Chapter 2 – Testing the Impossible
Rion didn't sleep the next night.
Well, technically, he did.
He just wasn't sure where.
The moment his eyelids closed, the world flipped again.
When he opened them, he was back in the futuristic apartment — same bed, same city glowing beyond the window, same calm voice greeting him.
For a second, it didn't just feel like traveling — it felt like remembering. Like slipping into a dream he'd already lived once before. His heartbeat wasn't even his own, yet his body moved like it recognized him.
> "Good morning, Engineer Vale. Would you like to continue yesterday's prototype?"
He stared at the floating hologram above his wrist. "Prototype…?"
Apparently, this version of him was working on something important — some kind of small, glowing cube on the desk, covered in cables and data screens.
He reached for it, but hesitated.
"Wait, wait, wait. Let's think this through," he muttered. "If this is real, then I can… move between two lives?"
He looked around the room again — sleek furniture, walls made of shifting glass, air that smelled clean and electric.
The tech was insane. Everything hummed with invisible energy.
He touched a console on the desk.
Instantly, lines of light spread across the surface, forming a holographic menu written in symbols he somehow understood.
It was like muscle memory — the knowledge belonged to his other self, but he could use it too.
He typed a few commands, watching floating diagrams appear: Quantum Stabilizer — Mark VII.
His jaw dropped.
"…I don't even know what that means, but it sounds expensive."
He opened a drawer and found something smaller — a pen-sized energy cell that glowed faint blue.
Out of instinct, he pocketed it.
Then he thought, go home.
In an instant, he was back — sitting on his own messy bed in 2025, holding that same glowing cylinder in his hand.
He froze. The thing was still there.
It didn't vanish.
"…No way."
He turned it over, watching the faint light pulse between his fingers.
It wasn't just memory.
He could bring things back.
Rion leaned back on his chair, staring at the glowing cell with wide eyes.
His heart was racing, not from fear this time — but excitement.
A grin crept across his face.
"So… it's real. I can travel. I can steal the future."
He sat up, grabbed a notebook, and started writing:
Rule #1: Can jump between bodies by thought.
Rule #2: Time flows equally in both worlds.
Rule #3: Items can cross over.
Rule #4: Don't freak out.
He stared at the last line for a moment, then added a fifth:
Rule #5: Try not to blow up the apartment.
He looked at the glowing cylinder again and smirked.
"Guess it's time for a science experiment."