. "INTERESTING!? You look like some alien-infected test subject! You need a doctor, not curiosity!"
He turned to her with an almost childlike spark in his eyes. "If I were poisoned, I'd be dead already. Or worse, hallucinating. But I feel… normal."
"Normal?" She gestured wildly. "Normal doesn't come with neon-green eyes, genius!"
At that moment, the System, who had been floating quietly in its child form at the edge of the lab table, blinked open his golden eyes.
He didn't say anything at first. Just stared at Kim Jisoo for a long, thoughtful second, like he was watching a paradox come to life.
Lee Hana spun toward him. "Hey, system-kid! Don't just sit there glowing! Do something! Is he dying or what?"
The System said nothing. His face was unreadable.
Kim Jisoo noticed that silence immediately. "You're not denying it," he said flatly, looking straight at the System. "You know what's happening."
The System's gaze flickered away. "It's… complicated."
Lee Hana crossed her arms, frustrated. "Everything's complicated with you! Just tell us already!"
"Complicated," the System repeated, a bit sharper, "because this-" he pointed at Kim Jisoo "-shouldn't be possible for a normal human."
Kim Jisoo tilted his head. "Define 'shouldn't.'"
"Humans don't manifest energy resonance without external triggers. You're human. At least, you were supposed to be."
Lee Hana stared between the two like she'd walked into a science fiction fever dream. "Resonance? Manifest? You guys are speaking alien! Just say it-are we all about to die or not?"
Kim Jisoo ignored her. His curiosity had already kicked in full-force. He stepped closer to the System, his voice low and steady. "What are the chances this… change is connected to Haru?"
The System hesitated.
Lee Hana frowned. "Wait. Haru? That kid you told me about? The one who-" she stopped herself, remembering the weight in Jisoo's tone when he talked about him.
Kim Jisoo's hands were trembling, not with fear, but a kind of scientific hunger. He reached for his scanner, pointed it at his own eyes, and analyzed the data output.
"Cellular mutation, zero degradation," he murmured to himself. "Light reflection index… higher than the human maximum tolerance. But no pain. No burning. It's stable."
Lee Hana made a noise of disbelief. "You're literally turning into a glowstick, and you're taking notes?"
He didn't answer. He was already connecting cables to the neural link port on the table.
"System," he said quietly, "if you don't explain it to me, I'll find out myself."
The System sighed. "You wouldn't like the answer."
Kim Jisoo gave a humorless smile. "Try me."
The small boy-form of the System floated closer, the light in his eyes dimming slightly. He sat on the edge of the terminal, swinging his legs like a child about to drop bad news.
"…You're awakening," he said finally. "Nothing more, nothing less."
Lee Hana blinked. "Awakening? Like… some kind of power-up thing?"
The System nodded slowly. "Each Protector carries dormant potential tied to the Outergod fragments that shaped this world. But Jisoo… you aren't a Protector. You're something else entirely."
Kim Jisoo frowned. "Then what am I?"
"You're the Successor of the Savior's Core," the System said. "Har-" he stopped himself, then corrected, "The previous Savior's essence merged into your soul during the last loop. Your human genes are rewriting themselves to contain it."
Lee Hana's mouth fell open. "So… he's part god now?!"
Kim Jisoo blinked. "That explains the eyes."
"EYES!?" she barked. "That explains NOTHING!"
But Jisoo was already turning toward the data screen, his mind racing. His heart thudded in a strange rhythm, steady yet foreign. His senses felt sharper, the whir of the machines, the faint hum of electricity, even the pulsing heartbeat of Lee Hana's panic all registered as distinct patterns.
He whispered, "So this is what Haru felt…"
The room went silent for a few seconds.
Lee Hana finally slumped into a chair, exhaling hard. "You two really need subtitles when you talk."
The System tilted his head. "If it helps, he's not dying."
"That helps," she muttered, "but not by much."
Kim Jisoo, meanwhile, was still staring at his reflection in the lab's chrome wall. The green in his eyes flickered slightly when he focused on his own face. He felt that same old instinct that had saved him during the end days, that primal whisper warning him when danger was near, but now, it was mixed with something else.
Something ancient.
He felt… watched.
"System," he said quietly. "You said this shouldn't be possible for a human. What happens if my body rejects this… awakening?"
The System didn't answer immediately.
"Tell me."
The golden-eyed boy sighed, voice almost gentle. "Then your mind collapses before your body does. You lose your sense of self. The last thing you remember is light… and then nothing."
Lee Hana shot up again. "Okay, nope! We are not doing that! You are not turning into some glowing zombie!"
Kim Jisoo's lips curved faintly. "I'll make a note to avoid that."
"That wasn't a joke!" she yelled.
He smiled, small but real, his first in hours. "It was a little bit."
She gawked. "You-! Ugh!"
The System, meanwhile, simply observed them both. The tension between curiosity and fear was the perfect sign that the awakening had begun properly. For Kim Jisoo, logic and instinct had always been two sides of the same coin; if either failed, the other compensated.
That was why he'd survived when no one else did.
But awakening meant those instincts were no longer just human.
Hours later, after Lee Hana stopped pacing and accepted that Jisoo wasn't about to drop dead, she sat on the counter while he ran small experiments. He measured his reaction speed, tested light sensitivity, recorded body temperature.
All normal. Except for one thing, his reflection didn't blink when he did.
He noted it down without expression.
"You're way too calm about this," Hana muttered, biting into an apple. "If it were me, I'd be screaming, crying, and making a will."
"I already made one," he said absently.
She paused mid-bite. "You… what?"
"Statistical precaution," he added. "If I die, at least my research won't be lost."
She groaned, rolling her eyes. "You're the worst kind of scientist."
"Functional?"
"Detached!"
The System chuckled softly, surprising both of them. "You two sound like siblings."
Hana blinked. "No, thank you. I've got enough chaos at home."
Kim Jisoo didn't respond. For a moment, his green eyes dimmed to a softer hue, thoughtful and distant. "If I had a family," he said quietly, "maybe I wouldn't have needed a lab to call home."
The words slipped out before he could stop them.
Lee Hana froze, looking at him. It was the first time she'd heard him sound humanly sad.
The System tilted his head, almost gently. "You do now."
Both of them looked at him, the boyish figure glowing faintly in the dark lab.
He smiled. "You have us."
For once, Kim Jisoo didn't argue. He just gave a soft nod and turned away, pretending to check his instruments again.
But when he glanced in the reflection of the metal wall, he could swear the green in his eyes flickered like something inside him had smiled back.
That night, when the lab lights dimmed and Lee Hana finally fell asleep on the couch, Kim Jisoo stood by the observation window, looking out at the faint city glow beyond the horizon.
The air shimmered strangely. The world still felt stable, but faint ripples of distortion drifted like unseen waves in the atmosphere.
He knew what it meant.
The countdown had started.
The apocalypse wasn't just coming, it was remembering him.
He whispered, "Haru… did you do this?"
The green glow in his eyes flickered softly, as if in answer.
Behind him, the System opened one golden eye, watching him silently.
"Awakening complete," it murmured under its breath. "Stage one - resonance achieved."
It paused.
Then, quieter - "But at what cost?"