The Perimeter
Giovanni crouched behind a rusted pipeline, the faint hum of Sector 12's security drones reverberating in the cold night air. His Perception Field flickered faintly, tracing the drones' movements in glowing arcs across his vision. From this vantage point, he could see the lab—a hulking, metallic structure glowing faintly under artificial light. It was sterile and oppressive, like a monument to control.
His mind raced, replaying the System's earlier notifications.
[MISSION OBJECTIVE: INFILTRATE CONFEDERATION LAB C-28.]
[SECONDARY OBJECTIVE: RETRIEVE CLASSIFIED DATA. SYSTEM-ASSIGNED REWARD PENDING.]
"Pending," Giovanni muttered under his breath. "Figures."
He adjusted the scarf covering his face, his breath misting in the cold. Nearby, one of his clones waited for instructions, its altered features unrecognizable even to Giovanni himself. The clone nodded once, awaiting his signal.
[SYSTEM REMINDER: USER RESOURCE ALLOCATION BELOW OPTIMAL LEVELS.]
"Yeah, yeah," he whispered. "Just let me think."
The lab wasn't impenetrable, but it was close. Patrol drones circled the perimeter in tight patterns, and Confederation guards loitered at each entry point, Rings glowing faintly on their wrists.
Giovanni tapped into his clone's feed, his vision splitting momentarily as he saw through its eyes. The clone shifted, holding a small decoy device in its palm. With a flick of its wrist, it tossed the device toward the fence. A faint beep followed by a sharp pop drew the attention of a nearby guard.
"Go," Giovanni whispered.
The clone moved, slipping through the distraction as Giovanni mirrored its path from the opposite direction.
The interior of Lab C-28 was a chilling contrast to the chaotic sprawl of Velmont. Fluorescent lights buzzed overhead, reflecting off the polished floors and pristine walls. Giovanni's boots barely made a sound as he moved through the corridor, his Perception Field marking every security camera and potential threat.
His heart raced as he approached a terminal, its interface glowing faintly. The System chimed in his vision:
[RETRIEVING DATA...]
[ACCESS LEVEL: RESTRICTED. BYPASS IN PROGRESS.]
The seconds stretched as he waited, his fingers tightening around the edge of the console. Suddenly, the System's interface glitched, the text momentarily replaced by erratic symbols.
"Not now," Giovanni hissed.
[BYPASS SUCCESSFUL.]
[DATA DOWNLOADED: PARTIAL FILE.]
A faint hum drew his attention. He turned to see a series of holographic projections flickering to life—graphs, energy matrices, and snippets of text. One phrase caught his eye: "Universal Energy Nexus."
"What the hell does that mean?" Giovanni murmured.
The data was fragmented, incomplete, but the implications sent a chill down Giovanni's spine. One file contained a looping video feed of Rings across the galaxy, each glowing faintly as they seemed to resonate in unison. Another showed a massive flare of energy—an event eerily similar to the Stellar Flare Event he'd witnessed.
Beneath it all was a line of text:
"Stabilization critical. Convergence incomplete."
Giovanni's breath hitched as he saw another file labeled "Experiment #37." It showed a figure—human, or at least once human—clutching a Ring as energy surged through their body. The recording ended with the figure collapsing, their body warped beyond recognition.
He felt a wave of nausea. "What are they doing here?"
Giovanni was snapped back to reality by the sound of boots echoing down the hall. He cursed under his breath, tapping into his clone's feed. The decoy had done its job, but the guards were moving faster than he'd expected.
"Time to go," he muttered.
He slipped out of the room, his Perception Field lighting the safest route. As he approached an exit, a drone hovered into view, its red lens scanning the corridor. Giovanni froze, his mind racing. He needed a distraction.
The System chimed in his vision:
[RECOMMENDED ACTION: USE CLONE TO CREATE DIVERSION.]
Giovanni hesitated but nodded. The clone, stationed nearby, moved into the drone's line of sight. The machine whirred as it locked onto the decoy, issuing a warning.
"Unauthorized personnel detected."
The clone didn't flinch. Instead, it sprinted toward the drone, drawing it—and the guards—away from Giovanni's path. A faint explosion echoed moments later, followed by the System's detached notification:
[CLONE TERMINATED. RESOURCE LOST.]
Giovanni clenched his jaw, forcing himself to focus. The clone was expendable. He wasn't.
The night air hit him like a slap as he slipped back into the shadows outside the lab. His heart pounded as he ran, every step measured and silent. Behind him, alarms blared, and searchlights cut through the darkness.
He reached his safehouse minutes later, collapsing into a chair as the System displayed his updated status.
[MISSION COMPLETE.]
[REWARD: SYSTEM UPGRADE UNLOCKED.]
[CORRUPTION METER: +2%.]
Giovanni's stomach churned at the sight of the Corruption Meter. It was a small increment, but he could feel its weight.
"What did I just do?" he whispered, staring at his hands.
He opened the downloaded files again, piecing together fragments of information. The Rings weren't just tools—they were connected to something far larger. The Stellar Flare Event hadn't been an accident, and the Confederation wasn't just experimenting on Rings; they were trying to control them.
One file hinted at something called the "Cosmic Anchor," a construct theorized to stabilize energy disruptions across galaxies. Another referenced "Ring-Bearer Trials," experiments meant to test individuals' compatibility with Rings. The failure rate was near 100%.
Giovanni leaned back, his mind racing. The System chimed one last time:
[NEW MISSION AVAILABLE.]
[OBJECTIVE: ACQUIRE RESOURCES TO MAINTAIN PROGRESS.]
"Great," he muttered. "More hoops to jump through."
Giovanni leaned back in his chair, the distant wail of alarms from Sector 12 still echoing in his mind. The adrenaline of the mission had ebbed, leaving an unsettling quiet. He glanced at his hands, faintly trembling. The System's notifications hovered in his vision, unwavering.
[CORRUPTION METER: +2%. CURRENT STATUS: 5%.]
"Five percent," Giovanni muttered, his voice barely above a whisper. It seemed insignificant, yet the number weighed on him like a stone. The memory of his clone's sacrifice lingered, its termination coldly acknowledged by the System. For a brief moment, he wondered if the System would ever consider him a resource to be "terminated."
The thought sent a chill through him.
He turned back to the holographic display projected from the data chip. Fragments of information floated before him, tantalizing yet incomplete. Words like "Cosmic Anchor," "Convergence Threshold," and "Energy Stabilization Protocols" danced across his vision. He reached out, swiping at the projections, trying to piece together their meaning.
The System chimed softly, its tone clinical and detached:
[DATA ANALYSIS: COSMIC ANOMALIES TIED TO RING NETWORK INTEGRITY.]
"Care to elaborate?" Giovanni asked, his voice laced with sarcasm.
[CLASSIFIED INFORMATION. FULL CONTEXT UNAVAILABLE.]
Giovanni groaned, running a hand through his hair. "Of course. You're supposed to be helping me, not dangling cryptic nonsense in front of my face."
The System didn't respond. Instead, a new notification blinked into view:
[UPGRADE AVAILABLE: RESOURCE MANAGEMENT MODULE UNLOCKED.]
The display shifted, showing a new interface option labeled "Clone Customization." Giovanni tapped it cautiously, his vision filling with a sleek menu. A list of options appeared, each more intricate than the last:
Physical Attributes AdjustmentBehavioral ProfilesTask Prioritization Matrix
As he scrolled, Giovanni's curiosity mixed with unease. The depth of control offered by the module was unnerving. He could now alter his clones' appearances to mimic nearly anyone, adjust their personalities for specific tasks, and even assign them to autonomous missions.
"Resource management, huh?" Giovanni muttered. "Feels more like playing god."
Returning to the data, Giovanni fixated on a series of video logs tagged as "Experiment #37". He hesitated before opening them, the memory of the warped figure still fresh in his mind. The video played, showing a sterile testing chamber. A scientist's voice, clipped and clinical, narrated the process:
"Subject 19. Initial compatibility tests show promise. Activating Ring at 10% output."
The subject—a man in his early twenties—stood in the center of the chamber, a Ring glowing faintly on his wrist. For a moment, nothing happened. Then, the energy surged, the glow intensifying until it enveloped the man entirely. His screams pierced the audio feed as his body twisted and contorted. The feed cut abruptly, replaced by a stark line of text:
"Experiment failed. Subject terminated."
Giovanni felt his stomach churn. He closed the video, his jaw tightening. "What the hell is the Confederation doing?"
The next file provided a partial answer: a schematic labeled "Cosmic Anchor Prototype." It depicted a massive construct, its design eerily similar to the Rings, but scaled for planetary use. Notes scrawled in the margins hinted at its purpose: stabilizing energy disruptions caused by cosmic anomalies.
"They're trying to control the Rings," Giovanni realized aloud. "But they don't even understand them."
The System interrupted his thoughts:
[NEW MISSION ASSIGNED.]
[OBJECTIVE: INFILTRATE SECTOR 9 TO ACQUIRE RESOURCE PACKAGE.]
[REWARD: RING SYSTEM UPGRADE—PERCEPTION FIELD ENHANCEMENT.]
Giovanni groaned. "Another infiltration? You really love sending me into the lion's den."
[MISSION FAILURE PENALTY: CORRUPTION METER INCREASE.]
He sighed, leaning back in his chair. The Corruption Meter was beginning to feel like a ticking time bomb, one he couldn't afford to ignore. The System displayed a countdown timer: "Time Remaining: 72 Hours."
"Guess I don't have a choice," he muttered.
Miles away, deep within the Confederation's command center, Director Caleb Rhea studied a holographic display. The anomaly in Sector 12 was more than a blip; it was a breach. Rhea's gaze sharpened as a technician presented their findings.
"We've identified residual energy signatures," the technician said, their voice steady despite the tension in the room. "It's consistent with unauthorized Ring usage."
"Unauthorized?" Rhea repeated, his tone icy. "Or unregistered?"
The technician hesitated. "We can't confirm. But the patterns suggest a highly skilled individual. Possibly even... experimental."
Rhea turned to another display, showing a looping feed of Lab C-28's perimeter. A figure darted through the shadows, their movements precise and calculated.
"Find them," Rhea ordered. "And when you do, bring them to me. Alive."
Back in Velmont, Giovanni's thoughts drifted as he prepared for the next mission. The events of the lab played on a loop in his mind: the sterile corridors, the fragmented data, the sound of his clone's termination. For the first time, he felt a twinge of doubt—not about his ability, but about the path he was on.
His mother's face flickered in his thoughts. Kaori, always resilient, always strong. She'd sacrificed so much to keep them afloat, yet here he was, risking everything for what? Money? Power?
The System chimed again, pulling him from his thoughts:
[RESOURCE OPTIMIZATION STRATEGY RECOMMENDED.]
[USER PERFORMANCE: 84%. IMPROVEMENT REQUIRED.]
"Right," Giovanni muttered. "Because I'm just a cog in your machine."
Giovanni spent the next few hours preparing for Sector 9. His Perception Field was recalibrated, his clones reprogrammed for maximum efficiency. Despite the System's cold detachment, he couldn't deny its usefulness.
As he finalized his plans, he glanced at the data chip one last time. The phrase "Universal Energy Nexus" lingered in his mind, a haunting reminder of the forces at play.
Outside, Velmont's neon lights buzzed faintly, casting long shadows on the cracked pavement. Somewhere, in the depths of Sector 12, the Confederation was closing in. And Giovanni knew it was only a matter of time before their paths crossed again.