Adam's eyes grew heavy.
The space around him began to warp, disintegrating into pixelated fragments of light—bits and blocks that shifted in and out of focus. It felt as though his very body had twisted, elongated, and contorted, bending in impossible ways. Reality bent with him. Time fractured.
And then—he was thrown out.
A sudden lurch.
A mechanical portal spat him out like unwanted data, its once-glowing rings dimming to a lifeless gray. Adam collapsed to his knees, his breath coming in ragged gasps. The cold, muted floor beneath him felt unreal. It was all too much.
He looked up.
Nothing. The stratum above him stretched into a void of emptiness. No stars. No ceiling. Just the echoing weight of solitude.
But… his friends. They were still out there—waiting for him.
His fingers clawed weakly at the gray blocks beneath him, trying to anchor himself to something real. Fear crept into his bones, cold and silent. He didn't want to go back. He was terrified that if he entered again, he might never return.
"What am I doing…?" he whispered.
His thoughts tangled into knots. Confusion, dread, exhaustion.
He forced a laugh. A dry, hollow sound that cracked in the silence.
"Hahaha… I'm so stupid," he muttered. "I don't know what I'm doing anymore."
His body leaned forward, almost instinctively, toward the portal—hesitant, trembling. His hand reached out but stopped inches from its surface.
He feared it.
He feared everything.
"Rehan… are you there?" he called out softly, almost pleading.
[Affirmative. This place… is anomalous. I require time to gather data.]
[Entering Energy Conservation Mode.]
Adam sighed. Even Rehan—the dependable companion—was running on fumes. The AI's systems were nearing exhaustion.
Looking down at his own hands, Adam shuddered. They looked skeletal, foreign, barely alive. He hadn't eaten in days. His muscles were wasting away, devouring themselves to keep him standing. He hadn't even noticed.
"Are they... even alive?" he wondered aloud.
"I'm scared. I don't want to go back..."
Something primal twisted inside him—guilt, helplessness, despair.
"Why… Why am I like this?!"
He slammed his fists against the cold ground, again and again, until black lines webbed beneath his hands. The floor cracked faintly. Perhaps he'd struck the monolith too hard sometime before. He couldn't even remember.
He lay there, sprawled on the unfamiliar terrain, mind clouded in panic, body aching, soul spiraling.
He needed to move. He needed to act.
But how?
He stood slowly and wandered through the tower's corridors. The deeper he went, the more the architecture began to change—evolving like some sleeping giant waking.
The ceiling now shimmered with a strange fusion of rock and metallic alloy, intertwined like veins of steel and stone. The walls were reinforced with strange panels, fitted with ominous precision, as though the tower itself had grown conscious.
{Initiating Visualization}
A flicker pulsed through his vision. The world was now a translucent, geometric x-ray—an architectural blueprint overlaid in his mind.
{New Host Abilities Unlocked}
A digital scroll appeared in his hand, humming softly with data. His lips curled into a weak smile.
"Of course. Just like a game…"
[Creation Points: 100]
Points can be gained through claiming Monoliths across the Multiverse.
Available Blueprints:
- Mechanical Portal
Only one option for now. He selected it without hesitation, though his mind wandered to the old days—when games were just games. When he spent hours playing RPGs, sandbox worlds, and MMOs. He was always drawn to world-building games…
But that was a lifetime ago.
He wasn't that boy anymore.
He had changed. Pain and loss had shaped him into something else. The memories blurred, but the emotions remained vivid. Still, he adapted. He always did.
More categories unfolded before him like a divine ledger from another realm:
1. Infrastructure
Power Plant – 100 pts
Water Treatment Facility – 30 pts
Factories (Mechanical, Livestock, Agricultural) – 40 pts
Data Centers – 60 pts
Housing Rooms – 30 pts
Central Operating System (AM) – 500 pts
2. Equipment
Exosuits – 20 pts
Welders – 5 pts
Analyzers – 5 pts
Attack Drones – 5 pts
Scout Drones – 5 pts
Repair Kits – 5 pts
Medkits – 5 pts
Artificial Hand – 20 pts
3. Gadgets
(Loading...)
4. Troops
Androids – 30 pts
Combat Bots – 40 pts
Post-Humans – 10 pts
Created Humans – 50 pts
5. Materials, Components, Special Characters...
(Loading…)
It looked like a game. But this was no fantasy. This was his reality.
And yet, somewhere deep down, he felt mocked—like the universe had turned his pain into a simulation.
Still, his friends needed him. There was no time to waste on infrastructure.
He sighed and used a few points on what he truly needed—food.
Two points for preserved cans. Five more for later. Hunger clawed at his insides, and survival had to come first.
He packed the rations into a bag and left the rest—90 points—untouched. He'd need them later...In thought on what to do with it.
He returned to the portal... but the system pulsed with an error:
[Use two other portals before reactivating the same one.]
He groaned, rubbing his temples. This system was flawed, slow. But he understood—this was a multiversal mechanic... Some cliche.
His eyes scanned the surroundings and landed on a strange door.
Violet, ornate, with white floral carvings blooming across its surface.
He took a deep breath.
"Alright... simple enough. Go through two other portals. Then save them. That's all."
He clenched his fists. His body ached. His soul trembled.
But step by step, he would continue forward towards the portal.
For them.