Perfect — thanks for clarifying!
A dark neon cyberpunk city world, introduced after Jack's farewell
The auditorium shimmered under the wash of neon lights, throwing a glow over hundreds of final-year students. The banners read "Farewell, Class of 2099", printed in holographic ink that pulsed with shifting color. At the center of it all stood Jack Mercer, every spotlight tracing his outline as if it were made just for him.
Seventeen, with eyes like polished chrome and hair that caught the stage lights in silver hues, Jack looked every bit like someone out of a movie. His classmates adored him — or envied him. He wasn't just the top of his class; he was the star of every event, the boy who could sing, dance, code, and charm in equal measure. Yet, behind the sharp smile and the confident posture, Jack was watching everything — the flicker of projectors, the nervous shuffling of students, the whispers about who got into which university. He saw everything, and he felt everything too.
His parents sat in the front row, proud and glowing, the same way they always were.
"Look at him," his mother whispered to the Principal. "My Jack — top in robotics, music, and design. He's got the future in his hands."
His father added with a grin, "He's already built a prototype AI drummer for this performance tonight. Wait till you see it."
Jack heard them even from the stage. He always did. The compliments were meant for others, but they hit him like quiet weights. Every talent he had — singing, coding, robotics — had started as something he loved. Now, they were expectations he had to maintain.
The farewell night wasn't just a goodbye. It was a showpiece — a chance to prove himself one last time before leaving high school behind.
The curtain dropped.
"Ready, J?" his best friend Maya whispered from backstage.
Maya was the sound engineer — bold, quick-tongued, and one of the few people who saw through Jack's calm surface.
Jack nodded, tightening the silver glove on his right hand. It wasn't just an accessory. It was wired to his neural interface — a tech he'd designed himself. With a simple thought, he could control his instruments, lights, and digital visuals simultaneously.
"Let's light up the end of an era," he said, and stepped onto the stage.
---
The music started — not the usual pop songs or farewell ballads everyone expected, but a mix of symphonic EDM infused with live instruments and digital visuals. On the giant screen behind him, thousands of code fragments floated through space, forming patterns that pulsed to the rhythm. His AI drummer — an orb of glowing circuits — floated beside him, beating invisible drums in perfect sync.
Jack sang — his voice low, electric, and alive.
Every note felt like it came from both a human and a machine — smooth but pulsing with digital energy. His glove sparked trails of blue light with every hand motion, commanding sound and visuals with invisible gestures.
The crowd was hypnotized. Even his teachers stared in awe as data streams rippled across the walls, forming glowing wings behind him.
As he sang the final verse, a deep bass thrummed through the auditorium — but this time, it wasn't from his system.
Maya frowned at the soundboard. "That's not from your mix," she muttered.
Jack paused mid-song, scanning his display. His glove interface flickered — then glitched. The neon blue shifted to red. The AI drummer orb froze midair, then dropped with a metallic clang.
"What the—?" Jack whispered.
The lights flickered. The banners glitched into static.
And then, from the center of the stage floor, a circle of light appeared — a swirling vortex of energy, blue and violet, twisting like a storm.
The crowd gasped.
The Principal yelled, "Cut the power!"
But the power wasn't theirs anymore.
The vortex expanded, pulling air inward. Papers flew off tables. The sound system shrieked. Jack's hair whipped around his face as he tried to step back — but something about the light pulled him. It wasn't random static. It was responding to him.
"Jack!" Maya shouted, running forward, but the force pushed her back like a wall of wind.
Jack's glove sparked, connecting with the portal energy. For a moment, his vision filled with data — binary codes, voice snippets, strange coordinates. He saw flashes of a city drenched in neon and rain, streets full of glowing eyes and chrome limbs. He didn't understand any of it, but something deep inside whispered:
You built this connection. Now, you've opened it.
The stage floor shattered in a surge of light.
---
Earlier That Morning
Jack's room looked more like a tech lab than a bedroom. Holographic blueprints floated above his desk, showing designs for AI circuits, robotic limbs, and experimental microchips. On the wall hung a guitar — real wood, old and slightly scratched — the only "analog" thing in his world.
He had built his life between two worlds — the emotional, creative world of music and the logical, precise world of machines. The combination fascinated him, but it also trapped him. His parents adored his achievements but never asked if he enjoyed them.
That morning, he'd woken up early, fine-tuning the glove for his performance. It was meant to merge his human rhythm with machine precision — a statement piece about unity between technology and soul. He smiled faintly at that thought. Maybe tonight, he could show them that he wasn't just another prodigy. He was an artist.
Maya had called, teasing as always.
"You ready to fry the school's sound system again?"
"I've got it under control this time," Jack replied, though he wasn't sure.
"You always say that before something explodes," she laughed.
He had laughed too, unaware of how prophetic those words would be.
---
Back to the Present
The world was spinning. Jack's ears rang with static. He wasn't on the stage anymore. He wasn't anywhere familiar.
He fell — or floated — through a tunnel of light, surrounded by digital streams. Fragments of code zipped past him like fireflies. His glove glowed, responding to unseen signals.
Then, a metallic voice echoed inside his head:
"Synchronization complete. Neural link established."
"What—who's there?" Jack tried to shout, but his words came out distorted.
"Subject: Jack Mercer. Unauthorized access detected. Redirecting to Sector 09."
Before he could react, the light tunnel collapsed.
He hit the ground hard — metal ground, cold and wet.
When Jack looked up, he saw it — a city of neon and chrome, towers covered in holographic ads, drones buzzing through the rain, and people — or half-people — walking with glowing limbs and cybernetic eyes. The air shimmered with electricity and digital haze. Somewhere far off, a train screamed across magnetic rails.
Jack stood up slowly, heart pounding. His glove was still glowing, but faintly — like a dying ember.
"This… isn't possible," he muttered. "Am I inside a simulation?"
Then he noticed the reflection in a puddle — his eyes, faintly lit with blue circuitry crawling around the pupils. His heart skipped. He wasn't just in this world. It had touched him, changed him.
He turned as a mechanical voice echoed from above.
"Citizen detected without ID tag. Report to the nearest identification hub immediately."
Jack froze. Drones were hovering near him, their lenses scanning.
He backed away.
"Wait—I'm not from here—"
A siren blared. The drones advanced.
That's when someone grabbed his arm and yanked him into a narrow alley.
"Keep your head down!" a female voice hissed.
Jack stumbled behind her — a young woman in a black coat lined with glowing circuits, her short silver hair flashing under the neon. Her left arm was completely robotic, whirring softly as she pushed open a door to a hidden stairwell.
"Who are you?" Jack asked, breathless.
"Later," she said. "Unless you want to get dissected by drones for being 'unregistered.'"
They slipped into the stairwell just as the drones passed overhead.
Jack leaned against the wall, trying to steady himself. The room smelled like oil and ozone.
The girl looked him over. "You're new. Fresh breach, huh?"
"I don't even know where I am," Jack said.
She smirked. "Welcome to Neon Haven. You fell through a rift. Happens sometimes — usually when someone messes with high-level tech."
Jack's glove flickered, and she noticed.
"Ah," she said. "That explains it. You're carrying something powerful. Be careful. This city eats tech — and people like you."
"People like me?"
"Half-human, half-cyberlink," she replied. "You're not fully integrated yet. That's why your circuits are still glowing."
Jack's heart sank. "Integrated?"
She stepped closer, studying his eyes. "Yeah. You're part of this world now, whether you like it or not."
---
Outside, the neon city roared to life. Electric rain poured over steel rooftops, washing colors across the dark streets. Somewhere deep below, in the circuits of the city's network, a signal pulsed — the same signal that had dragged Jack here.
He didn't know it yet, but his arrival had triggered something — an awakening that the city's overlords had been trying to prevent for decades.
And as Jack looked out from the cracked window at the glowing skyline, a single thought echoed in his mind:
Maybe the world I built to impress everyone… just pulled me into its own reflection.