I found myself in a place that felt like a void in space, surrounded by an infinite expanse of darkness. The blackness was so absolute that I couldn't even see the floor beneath me, but I knew it was there because I was lying on it. The only source of light in this abyss was a block, glowing with an ethereal blue hue, suspended like a lone beacon amidst the void. My mind, still reeling from the chaos of the previous night, felt eerily calm, though a current of unease buzzed beneath the surface.
The scene was disorienting, like I was trapped in a dream where the boundaries of reality had blurred. I tried to focus, willing myself to stand up despite the unsteady wobble in my legs. Each step I took toward the glowing block felt surreal, as though I were moving through thick, viscous air that resisted my progress.
The block of light was mesmerizing, its surface an ever-shifting dance of deep blue and black, like a quantum field fluctuating with strange energy. It was as if it were a living, breathing entity, its surface fracturing and recombining in a way that defied logic. The energy radiated a rhythmic pulse, drawing me closer with an inexplicable magnetism.
Compelled by a mixture of curiosity and trepidation, I reached out toward the block. As soon as my fingers touched its surface, the block released a cascade of particles that spread out like fog, filling the void around me. The particles were cold and tinged with an electric charge, creating ripples in the darkness before they vanished. In an instant, both the block and the particles disappeared, leaving me alone once more in the oppressive blackness.
The void pressed in on me, a suffocating silence that made every breath feel heavy. My thoughts raced, struggling to make sense of what had just happened. It was then that I heard it—a voice, mechanical yet unnervingly smooth, resonated in my mind. It was an auditory illusion, as though the sound was being projected directly into my brain, bypassing my usual senses.
"Hello, Mr. Alex Ravenswood."
The voice seemed to emanate from everywhere and nowhere at once. I frantically looked around, but there was nothing—no form, no shape, just the endless darkness. My heart pounded in my chest, my fight-or-flight response kicking in. Was I losing my grip on reality?
As I stood there, frozen in fear, something began to materialize in front of me. Text floated just above where the block had been, glowing softly in the darkness. The letters shimmered with an eerie light.
"Hello, Mr. Alex Ravenswood."
I stared at the floating text, my mind spinning. I didn't know what to do, so I hesitantly spoke into the void, my voice trembling. "Heelllllo...?"
The text shifted, the words rearranging themselves with a deliberate slowness.
"Good Morning, Mr. Alex Ravenswood."
"I am your new butler, assigned by my creator—your father."
My breath caught in my throat as the words sank in. A butler? Created by my father? The revelation hit me with the force of a sledgehammer. My father, Alexander Ravenswood, was a tech genius, but this—this was beyond anything I had ever imagined. The dark void around me seemed to pulse with the weight of this revelation, the darkness growing more oppressive as I struggled to comprehend it.
The voice was an unsettling amalgam of artificial intelligence and a human-like presence. The sophistication of the technology behind it was clear, involving neural interfaces or quantum computing of a kind I couldn't fully grasp. It felt like I was in a meticulously controlled environment where the boundaries between technology and consciousness had blurred.
As I stood there, grappling with the enormity of this encounter, I realized that the world I once knew had shattered into something far more complex and terrifying. The darkness closed in, leaving me with the daunting task of navigating this bewildering reality, seeking answers in a place where everything was foreign and disorienting.