The sky above was no longer burning.
After the madness of yesterday—the strange beasts, the gold figure, and the sharp surge of awareness—today felt… quiet. Not peaceful. Not safe. Just quiet. The kind of silence that hides something beneath it.
He walked through the ruins of the old city—what was left of a place that once knew traffic lights, electric wires, honking cars, and crowds of busy lives. Nature had started reclaiming it. Vines spilled over cracked highways. Trees grew through shattered buildings. It smelled of damp earth and rusted metal.
He wasn't sure what to call this world yet. It was like Earth. But it wasn't Earth. There were no people. No animals, except the ones twisted into monstrous forms. No familiar voices. Just echoes of the past in broken machines and moss-covered skeletons.
But something was changing now.
Ever since the golden figure entered his body, something inside him was alive—breathing, whispering, watching. And this morning, when he'd opened his eyes, a strange interface hovered faintly before him, like a translucent dream he couldn't swipe away.
[MULTIVERSE LINK ACTIVE]
Consciousness Alignment: 47%
Primary Directive: "Observe. Learn. Adapt."
Skill: [Eye of Reflection] Acquired.
He had no idea what it meant. But the world no longer felt like it was just collapsing. It felt like it was… waiting.
He kept walking, following nothing. Trusting something.
Eventually, he reached a collapsed tower—once a hospital, maybe. A single road stretched ahead like a spine, vanishing into the mist. There was a strange pulse in the air here, faint, but rhythmic. Like breathing. Or a heartbeat.
He stepped through the front doors, pushing aside brittle vines.
The inside was quiet, but not dead. In one of the intact rooms, something glowed—a mirror, shattered across the wall. Each fragment reflected something different. In one shard, he saw himself as a child. In another, he was old. One showed him surrounded by flames. Another, by stars.
And in the largest piece—he saw himself just as he was now. Watching.
[Eye of Reflection Activated]
Skill Description: Mirrors the truth of existence. Reveals paths not yet walked.
As he touched it, something unlocked.
The golden voice returned. Not speaking, but guiding. Pushing.
Suddenly, he wasn't alone.
In the hallway behind him stood a man—a silhouette in black, blurry and shifting. The man didn't speak. He just raised his hand, and the mirror trembled.
The man looked exactly like him.
But colder. Harsher. More real.
[Parallel Self Detected]
Origin: Timeline [UNKNOWN]
Status: Hostile.
The copy rushed forward like a shadow snapping loose from the wall.
He dodged, barely. No time to think. His hands moved instinctively—calling on nothing he'd learned, but everything he now remembered. His limbs knew a rhythm they never had. His mind reacted faster than it should.
As their fists met, the world seemed to stutter.
Glass shattered again. Light warped. Space folded for an instant.
And just like that, it was over.
The copy vanished into shards of black smoke, dissolving into the air like a memory too old to hold.
But a part of him had changed again.
[Multiverse Awareness: 53%]
New Skill: [Echo Shift]
Ability: Step briefly into another possibility.
He sat in the quiet after, breathing heavy, back against the cold wall. His hands trembled—not in fear, but in knowing. This world wasn't just broken. It was layered.
This version of the Earth… was only the first.
The golden presence pulsed once more, warmer this time. Affirming.
Soon, he would leave this world. Travel beyond. But not yet.
First, he had to understand who he was in this one.
And why, when he was finally alone in the world… he felt watched by infinite versions of himself.