Isaac lay awake in his cot, staring at the ceiling of his cramped apartment. The walls creaked as the colony's aging infrastructure groaned under the stress of a dying world. Outside, the wind howled through the metal corridors, carrying the distant echoes of machinery still clinging to life.
But none of that compared to the noise inside his own head.
[Calibration: 30%]
It hadn't stopped.
Since Mira had left, the system had continued its silent progression, the percentage ticking upward in increments he couldn't predict. Every so often, new words appeared in his vision, cryptic and unsettling.
[User synchronization in progress.]
[Analyzing host compatibility.]
[System initialization: 42% complete.]
Isaac clenched his jaw, trying to block it out, but the words were as present as his own thoughts.
He turned onto his side, frustration boiling beneath his skin. "What do you want from me?" he muttered under his breath.
For the first time, the system responded directly.
[User is required for system activation.]
Isaac sat up sharply. "Activation?"
[Calibration: 35%]
No real answer. Just another percentage ticked upward.
He swung his legs over the edge of the bed and rubbed his face. His body felt… different. Not in a painful way, but in a way he couldn't quite describe. Sharper. More aware. As if something unseen had begun fine-tuning him to an unknown purpose.
And that terrified him.
A knock at the door jolted him from his thoughts. He stiffened. It was late. No one came knocking at this hour unless it was urgent.
He pulled himself up and crossed the room, hesitating only briefly before opening the door.
To his surprise, it wasn't Mira.
It was Hal Vex, one of the foremen from the mines. The man was built like a tank, his face hardened from years of labor, his beard dusted with gray. His expression was grim.
"Valen," he grunted. "We got a problem."
Isaac frowned. "What kind of problem?"
Hal's gaze flickered down the hall before he stepped inside, closing the door behind him. "You heard about the tremors near the lower tunnels?"
Isaac's stomach tightened. The colony had been experiencing more frequent quakes ever since the star had started destabilizing. "Yeah."
Hal folded his arms. "They're getting worse. We lost contact with a team down there."
Isaac's pulse quickened. "Lost contact?"
"They were checking a collapse near Tunnel 7," Hal said. "Last message we got was garbled, like static interference. Then nothing."
Isaac ran a hand through his hair. "You think they're trapped?"
"Could be," Hal said. "Or worse."
Isaac exhaled. He wasn't a rescue worker, but he was an engineer—one of the few in the colony who could navigate the mines without getting lost. That's why Hal was here.
He needed someone who could go down there.
Isaac hesitated. A week ago, he wouldn't have thought twice. But now…
[Calibration: 40%]
He gritted his teeth. Could he trust himself to go down there when his own body was changing in ways he didn't understand?
Hal must have noticed his hesitation. "Look, I wouldn't ask if I had a choice. But we don't have the manpower for a full-scale rescue. I need someone who knows the layout."
Isaac exhaled sharply. He could say no. He could shut the door, pretend this wasn't his problem. But that wasn't who he was.
And if something down there could explain what was happening to him…
"I'll go," he said.
The descent into the mines was slow and tense.
Hal had assembled a small team—just four of them, including Isaac. They moved carefully through the winding tunnels, their flashlights cutting through the thick darkness.
The further they went, the more unstable the ground felt beneath their feet. Dust trickled from the ceiling, the walls groaning under the shifting weight of the dying moon.
Isaac adjusted his breathing, trying to focus.
Then—
A noise.
A faint, rhythmic humming.
He stopped.
Hal turned back. "Something wrong?"
Isaac's fingers tightened around his flashlight. "Do you hear that?"
Hal frowned, listening. After a moment, he shook his head. "Just the wind."
But Isaac knew it wasn't the wind.
Because he wasn't hearing it with his ears.
He was hearing it inside his head.
[Proximity alert: Unknown energy signature detected.]
His heartbeat quickened.
Was this part of the system? Was it leading him somewhere?
"Valen," Hal said, snapping him back to the present. "Stay focused."
Isaac nodded, though his mind was spinning.
They moved deeper.
The first sign of trouble came when they found the abandoned mining equipment. Drills, crates, and comm units—all left behind as if the team had vanished mid-task.
Isaac knelt beside a fallen flashlight, clicking it on. The battery was still charged. Whatever had happened, it hadn't been long ago.
Hal swore under his breath. "Where the hell did they go?"
A cold sensation crawled up Isaac's spine. He turned his flashlight toward the tunnel ahead, and that's when he saw it.
A fissure. Wide and jagged, cutting through the tunnel floor like a wound.
And beyond it… something pulsed.
A faint, eerie glow.
Isaac's breath hitched.
It was the same color as the artifact.
"Hal," he said slowly. "We need to be careful."
Hal followed his gaze and scowled. "Damn. That wasn't here before."
Isaac swallowed hard. The humming in his head was growing stronger, more insistent. It was coming from the fissure.
[Energy signature identified: Unknown Origin.]
[Calibration: 50%]
The system was reacting to it.
Isaac didn't know if that was a good thing.
One of the miners, a younger guy named Ren, stepped forward. "Should we go down there?"
Hal hesitated. "We don't even know how deep it is."
Isaac took a step closer, shining his light over the edge. The glow pulsed from below, steady and rhythmic.
Like something was waiting.
He clenched his fists. The system had brought him here. It had led him here.
And he was starting to think that whatever was down there…
It wasn't something human.
Isaac stood at the edge of the fissure, staring down into the pulsing glow below. The light shimmered in waves, unnatural and rhythmic, as if the planet itself was breathing. The hum in his head had grown louder, no longer a faint whisper but a steady vibration that rattled his bones.
The system was reacting to whatever was down there.
And that terrified him.
Hal stood beside him, cursing under his breath. The foreman's face was grim, his flashlight scanning the unstable walls of the cavern. The collapsed tunnel was bad enough—now this? The colony was falling apart faster than anyone wanted to admit.
"We don't have time for this," Hal muttered. "The missing crew could be buried under that rubble, or worse."
Isaac forced himself to focus. "We need to check it out," he said. "If they fell in, we need to know how deep it goes."
Hal exhaled sharply, rubbing a hand over his stubbled jaw. "Alright, but we do this carefully. No heroics." He turned to the others. "Ren, go back to the entrance and report this in. The rest of us will take a look."
Ren hesitated. He was young, barely twenty, and clearly shaken by the situation. But he nodded and started retracing their path.
Isaac turned back to the fissure. He couldn't shake the feeling that this wasn't just a collapse.
Something made this.
[Proximity alert: Energy source increasing.]
The words flashed across his vision, and his stomach twisted. The system wasn't just aware of whatever was down there—it was tracking it.
And if it was tracking it… that meant it was alive.
Isaac swallowed hard. He needed answers, but now wasn't the time to dwell on it. He carefully slung his gear over his shoulder and fastened a harness to his waist. Hal and the others did the same.
"Slow and steady," Hal instructed. "We don't know how stable the ground is."
Isaac nodded and followed the foreman's lead as they descended into the unknown.
The deeper they went, the stronger the energy became.
The walls of the cavern pulsed with faint traces of the same symbols Isaac had seen on the artifact—etched into the rock itself, glowing softly in the darkness.
"Mira would lose her mind if she saw this," Isaac muttered under his breath.
Hal shot him a glance. "What?"
"Nothing," Isaac said quickly. "Just thinking out loud."
He couldn't tell them the truth. Not yet.
The system had been silent since they started descending, but Isaac could feel it watching. It was waiting for something.
Then, they reached the bottom.
The cavern was massive, stretching far beyond the reach of their flashlights. In the center, half-buried in the earth, was something.
It wasn't rock. It wasn't metal.
It was machinery.
Isaac's breath caught in his throat.
Hal cursed. "What the hell is that?"
The structure was ancient, covered in the same glowing symbols. It looked like a gate—tall, curved, with intricate mechanisms built into its surface.
But it wasn't just a ruin.
It was active.
The air around it shimmered, distorting like heatwaves. The hum in Isaac's head had reached a fever pitch, making his vision blur at the edges.
[System synchronization detected.]
His knees buckled. He grabbed onto a rock for support, his breath coming in shallow gasps.
The symbols on the gate shifted, rearranging themselves like clockwork. A deep, resonant thrum echoed through the cavern.
Then, the ground trembled.
"Isaac!" Hal shouted. "What's happening?"
Isaac barely heard him. The system's voice was in his head again, but this time, it wasn't just words. It was information. Data, numbers, blueprints flashing before his eyes.
He saw stars. He saw ships. He saw a sky that wasn't his own.
[Activation sequence initiated.]
[Designation: Exodus Gate.]
The world lurched.
A blinding light erupted from the gate, consuming everything.
Then—
Darkness.
Isaac gasped, his body jolting awake. His head pounded, his vision swimming.
He was no longer in the cavern.
He was standing in an endless void.
Stars stretched infinitely in every direction, their light distant and cold. He turned, searching for something—anything—but there was only emptiness.
Then, a voice.
"Welcome, User."
It wasn't the same mechanical tone as before. This voice was… deeper. Older.
Isaac spun around.
A figure stood before him, humanoid but indistinct, as if made of liquid light. Its form shimmered, shifting between shapes, never settling.
Isaac's pulse hammered in his ears. "What the hell is this?"
The figure took a step closer. "You have awakened the system."
Isaac clenched his fists. "What is the system?"
"The last remnant of an empire long forgotten."
The words sent a chill down Isaac's spine. "What empire?"
The figure didn't answer directly. Instead, it lifted a hand, and the void around them shifted.
Images appeared—flickering like memories.
A vast fleet of ships, stretching across the stars. Towering structures rising from alien worlds.
And then—destruction.
Stars collapsing. Planets consumed. A war that shattered the heavens.
The figure spoke again.
"They tried to escape."
Isaac's breath caught. "Escape what?"
The figure tilted its head. "The same fate that now comes for you."
Isaac's stomach twisted.
The black hole.
"They knew their world was doomed," the figure continued. "So they built the Exodus Gates—pathways to salvation. But they failed. Their civilization was lost."
Isaac stared at the swirling images, his mind racing.
This was more than just a dying star.
Something else had happened here.
"And now," the figure said, stepping closer, "you stand at the crossroads."
Isaac swallowed hard. "What do you mean?"
"The system has chosen you. You have been granted access to the last functional gate."
Isaac's mind reeled. "Are you saying this thing can—what? Take me somewhere else?"
"Yes."
Isaac exhaled shakily. This was too much. Too fast.
"I don't—I don't even understand how this is possible."
The figure's form flickered. "You will. In time."
Isaac's fists tightened. "Why me?"
The figure was silent for a long moment. Then, it finally answered.
"Because you are the last hope of this world."
The void around him began to dissolve. The stars flickered out one by one.
Isaac felt himself being pulled—
And then, he woke up.
Isaac gasped for air, his body trembling.
He was back in the cavern. Hal was kneeling beside him, shaking his shoulders.
"Isaac! Damn it, stay with me!"
Isaac's vision was hazy, but he could make out the worried expressions of the others.
Hal looked like he had just seen a ghost. "What the hell just happened?"
Isaac's mouth was dry. His heart was still pounding.
The gate loomed in the background, still pulsing with energy.
He looked at Hal, then at the others.
He couldn't tell them. Not yet.
Because now, he knew the truth.
The system wasn't just some ancient relic.
It was a key.
A key to something bigger than any of them.And if he wanted to survive, he had no choice but to use it.