The notification appeared while I was heating up last night's gnocchi.
Not on my phone. Not on a screen. Just... there. Floating in the air between me and the microwave, rendered in pale blue text that seemed to exist and not exist at the same time.
[Skill Learned: Cognition - Level 1]
I blinked. The text remained.
I waved my hand through it. My fingers passed through empty air, but the words stayed fixed in space, anchored to nothing.
"What the hell?"
The microwave beeped. The text vanished.
I stood there for a solid thirty seconds, hand still outstretched, waiting for something else to happen. Nothing did. The kitchen smelled like reheated tomato sauce and the fridge hummed its usual off-key note. Outside, someone's car alarm chirped as they locked up.
Everything was normal.
Everything was completely normal.
I grabbed my tupperware and sat down at the table, staring at the spot where the text had been. My heart was doing this weird thing where it wasn't quite racing but wasn't calm either, like it couldn't decide if I should be excited or terrified.
Hallucination? Maybe. I'd been pulling late hours at the office. Five months into the IT job and I was still trying to prove myself. Sleep deprivation could do weird things.
But it hadn't felt like a hallucination. It felt observed. Recorded. Real.
I pulled out my phone and typed "seeing floating text" into Google. The results were exactly what you'd expect: reddit threads about migraines, some VR headset reviews, a bunch of anime recommendations.
Nothing useful.
I ate my gnocchi. The chicken was dry from reheating.
The second notification came at work.
I was troubleshooting a network issue in the server room when the text appeared. Someone had labeled the cables wrong again, because apparently documentation was optional.
[Cognition Level Up! Level 1 → Level 2]
This time I didn't wave at it. I just stared.
The cables. I'd figured out which ones were mislabeled by following the pattern of the IP assignments. Something I'd noticed without really thinking about it.
"Hey, you figure it out?" Derek leaned in through the doorway, coffee in hand. "Mitchell's been breathing down my neck about the latency issues."
"Yeah, just..." I gestured vaguely at the cable management. At the space where the text hung. "Someone mixed up the labels. Give me five minutes."
"You're a lifesaver." He disappeared back toward his desk.
The text faded.
My hands were shaking slightly as I pulled out my phone and opened the notes app.
Observation 1: Text appears when I notice or understand something
Observation 2: Says "Cognition," some kind of mental stat?
Observation 3: It leveled up, from 1 to 2
Observation 4: Only I can see it
I stared at what I'd written. It looked insane. It looked like the kind of thing you'd find in someone's journal right before they got committed.
But I also couldn't deny what I'd seen. Twice now.
I needed to test this.
***
I spent my lunch break in the parking garage.
Away from people. Away from questions. Just me and the concrete pillars and the distant hum of traffic.
I started simple. Looked at the cars around me, really paying attention. Makes, models, license plates. Tried to spot patterns in how people parked, which spaces filled first, why.
Nothing happened.
Okay. Different approach. I examined the parking structure itself. The support beams, the way the levels connected, the drainage system.
Still nothing.
Maybe it only triggered for specific things? Or maybe I needed to actually understand something, not just look?
I walked the entire level, really observing. Taking mental notes. Then I noticed something. One of the support pillars had a crack running up its side. Not huge, but concerning. And there, another one, same pattern, same location on a different pillar.
Load-bearing stress, probably. Same point of maximum tension on each column.
[Cognition Level Up! Level 2 → Level 3]
There.
My breath caught. I'd figured something out. Actually understood why those cracks were there and what they meant. That's what triggered it.
The text faded.
I looked around the garage again. The oil stains on the concrete. I could see which spaces were used most frequently. The slight slope that directed water flow. The security camera placement and where it couldn't see.
Maybe I'd always been able to notice these things. Maybe I was just paying more attention now because of... whatever this was.
[Level 1 Reached]
[XP: 0/20]
A new notification. Different from the skill ones.
Level 1? Of what? Me?
The text faded after a few seconds.
I checked my phone. 12:47. I needed to get back.
My phone buzzed as I was walking to the elevator. Slack message from Mitchell: Network issue resolved? Client's asking.
I stared at it. Normal. Completely, utterly normal.
I had three hours left in my shift. Three hours to act normal while my brain tried to process what the hell was happening to me.
***
The afternoon passed slowly.
I worked through my tickets, fixed some routing issues, helped Janet from accounting reset her password for the third time this month. Normal IT work.
But I kept noticing things. Small things. The way the network traffic spiked at certain times. A pattern in the error logs I was reviewing. The inefficient way our backup system was configured.
Things I might have noticed before, but they seemed... clearer somehow. Like looking at the same picture but in better resolution.
No new notifications though.
***
By 5:30, I clocked out and headed home.
The commute felt strange.
I took the same route I always did, but I found myself observing more. Traffic patterns. Which lane moved faster and why. A car three ahead that was drifting slightly. Driver on their phone, probably.
Was I always this observant? Or was something actually different?
I pulled into my apartment complex and sat in the car for a moment, engine off, just breathing.
This was real. Whatever this was, it was real.
I went inside, dropped my bag by the door, and stood in my living room.
"Okay," I said to the empty apartment. "Let's figure this out."
I spent the next two hours testing.
Physical exercise. Pushups until my arms burned. Nothing. No notifications, no new skills.
I tried solving sudoku puzzles on my phone. Nothing.
Then I went to my bookshelf and grabbed a book on advanced statistics I'd bought for a class but never finished. Graduate-level material. Started reading, really trying to work through the concepts.
It was hard. Dense formulas, complex theorems. I had to re-read sections multiple times, work through the examples carefully.
But no new notifications.
Maybe the system, if that's what this was, didn't care about book learning? Or maybe I needed to understand something in a specific way?
By 8 PM, my head was pounding and I'd made no progress.
I made dinner. Chicken stir-fry, nothing fancy. Ate while reviewing my notes.
What I know:
Some kind of system appeared today It tracks "Cognition," currently Level 3 I'm "Level 1" Need 20 XP for Level 2 Currently have 0 XP
What I don't know:
Why this is happening How to gain XP What any of this means If I'm going insane
My phone buzzed. Text from my mom: How's the new job going? You settling in okay?
I stared at it for a long moment.
Going well, I typed back. Still learning, but I think I'm getting the hang of it.
Not a lie, technically.
I finished eating, cleaned up, and the exhaustion from the day finally caught up with me.
I set an alarm for 7 AM and collapsed into bed.
Sleep came fast.
And with it, dreams of blue text floating in endless darkness, numbers climbing higher and higher, and the sound of something vast and terrible tearing through the sky.
I woke up at 3 AM in a cold sweat, heart pounding, unable to remember the details.
Just a feeling. A feeling of something unsettling...
***
End Chapter 1
Current Status:
Level: 1
XP: 0/20
Skills: Cognition - Level 3