Chapter 1: A Line of Code

I won't say too much since ya'll know this is an original novel with plans for a contract, but I'll ask just one thing:

Give this story a chance until chapter 20. If you're hooked by then, you know what to do.

The first 20 chapters are a slow build, setting up everything you need to understand the world and characters. After that, the pace really picks up, and things start moving fast. Trust me, it'll be worth it.

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March 21, 2024

It was supposed to be just another day.

I leaned back in my chair, fingers poised in the air, eyes half-closed as I mentally scrolled through lines of imaginary code.

The sun was setting outside my window, casting long shadows across my small apartment. Freelance work had been slow, but that wasn't anything new. Deadlines weren't knocking, and clients weren't emailing, so my mind wandered.

I often do this. Code for fun, as if I'm solving some grand puzzle only I can see. It's like writing my own movie script in real-time, where I'm the lead actor, director, and the most brilliant mind to ever exist. I'd play out these ridiculous scenarios, envisioning myself as a prodigy, the type of genius that bends reality with a flick of the wrist.

That's what I was doing now. My finger hovered mid-air, drawing an invisible symbol as if it would materialize and mean something to the universe. Of course, it didn't. I wasn't that delusional.

I'd spent years programming on Earth, an average guy scraping by in the gig economy. Reality didn't care for imagination, and as much as I wished it would, I knew it was just a way to pass the time.

Until it wasn't.

As my finger completed the final stroke of an arcane, pointless command, I felt something. A ripple, like the air had tensed around me, pulling tight as if it might snap.

The hairs on the back of my neck stood up, a shiver ran down my spine, and for a moment, I could've sworn the world dimmed, just a fraction.

I blinked and sat up straight, shaking my head. It was probably just the lighting. Or maybe I'd been coding too long today.

I stood up, stretching my arms and shaking out the feeling, but something nagged at me. I couldn't shake the sense that something shifted in the room, something I couldn't quite see but was definitely there.

My eyes scanned the small space. Same apartment, same worn couch, same mess of takeout containers. Nothing unusual. But then, just as I was about to shrug it off and chalk it up to overwork, the space in front of me... rippled.

No, not rippled. It fractured.

Reality itself cracked open, like a thin sheet of glass struck by a hammer. It didn't make a sound, but I could see it, thin, jagged lines, spreading out in the air where I had drawn the code. It was barely perceptible, just faint enough that it almost felt like a trick of the light.

I froze. My heart thumped hard against my chest, but not in fear. More like... anticipation.

My mind raced, trying to make sense of what was happening. This didn't make any sense. Reality doesn't just break. Code doesn't actually do anything unless it's typed into a machine, but this, this was...

I waved my hand through the fracture, half-expecting it to vanish. Instead, the cracks spread further, faster this time. A low hum filled the air, building steadily.

"What the hell...?" I whispered.

The cracks widened, and before I could react, they exploded outward. The world around me shattered into a billion pieces, fragments of my apartment suspended in the air like shards of glass, each reflecting a different piece of my life, my laptop screen, the blinking cursor on an unfinished line of code, the empty ramen cup next to it, the fading sunlight through the window, all of it broken, spinning in a swirling, chaotic void.

And then everything stopped.

The fragments hovered in the air for a heartbeat, frozen in time, and in the next instant, they collapsed inward, converging on me.

The sensation wasn't painful, just... overwhelming. Like being hit by a wave of static, every atom in my body vibrating, my mind stretched too thin to process it all.

And then I was gone.

....

March 22, 2024

When I woke up, I wasn't in my apartment anymore.

The first thing I noticed was the ground. Cold, metallic, and smooth beneath my palms. My head throbbed, and I sat up slowly, blinking against the harsh artificial light pouring down from above.

I wasn't in Italy anymore, that much was certain.

Towering structures, far beyond anything I had ever seen, loomed in every direction. The buildings stretched endlessly into the sky, gleaming in a way that didn't seem possible with Earth's physics.

They weren't made of any material I recognized, more like liquid metal, constantly shifting, bending in ways that defied logic. The air hummed with energy, a soft vibration that I could feel through the soles of my feet.

"What... is this place?" I muttered to myself, standing on unsteady legs.

It looked like a city, but not one I'd ever seen or imagined. Sleek, curved structures floated above the streets, platforms rising and falling in perfect synchronization. People, or what looked like people, moved through the streets, some walking, some flying.

Beings with metallic limbs, others with glowing skin, and some who looked like they had stepped straight out of a sci-fi movie. Aliens. Cyborgs. Robots.

I stood there, my head still spinning, and watched as a group of children, not children, really, more like small beings, moved past me, laughing as they conjured holographic displays in front of them.

They couldn't have been more than ten years old, but they were manipulating complex equations, bending light and energy with casual flicks of their fingers like it was a game.

For a second, I thought I was dreaming. But no... this was real.

Too real.

"What the hell happened?" I murmured again. My hands clenched at my sides, but something felt different.

My mind was racing, processing information at a speed I wasn't used to. Every detail around me felt... clearer. Sharper. Like I could understand the city in ways I never should have.

My instincts were firing on all cylinders, analyzing the layout, the movement of the people, the way the technology around me hummed with life. It was almost as if...

I knew this place.

No. Not quite. I didn't know it, but I could comprehend it. Everything, from the floating platforms to the way the people moved, to the very air I was breathing, it all made sense to me, like I had been dropped into the middle of a puzzle I was already halfway through solving.

My hands began to tremble, not from fear, but from excitement.

There was something here. Something more. My mind wasn't the same anymore. The reality I had shattered... it had changed me.

I wasn't just an average guy anymore. I could feel it in the way my body responded, the way my thoughts aligned so perfectly with the world around me. Like I could reach out and bend it to my will if I wanted.

It was intoxicating.

I had no idea where I was, but one thing was certain: I wasn't going back to Earth anytime soon.

The realization hit me like a punch to the gut, but it wasn't panic that followed. Instead, a slow, simmering sense of... anticipation.

The possibilities were endless here. Whatever had happened to me, whatever this gift was, it was a gift, no question about that. And I was going to figure out how far I could take it.

But first, I needed information.

I took a deep breath and began walking. The streets stretched out before me, filled with beings who seemed far more advanced than I could have ever imagined.

I didn't know their language or their customs, but my mind was already working, piecing together patterns, calculating strategies.

This was a new world. A new universe, maybe.

And if I played my cards right, it would be mine.