In the boundless void, a soul drifted aimlessly, adrift in a sea of nothingness. Time, like a formless thread, stretched and bent around her. She couldn't tell how long she had been floating here—an eternity, perhaps. Or was it mere moments? It was impossible to grasp, as there was no sense of time in this void. No sound, no sensation, just emptiness.
Then, a spark. A single flicker of awareness, weak and uncertain, like a flame igniting in the infinite dark. It spread slowly, tentatively, until it began to take form, pulling fragments of memory from the deep recesses of her mind.
Evelyn. The name whispered to her like a long-lost echo.
She remembered a life, a life filled with achievements beyond most beings' reach. She had lived for over 3,600 years, at the zenith of her civilization, a scientist revered and celebrated across the galaxy. She was the head of the scientific community, the one who spearheaded space exploration and pushed the boundaries of the known universe. But that life had ended, swallowed up by the very thing she sought to understand: the depths of dark matter.
Her last memories were blurred—an explosion, the collapse of the research facility, the implosion of her planet. a catastrophe she never saw coming.
'What happened?' she wondered. 'Why am I still here? Why can I still think?'
Before she could probe deeper into her thoughts, a strange beep filled the silence, like an intrusion into her contemplation.
[ SYSTEM LOADING… ]
[ FAILED ]
[ RELOADING… ]
[ SYSTEM RELOAD SUCCESSFUL ]
'What is that sound?' she thought, trying to focus on the new voice in her mind.
[ I AM A SYSTEM, THE BYPRODUCT OF YOUR INTERACTION WITH CHAOS MATTER. ]
Evelyn blinked. Her mind raced to comprehend. Chaos matter? Is that what caused all this? She thought of the dark matter she had researched. But now she had something else to focus on: This system. What was it?
"So, you're an entity formed from the chaos matter? That sounds... unimaginable," Evelyn said, her voice soft, but her thoughts were whirling. "And what are you called?"
[ I DO NOT HAVE A NAME. I WAS BORN AFTER YOUR EXPERIMENT, AND IT SEEMS I AM BOUND TO YOU. ]
She paused. "How about Evelyn?" she asked, a small smile tugging at her lips, the name a small remembrance of the life she had lost.
[ ACKNOWLEDGED. I WILL BE KNOWN AS EVELYNN FROM NOW ON. ]
With a strange sense of connection to this new presence, Evelyn absorbed the weight of what had happened. Her home-the place where she once thrived—was no more. And it was her fault.
She tried to steady her breathing as she reached for the remnants of her scattered memories. "What exactly happened? Why am I still... here?"
[ YOUR EXPERIMENT WITH CHAOS MATTER LED TO THE CREATION OF A SUPERMASSIVE BLACK HOLE. IT CONSUMED YOUR ENTIRE GALAXY, INCLUDING YOUR PLANET. THE ENERGY EXERTED FROM THE CHAOS MATTER COLLAPSED EVERYTHING INTO A SINGULARITY. ]
A chill ran down Evelyn's spine. Her heart sank, and for a moment, the overwhelming weight of her actions crushed her chest. I destroyed everything. My entire galaxy… my civilization…
The grief was suffocating, filling her chest and mind with an unbearable heaviness. She could see it all—her people, her achievements, her home—spiraling into nothingness, devoured by the ravenous black hole she had created. The loss was beyond comprehension. Everything she had worked for, everything she had built, erased in an instant.
And then, just like that, it was gone.
The sadness, the grief, the guilt—all of it vanished in a heartbeat, as if someone had flicked a switch inside her mind. Evelyn's breath steadied, and in the silence that followed, a strange calm settled over her. Her thoughts, once muddled with sorrow, began to focus.
"For the advancement of science, experiments are a fundamental block," she mused, her voice soft, but firm. "I failed. That is the cost of discovery—the price we pay for pushing the boundaries of the unknown." Her thoughts were detached now, a stark contrast to the flood of sadness that had overwhelmed her moments before. "What I built over thousands of years, the marvels my civilization once experienced… they died with me.I gave them all the wonders. And now, I took it all back. All of it."
Her words hung in the air, as if she were speaking about a scientific report rather than the destruction of an entire civilization. The grief had been there, yes—but it was as though Evelyn had intentionally accepted the facts, as if there were no space in her mind for weakness. It was, in the end, just another experiment, just another result. The universe had been her lab, and the consequences were nothing more than data.
she moved on to the next matter. She needed answers.
"Is that… is that why I'm here? Why I didn't die completely?" she asked.
[ YES. THE ENERGY OF THE CHAOS MATTER TRANSFORMED YOU INTO A PURE CONSCIOUSNESS AND SENT YOU TO THE VOID. YOU WERE THEN REBORN IN A NEW WORLD. ]
"Reborn?" Evelyn repeated. The concept felt surreal, impossible, yet here she was, alive again, in a new form. A new world.
[ YOUR BODY IS STILL GROWING. CURRENTLY, YOU ARE IN THE WOMB OF YOUR NEW MOTHER.]
She blinked, processing the words. A new body... a new life... "So, I've reincarnated," she murmured. "I see. But in this new world, I'm just a fetus. There's nothing I can do right now."
[ CORRECT. ]
Evelyn's thoughts shifted. A new world meant new possibilities. But where am I?
"Where exactly is this place?" she asked, a sense of urgency creeping into her voice. She needed to understand where she was, what had happened.
[ YOU ARE NEAR THE SECOND TIER UNIVERSAL BARRIER. ]
Evelyn's mind whirled. The Second Tier Universal Barrier. She had studied universal boundaries, but the concept seemed much more complicated in reality. Her previous world—Earth—had been close to the Third Tier barrier, which explained why it lacked the energy needed for advanced cultivation and exploration. But this world… this world has much more potential.
"Is this world... better for cultivation?" Evelyn asked, the question slipping from her lips before she realized.
[ YES. THE PURITY OF QI HERE FAR EXCEEDS THAT OF YOUR PREVIOUS WORLD. YOU WILL BE ABLE TO CULTIVATE TO HIGHER REALMS. ]
Energy. Cultivation. Evelyn hadn't even begun to think about this new world's practices. Cultivation to higher realms? What does that mean?
But Evelyn had more pressing questions. What was this system? What role would it play in her new life?
"So... what can you do, Evelyn? This system of yours... do you have any abilities?" Evelyn asked, focusing on the only thing that seemed certain.
[ I LACK ENERGY. MY FULL FUNCTIONALITY IS LIMITED UNTIL WE GATHER MORE RESOURCES.]
Evelyn paused, deep in thought. More resources... She had little understanding of what it meant to cultivate in this new world, but it was clear she needed to learn. She would need every bit of power and knowledge she could gather, especially after what she had lost. My second chance at life...
"When will I be born, then?" she asked, hoping for a sense of time or purpose.
[ I DO NOT KNOW. ]
"I see," she murmured, a soft sadness in her voice. "Then we wait."
Evelyn sank deeper into her thoughts, her mind flickering between the remnants of her old life and the potential of this new one. She had lost everything once, and now, she had a second chance. But the question lingered: What would she do with this new life? And what was waiting for her in this strange universe?
Her journey had only just begun.