Friday, 3:14 PM. Caltech Astrophysics Lab.
My laser measured quantum fluctuations in the vacuum energy when the universe screamed.
Not metaphorically. The spectrophotometer spiked into redline territory, the air tasted like ozone and cinnamon, and every hair on my body stood at attention. The lab's fluorescent lights stuttered, died, then reignited as pulsating orbs of violet energy.
Thump-thump.
A double heartbeat—but not mine. The universe's.
"What the—" My assistant, Maya, dropped her tablet. It shattered, but the glass didn't scatter. It floated, each shard rotating like tiny planets around her trembling fingers.
I didn't answer. My senses—always too sharp, too much, the reason I worked night shifts alone—were overloading. The hum of electricity in the walls became a symphony of distinct frequencies. The scent of ozone decomposed into nitrogen, oxygen, and something else. Something new.
SYSTEM INITIALIZATION COMPLETE.
The words appeared not on a screen, but etched across reality itself, glowing blue against the air. Maya screamed. I just stared, my analytical mind already dissecting the phenomenon. No projection source. No retinal overlay. Direct neural interface? Quantum imprinting on local spacetime?
THE COSMIC CULTIVATION SYSTEM HAS INTEGRATED WITH LOCAL REALITY [EARTH-Δ-734].
BEGINNING MASS ASCENSION PROTOCOL.
The window showed Los Angeles, but not the LA I knew. The sky tore open along seams of purple lightning. The 110 freeway below was a river of stopped cars, their headlights pointing skyward as people spilled out, pointing, running. A delivery truck floated twenty feet above an overpass, rotating slowly.
"Alex, what's happening?" Maya whispered.
"Reality parameters are changing," I said, my voice surprisingly calm. "Fundamental constants are… fluctuating."
My eyes caught the data still streaming on my main monitor—the quantum vacuum measurements. The numbers weren't just wrong. They were impossible. Negative energy densities. Casualty violations. The universe's background code was being rewritten.
INDIVIDUAL STATUS ASSESSMENT COMMENCING.
A blue box materialized before my face:
---
NAME: Alexander "Alex" Vance
AGE:28
CULTIVATION REALM:Mortal (Unawakened)
BODY REFINEMENT:7/100 (Base Human Average: 10/100)
SPIRITUAL SENSE:23/100 (ANOMALY DETECTED)
APTITUDE:Quantum Affinity Detected | Sensory Hyper-Acuteness
ASSIGNED PATH:[ERROR—CALCULATING]
RECOMMENDED REALM:Apprentice (Early Stage)
SYSTEM NOTE:Irregular spiritual signature detected. Initiating deep scan.
---
"Do you see it too?" Maya asked, her own eyes fixed on empty air.
"Yes." I reached out to touch the blue text. My finger passed through it, but a tingling sensation shot up my arm. "It's interactive. Some kind of personalized interface."
DEEP SCAN COMPLETE.
IRREGULARITY CONFIRMED: PRIMORDIAL SENSORY FRAGMENT DETECTED.
ASSIGNING UNIQUE CULTIVATION PATH: VOID-TUNED ASCENDANT.
IMMEDIATE TRIBULATION INITIATED: SENSORY OVERLOAD TRIAL.
"Wait, tribulation? What does that mean—"
The world exploded into sensation.
Every photon hitting my retina became a particle with individual history. Every sound decomposed into its constituent frequencies, each telling a story of vibration and source. I could smell Maya's adrenaline, taste the fear-chemicals in the air, feel the quantum foam of spacetime bubbling against my skin.
I fell to my knees, gasping. My brain—built for detail but not this much detail—was melting.
ADAPT OR PERISH.
The system message was cold, impersonal.
Maya was saying something, shaking me, but her words came as individual phonemes, each a physical object I could examine. The "M" sound was round and heavy. The "a" sound was open and bright.
Focus. You've lived with heightened senses for 28 years. This is just… more.
I remembered my childhood doctor calling it "sensory processing disorder." My father calling it "weakness." I'd learned to build filters, mental walls to block out the overwhelming flood. Now I tore those walls down.
Instead of fighting the flood, I swam in it.
I let the sensations flow through me, cataloging but not clinging. The scent of ozone became data: ionization rate, oxygen concentration, energy signatures. The floating glass shards became physics problems: angular momentum, gravitational anomalies, system-manipulated inertial dampening.
SENSORY OVERLOAD TRIAL: COMPLETE.
REWARD: VOID SENSE (RUDIMENTARY)
CULTIVATION REALM UPDATED: APPRENTICE (EARLY STAGE)
Something clicked inside me. A new sense awakened—not sight or sound, but an awareness of absence. I could feel where reality was thin, where the void between atoms whispered secrets. My Body Refinement score ticked up to 9/100. Spiritual Sense jumped to 31/100.
I stood up. The world was still overwhelming, but now I had a new organ to process it. A "void sense" that acted like a psychic shock absorber, dampening the noise of reality.
"Alex?" Maya's voice was clearer now. "Your eyes… they're glowing. Silver."
I looked at my reflection in the dark monitor screen. She was right. Silver irises with tiny starburst patterns. System modification or awakening?
GLOBAL ANNOUNCEMENT:
THE FIRST WAVE BEGINS. REALITY ANCHORS DESTABILIZING. MONSTERS FROM ADJACENT REALMS MANIFESTING.
SURVIVE. CULTIVATE. ASCEND.
Outside, the screaming took on a new pitch—not just terror, but agony. Something was out there. Something that didn't belong.
"We need to leave," I said, my voice different. Calmer. More resonant. "The lab isn't defensible."
"Leave? Go where?"
"Somewhere with resources. And fewer… incursions." I could feel them now—pockets of wrongness in the city. Places where reality bled, and things crawled through.
My phone was dead. All electronics were. But the System provided:
---
LOCAL MAP UPDATED.
REALITY STABILITY: 87% AND FALLING.
DETECTED INCURSIONS: 12 WITHIN 5-MILE RADIUS.
NEAREST RESOURCE NODE: WILSHIRE GRAND CENTER (0.8 MILES)
RECOMMENDATION: AVOID EXPOSED AREAS. VOID-SIGNATURE ENTITIES DETECTED.
---
"Resource node?" Maya asked, reading her own interface.
"Probably where the System is concentrating… whatever passes for cultivation resources now." I moved to the lab's equipment locker. Not weapons—this was Caltech—but we had tools. I grabbed a carbon-fiber lab pole, a fire axe from the emergency case, and a first-aid kit.
"You're serious." Maya stared at me like I'd grown another head. "We should wait for help. The National Guard, someone—"
A crash from downstairs. Not the sound of breaking glass. The sound of breaking stone. Then a shriek that vibrated at frequencies human vocal cords shouldn't produce.
ENTITY DETECTED: VOID-TINGED GARGOYLE (EARLY APPRENTICE REALM)
WARNING: PREYS ON SPIRITUAL SIGNATURES. YOUR VOID AFFINITY MAKES YOU A PRIORITY TARGET.
"We're not waiting," I said, hefting the lab pole. It felt light. My Body Refinement increase? "It's coming up the stairwell. We take the exterior maintenance ladder."
"That's five stories!"
"And the alternative is fighting that." I pointed toward the stairwell door just as something heavy slammed against it from the other side. The metal dented inward, showing claw marks that bled shadow.
Maya made a decision. I saw it in her eyes—the moment survival instinct overrode panic. She grabbed a lab scalpel and a bottle of ethanol. "For emergencies."
Smart girl.
We kicked open the window to the maintenance platform. The air outside was thick with strange energies. I could see them now with my new senses—streamers of cosmic energy flowing toward certain locations. The Wilshire Grand Center was one, glowing like a beacon in my void sense.
Los Angeles was burning in ways fire couldn't explain. Buildings shimmered with impossible geometries. The sky had developed a second, fainter sun that pulsed violet. And things flew between the skyscrapers—too large, too wrong.
We started down the ladder. My body moved with efficiency I didn't possess an hour ago. The System wasn't just giving information. It was upgrading me. Slowly. Incrementally.
Halfway down, the stairwell window exploded outward.
It unfolded from shadow—a creature of stone and nightmare, wings of fractured granite, eyes that were voids in reality. It clung to the building face, head cocked at an impossible angle as it tracked us.
VOID-TINGED GARGOYLE: EARLY APPRENTICE REALM
ABILITIES: SHADOW PHASE, SPIRITUAL DRAIN, STONE FLESH
WEAKNESS: LIGHT-BASED ENERGY, DISRUPTION OF VOID COHERENCE
It didn't roar. It sang—a sound that vibrated in the hollow places between molecules. My void sense screamed in warning.
"Keep going!" I shouted to Maya below me.
The gargoyle lunged, not through the air, but through a fold in shadow—disappearing from one spot and reappearing three feet from me, claws extended.
I did the only thing my analytical mind could process: I calculated trajectories.
My lab pole struck not where the gargoyle was, but where it would be when the shadow-fold completed. The carbon fiber connected with a sound like ringing crystal. The gargoyle shrieked, more surprise than pain.
COMBAT DATA RECORDED.
VOID-SENSE PREDICTIVE MODELING: INITIATED.
YOU HAVE DEVELOPED: VOID-ECHO SIGHT (RUDIMENTARY)
The world gained another layer. I could see the echoes of movement before they happened—faint afterimages tracing probable futures. The System was learning from me. Adapting to my unique senses.
The gargoyle recovered, swiping. I dodged, but not fast enough. Stone claws grazed my arm. Blood welled—black and shimmering with void energy.
VOID CORRUPTION DETECTED. SPIRITUAL SIGNATURE INTEGRATING FOREIGN ENERGY.
WARNING: ASSIMILATION MAY RESULT IN MUTATION OR DEMONIC TRANSFORMATION.
ALTERNATIVE: PURGE CORRUPTION (REQUIRES SPIRITUAL CONTROL) OR ABSORB (REQUIRES VOID AFFINITY MASTERY).
I made a choice. I stopped fighting the void energy invading my wound. Instead, I guided it through my newborn void sense, filtering it, making it mine.
The black receded from my blood. The wound knit itself shut, leaving silver scar tissue. My Spiritual Sense jumped to 35/100.
VOID CORRUPTION ASSIMILATED.
VOID AFFINITY INCREASED: 2%
NEW ABILITY UNLOCKED: MINOR VOID RESISTANCE
The gargoyle hesitated, sensing the change. I didn't.
I lunged, not with strength, but with precision. My pole struck the join between wing and body—a weakness my void-echo sight highlighted. The creature staggered. I struck again, aiming for the void-coherence node glowing in my senses.
It shattered like dark glass.
The gargoyle didn't die so much as unravel, its substance dissolving into motes of shadow that flowed into me.
VICTORY OVER VOID-TINGED GARGOYLE.
EXPERIENCE ACCUMULATED.
BODY REFINEMENT: 12/100
SPIRITUAL SENSE: 38/100
LOOT ACQUIRED: VOID-SHARD (MINOR), 3 UNITS OF COSMIC ESSENCE
I panted, leaning against the ladder. The void shard materialized in my hand—a fragment of crystallized nothingness that hummed in harmony with my new sense.
Below, Maya had reached the ground. She stared up at me with wide eyes. "You killed it."
"It was that or die." I climbed down the rest of the way, my movements smoother. Stronger. "The rules have changed, Maya. Physics is negotiable. Reality is tiered. And we're at the very bottom."
She showed me her interface. Her assigned path was STORM CALLER APPRENTICE. Her first trial had been surviving an electrical surge that should have killed her. She'd channeled it instead.
"We should find others," she said. "Strength in numbers."
I looked toward the Wilshire Grand, glowing in my senses. "Maybe. But the System rewards individual ascension. Notice how it personalized our paths? This isn't about building societies. It's about producing… something. Something that can climb a cosmic ladder."
"To what end?"
I thought of the cultivation system we'd built in our theoretical models. Apprentice to God, then beyond to cosmic realms. "To see what's at the top. Or to become it."
A new notification pulsed:
GLOBAL LEADERBOARD INITIALIZED.
TOP 100 CULTIVATORS DISPLAYED.
I pulled it up. Names, realms, locations. The number one spot:
1. KAELEN THORNE — APPRENTICE (PEAK STAGE) — LONDON, UK
Peak Apprentice. Already. The man had advanced through four substages in under an hour. Either extreme luck or terrifying competence.
I scanned down. No Alex Vance. Not yet.
But as I watched, a name flickered at #97: ZHENG LI — APPRENTICE (MID STAGE) — BEIJING. Then it was gone, replaced by another. The rankings were updating in real time. People were dying. People were advancing.
A howl echoed from downtown. Not one voice—a chorus. Pack hunters.
PACK OF VOID-WOLVES DETECTED: 8 ENTITIES, ALL EARLY APPRENTICE.
RECALCULATING PATH TO RESOURCE NODE…
NEW ROUTE: THROUGH THE SUBWAY TUNNELS.
WARNING: UNKNOWN ENERGY SIGNATURES DETECTED BELOW GROUND. POTENTIAL FOR GREATER REWARDS/GREATER DANGERS.
I looked at Maya. She looked at the void-shard in my hand, then at the growing silver patterns spreading like veins up my arm—my body adapting to void energy.
"I'm not staying above ground alone," she said.
"Then we go down." I cracked my neck, feeling the new strength in my limbs. "The System wants us to cultivate. To fight. To ascend. So let's give it what it wants."
PERSONAL QUEST GENERATED: REACH THE WILSHIRE GRAND RESOURCE NODE.
OBJECTIVES:
1. SURVIVE THE SUBWAY TUNNELS (REWARD: 100 COSMIC ESSENCE)
2. REACH APPRENTICE (MID STAGE) BEFORE ARRIVAL (REWARD: PATH-SPECIFIC SKILL)
3. KILL/AVOID THE TUNNEL GUARDIAN (BONUS REWARD)
A guardian. Of course there was a guardian.
I hefted my lab pole, now faintly shimmering with residual void energy. My silver eyes reflected the dying light of the old world.
"Stay close," I said. "And watch for shadows that move wrong."
We ran toward the subway entrance as Los Angeles burned and transformed around us. Above, the second sun pulsed, and in its light, I could almost see the cosmic ladder stretching upward—from Apprentice to God, from God to Galactic Ruler, from Creator to Eternal.
A long way to climb.
But every journey starts with a single, bloody step.
---
[End Chapter 1]