Day One — Candidate Evaluation Room]
The first thing Kai noticed was silence.
He woke sprawled across cold steel flooring, light strips flickering overhead.
His head throbbed with a dull ache — fragments of Branch-Zero's collapse still echoing like distant static.
But this wasn't Branch-Zero.
He was… back?
The familiar Awakening Facility walls surrounded him, candidates milling about, instructors pacing between testing stations as if nothing had happened.
Except something had happened.
His OmniBand blinked faint gold on his wrist, faint system glyphs crawling beneath the glass like living circuitry.
"…Was it… a dream?"
Then the ping came. Sharp. Loud. Cold.
[Omni-God Status Update]
[Candidate Kai Veyren]
Tier: Zero Anomaly
Evolution Path: Adaptive Luck (Active)
Memory Bleed: 4% (Anchor Memory Erased)
Warning: Singularity Instability Detected.
Kai froze. No one around him reacted. No one heard it.
And then his fingers clenched reflexively — like his body already knew something his mind didn't.
[Testing Chamber Chaos]
"Candidates, form into pairs," an instructor barked from the central platform. "Sparring evaluations begin now."
Across the room, Joren Lask smirked when his gaze locked onto Kai.
His golden B-rank badge shimmered proudly.
"Null-tier boy. Perfect."
He strode forward, cracking his knuckles theatrically.
The crowd murmured, some whispering bets on how quickly Kai would lose.
Kai stood stiff, throat tight, until the Omni-God interface flickered again:
[Adaptive Luck Engaged.]
Probability Adjustment: Passive
Note: Outcomes favor survival.
[The Impossible Strike]
Joren lunged first, fist arcing straight toward Kai's temple.
Instinct screamed at him to dodge — but his body moved wrong.
He slipped, stumbled sideways into another candidate, bounced off the floor, and accidentally rolled forward beneath Joren's swing.
Joren's punch connected — but not with Kai.
It slammed directly into the live-edge sparring console. Sparks erupted as a surge of electricity burst through the platform. The shockwave launched Joren backward into the crystalline training wall.
A faint crack echoed.
The wall held.
Joren… didn't.
He collapsed in a heap, unconscious before his body hit the floor.
The room fell silent.
"…What… just happened?" Kai whispered.
Then came the next ping.
[Omni-God Alert]
[Candidate Kai Veyren]
Probability Shift: -23%
Result: S-tier Prodigy Joren Lask — Terminated
Cause: "Accidental self-inflicted impact."
Status: Anomaly Flagged.
Threat Level: Tier-1.
[Protocol Hunters Deployed.]
[Panic Rising]
Gasps erupted across the room.
"Instructor! He—he killed him without even touching him!"
"That's not possible…"
"That was a B-rank. He just—"
Kai stumbled backward, chest heaving.
"I didn't… I didn't do anything!"
But deep inside, something in him knew the truth: Adaptive Luck had rewritten probability itself. The strike that should have ended him ended Joren instead.
And Omni-God had noticed.
[Catalyst Synchronization Surge]
A new alert slammed into his vision:
[Catalyst Kai Synchronization 23% → 31%.]
Variant Status: Preferred Candidate.
Branch Deviation: 0.17s.
Kai's breath caught.
Catalyst was getting stronger, faster, somewhere across another branch.
Every step Kai took… Catalyst stayed ahead.
[Protocol Hunter Arrival]
The training chamber lights dimmed.
A sharp click echoed from the ceiling.
Then they descended — three tall figures clad in black, segmented armor marked with gold Omni-God sigils. Helmets obscured their faces entirely, but their movements were precise, mechanical, terrifyingly efficient.
The lead figure's voice was distorted, filtered through layers of synthetic reverb:
"Tier-Zero Anomaly confirmed."
"Initiate containment."
Every candidate in the room backed away instantly.
Kai raised his hands slowly. "I didn't—"
The lead Hunter blurred forward, striking faster than Kai could blink.
Instinct screamed move — but he didn't have to.
Because Adaptive Luck moved for him.
[Adaptive Luck: Passive Triggered]
Outcome Shift: +76%.
Probability Branch Selected: Evasion Successful.
Kai's body twisted, the Hunter's strike missing by a hair. The gauntlet smashed into the floor instead, cracking the reinforced steel.
For a split second, Kai saw an opening — pure instinct, pure chaos.
He dove, rolled, grabbed a fallen OmniSpear, and came up trembling, weapon aimed squarely at the Hunter's chest.
The HUD screamed:
[Warning: Probability Cascade Escalating.]
Chain Event Likelihood: Critical.
[Singularity Surge]
The walls of the chamber bent inward for a heartbeat, warped light fracturing like glass.
Across every mirrored fragment, Kai saw flashes of Catalyst standing in parallel — calm, composed, perfect — as if mocking him.
"Still too slow," Catalyst whispered faintly, though his lips didn't move.
Then the world slammed back into place.
[Hunter Override Directive]
[Omni-God Directive Override:]
Protocol Hunters: Full Power Authorization.
Threat Level Reclassified: Tier-0+.
The lead Hunter's gauntlets glowed faint gold.
"This candidate," the filtered voice rasped,
"…cannot be allowed to evolve."
[Adaptive Luck Overload]
[Adaptive Luck Probability Override: 94%.]
Passive Safety Limit Reached.
Warning: Unstable luck event imminent.
Kai didn't hear the system's final line.
Because the console beside the Hunters exploded, spearing fragments of crystallized glass across the chamber. The shockwave sent the Hunters sprawling backward.
Everyone froze.
Kai lowered the spear slowly, chest heaving, hands shaking.
"…I didn't… touch them…"
The Omni-God HUD bloomed in his vision, one final line searing across his mind:
[Tier-1 Anomaly Confirmed.]
Containment Failure Recorded.
Next Directive:
"Branch-Zero Priority Lock Activated."
[Volume 2 Ending Scene]
The Hunters withdrew, retreating into a burst of white-gold light. The lead one turned, voice colder than before:
"Candidate Kai Veyren…"
"You're no longer part of the Awakening Program."
The chamber fell silent again — but Kai's HUD didn't.
[Warning: Catalyst Kai Synchronization Now 37%.]
Recommendation: Survive the next 24 hours.