The clock on the wall ticked rhythmically, the only sound in the silent house. Adam sat at the kitchen table, a book on advanced physics open before him.
He was only eighteen, but his eyes held the cold, calculating look of a man who had lived twice that long.
For the past eight years, he had lived practically alone. His father, Dr. Richard, was an underground official for a government scientific lab.
He existed in Adam's life more like a ghost than a parent, appearing late at night and vanishing before dawn.
Adam didn't mind the solitude. It had taught him to be observant. He knew how to calculate risks, manage resources, and predict outcomes.
He knew his father worked in a secret facility, dealing with things that normal people weren't supposed to know. Tonight, however, the calculations were off.
The time was 2:00 AM. His father was never this late without a coded message.
Suddenly, the front door crashed open.
Adam didn't jump. His muscles tensed, ready for action. He stood up slowly as his father stumbled into the hallway. Dr. Richard looked terrible.
His lab coat was torn, and he was sweating profusely. In his trembling hand, he clutched a glass vial containing a glowing, electric-blue liquid.
"Dad?" Adam said, his voice steady.
"Adam, listen to me," Richard gasped, locking the door and sliding the heavy deadbolt. "They are coming. I took it. The Project Azure. I couldn't let them weaponize it."
Richard placed the vial on the hallway table with shaking hands to catch his breath. The vial was uncorked.
Adam stepped closer, analyzing the situation. His father was terrified. This wasn't just work stress; this was a life-or-death scenario. Adam looked at the blue liquid. It seemed to hum with energy.
Suddenly, a small house spider lowered itself from the ceiling on a thin web. It dangled right above the open vial. Before Adam could swipe it away, the spider dropped into the blue liquid.
Hiss.
The reaction was instant. The liquid didn't just drown the spider; it consumed it. The blue fluid bubbled violently, turning a deep, vein-like purple before settling back to a glowing blue.
But now, it looked different. It looked... alive. It swirled on its own, hungry and unstable. The ingredient had modified itself after coming into contact with a living organism.
"We need to leave," Adam calculated. "If they are coming, the back exit is the statistically safest route. I have a bag packed."
"It's too late," Richard whispered.
Glass shattered.
The window next to the door exploded inward. Two men dressed in black tactical gear and masks burst through the opening. They moved with the precision of foreign assassins.
"Secure the target!" one shouted.
Richard grabbed the vial, trying to shield it with his body. "Run, Adam!"
But Adam didn't run. He grabbed a heavy metal lamp, calculating the distance to the nearest attacker. Swing arc: 45 degrees. Target: Temporal lobe.
He was fast, but they were trained killers.
Bang!
A suppressed gunshot echoed through the house. Richard jerked back, a red stain blossoming on his chest. He collapsed to the floor, the vial slipping from his hand.
The glass vial hit the hardwood floor and shattered.
The modified blue liquid splashed out, pooling directly next to where Richard lay. Richard was gasping, his life fading fast. Blood poured from his wound, flowing across the floorboards. It met the blue puddle.
Adam watched in horror as the two liquids touched. The blue ingredient didn't mix normally; it latched onto the red blood cells. The puddle turned into a swirling, metallic substance, glowing with a terrifying light.
"Dad!" Adam screamed, losing his calm for the first time in years. He rushed forward, dropping to his knees beside his father.
Richard looked at Adam, his eyes dimming. "I'm... sorry..." he wheezed.
One of the assassins stepped forward. He didn't care about the sentimental moment. He raised his pistol, aiming at Adam. "No witnesses."
Adam saw the barrel rise. He calculated the trajectory. He's going to shoot.
Adam tried to dive, to use his father's body as cover, but he wasn't fast enough.
Thwip.
The bullet struck Adam in the spine.
His body seized. All control vanished. He collapsed forward, his face smashing into the floor. He landed right in the mixture of his father's blood and the modified blue ingredient.
His mouth was open in a silent scream of pain. As his face hit the puddle, the liquid forced its way into his mouth. He gagged, accidentally swallowing a mouthful of the metallic, bloody sludge.
It tasted like fire and copper.
Immediately, a reaction triggered. It wasn't just digestion; it was an invasion.
Adam felt his veins burning. It felt like millions of microscopic needles were rewriting his DNA. His heart hammered against his ribs—not from fear, but because the substance was supercharging his system. His vision turned white, then red.
The assassin stood over him. He saw Adam twitching on the floor, foaming at the mouth with blue saliva.
"Target is convulsing," the assassin said coldly. "Eliminating."
Adam couldn't move. He could only feel the burning power tearing him apart from the inside. He looked up, his vision blurry, seeing the barrel of the gun one last time. He calculated the end. Probability of survival: 0%.
Bang.
The second bullet hit him in the head.
Darkness.
Absolute, heavy darkness.
There was no pain. The burning stopped. The noise of the gunshot faded into a ringing silence. Adam felt weightless, floating in a void that felt like it lasted for an eternity and a second at the same time.
Then, a sensation returned. Softness.
Adam gasped, his eyes snapping open. He sat up violently, his hands flying to his head, expecting to feel a bullet hole.
There was nothing. No blood. No wound. No pain.
He touched his chest. His heart was beating with a slow, powerful rhythm—calmer than it had ever been. He looked at his hands. They looked the same, yet... cleaner? Stronger?
He looked around. He was not in his old, wooden-floored house. He was in a bed that seemed to mold to his body shape. The room was sleek and white, with furniture that had no sharp angles. A soft, ambient light glowed from the walls themselves, with no visible bulbs.
"Calculation..." Adam whispered, his voice sounding clear. "Where am I?"
He swung his legs off the bed. The floor was warm to the touch. He stood up, feeling lighter than usual. He walked toward a large wall that looked like a mirror. As he approached, the wall became transparent, revealing itself to be a massive floor-to-ceiling window.
Adam stopped. His breath caught in his throat.
He wasn't in his neighborhood. He wasn't even in his country.
Outside the window, a city of impossible scale stretched out before him. Skyscrapers pierced the clouds, towering kilometers into the sky. They weren't made of simple concrete and glass; they were constructed of shimmering metals and lights that pulsed with energy.
But the most shocking thing was the traffic.
There were no roads on the ground. Instead, streams of sleek, metallic cars zoomed through the air between the buildings. They moved in perfect, calculated lanes, defying gravity with soft blue thrusters. Huge holographic advertisements floated in mid-air, displaying languages Adam recognized but written in dialects he had never seen.
Adam pressed his hand against the glass. He looked down. The ground was so far away it was invisible, covered in a layer of neon mist.
He remembered the blue liquid. He remembered the spider. He remembered the blood. And he remembered dying.
His analytical mind kicked into overdrive, processing the data. Father dead. I died. The ingredient. The awakening.
"This isn't an afterlife," Adam said to the empty, futuristic room. He watched a flying vehicle speed past his window, leaving a trail of light. "The physics, the gravity, the technology... the deviation is too high."
He clenched his fist, feeling a strange new energy humming beneath his skin, the same energy that had been in the vial.
"I am in a different universe," he realized, looking out at the impossible skyline.
Adam was alone again. But this time, the world was not just a puzzle to be solved—it was a whole new game. And he had just leveled up.