Midnight didn't arrive with thunder.
It arrived quietly—like it didn't want witnesses.
Kai lay on his bed, eyes open, watching the cracks in the ceiling. The countdown hovered at the edge of his vision, ticking down one second at a time.
00:00:07
His heartbeat synced to it.
Too fast.
What if nothing happens?What if this is just my brain snapping after today?
He swallowed.
00:00:03
The room felt smaller. Or maybe he was more aware of it—the hum of the lights outside, the faint vibration of the Barrier far above, the sound of someone laughing two floors down.
00:00:01
The number vanished.
For half a breath, there was nothing.
Then—
Pain.
Not sharp. Not explosive.
Pressure.
Like his chest was being compressed from the inside, ribs bending around something that didn't belong there.
Kai gasped and rolled onto his side, fingers digging into the mattress.
"Shit—"
The air in front of him shattered into silver lines.
The interface unfolded violently this time, brighter and thicker than before.
GENE ASCENSION PROTOCOL: ONLINECIVILIAN STATUS: OVERRIDDENCORE AWAKENING: PHASE ONE
The pressure intensified.
Kai bit down hard, tasting copper.
Images flooded his mind—not memories, not visions, but data. Patterns. Structures. Countless fragments colliding and rearranging themselves.
He saw muscle fibers tearing and rebuilding. Nerve pathways rerouting. Cells reacting like they were finally being told the truth.
ADAPTIVE CORE SYNCHRONIZING…
His spine arched off the bed.
A sound tore out of his throat—half pain, half disbelief.
Then, as suddenly as it began, it stopped.
Kai collapsed back onto the mattress, chest heaving.
Silence.
Real silence.
No pain. No pressure.
Just… warmth.
Like standing in sunlight after years underground.
The interface stabilized.
CORE STATUS: ACTIVE (LEVEL 0)GENOME CLASSIFICATION: UNREGISTEREDCURRENT THREAT LEVEL: NEGLIGIBLE
Kai blinked sweat out of his eyes.
"Level… zero?" he croaked. "After all that?"
CONFIRMATION: YES
He laughed weakly. "Figures."
He pushed himself up slowly, half-expecting his body to betray him.
It didn't.
In fact—
Kai froze.
The room felt different.
Sharper.
He could hear the buzz of the streetlight outside, the hum of electricity in the walls, the faint scratching of something—probably a rat—three buildings away.
He frowned.
"I could never hear that before."
PASSIVE ENHANCEMENT DETECTEDSENSORY ACUITY: MINOR INCREASE
Kai swallowed.
That was… small.
But it was real.
He looked down at his hands. They were still calloused, still scarred—but when he clenched his fist, the movement felt smoother. More efficient.
Like his body finally understood itself.
"What's the catch?" he asked quietly.
The interface pulsed.
ASCENSION CORES REQUIRE STIMULUSRECOMMENDED METHOD: SURVIVAL-LEVEL THREAT
Kai let out a slow breath.
"Of course it does."
Survival-level threat meant one thing.
The Wild Zone.
Which he was still banned from.
Officially.
Kai stood and walked to the window. He pulled the curtain aside just enough to see the Barrier's glow cutting across the night sky.
Beyond it—
Darkness.
And monsters.
His wrist tingled faintly.
WARNING: CORE STAGNATION WILL RESULT IN REGRESSION
Regression.
The word sat heavy in his chest.
"So if I don't risk my life," Kai murmured, "this thing withers."
CONFIRMATION
Kai rested his forehead against the glass.
He thought of Riven's smile.Of the word Null.Of spending the rest of his life stacking crates while other people rewrote the world.
His jaw tightened.
"Then I guess," he said softly, "I don't have much of a choice."
The interface shifted.
A new line appeared.
HIDDEN ACCESS NODE DETECTEDLOCATION: MAINTENANCE GATE — SECTOR D9STATUS: UNMONITORED (02:13 WINDOW)
Kai's pulse spiked.
An unmonitored gate?
That was… impossible.
The city didn't make mistakes like that.
Unless—
"Unless this thing sees them," Kai whispered.
The interface didn't deny it.
Kai stepped back from the window.
Midnight wasn't gentle.
It wasn't kind.
But it had just handed him a door.
And Kai had spent his whole life on the wrong side of things.
He grabbed his jacket.
[End of Chapter 3]