Chapter 3: Black Gate
Morning in Nova Lumina came slowly.
The artificial sun rose behind chrome towers, casting long shadows over neon streets. But under a flickering old street lamp in the Middle Zone, two brothers hadn't moved all night.
Moon and Kai sat in silence.
Their bags — everything they owned — lay beside them. Cold wind drifted through the alley. The world had moved on. But they… were stuck.
The meat they'd bought for their birthday — a celebration meant to lift their spirits — remained uneaten till dawn. They finally warmed it using a broken plasma coil, eating in silence.
It tasted like cardboard.
> "Kai," Moon murmured, eyes fixed on the cloud-piercing skyline.
"This life… it's too small for us."
Kai didn't speak. He just nodded.
> "There's only one path left now," he said. "The Shifting Expanse."
Moon exhaled slowly.
> "But how do we even get to the black hole gates? They're not public. Only high-tier citizens or licensed hunters are allowed."
And that was the truth.
The Expanse wasn't a playground. It was a hyperdimensional realm — half dungeon, half divine crucible. The gates were heavily guarded. Access was limited. And survival? Rare.
---
With no options, they went to the one person who'd always treated them like more than shadows:
Takashi Watanabe.
Ex-fighter.
Now the owner of a quiet little diner where they worked.
A man of few words, but many scars.
Takashi stood behind the kitchen counter, slicing synth-vegetables with absurd precision when the two entered.
He paused, looking at their faces.
> "You didn't sleep at all, huh."
Moon stepped forward.
> "Boss… we need to enter the Expanse. We're done surviving like ghosts. We want to live like warriors — or die trying."
Kai added, quietly but firmly:
> "We want to change our fate."
Takashi looked at them for a long moment — a deep, unreadable silence. Then, he turned off the stove.
> "I was wondering when you'd finally say that."
He disappeared into the back and returned with a metal case — small, worn, locked with a code only he knew.
Inside were two Expanse Access Cards — old, but still functional.
> "I kept these from my younger days," he said. "Didn't think I'd use them again."
He handed them over without hesitation.
> "This is my gift. No refunds. No regrets. One entry. One shot."
Moon and Kai stood up and bowed.
> "Thank you… truly," Kai said.
> "Go to the registration center — Sector 7C, Gate Division," Takashi instructed. "But be warned: not everyone who enters comes back human."
---
Human Cultivation Association – Sector 7C
The building loomed like a fortress — humming with energy, filled with people of every kind.
Hope, desperation, bloodlust — all stood in line together.
Young dreamers, grizzled mercs, street-fighters with half-metal limbs, monks with glowing eyes… all had come to try their luck inside the Expanse.
Moon and Kai waited quietly, absorbing the chaos.
Finally, they stepped onto a glowing scan platform. A mechanical voice rang out:
> "Analyzing vital core structure…"
"Power Level Detected: CITY-TIER."
The drone operator, a bored-looking teen with cyber-lenses, raised an eyebrow.
> "City-tier? Not bad. Better than most newbies."
> "Is that enough?" Moon asked.
> "For Level 1? Yeah.
He grinned. "Good luck."
Kai handed over Takashi's access card. It beeped green.
> "Approved. Proceed to launch platform."
---
The Gatecraft
The aircraft was lean, sleek, and lined with layers of Expanse-grade shielding — a design built to cross dimensional turbulence.
Inside sat twenty passengers — each one quiet, nervous, or pretending not to be. The atmosphere was heavy. Sacred.
A pilot in a long obsidian coat stepped forward.
His voice was calm, but layered with spiritual command:
> "You are now under sanctioned entry into the Shifting Expanse."
"Do not move. Do not resist. Your minds will be buffered against dimensional distortion."
Kai and Moon took their seats.
As the aircraft took off, the skyline of Nova Lumina dropped behind them. The clouds below scattered. Light bent around the ship.
And then they saw it.
The Gate.
A swirling spiral of blackness and crackling light, suspended in the upper atmosphere.
A controlled singularity.
The entrance to a place where the laws of physics… broke.
A place where the strong devoured the weak — and the lucky became legends.
Moon's grip tightened around the armrest.
Kai, eyes closed, exhaled slowly.
And then… they crossed the final veil.
The ship trembled.
Space twisted.
Time blurred.
And the Shifting Expanse opened.