But by fortune—or perhaps fate—no one was there to witness the phenomenon at a level they could comprehend. No one saw what happened next. The portal, just as it had appeared, vanished. Along with it, every trace of aura and fluctuation disappeared, leaving behind not the slightest hint of its presence.
Back in Anthony's now darkened room, the sun had dipped below the horizon only moments ago. A thin sliver of streetlight slipped through the curtains, barely lighting the space.
Silently, a small portal opened above his head—the same kind that had closed hundreds of thousands of light-years away. From it slipped the shrunken sphere of light, now no larger than a pea.
It descended at that same unimaginable speed, then sank directly into Anthony's brow without the slightest resistance. It passed through bone and flesh as if they did not exist, moving straight into his brain—and deeper still.
Within him lay another sea—a sea of consciousness. It stretched roughly a kilometer in radius from its center to its edges. White clouds formed a fog-like boundary around it, while the interior was nothing but empty, shimmering white space.
The sphere of light stopped at the very center of this sea of consciousness and hovered there.
Then it began to shake.
Ripples of energy burst from it like a sudden downpour, slamming into the shimmering white space. The sea of consciousness trembled violently, waves spreading outward just as water ripples when a stone is thrown into it. Even the foggy boundaries quivered under the strands of radiant energy leaking from the sphere.
The entire inner world shook under its presence.
And if one looked carefully, they would be able to see that the entire sea of consciousness was expanding under the infusion of those strands of radiant energy. With every ripple released from the hovering sphere, the sea widened, growing by dozens of meters in diameter each second. What was once vast began to stretch even further, filled with a denser and purer form of energy.
At the same time, thin strands of that radiant substance drifted out of the sea of consciousness, as if guided by an unseen will. They flowed into his brain first, then gradually spread throughout his entire body.
Once the circulation was complete, the strands reached every part of Anthony—his brain, his heart, his internal organs, even his bones. Nothing was left untouched. Moving along his blood vessels, the radiant strands slowly fractured into microscopic particles.
Those particles latched onto his blood cells, bones, marrow, organs, skin, and muscles. They merged seamlessly, strengthening and refining them. Yet they did not alter his fundamental nature. Instead of changing what he was, the energy began perfecting his genetic structure itself—enhancing what already existed, polishing it to a level far beyond ordinary limits.
All of it happened silently, without pain, without disturbance.
Anthony remained asleep, unaware that every cell in his body was being rewritten from within.
As the process intensified, his blood began to change color. It first deepened into a dark red, then slowly shifted toward gold. At the beginning, the golden shade was faint, almost unnoticeable. But as more and more particles of radiant energy latched onto his blood cells, the transformation became complete. Every drop turned a rich, luminous gold.
At one point, the blood itself began to glow, as if it could no longer contain the energy within it.
As the blood changed, his organs were not left untouched. His heart trembled for a brief moment, turning almost translucent before solidifying into a radiant golden heart. It began pumping out golden blood through his entire body, flooding every vein and artery.
His kidneys and other organs were quietly reshaped and refined, their structures perfected.
His bones and marrow were reforged and reinforced to an unknown degree, becoming denser and stronger than ever before. His muscles and skin were strengthened as well, elevated far beyond their previous limits.
Every single part of his body was transformed—reshaped and raised to an unimaginable level.
Yet the greatest change occurred in his brain.
Much like his heart, its outer structure remained the same. But internally, something profound had shifted. How it had changed, and to what extent, remained a mystery—one that Anthony himself would only discover when he awoke from this short sleep.
As the transformation continued within him, the true extent of what was happening remained unknown. What was certain, however, was that he had been completely reshaped from what he was just moments ago.
He was in for a surprise when he woke.
And who knew what other mysteries that ball of radiant light still contained?
Despite releasing such a vast amount of energy, neither its size nor its radiance dimmed in the slightest. Whatever changes it had brought upon Anthony—his body, his consciousness, even his soul—were not enough to drain it.
The trembling of the sphere of light finally stopped only when Anthony's body had been elevated to what seemed like a satisfactory level.
And yet, despite the unimaginable transformation taking place within him, Anthony showed no reaction at all. He lay on his bed, deeply asleep, lost in his dream world. It was as if the changes had no effect on his mind or dreams—nothing strong enough to wake him.
Most likely, it was the sphere of light's doing. Even if the process did not appear painful from the outside, such elevation should have come at a cost. Fortunately, Anthony avoided any suffering under the grace of the sphere of light.
Suddenly—
DING!!
A sound echoed.
No one was there to hear it. And even if they had been, they wouldn't have been able to. The sound had erupted inside Anthony's mind.
Had he not been unconscious, his eyes would have flown open at the familiar tone. He would have seen it too—a luminous white panel floating just above him.
On it, in bold golden letters, were the words:
[The Transcendent Technological System Assimilation in Progress.]
Beneath it, a percentage counter climbed steadily.
10%…30%…40%…60%…80%…90%…95%…99.9%…
Finally—
100%.