The bead pulsed with a gentle hum, like it was breathing.
Kai held the tiny object between his fingers, still unsure if he should follow the strange instructions. The note remained on the table, its handwriting perfect and unnatural.
"It was yours to begin with."
His heartbeat echoed in his ears. He reached for a blade, pricked his finger, and let a single drop of blood fall.
As soon as it touched the bead, the change was immediate.
The bead absorbed it—no stain, no residue. It simply drank. Then it began to glow from within, a pale blue light that deepened into violet. Kai blinked. The light flickered in patterns. Not randomly — like code.
He hesitated for only a second before bringing it to his lips.
And swallowed.
It went down like nothing. No pain. No taste.
But the moment it entered his body, everything shifted.
His breath caught. A sharp pain struck behind his eyes, like lightning crawling through his skull. He fell to his knees. The room spun.
And then—
Silence.
---
He stood in a white space.
Not a dream. Not a memory. Something else. Infinite, yet contained. There was no sound, no time, no direction.
But there was presence.
Images burst into being — not in front of his eyes, but inside his mind.
A city of silver towers floating in the sky.
A man with glowing circuits in his skin.
A machine the size of a mountain whispering in binary.
A boy — him? — standing in front of a massive tree made of data.
Who are they?
Why do I remember this?
The images moved too fast. They weren't dreams — they were memories.
Not his. And yet… somehow his.
---
His body trembled as he returned to reality. The table, the chair, the faded walls. Everything was the same.
Except him.
Kai gasped, grabbing the edge of the table. He felt… awake. More than ever before. The air felt richer. Sounds were clearer. He could hear the faint buzzing of the tube light above him — something he had never noticed in years.
He looked at the note again. One glance — and he had memorized it entirely. Not just the words, but the handwriting pattern, the ink pressure, the tilt of each letter.
His thoughts were moving faster than he could follow.
What's happening to me?
---
He looked at the calendar on the wall.
July 10th. The corner of the page was folded oddly — he'd never noticed that before. His mind instantly calculated:
Fold angle: ~35 degrees.
Shadow cast: 2.4cm.
Sunlight origin: southeast window. Approx. time: 9:17 AM.
Kai staggered back.
He hadn't tried to think any of that.
The knowledge just… came.
Like a reflex.
His brain had updated.
---
He stumbled to the mirror.
His face was the same.
But his eyes — they shimmered for a moment. A faint flicker of light, like a passing glitch in a screen. It vanished.
His heart raced.
Something had begun.
Something far beyond understanding.
---