Days passed and the world subtly began to notice.
Not with alarm. Not with understanding. Just unease.
His mother held him one morning and paused again. Her breath hitched. There was nothing wrong nothing outwardly strange but there was something too focused in the way he watched the world.
Not curiosity. Awareness.
The kind seen in soldiers, not infants.
She brushed it aside. Told herself she was imagining it.
She wasn't.
---
He trained again that night inwardly, silently.
Now with pain under control, he could push further without screaming without betraying progress.
Neck control again. Longer this time.
Leg kicks. Measured and repeated, not flailing like a baby.
Breath, always breath. Every inhalation deliberate.
His body responded better than before not stronger by miracle, but less wasteful. More efficient.
> +0.03 Training Progress
Accumulated foundation is beginning to compound
He rested again not from necessity but restraint.
If he appeared too abnormal too soon, it could draw the wrong kind of attention.
The System rewarded effort but the world punished it if revealed prematurely.
Even as a baby he understood he was building in secret.
---
A change occurred on the third night after that.
Not in his body.
In the System.
For the first time, a silent flicker as if it were not simply reacting, but… observing.
Almost as though someone or something had taken notice of him.
Not a reward.
Not guidance.
Simply attention.
And then silence again.