SYSTEM NOTIFICATION: You are reading [Threshold Walker: The Silver Circuit]
The shadow entity poured through the ceiling like liquid darkness, tendrils stretching toward them with impossible geometry.
Jin's heart hammered against his ribs as Dr. Ha pulled him through the office doorway. The silver lines around the hospital corridors burned brighter now, pulsing with an urgent rhythm.
"What is that thing?" Jin gasped as they sprinted down the hall.
"Threshold entity," Dr. Ha replied, her voice remarkably steady. "Class 3 intrusion, if I had to guess."
'Class 3? There's a classification system for nightmare monsters?'
The hospital lights flickered and died, plunging the corridor into darkness. Emergency lights clicked on seconds later, bathing everything in an eerie red glow.
Behind them, the entity's mass stretched and twisted, defying normal physics as it pursued them. When it moved, Jin's vision blurred at the edges, like reality itself objected to the creature's existence.
"In here!" Dr. Ha yanked him into a supply closet and slammed the door.
Jin stared at her in disbelief. "A closet? That thing just came through the ceiling!"
"Not hiding," she said, pulling a small device from her lab coat pocket. It looked like a modified compass, but instead of cardinal directions, it had strange symbols etched around its face. "Thin spot detection. This area has a stronger boundary."
The device's needle spun wildly before settling on a symbol that resembled interlocking circles.
Dr. Ha pressed her ear against the door, listening. "It's still coming. We need to get to the basement level."
"Why the basement?"
"Convergence point," she said, as if that explained everything. She checked her device again. "My equipment is there. I can stabilize the breach."
A horrible scraping sound came from outside the door—like nails on a chalkboard but somehow inside Jin's head rather than his ears.
Dr. Ha grabbed his shoulders, her eyes intense. "Listen carefully. When we run, focus on the brightest silver lines. They'll show the safest path."
"How do you know about the lines?" Jin demanded. "How do you know my name? You were in my dreams!"
"And you were in mine," she said simply. "I don't have time to explain fully, but your father's research—"
The door shuddered as something heavy slammed against it.
"My father?" Jin's voice cracked. "What about my father?"
Another impact. The door hinges groaned.
"Your father created the circuit," Dr. Ha said quickly. "The seventeen points across Seoul—convergence points. The silver lines are pathways between them."
The door splintered at the top corner. A writhing black tendril pushed through the gap.
"NOW!" Dr. Ha shoved the door open and pulled Jin into the corridor.
The entity had spread across the ceiling, its mass pulsing and shifting. Hospital staff and patients were screaming and running in the distance. Alarms blared through the building.
Jin focused on the silver lines as instructed. To his surprise, they formed a coherent pattern amid the chaos—a path leading toward the emergency stairwell.
"There!" He pointed, taking the lead.
They raced down the corridor, the entity flowing after them like a living shadow. Where it touched equipment, electronics sparked and failed. The air around it shimmered with distortion.
Jin pulled open the stairwell door, and they hurried down the concrete steps. The silver lines grew brighter with each floor they descended.
"What is happening to me?" Jin gasped between breaths. "These silver lines—I've been seeing them for weeks!"
"Threshold perception," Dr. Ha explained as they continued downward. "You're a Perceiver—E-Tier sensitivity at least. Your father had it too."
"My father disappeared five years ago in a research accident!"
"Not an accident," Dr. Ha corrected. "A breach event. The First Breach."
Behind them, the stairwell door several floors up crashed open. The entity's mass began oozing down the stairs toward them, faster than should be possible.
They reached the basement level, and Dr. Ha led him through utility corridors to a section marked "Authorized Personnel Only." She swiped a keycard at a nondescript door.
"Welcome to my real laboratory," she said as they entered.
Jin gaped at the room. It looked nothing like a hospital facility. Complex equipment lined the walls—machines with pulsing lights and displays showing data patterns he couldn't comprehend. In the center stood what appeared to be a modified MRI machine, but with additional components surrounding it.
Most striking were the silver lines. They converged here, forming an intricate geometric pattern across the floor, walls, and ceiling—visible only to those who could see them.
Dr. Ha rushed to a control panel, fingers flying across the keyboard. "We need to close the breach before it fully manifests."
"What is that thing?" Jin asked.
"An echo entity. They exist in the space between realities—what we call the Threshold. Sometimes they find thin spots and push through."
"And you hunt them?"
Dr. Ha smiled thinly. "Study them. The Division hunts them."
As if on cue, the facility's phone rang. Dr. Ha glanced at the caller ID and grimaced.
"Speaking of the devil..." She hit the speaker button. "This is Dr. Ha."
"This is Agent Song Hye-Rin, Threshold Containment Division," came a crisp female voice. "We've detected a Class 3 breach at your location. Containment teams are en route. Secure all civilians and evacuate the affected area immediately."
"Already on it, Agent Song," Dr. Ha replied calmly. "I'm initiating stabilization protocols."
"Do not attempt independent containment, Doctor. Division teams are specifically trained for—"
Dr. Ha cut the call and turned to Jin. "We have fifteen minutes before they arrive. Help me prepare the stabilizer."
"I don't know anything about—"
"You don't need to." She pointed to a silver cylindrical device on a nearby table. "Just bring that to the center platform."
As Jin lifted the device, a sharp pain lanced through his head. The silver lines around his vision intensified, and suddenly he could see through the walls—perceiving silver pathways extending throughout the hospital and beyond.
"The entity's coming," he gasped, somehow knowing this without seeing or hearing it.
Dr. Ha nodded, unsurprised. "Your perception is getting stronger. Good. We'll need it."
She took the stabilizer from him and placed it in the center of a circular pattern etched into the floor. The silver lines seemed to flow toward it, converging at the device.
"Stand back," she instructed, activating the machine.
A high-pitched whine filled the room as the stabilizer powered up. The silver lines pulsed brighter, and Jin felt a strange pressure building in his chest.
Suddenly, the laboratory door burst inward. The shadow entity poured into the room like black smoke, tendrils reaching toward them.
Dr. Ha cursed. "It's too close! The stabilizer needs another minute to reach full power!"
The entity surged forward. Jin instinctively stepped between it and Dr. Ha, raising his hands in a futile defensive gesture.
Something unexpected happened.
The silver lines around Jin's hands brightened intensely, and when the entity's tendril touched him, it recoiled as if burned. Jin felt a strange tugging sensation, as if something were being pulled from inside him.
'Push it back,' a voice whispered in his mind—his own, yet somehow different.
Acting on instinct, Jin focused on the silver lines. They responded, stretching from his fingers toward the entity, creating a barrier of silver light.
The entity shrieked—a sound that existed more in their minds than in the air—and retreated slightly.
"Jin!" Dr. Ha shouted, eyes wide. "How are you doing that?"
"I don't know!" he called back, straining to maintain the barrier. It felt like trying to hold back a flood with his bare hands.
The stabilizer's whine reached a crescendo. The device began to spin, emitting pulses of silver-blue energy that matched the rhythm of the lines Jin could see.
The entity writhed and contorted, caught between Jin's barrier and the stabilizer's energy field. It began to fold inward, its mass compressing unnaturally.
"It's working!" Dr. Ha shouted over the noise. "Keep it contained just a few more seconds!"
Jin's vision swam with effort. The silver lines were now visible everywhere, pulsing in time with his heartbeat. Blood trickled from his nose as he strained to maintain the connection.
With a final pulse of energy, the stabilizer released a wave that passed through everything in the room. When it touched the entity, the creature seemed to implode, folding in on itself until it vanished with a final, mind-piercing shriek.
Jin collapsed to his knees, gasping. The silver lines dimmed but didn't disappear entirely.
Dr. Ha rushed to his side, medical training taking over as she checked his pulse. "Your heart rate is elevated, pupils dilated. How do you feel?"
"Like my brain is trying to escape through my eyes," Jin groaned. "What did I just do?"
"Line Tracing—or something like it," she said, her voice laced with excitement and concern. "You shouldn't be able to do that as an E-Tier. It's a B-Tier ability at minimum."
Jin wiped the blood from his nose. "None of those words mean anything to me."
Before Dr. Ha could explain, the sound of boots and equipment came from the corridor outside.
"Division agents," she whispered. "They can't find you here—not after what you just displayed."
"Why not?"
Dr. Ha's expression darkened. "Because they'll take you to a facility where you'll never be seen again."
The laboratory door opened, and a woman in a sleek black tactical uniform entered, flanked by similarly dressed agents. Her sharp features and penetrating gaze took in the scene in an instant. The silver badge on her chest read: "Agent Song Hye-Rin, TCD."
"Dr. Ha," she said coolly. "I believe I instructed you not to attempt independent containment."
"The situation required immediate action," Dr. Ha replied, subtly positioning herself between the agents and Jin.
Agent Song's gaze shifted to Jin, her eyes narrowing slightly. "And who is this?"
"Hospital orderly," Dr. Ha said before Jin could speak. "Was helping me evacuate when the entity appeared."
Agent Song stepped closer, studying Jin with unsettling intensity. "You're bleeding, orderly."
Jin touched his nose self-consciously. "Hit my face when we were running."
Something in Agent Song's expression suggested she didn't believe him. She glanced at the stabilizer, then back at Jin.
"Interesting," she said simply. Then, to the other agents: "Secure the area. Standard post-breach protocols."
As the agents moved to comply, Agent Song turned back to Dr. Ha. "You and your... assistant will need to come with us for debriefing."
Dr. Ha's hand tightened on Jin's shoulder. "Of course, Agent Song. Standard procedure."
Jin looked between them, sensing the tension beneath their professional exchange. As Agent Song turned to speak with another agent, Jin noticed something strange—unlike everything else in the room, there were no silver lines around her. It was as if she existed in a bubble of normal reality.
Suddenly, the remaining silver lines in Jin's vision flared blindingly bright. Pain exploded behind his eyes, and he heard a voice—his father's voice—whispering urgently:
"The circuit... find the circuit..."
Jin's eyes rolled back in his head as he collapsed. The last thing he saw before darkness claimed him was Agent Song's face, a flash of recognition in her eyes as she watched his own eyes glow silver.
Author's Note: Jin's abilities are manifesting much faster than normal! Why do you think Agent Song doesn't have silver lines around her? And how does Dr. Ha know so much about the Threshold? Share your theories in the comments!
Coming Next: Chapter 3: Threshold Sickness - Jin awakens in Division custody and learns the true cost of his emerging abilities.