The crowd erupted in confusion and disbelief. A freshman had just obliterated the academy's elite testing construct—not with brute force, but with impossible precision.
But Rael stood silent. Dust drifted down around him like stardust as the combat hall's alarms blared in the distance.
Inside his mind, a glimmer pulsed.
> [NeXus: Quantum Gate OS v1.0 Activated]
Welcome, user. Core integrity recognized.
Class: Undefined (Creating Custom Evolution Path…)
You are now recognized as an Awakened Outlier.
Initiating first branch selection…
1. Phantom Core: +Agility, +Cloak, +Illusionary Slash
2. Prime Relic: +Defense, +Multiverse Storage Access
3. Ruin Scribe: +Analysis, +Reality Break, +Gene Hacking (unstable)
Rael blinked, heart thudding. This wasn't in any academy guide. He wasn't supposed to even have access to core path branches until third-year.
He chose without hesitation. [Ruin Scribe]
The screen flickered.
> Warning: Ruin Scribe path is incomplete. Core structure unstable. Side effects may include memory leaks, phantom limbs, and temporal echoes. Proceed?
Proceed.
A white-hot blaze flooded his bones. Then—darkness.
He fell forward. No one caught him.
---
Rael awoke in his dorm, sweating. His fingers were still trembling, fingertips glowing faintly. On the wall, projected from a small disk embedded in his wrist, was a glowing panel:
> [System: NeXus Window]
Specter Points: 12
Evolution Branch: Ruin Scribe (1%)
Next unlock: 88 SP
System Sync: 67%
Passive Skill Acquired: Fragment Sight – See cracks in reality or illusions.
Hidden Counter Detected: 1272 days remain…
1272 days? Until what?
He tapped the screen—and it disappeared.
---
At the Academy Arena…
Dean Valkar stared at the replay footage, eyes narrowing.
"This isn't possible. That attack was... beyond B-Rank." He enlarged a frame. "Where did that mask come from?"
The replay showed Rael for a single split second—wearing a jet-black, expressionless mask with digital veins glowing blue. Then it vanished.
Beside him, a cloaked figure stepped into the office. "Dean… we've detected a high-tier relic signature. This kid's system isn't from our realm."
Valkar's heart sank. "You mean... he's not from this world?"
The figure shook his head. "No, Dean. He's from the fractured ones. From the collapsed edge of the multiverse."
---
Meanwhile, Rael stared at his reflection.
He blinked—and his other face appeared for a second. The Specter Mask. Its eyes glowed red.
"I'll walk in shadow," he whispered. "No one touches my family. No one touches my friends. But they'll remember the name…"
He reached out—and the mask fused into his hand.
"…Specter Zero."
---
Outside the academy, a rift shimmered above the moonlit forest. A figure in white robes, her eyes glowing with system code, stepped through.
> "Target located: Rael Syn."
"Initiate: Terminate or Recruit."
Night fell over Arkanis Academy like a velvet shroud. Rael sat on the rooftop, letting the wind cool his burning skin. Below, the lights flickered like fireflies in a glass jar, unaware of the storm building above.
> [NeXus Window Active]
Specter Points: 12
Evolution Branch: Ruin Scribe (1%)
Passive Skill: Fragment Sight – Active
New Event Triggered: Phantom Trial (Solo Instance)
Status: Optional
Difficulty: Variable (Adjusts to user's evolution tier)
Reward: Hidden Skill, Specter Points, Evolution Access
Risk: Fatal
Accept? Y/N
Rael didn't even blink. Y.
The rooftop shimmered. Wind halted mid-breath. The stars bent inward—and reality snapped.
---
Instance Loaded: Phantom Trial Room 001 — Cradle of Echoes
Rael stood on black stone, suspended above a broken universe. Shards of sky floated in zero-gravity silence. Red light slashed through the void.
> "Welcome, Ruin Scribe," a voice boomed—his own voice, but older, colder.
"Let's see if you deserve this power."
A doppelgänger stepped forward—an exact replica of Rael, wearing the Specter mask.
> Trial Condition: Defeat yourself within 300 seconds.
Penalty for failure: Gene corruption, irreversible.
Rael clenched his fists. "No rules. Just survival."
---
[Trial Begins]
Rael lunged—but the Specter clone vanished. A blade of shadow tore across his side before he even registered movement.
"Too slow," the clone's voice echoed.
Rael spun, activating Fragment Sight. For an instant, cracks flared across space, revealing where the clone would move. He pivoted and launched a kick through the breach—
CRACK!
The mask splintered. His clone stumbled, hissing in digital static. Rael didn't stop. He followed through with a punch—into the chest, straight into the clone's core.
> Specter Point +8
Skill Acquired: "Void Pulse Slash" – A blade formed from rift energy. Ignores armor. Cooldown: 5s
The clone collapsed, whispering in glitching static:
> "You… still haven't found her, have you?"
Rael froze. Her?
But the void imploded before he could question more.
---
Instance Complete
> Status: Trial Survived
Skill Synced: Void Pulse Slash
Specter Points: 20
System Sync: 78%
Hidden Message Unlocked
"Project Genesis: Status – Failed. Target Rael Syn marked for assimilation."
---
He woke up gasping. Still on the rooftop. His palm sparked with residual energy.
Before he could recover, a voice behind him whispered, "You smell like the Cradle."
Rael turned—his heart skipping. A girl with crystalline silver eyes and white robes stood where the moonlight once was. Her skin shimmered like code. Her presence disrupted gravity itself.
"Who are you?" Rael asked.
"I'm from the Broken Realms," she said. "You're coming with me. Willingly or not."
Rael stepped back.
But NeXus pulsed.
> [System Alert: Enemy system signature detected. Attempting to overwrite your NeXus.]
She raised a hand—and Rael's wrist burned as NeXus went dark.
But then—
> [Core Override Engaged]
[Specter Protocol: Manual Defense Mode]
Rael's
mask snapped onto his face, forming piece by piece.
"You want me to come with you?" he said through the mask.
"Try."