He woke up earlier than usual.

  The sky outside was still gray. The morning smog dome hadn’t fully evaporated, and the sor band above the horizon glowed like a thin bde of light. Lin Che brewed a cup of freeze-dried coffee and pced it on the heating pad, his eyes scanning through yesterday’s system audit report on the terminal screen.

  Metro flow: normal.Energy distribution: banced.Psy-reservoir: stable.

  Everything was just as it had always been—perfect, efficient, under control.

  He wasn’t on duty today. He hadn’t pnned to get up this early.But st night, he’d had a dream. One he hadn’t had in years.

  In the dream, he stood alone at the edge of a city made of light and metal.When the wind blew, every structure vibrated—not with sound, but like a system booting up in the background.Something was loading.Something was syncing.

  When he woke up, his fingers were still frozen in mid-air, as if they’d been reaching for a screen.

  He didn’t believe in omens.But today felt... different.

  The streets were alive with motion.Hover-trains glided above, neon news banners scrolled across building facades, and sensory billboards advertised brainwave enhancement packages and cognitive beauty treatments.

  But at one intersection, he noticed a man just... standing.

  The man stared ahead, unblinking, as if watching something that wasn’t there.

  Lin Che slowed down and cautiously approached.

  “You alright?” he asked.

  The man turned to look at him—eyes hollow, but with a strange smile.

  “It’s started... hasn’t it?”

  And then he walked away. No more words.

  Lin Che almost followed. But just then, a chime came from his terminal.

  A dispatch order.

  [Task ID: E-VOR13-UNSEALED]Issuer: Municipal Maintenance Bureau · Deep Layer DivisionAssignee: Lin CheLocation: VOR-13 SectorStatus: Offline Facility – Reactivation Inspection

  Note: Irregur current fluctuations detected. Manual verification required.

  VOR-13?

  That sector had been sealed for years.No reactivation order had been issued since the accident.

  And it just happened to be where his father had worked.Before everything went wrong.

  He opened the map. The coordinates were encrypted.Manual navigation required.

  He didn’t hesitate this time.

  Half an hour ter, he sat alone in an empty maintenance pod speeding along a decommissioned rail line.

  The metro pod glided smoothly along its decommissioned rails.Beyond the windows stretched the Western Periphery of Neo-Shanghai—now cssified as a Tier-3 Contamination Control Zone.

  These lines once led toward the city center.Now, they only led into something… forgotten.

  The cabin lights flickered. The speaker came online.

  “...Today's forecast: Stable mindwave index. Welcome aboard Deep Maintenance Route—”

  Then, static.

  And through that static... something else.

  A whisper. Low, fractured, digital.

  “...Resonance: Incomplete.”“Genetic Signature: Evaluating…”“Access Thread: Scrubbing…”“...Lin Guan... failsafe log not yet reactivated...”

  Lin Che stiffened.

  His father’s name.

  How could this system still hold that name?

  The train jolted violently.

  Outside the window, a flicker of light moved across the air—not reflected light, but something more subtle.A pulse, barely visible.

  A mental waveform.

  He tightened his grip.

  This wasn’t coincidence.Something was reaching out.

  The train stopped.

  The doors opened onto a long-sealed ptform, cloaked in dust and silence.The VOR-13 emblem—once the symbol of neural interface research—was half-erased on the bulkhead.

  Lin Che stepped out.

  No lights. No sound. Just faint ripples in the air.

  As he passed through the first checkpoint, the security lock scanned him.

  No arms.

  The locks knew him.

  Deep inside, a reinforced door stood ajar. On it: the faded insignia of TCI—TERRA Cognition Initiative.

  Inside was a single sphere.

  Silver. Suspended in midair. Still.

  As he reached for it, his terminal fshed.

  [System Warning: Binding Match Detected]Candidate ID: L-CH_0Genetic Signature: Verified – Lin CheCompatibility: 94.8%

  [Initializing: Core Sync – PsyCore Directive][Countdown: 10 seconds]

  He took a step back.

  “What... is this?”

  But the sphere began to spin.Its surface shimmered like starlight—then everything went dark.

  Not unconsciousness.

  This was something else.

  He was standing in a pce with no ceiling, no walls—only logic.

  Gridlines of light moved around him. Symbols hovered in the air.

  Words he didn’t understand—but somehow did.

  [Skill Slot Unlocked: 1][Module Type: Construct / Perception][Access Level: L1][Instruction Medium: Intentual Execution][System Binding: Complete]

  He wasn’t panicking.He was... adapting.

  Just like he always had.

  A new line appeared before him:

  “Greetings, Lin Che. Welcome to the PsyCore Directive.”“You are not the first to see this pce. But you are the first one who qualifies.”

  “Are you ready… to construct?”

  He said nothing.

  But he reached out—toward the light, toward the structure, toward the system.

  And the world began to change.

  End of Chapter 1