The first needle pierced Theodore's arm with practiced precision, cold and sharp against the warm skin. The stinging sensation was brief, before fading under a creeping numbness that spread slowly like ink spilled in water. He closed his eyes, the faint glow of monitors fading to darkness behind his lids. The constant buzz that he had grown used to slowly dulled.
His breath evened out, but his mind raced.
This moment was the culmination of years—countless calculations, sleepless nights, endless trials—and yet it was terrifying. Not because of the science. Not because of the method which he had created. But because of the unknown.
The fear of unknown that even a mind like his, wild and brilliant, had yet to conquer.
He lay still, focusing on his breath, reminding himself that this was just another problem to solve. Death was an equation—a complicated one—but science had taught him how to solve complexities.
His robotic extension settled quietly beside him, seated beside himself. His mind had completely returned to his dying body, ready to be transferred to the machine world. He would have loved to remain about controlling the robot as he watched how his body reacted to the whole process, watching his life slip while a new life was created in the digital realm. But for obvious reasons, he could not do that.
As the second needle followed, sliding into his other arm with an unsettling silence, Theo's mind drifted to the unknown virus that had drove him to such desperate measures. The sudden illness had certainly put him a step away from death's cold embrace, but its very nature was also the greatest proof that his attempt was not entirely baseless. The physical world could interact with the digital world.
There already was great progress in this domain, many successful experiments and theories as well. But nothing natural had been observed yet. The virus was the most strangest and closest truth he had observed of the digital and physical world interacting. The virus itself wasn't entirely a part of the real world or he digital domain, existing in both places at once but also not.
A quantum conundrum.
But he had already expected something like this.
Earlier, Theo only felt there was a less than point five percent chance of nothing going wrong in his attempt. But with the stage he was at now, the existence of the virus, he felt it was no longer a lie to call it a thirty percent chance at achieving immortality. But that will have to wait until he opened his eyes again. If he ever did.
Slowly, the color drained from the room, as if the world beyond his closed eyes was fading into a soft, deep void. His muscles loosened, the last grip of consciousness loosening around his chest.
Ron's voice whispered words of calm calculation inside his mind. "Vitals stabilizing. Subject entering induced neuro-suspend phase. Neural pathways synchronized with interface."
Theo's last thoughts wavered, caught between cold logic and raw fear. He thought of his family's name—the weight it carried, the expectations, the solitude it bred. A life so focused on equations and codes that warmth had become a distant memory, never to be visited again. He thought of the friends he never mad, love postponed indefinitely, regrets folded neatly behind scientific pursuits.
Still, he told himself, this was the leap forward humanity needed. This was the only way.
He recalled how the virus had crossed the boundary from twisted code into flesh. How it had latched onto him in his own very heart, corrupting him as he fought to contain it.
This process was his answer, his rebellion. If his consciousness could be created in world of data, to leave behind his cage of flesh and bones, just perhaps he could escape the clutches of this virus. The worst situation of course would be for the virus to follow him to his new paradise. While he hoped for the best, he was prepared for the worst.
But the thought made his chest tighten as much as the fear of oblivion.
Ron's voice shifted to steady reassurance. "Technique verified. Final redundancies engaged. Neural uplink is priming upload sequence."
Theo blinked slowly, or at least he thought he did. His control of his body had long since broken, but weirdly, even as his human senses seemed to fail, Ron's voice kept getting clearer. As if he was speaking from right behind him.
Just when he felt like he could just turn around to greet his trusty butler-
"Systems failing, can't abort. The bridge is collapsing, why won't this progress bar move. Fast! Faster!!! WHY! THIS ISN'T SUPPOSED TO HAPPEN!!"
The voice seemed to be getting farther suddenly. Theo felt himself being flung across the void, beyond the cliff into the abyss. Nothingness embraced him.
And then, white light, soft and alive, rippled beneath the surface. His feet seemed to be stable. The next moment he felt himself float, his body stretching thin from the ends. He was being squeezed through the cap of a bottle.
He felt time itself stretch and compress, memories swarming around his mind in kaleidoscopic tides.
In that strange space between wakefulness and something beyond, he sensed a presence. Neither friendly nor hostile, merely ancient and vast. As he floated in the vastness, the light around him grew brighter by the moment.
From beyond his sight, the horizon lit up with darkness, as a world encrusted in darkness zoomed in. He was moving at high speeds towards this darkness, crashing into it with no control. Just as he was about to touch the darkness, the light around him broke free, flooding the world.
The light brightened everything, blooming like a giant flower unfolding petals of pure energy. It spilled across endless horizon—colorless yet vibrant, silent yet humming, bringing life to everything it passed on its way.
The world in front of him seemed to come alive. Shapes began to coalesce within that radiance. Cities sprung up, made up of matter he could not decipher. Forests made up of strange ever changing characters spread everywhere. And endless oceans of data.
As he viewed an entirely new world placed beneath him, knowledge from nowhere suddenly appeared in his mind. He looked at the chasing light and the world beneath with a better understanding. Just as he wanted to control his body to tread forward, something froze him.
He felt the pull of a force that was neither gravity nor thought, tugging him deeper into the vast digital dreamworld.
And then, a sudden rift.
The glorious scene twisted, folding in on itself, replaced by flashing scenes that felt all to familiar. He watched as the very brief history related to human existence passed in front of his eyes. The shadowed history, old human wars, lost civilizations collapsing like sandcastles beneath crashing waves. Everything passed by like a filmstrip.
The vision fractured, fragments of futures yet to come flickering through the void—visions of towering cities soaring beyond the clouds, people connected not by flesh but through shimmering neural webs. Worlds devasted by great famines, disasters reclaiming the earth. A future where humans seemed to be standing, frozen in stillness? Paused in time?
One final image lingered. A solitary figure standing beneath a blood-red sky, arms shining as if covered in molten gold.
Then silence.
Theo's mind floated in the indescribable void, weightless, stripped of form, yet filled with the raw essence of existence. No fear. No pain. Only the slow, rhythmic beat of possibility.
And then, just as suddenly as the ascent had began, a tug pulled him, throwing him across the realities. Placing his mind back where it was meant to be.
At that moment, he had a strange feeling that something from the other edge had reached out to grab onto him, claiming possession to his existence, marking him as a native from the digital world.
He was being pulled back from whence he came.
His consciousness stirred.
Was this awakening, or the beginning of another journey? The answer slipped beyond reach as his mind struggled against the pull. As he flew across the void, he could feel himself hurting. The tug of war was starting to hurt him. Maybe he had done something never meant to be explored? Looked at futures that weren't supposed to happen? Scratched realities that hadn't matured yet?
A faint whisper echoed in the void. The voice got closer as time passed, but at the same time he left that pain increase. He felt like he was breaking apart. Slowly, he felt parts of him break apart under the pressure. He did not how long this would last, but if it didn't stop, he would definitely last that long.
But then the pull began relaxing, as if all this was coming to end. Just before a voice interrupted his thoughts, Theo felt a light pat on head,
"Master, wake up. You have been asleep long enough."
The voice was familiar. Ron.
Eyes fluttering, senses tingling with confusion and hope, Theodore fought to open them.
To see the world again—whatever world awaited.