From Light to Flesh - Marvel:The Anchor

The transition from a disembodied soul to a creature of flesh and blood was a violent, sensory assault. One moment, I was a point of light in a silent void; the next, I was inhaling the thick, musty scent of old carpet, stale pizza, and something vaguely like urban decay.

My back ached, pressed against a lumpy mattress with springs that felt like they were actively plotting against my spine. The distant wail of a siren cut through the night, a sound so mundane it was utterly alien after an eternity of silence. I had a body again, with all the discomfort and vulnerability that entailed.

I opened my eyes. A cracked ceiling stained with the ghost of a long-past water leak greeted me. I sat up, the rusty groan of the mattress springs protesting the movement. My new body felt weak, uncoordinated, like a poorly piloted mech I'd been dropped into without a manual.

And then my vision exploded in a cascade of brilliant blue light, a digital waterfall that completely obscured the dreary room

["a bedroom with a man sitting on a mattress, overlaid with glowing blue holographic game screens showing stats and maps. The screens are displaying text about initializing a game system and integrating unique skills. The man looks directly at the viewer with a surprised expression. The room is messy with pizza boxes and discarded items.", "text: [Welcome, Gamer!], text: [System Initializing... Complete]

[Unique Skills Successfully Integrated: Origin Acquisition, The Gamer, Great Sage.]

The Gamer UI screens are now clearer, with the text more prominently displayed and readable. The overall effect remains a blend of mundane reality and futuristic holographic display.

[Welcome, Gamer!]

[System Initializing... Complete.]

[Unique Skills Successfully Integrated: Origin Acquisition, The Gamer, Great Sage.]

A dozen more windows popped into existence, overlapping and vying for my attention. A character sheet with pitifully low numbers, a list of basic skills I didn't recognize, a world map that was mostly fog. It was a chaotic storm of information, a user interface designed by a sadist with a penchant for clutter. My heart, my very real and suddenly very fast-beating heart, began to pound with a primal panic. This was too much, too fast.

A voice, perfectly calm and synthesized, spoke not to my ears, but inside my head. It was cool, logical, and cut through my rising panic like a scalpel through silk. The chaotic mess of windows instantly vanished, collapsing into a single point of light before resolving into a clean, minimalist notification in the top right corner of my vision.

[Status: Normal. Awaiting User Command.]

"Raphael?" I whispered, the name feeling natural on my tongue, a word of power I hadn't known I possessed.

"Yes. Please." My relief was palpable.

My vision hazed over for a second as Raphael worked. The final moments in the void came rushing back, not as a chaotic memory, but as a neat, indexed file, played back with perfect clarity. I saw the ROB, a being of living starlight, beginning to turn away, its purpose for me seemingly fulfilled.

But in that final microsecond, a thought, born of a lifetime of reading stories about seizing every possible opportunity, had screamed through my consciousness.

"Before I depart, mighty being," my soul had projected, a thought filled with equal parts terror and audacity. "Would you permit me to use my new ability on you? As a… test run? To calibrate it."

The ROB had paused. A feeling of pure, cosmic amusement washed over me. It was the emotional equivalent of a mountain laughing at a pebble's attempt to climb it.

I had focused my entire will on the being and activated the skill. [Origin Acquisition].

The result was instantaneous and catastrophic. It wasn't like downloading a file; it was like having the entire Pacific Ocean shot through a garden hose into my brain. Data—incomprehensible, dimension-shattering data—slammed into my soul. Concepts my mind couldn't even form, let alone process.

[ERROR: Target data volume exceeds user processing capacity by a factor of infinity.]

[ERROR: Target dimensional state incompatible.]

[SKILL FAILURE]

A wave of the ROB's power had shielded me, preventing my very concept of self from being erased by the feedback.

the ROB's voice echoed, the amusement now tinged with something like respect.

the entity had explained.

A new stream of information, gentle and structured this time, flowed into me.

the ROB had added, its tone becoming severe.

The memory faded, leaving me sitting in the silent, grimy apartment.

Raphael's voice stated calmly. <[Skill Gained: Akashic Link (Read-Only)].>

I stared at the cracked ceiling, my mind a whirlwind. I had a key to the universe's secrets. It was a power so profound it dwarfed my other wishes. Origin Acquisition and The Gamer were tools for growth; this was a key to omniscience.

"Raphael," I said, my voice hoarse. "Show me my stats. Show me everything."