Wednesday, 10 AM.
Grey had already visited the training zone that morning. He had spent hours silently observing the flow of Life Energy, committing every flicker and ripple of its movement to memory. By the time he left, the entire pattern was etched clearly in his mind.
"It's a puzzle… it's a puzzle…" Grey muttered under his breath as he walked back through the streets. His eyes were glazed, his steps unsteady, and he looked more like a ghost than a living person. He didn't notice the vendors calling out, the hover-cars passing by, or even the curious glances from strangers. His lips kept moving as though repeating a mantra, his face locked in stunned concentration.
"It's fragmented…" he whispered the moment he stepped into his house.
As usual, Alissa was sprawled on the couch, flipping through TV channels with little interest. She had intended to ignore him like she always did, but his strange rambling made her instinctively look up. What she saw made her blink in disbelief. Grey looked like a madman—his expression blank, eyes unfocused, words tumbling out half-formed.
"Why did it split?" Grey muttered to himself without sparing her a glance. He walked past her and disappeared into his room, leaving Alissa staring after him in confusion.
Thunder rumbled.
Alissa flinched and turned toward the window just in time to see lightning flash across the sky.
"Didn't the weather broadcast say it would be sunny today? Why is it suddenly dark?" she murmured, baffled.
The weather reports were never wrong. For a storm to roll in unannounced… it was unnerving.
Meanwhile, Grey had reached his room. He shut the door behind him and went straight to his study desk, his movements urgent and frantic. Pulling out his notebook, he grabbed a pen and began sketching furiously.
He wasn't drawing at random.
He was capturing the energy patterns—the flows of Cosmic Energy, True Origin Energy, and Life Energy he had witnessed.
His pen scratched quickly across the page. First, he recreated the flow of Cosmic Energy.
The strokes curved outward in wide arcs, branching like rivers splitting into countless tributaries. From a distance, the page resembled a sky full of scattered stars. The lines wandered without apparent order, spreading further and further until they thinned out, fragmented, and disappeared.
The finished sketch looked chaotic, almost meaningless.
Yet at that instant—
[You've seen through the illusion of energies and bypassed the heavenly filter. You've gained insight into '???' and glimpsed the intentions of heaven.]
Grey's pen didn't pause. He flipped the page and began sketching the pattern of True Origin Energy.
This time, his strokes were sharp and precise. Straight lines cut across the page, bending at perfect angles. Slowly, the lines locked together like gears interlocking, forming a lattice that resembled the beams of a fortress or bricks in a wall.
Compared to the scattered freedom of Cosmic Energy, this pattern was rigid. Stable. Solid. Unyielding.
And yet—
[You've seen through the illusion of energies and bypassed the heavenly filter. You've gained insight into '???' and glimpsed the intentions of heaven.]
Grey's hand shook slightly, but he didn't stop. He turned the page again and began sketching the Life Energy pattern.
The lines curved into gentle spirals, looping outward before circling back in. Each spiral resembled a breath taken in and exhaled, a rhythm of growth, decay, and renewal. Yet no matter how far they stretched, the loops always folded back upon themselves.
The page soon looked like ripples spreading across a pond—vibrant, full of life, but destined to fade before ever reaching further.
[You've seen through the illusion of energies and bypassed the heavenly filter. You've gained insight into '???' and glimpsed the intentions of heaven.]
Grey tore out all three pages and laid them before him.
He stared at them, his eyes flickering with light.
"Cosmic Energy… scattered like arcs across the void. Limitless at first glance, but stretch it too far and it shatters."
"True Origin Energy… a rigid lattice that endures. But its very rigidity becomes a flaw. It cracks, and in the end, collapses."
"Life Energy… flowing in endless spirals, vibrant and alive. It comes closest to eternity… yet always folds back on itself, unable to move forward."
He clenched his fist. "No matter how perfect they seem, all of them decay in the end."
Then his eyes widened. "But if I put them… together—"
He carefully stacked the sketches: True Origin Energy at the bottom, Cosmic Energy above it, and finally Life Energy on top.
Thunder boomed.
A jagged bolt of lightning split the sky, shaking the house. But Grey paid no attention.
He adjusted the papers under his desk lamp, aligning them until the lines merged. Slowly, a completely new pattern emerged—one so seamless, so profound, it felt as if the heavens themselves had tried to bury it.
Grey's breath caught.
"It's… the Golden Ratio."
His voice trembled as he muttered, "It's perfect."
Back on Earth, scholars and mystics alike believed the Golden Ratio was the key to creation itself. Galaxies spiraled along its curves, hurricanes and whirlpools echoed its form, and now—even the flows of energy revealed the same proportion.
This was no coincidence.
This was perfection.
This was evolutionary energy in its truest form.
[Defier of Heavenly Logic is in effect! By understanding the hidden pattern of energies, you've discovered the existence of perfect energy: '???' Energy.]
Grey laughed softly, the sound bordering on madness. "An energy with no name… an energy so perfect that heaven itself shattered it into pieces to keep mortals from touching it."
His grin widened. "But starting now… it's mine."
The storm outside raged harder. Thunder roared, lightning danced, and yet Grey sat calmly at his desk, eyes shining with ecstasy.
"I'll call it… Nexus Energy."
His voice was steady, filled with conviction. "Nexus—the focal point. The convergence of all energies, restored to their most perfect state."
[You've grasped the Nexus Pattern and, by incorporating breathing, created the 'Nexus Breathing Technique.']
"It's complete!" Grey's heart pounded wildly. "I've done it. I've actually done it!"
This was the breakthrough he had dreamed of. With Nexus Energy, he could finally evolve. The promise he had made—to find the perfect energy—was fulfilled.
"There's no point wasting time," Grey whispered, almost feverish. "I'll undergo the First Metamorphosis now."
The thought filled him with exhilaration. With Nexus Energy as the cornerstone, his evolutionary path could begin. From here, he would build it piece by piece: a body strengthening method, a mind awakening method, unique abilities belonging to him alone.
Every step would be his. Every technique, his own.
He clenched his fists, his entire body trembling in anticipation.
"I'm one step closer," Grey declared, his voice low but resolute. "One step closer to becoming the perfect, invincible Evolver."