Three days later, Leon stood in the shower, letting the hot water scald his back as his mind churned like the system's simulations. He hadn't eaten properly in two days. Sleep came in three-hour bursts. The more he explored the system, the more he realized how woefully unprepared he was—not intellectually, but socially. He knew ideas. He didn't know people.
But he was learning fast.
He dried off, changed into a clean t-shirt, and returned to his desk. The dashboard unfolded as soon as he sat down.
SYSTEM: PASSIVE MODE ENGAGED
SP BALANCE: 100,000
Current Milestone: INITIATE FIRST ACTION
Recommended Action: Establish External Presence
"External presence?" he muttered.
Clarification: To influence the system, the Catalyst must project action into the external world. This requires a masked identity to serve as a point of interface.
Options Suggested:
Anonymous Brand Creation
Pseudonymous Research Publication
Digital Intellectual Persona
Leon frowned. A fake identity, essentially. Something that could represent him in the world without ever being traced back.
NOTE: The system prevents all digital attempts to trace your identity. Attempts to investigate your activity through online means will result in localized device failure or corruption. However, this protection does not extend to the physical world. Exercise discretion.
That was important. Very important. Anyone could follow money, habits, or even paper trails in real life. He needed to stay invisible online—and forgettable offline.
He leaned back in his chair.
If he was going to start this, he needed a name.
A brand.
And a plan.
He jotted a rough list:
Must be international
Impossible to trace
Legally disconnected
Capable of holding assets, signing contracts, making decisions
His parents' law firm had done this kind of work before. Offshore foundations. Anonymous trusts. Proxy directors. Shell layers. They wouldn't ask why. They'd assume it was one of his eccentric startup whims.
NOTE: Catalyst is authorized to use Store Points for cloaking assets and infrastructure once a deployment node is identified.
"Deployment node…"
He glanced at the corner of his screen, where the system's Strategic Overlay pulsed. One glowing entry now blinked bright blue:
POTENTIAL DEPLOYMENT NODE: IMMERSIVE INTERACTIVE SYSTEMS
Impact Forecast: Medium
Innovation Index: High
Public Risk: Low
SP Yield Potential: Tier-2
Gaming.
He scoffed at first—until he realized the logic. A massively distributed simulation filled with emergent AI systems, deep story structures, and behavioral modeling would feed back into several of the system's core progress metrics.
Even better: it could act as a testing ground.
A place to experiment.
A place to train humanity.
He clicked "ACCEPT."
Node confirmed. Development Suite unlocked.
ITEM UNLOCKED: Game Engine Constructor V3.71 [Cognitive-Modular Architecture Enabled]
BASE COST: 1,200,000 SP
FIRST-CATALYST DISCOUNT APPLIED: 80,000 SP
SP REMAINING: 20,000
Leon sat still for a long moment.
That was a massive discount.
The system clearly wanted him to succeed—at least at the start. Enough rope to build a bridge or hang himself.
He accepted.
The screen split into blueprints, wireframes, dynamic dialogue graphs, narrative trees, emotion-mapping code—the works.
And unlike any software he'd ever seen, this engine responded to prompts, not syntax. He could describe a mood, a moral, even a character flaw—and it would generate a virtual person capable of learning, adapting, remembering.
BEGIN DESIGN PHASE?
He hesitated. "One more thing."
He opened his notes again and wrote:
Name: UmbraDawn
The idea came without resistance. A reference to the world's current decay—Umbra—and the hope of a new awakening—Dawn.
He typed it into the system.
Pseudonym Registered: UmbraDawn
Digital Firewalls Activated. Identity Traceability: NULL
Leon stared at the text. It looked so small.
So insignificant.
But it was the start of everything.
He opened the Design Phase.
And he began to build.