Kain didn't even try to sleep.
Queen's insistent buzz tugged at the back of his mind—eager, bright, impossible to ignore—until he finally exhaled, slipped into the star space, Pangea, the Mountain that was now a physical manifestation of the System and finally to Pangea's System Laboratory.
Instead of the sterile white cube from the beginning, after the System integrated with Pangea, the Lab now blended cold efficiency with the Mountain's transcendent architecture. A domed ceiling arched overhead, its surface a mural of star maps crossed with genetic diagrams. The benches were rich, dark wood that thrummed faintly with power; the instruments retained their sleek forms but carried antique accents. Crystal terminals hovered above the tables, ready to throw schematics; along the walls, glowing glass tubes held micro‑specimens that Kain had collected in System incubators. At the heart of the room, the Evolution Simulator waited like a sealed glass chrysalis.
