Alex lived on a third floor and rarely used an elevator. Today was no exception. Eager to return to his flat, he ran up the stairs, clutching a strange silver plate he had found earlier in one hand and Michael (not the leash but the entire dog) in the other.
After opening the door and stepping into the hallway, Alex placed the mysterious plate on the floor and removed Michael's collar.
The dog walked to the laundry basket, curled up inside, and looked at his owner with mildly curious eyes.
Alex, meanwhile, examined the mysterious plate again, hesitated for a moment, then sat down in front of it and slowly inserted his hand into its silvery surface.
His fingers sank right in.
Alex gulped.
Slowly, he stood and took off his jacket. After glancing at his phone, he saw that it was already 7:05. He had better hurry if he didn't want to miss the bus.
Of course, Alex had no intention of going to work today.
He sent a message to his workplace saying he was sick, then went into his bedroom and collapsed onto the bed.
He didn't dare to examine his discovery now, still weary after a sleepless night. First, he needed proper rest.
Alex lay his head on the pillow and felt something hard beneath it. It was a book. Since childhood, he had the habit of placing newly bought books under his pillow. Back then, it was so he could easily reach them and read under a blanket while his parents were asleep. Gradually, however, it became a ritual that he maintained simply for the fun of it.
He ran his fingers over the smooth, hard cover and began to read. Twenty minutes later, his eyelids grew heavy, and he drifted into a dream…
Morning dreams are often dreary and absurd. After waking up, Alex went straight into the hallway and slipped his hand into the silver plate to make sure it hadn't been a dream.
His hand passed through.
At that moment, Alex felt a surge of fiery enthusiasm that burned away the last shreds of the sleepy haze that was clouding his mind.
It took him a great deal of will to suppress the urge to immediately enter the plate and see what lay inside... no, beyond it.
First, he needed to prepare. Alex pulled on his jacket and headed to the nearby store. Twenty minutes later, he returned with a bag containing a tripod, a rope, an army knife, and other items he thought might prove useful.
Alex turned on the camera on his phone, attached it to the tripod, and carefully pushed it through the silvery surface. After a minute, he pulled it back and played the video.
Gradually, a frown appeared on his face. There was nothing on the video—just a black screen.
In fact, Alex himself wasn't sure what exactly he had expected to see. A green grove in the middle of a mystic forest? A tower of a wise magician? The interior of a starship? Whatever it was, the darkness felt like a letdown.
He repeated the experiment, this time with his phone's flashlight turned on. He watched the new video as attentively as humanly possible.
And he saw it. Some kind of animal appeared in the distance. Feeling agitated, Alex paused the video, took a closer look… and gasped.
It was a dog.
Was it Cerberus, the three‑headed guardian of the underworld?
No.
It was an ordinary mongrel.
Alex froze, then looked around the room. Michael was nowhere to be found, and the laundry basket was empty.
Alex immediately sprang to his feet, grabbed the knife and the flashlight, and rushed through the silvery surface.
Pitch darkness engulfed him the moment he stepped to the other side… or so he thought, until the beam of the flashlight fell upon the floor. It was black and smooth, like obsidian. The temperature was no different from that of his room. The air was odorless and suitable for breathing.
Alex coaxed his dog toward him and pushed it back into the apartment on the other side of the plate. Only then did he manage to relax and turn his attention to the strange black world stretching endlessly around him.
At first glance, there was nothing in it apart from the silver plate. Alex examined it first from the side through which he had entered, then from the other.
He hadn't expected much from that inspection and was surprised to find that the other side of the plate was covered in strange symbols.
What that some kind of language?
Alex carefully touched the shimmering symbols with the tip of the knife.
Nothing happened.
He put on a glove and ran his hand over the silvery surface.
Again, nothing.
At last, he touched the plate with his bare finger. The symbols suddenly began to shift, reshaping themselves into letters. The letters formed words, and within moments the mysterious writings on the plate had turned into plain English:
[Linguistic analysis — complete.
Mental analysis — complete
Genetic analysis — complete
Lifeform: Biochemical
Intelligence classification: Sapient
Rank: 1
Managerial suitability assessment: 66.4%.
Threshold exceeded.
Conclusion: Suitable.
…
…
…]
A loading bar appeared on the surface of the plate, just like in a video game when it starts compiling shaders.
Alex's heart thundered in anticipation.
Finally, new words emerged on the plate:
[Welcome, Manager.]
The moment he read the greeting, the silver plate began to flash with blinding radiance…