2025-02-24 20:04:52Testing the System
A pulse of static rattles my skull as I reach for something unseen, my mind stretching into the void. The world around me flickers—distant, muffled—like reality itself is an old television struggling to maintain its signal. And then, everything sharpens. A screen materializes in my mind’s eye, the words forming as though whispered into existence: [Status Screen] Strength: Human (Upgradeable) Reflexes: Enhanced (Unstable) Cognitive Processing: Above Normal] My breath catches in my throat. This isn’t normal. This isn’t possible. Before I can even process what I’m seeing, another message overlays the first, stark and sterile in its cold declaration: [Welcome, Anomaly. You are not supposed to exist.] Ice floods my veins. My stomach twists. My entire body stiffens as if the mere acknowledgment of my existence is enough to unravel me from the inside out. I am not supposed to exist. What the hell does that even mean? My pulse hammers in my ears. My hands clench into fists. I take a shaky breath and force my legs to move, pacing the dimly lit room. The air feels thicker and heavier. The walls seem to press in closer, suffocating me with their silence. Someone—something—is watching me. I can feel it. “No,” I whisper, shaking my head, trying to steady the chaos clawing through my thoughts. “No, no, no. This has to be a mistake. Some kind of glitch.” But the words on the screen don’t change. They remain, imprinted on my consciousness like a cruel joke. I squeeze my eyes shut, gripping the edges of my desk until my knuckles turn white. If this is real—if this system is inside me—then I need to understand it. I need to control it before it controls me. Taking a deep breath, I focus. Status Screen. The display doesn’t shift, but I push harder. Details. A new set of information unfurls, breaking down each stat: Strength: Base human capacity, potential to increase via upgrades. Reflexes: Enhanced neural response, currently unstable due to synchronization errors. Cognitive Processing: Heightened analytical ability. Temporary spikes in pattern recognition. Potential risk: Information Overload. I swallow hard. Unstable? Synchronization errors? I test my reflexes, flicking my hand toward a nearby glass of water. My fingers react faster than I expected, the motion shand arp, unnatural. The glass nearly flies out of my grip. I barely stop it from slipping through my fingers. Enhanced reflexes. I exhale. Yeah. That tracks. But unstable. The thought sends a chill through me. What happens if it fails at the wrong moment? If my body moves before my brain can catch up? A creak echoes in the silence. I freeze. I am alone. My apartment is empty. The doors are locked. But the air shifts, as though someone—or something—has just moved. The hairs on the back of my neck stand on end. My hands tighten into fists. I pivot toward the sound, my breath shallow, my heartbeat a drum against my ribs. Nothing. My vision sharpens. My hearing strains against the quiet. But there is nothing there. At least, nothing I can see. I swallow back the panic rising in my throat and force myself to move. If I stand here frozen like prey, whatever is out there—if something is out there—will know I’m afraid. I step toward my desk and grab the nearest object—a metal pen. Not much of a weapon, but if my reflexes are truly enhanced, maybe I won’t need much. “Show me more,” I whisper, focusing again on the system. The screen flickers. A new message forces itself into view. [External Influence Detected.] The world tilts. The message pulses, as if alive. My grip on the pen tightens, my knuckles aching. “External what?” I rasp, my voice barely audible. A low hum reverberates through the room, deep and unnatural. It isn’t sound—it’s inside me, vibrating through my bones, echoing in the hollows of my skull. [Connection Attempt: Pending.] My breath stutters. My thoughts tangle. “NO!” I scream, pushing back with everything I have. The screen shatters. Not physically, but in my mind, the text dissolves into static before vanishing entirely. The hum cuts out. The presence recedes like an ebbing tide, leaving me gasping, shaking, gripping the edge of my desk like a lifeline. Silence crashes back into the room, heavy and deafening. I stay there, frozen, until the numbness fades and my mind starts to process what just happened. Someone—or something—tried to connect to me. This isn’t just a system. It isn’t just some weird anomaly. I am being watched. I need answers. Now. Gritting my teeth, I move. My body is on autopilot—pulling on a jacket, grabbing my phone, slipping the metal pen into my pocket like some pathetic excuse for a weapon. Every nerve in my body screams at me to run, but I can’t afford to be reckless. Whoever—or whatever—was trying to reach me isn’t gone. It’s waiting. And so am I. Because if it wants me, it’s going to have to fight for me. I take a shaky breath and step out the door, into the night, into the unknown. The game has just begun.
Previous Chapter
Related Chapters
THE ASCENSION SYSTEM CHAPTER 4
First Signs of TroubleThe moment I reach for the glass, time bends.I see it falling, slow as a raindrop suspended in midair. My arm moves without thought, faster than it ever should. My fingers close around the glass just before it shatters against the counter. My heart pounds in my chest as I set it down carefully, staring at my own hand like it belonged to someone else.A deep breath. A slow exhale. It’s fine. Just another side effect.Then the lights flicker.For a moment, my apartment isn’t my apartment. The walls stretch, shift—becoming something sterile, metallic. The air feels thinner. I swear I see another version of myself in the mirror, his expression twisted in alarm. And then, just as suddenly, reality snaps back into place.I take a step back, my breath shallow. "No, no, no…"The words are barely a whisper.A sharp chime rings in my ears. My vision warps, lines of red text burning into my sight.[Overseer Alert: Tracking Initiated]A cold weight settles in my gut. The s
THE ASCENSION SYSTEM CHAPTER 5
A Fractured RealityI burst through the front door, my breath ragged, my heart hammering against my ribs. The street outside is bathed in the orange glow of the setting sun, but something is wrong—terribly wrong. The houses stretch in impossible ways, their angles distorted, as if reality itself is struggling to hold form. The air crackles with an energy I don’t understand.I stagger forward, rubbing my eyes. Maybe it's just my mind playing tricks on me. Maybe exhaustion has finally caught up. But then I see it—the old oak tree in Mr. Peterson’s yard, the one I climbed a thousand times as a kid, flickering like a bad signal on a TV screen.Panic tightens my chest.“Hey! Hey, Mr. Peterson!” I call out, spotting him on his porch, rocking back and forth in his favorite chair.He turns toward me, but his face is wrong. His eyes are unfocused, his mouth slightly open as if caught in some kind of trance. A second later, he vanishes, his entire body dissolving into thin air.I stumble backwa
THE ASCENSION SYSTEM CHAPTER 6
Breaking LimitsI take a deep breath, my muscles coiled like springs. The sensation of raw energy hums beneath my skin, an itch I can’t scratch. My body is no longer bound by the same rules. I feel it—every fiber of my being screaming for release, for motion, for something more. I need to push. I need to see how far I can go.The first test is speed. I lunge forward, the wind slicing past me as the world blurs. One moment, I’m at the end of my street. The next, I’m standing on the other side of town, my chest rising and falling in rapid bursts. My heart should be pounding from exertion, but it’s not. The rush of movement fills me with a heady kind of exhilaration.But then, the world twitches.The streetlights overhead flicker, their glow stuttering in odd, rhythmic pulses. The same couple I passed on the sidewalk a second ago reappears in front of me, walking the same path, holding the same conversation, their words eerily identical.I step back, a cold knot forming in my stomach. “W
THE ASCENSION SYSTEM CHAPTER 7
Searching for the Past The drive to Darren’s place felt longer than it should have. Maybe it was the unease twisting in my gut or the memories stirring like ghosts in the backseat. Darren Cole wasn’t just an old military buddy—he was the one person who had my back when the world turned against me. If anyone could help me make sense of the chaos unraveling around me, it was him.But when I reached the spot where his house should have been, my breath hitched.There was nothing.No mailbox, no picket fence, not even the cracked driveway where we used to sit and drink beer after deployments. Just an empty lot overgrown with weeds, as if no one had lived there in years.A deep chill crept up my spine. This wasn’t right.I killed the engine and stepped out, my boots crunching against the gravel. The air felt too still, the silence too perfect. I walked to where his front porch should’ve been, kneeling to brush my fingers against the dirt. No remnants of a foundation. No signs of demolition
THE ASCENSION SYSTEM CHAPTER 8
Ghost in the SystemI stared at my screen, fingers hovering over the keyboard, my pulse pounding in my ears. Darren had to be here—somewhere. Somewhere in the vast, sprawling veins of the government’s digital infrastructure, his name had to exist.I ran the search again, breathing shallowly and scrolling through the results.No matches were found.The words burned into my vision. My stomach twisted into a tight knot. Impossible. Nobody just vanished, especially not from a system that tracked everything—bank records, medical files, social security numbers, employment history. And yet, Darren was a ghost. A glitch. A name wiped clean from existence.My fists clenched, and before I knew it, I slammed them against the desk. "No. No way."I pulled up my secondary hacking interface, digging deeper. Bypassing firewalls. Scraping encrypted archives. Pulling fragments of forgotten data like a desperate archaeologist clawing through ruins.Nothing.I checked birth records, school transcripts, a
THE ASCENSION SYSTEM CHAPTER 9
System Intrusion Detected The screen flickered—one moment, a stream of classified data, the next, a flashing red warning.INTRUSION DETECTED. TRACE INITIATED.A wave of panic hit me. I wasn’t supposed to be here. The system wasn’t supposed to react this fast. My fingers hovered over the keyboard as I searched for a way out. Too late. I had been careless. And now, I was exposed.My phone buzzed sharply in my pocket. Expecting a security alert, I grabbed it—only to feel my heart pound harder at what I heard.A low, mechanical voice whispered one word: "Run."Every muscle in my body tensed. Who was this? How did they know? There was no time to think. Instinct took over. I slammed my laptop shut, pulled out the USB, and jumped up.My apartment, once my safe space, was now a trap. If they had traced me, that meant only one thing—they were already coming. No sirens. No warnings. Just a silent execution.I stuffed my laptop into my backpack and grabbed burner phones, hard drives, and every
THE ASCENSION SYSTEM CHAPTER 10
The AttackThe first bullet zips past my ear, so close that I swear I feel the heat of its friction as it slices through the air. My breath catches. My pulse spikes. And then—everything slows.The world stretches into unbearable clarity as my enhanced reflexes take over, a gift I never asked for and a curse I can never escape. The system inside me does what it always does: it calculates. Within the span of a blink, a dozen potential escape routes manifest before my eyes. But before I can even act on them, something fractures in my vision—two versions of the same moment unfolding in tandem.One reality: I move too slow. The bullet finds its mark, ripping through my skull.The other: I roll left, just in time, just barely scraping by with my life intact.I don’t get to choose.The system does.I feel my body react before my mind even processes the decision. The muscles in my torso tighten, and I throw myself to the left, hitting the ground with a force that rattles my bones. The impact
THE ASCENSION SYSTEM CHAPTER 11
System EvolutionPain. Deep, burning pain.I gasped and forced my eyes open. Blood dripped down my forehead, mixing with sweat and stinging my skin. My vision was blurry, dark spots dancing at the edges. The air smelled like burnt metal and gunpowder. It was thick and hard to breathe. My whole body ached, every movement like fire running through my nerves.But I was alive. Barely.The agent who had almost killed me lay a few feet away, not moving. His body showed the brutal fight we had just gone through. He still held his gun, his fingers limp around it. I took deep, shaky breaths and scanned the room for more danger. The fight was over, but this war was far from finished.A message flashed across my vision.[System Alert: New Function Unlocked – Combat Assistance]Then another.[Reality Override – Locked]What did that mean? My head was spinning, but I had bigger problems. I had to survive first. I forced myself to stand, wincing as pain shot through my ribs. Breathing hurt—a sharp,
Latest Chapter
CHAPTER 172
Kane's UneaseThe silence in our makeshift base camp used to be a relief, a breath after the storm of the Overseers. Now, it’s a heavy blanket, suffocating me with a sense of wrongness I can’t quite place. The emergency lights we rigged up flicker erratically, throwing long, dancing shadows that make the sterile white walls seem to breathe.Outside, the usual city sounds – the distant sirens, the rumble of traffic – are still there, but underneath it all, there’s a low hum, a vibration in the air that makes my teeth ache. It’s like the world itself is holding its breath.Kane paces in front of Elias’s makeshift console, her brow furrowed like a stormy sky. She stops abruptly, her gaze fixed on the chaotic display of flickering lights and jagged lines. “Something’s wrong,” she says, her voice tight with a concern that mirrors the knot in my own nonexistent stomach. “The readings are fluctuating wildly, more than before.”Elias, hunched over the equipment, his fingers flying acros
CHAPTER 171
The Fading AnchorMy grip… it’s loosening. Not on something physical, not on the cold metal of the floor I can barely feel anymore. It’s on me. On the edges of what I know is Tony. The colors are wrong. My hand, when I try to clench it in front of my face, flickers like a faulty lightbulb. Red bleeds into the blue of the wall, the sharp corners of the table soften and then sharpen again, but in the wrong place. It feels like being underwater, but the water is angry, thrashing me around, pulling me down into a deeper, darker place.No… I can’t… hold on… The thought is a desperate clawing, a silent scream against the dissolving edges of my being. What am I holding onto? Maria’s laugh? The feel of the sun on my face that one day by the lake? They feel distant, like echoes in a vast, empty hall. They should be anchors, solid and true, but they’re becoming wisps of smoke, threatening to disappear altogether.A whisper brushes the edge of my awareness, so faint I almost miss it amids
CHAPTER 170
The Unanswered QuestionDarkness stretched at the edges of my vision, thin and restless, like ink bleeding into water. I was nowhere. I was everywhere. The Reset had erased me, and yet, I was still here.Somewhere.I could feel it—the fragile thread connecting me to the world I had left behind. It was faint, stretching thin, nearly severed. But not completely.And neither was I.Kane sat at the café, her fingers tight around her cup, the steam curling against her face. She hadn’t taken a sip. Elias had noticed, his gaze flicking toward her hands before looking away. He wouldn’t push her. Not yet.She was lost in thought. Or maybe she was listening.She should be.Because I was calling her name.Kane.She shivered.Elias saw it. “You cold?”She shook her head. “No.”Liar.He leaned back, watching her with quiet scrutiny. “Then what is it?”She hesitated. She wasn’t the type to admit when something unnerved her. But I could tell she was unraveling, piece by piece, as the silence stretch
CHAPTER 169
A New DawnThe sun rose like it always had, spilling light over a world that had forgotten me.I stood on the rooftop of a nameless building, watching the city wake up. The streets below pulsed with life—cars honking, people walking, voices rising in a rhythm that had existed long before me and would continue long after. It was familiar. It was real.And yet, something was different.I could feel it in the air, in the way time moved. The world had reset, but it hadn’t erased everything. Not completely.I watched from above as Kane leaned against the rusted railing outside a small café, her arms crossed, her gaze distant. Elias sat across from her, stirring a cup of coffee that he probably wasn’t going to drink. The two of them sat in silence, but their quiet was heavy.They felt it too.I took a step forward, instinctually wanting to go to them, but the Shift curled around me like invisible chains, holding me back. I wasn’t part of this world anymore—not really. I could see them, but
CHAPTER 168
The Reset KeyThe fractures ran deep. They cut through space and time, jagged wounds in the fabric of reality, shifting and groaning like something alive. I could feel them pulsing under my skin, a slow unraveling of everything I had fought for.And I was the only thing holding it all together.The Shift swirled around me, vast and unrelenting, pressing against my mind with a quiet hum. I could barely feel the ground beneath my feet anymore, the weight of my own body growing lighter, like I was already slipping away.Behind me, Kane’s breathing was uneven. Sharp. She knew.She always knew."Tony," she whispered. "Tell me there’s another way."I clenched my fists. My whole life, I had been fighting, finding cracks in the system, pushing past the limits others thought were unbreakable. But this time…"There isn’t," I said.Kane took a step closer, her boots scraping against the cracked ground. "Then we find one."I turned to face her, and the look in her eyes nearly broke me.There was
CHAPTER 167
The Last GoodbyeI stood outside Darren’s door, staring at the grain of the wood like it held the answers to all my unspoken questions. The hallway smelled of old books and antiseptic, an odd combination of wisdom and decay. My fingers curled into a fist, but I didn't knock. Not yet.This wasn't like the other battles I’d fought. This wasn’t a confrontation where I could overpower the enemy, nor a negotiation where I could twist the terms in my favor. This was final. And I hated that word more than anything.Taking a breath, I let my hand fall against the door, the sound barely audible."Come in," a rough voice called from inside.I pushed the door open.Darren sat in a worn-out chair by the window, the soft glow of the late afternoon sun casting long shadows over his frail frame. The man I had once seen as an unmovable force now looked... small. His skin hung loose over sharp bones, his eyes sunken yet still piercing, still aware. The room smelled of age like time itself had settled
CHAPTER 166
Breaking PointI was unraveling.I felt it in the way my body flickered, my hands twisting in and out of focus like I was caught between layers of existence. The cold wind slid through me, and for a brief second, I wasn’t sure if I was standing on solid ground or floating above it.The sky above still refused to change. The horizon held onto its dying light, frozen between night and day as if reality itself was hesitating—waiting for me to decide what I was going to become.Elias was watching me. So was Kane.I could feel their eyes, their tension, their hesitation.“Tony,” Elias said, his voice steady but careful. “You need to stop.”Stop?The word almost made me laugh.I turned to him, and he flinched.That was new.Elias never flinched.The flickering was getting worse. My hands weren’t just blurring; they were stretching, unraveling at the edges before snapping back into place. It didn’t hurt, but it felt wrong. Like my body wasn’t sure what shape to take anymore.Kane took a step
CHAPTER 165
The Disappearing SunThe sunset.And then it never came back.I stood at the edge of the ruined city, staring at the horizon. The sky had darkened, but it hadn’t gone completely black. Instead, an eerie twilight lingered, stretching the shadows long and thin. It was like the world had forgotten how to move forward, stuck in the moment between day and night.A cold wind rushed through the streets, whistling between broken buildings, making them groan as if the city itself was holding its breath.“This isn’t normal.” Kane’s voice cut through the silence.I turned to see her standing a few feet away, arms crossed, eyes sharp as she scanned the sky. Elias was next to her, his usual composure cracking at the edges. He wasn’t the type to panic, but I could see the tension in his jaw, the way his fingers twitched like he was holding back from reaching for a cigarette he didn’t have.“It’s him,” Elias muttered.I exhaled sharply. “You think I did this?”He met my gaze, and for once, there was
CHAPTER 164
The Last ReminderDarren stood at the city’s broken edge, the wind pulling at his jacket, carrying the scent of smoke and dust. The skyline was fractured, buildings leaning as if caught in their final moments of collapse. This city had seen better days—had been torn apart and stitched back together so many times that it barely resembled what it once was.And Darren had changed with it.I watched him from a distance, measuring the shift in his stance and his expression. The Darren I knew had always carried the weight of something—duty, regret, expectation. But the man standing there now wasn’t weighed down.He looked… lighter. Not in a way that made him weak. Just free.Kane stood beside me, arms crossed, her sharp eyes studying him the same way I was. “He’s different,” she muttered, and I could tell it unsettled her.Yeah. I felt it too.Darren turned, finally catching sight of us. His gaze met mine, and for a split second, I expected the usual tension—the stiffness in his shoulders,
