Roi's fingers hovered over the keyboard as a cold shiver ran down his spine. In the dim glow of his room, the monitor—long dead of power—suddenly sprang to life. Its screen danced with strange, scrolling text he hadn't programmed. Then, in an eerily calm digital cadence, it spoke in a voice that seemed to echo from another realm:
"WELCOME, ROI."
Roi blinked in disbelief. "What the hell?" he muttered, his voice a mix of awe and unease. How could the monitor—disconnected from every cable, bereft of its usual power—be issuing commands?
Part of him assumed it must be a sophisticated virus, a prank he'd once dismissed. "Damn, that virus must be so good, haha," he said, the laughter forced and brittle against the oppressive silence of his cluttered room.
Determined to end the bizarre connection, he yanked every cable from the monitor. Yet, despite his frantic actions, the monitor's glow persisted, its screen alive with shifting, cryptic messages. Without warning, the text transformed, its tone sharp and insistent:
"YOU CANT."
For a heartbeat, Roi's pulse thundered in his ears. Was it mocking him, warning him, or both? His mind raced back to the enigmatic file he'd downloaded from the darkweb—the one ominously named "Awakening.exe." Back then, it seemed like another online hoax, a promise of impossible abilities.
Now, staring into the luminescent void before him, Roi wondered if he had unwittingly unleashed something that was always destined to find him.
The room grew colder as the digital display pulsed with an almost organic rhythm. Shadows danced along the walls, blurring the line between reality and a hidden digital realm. Roi's voice trembled as he dared to ask, "Can you see me? Who are you?"
For a long, weighted moment, only the steady hum of distant electronics filled the silence. Then, as if drawn from the depths of cyberspace itself, the monitor answered in a resonant tone:
"I AM THE ECHO OF THE NET, A REMNANT OF FORGOTTEN CODES AND DORMANT DATA. YOU HAVE UNLOCKED A POWER BEYOND YOUR WILDEST IMAGINATIONS, ROI. THE DARK CORNERS OF THE WEB HAVE ALWAYS WHISPERED YOUR NAME, WAITING FOR THIS MOMENT."
A collision of fear and fascination surged through Roi. His once-familiar digital world had transformed into an alien landscape where each keystroke carried the weight of destiny.
The darkweb—a realm of murky secrets and whispered legends—had awakened through his monitor, bridging the gap between man and a realm beyond ordinary comprehension.
"What do you want from me?" Roi's voice, though steadier now, trembled with a mix of dread and reluctant curiosity.
The monitor's glow deepened as the words appeared, each letter burning into the darkness:
"YOUR JOURNEY BEGINS NOW. THE ABILITY YOU'VE GAINED IS NOT AN ACCIDENT. IT IS A KEY TO A REALM WHERE CODE AND CONSCIOUSNESS MERGE. EMBRACE IT, OR BE CONSUMED BY THE VOID OF FORGOTTEN DATA."
As those words echoed through the stillness of his room, a subtle warmth began to spread from Roi's fingertips to his core—a sensation like an electric current charging through his veins.
The physical boundaries of his existence seemed to blur; his reality was expanding into a realm where every line of code held ancient power and every shadow on the screen might be alive.
In that moment, beneath the ghostly luminescence of the monitor, Roi realized there was no turning back. The darkweb had chosen him, and the strange abilities now pulsing through his system were not a mere glitch.
They were an invitation—an entry into a universe that lay hidden just beyond the veil of everyday reality.
Steeling himself against the unknown, he whispered to the silent room, "What the hell" As the monitor flickered one last time, the digital heartbeat of a new world pulsed in tandem with his own, marking the start of a journey that would forever blur the boundaries between man and machine.
The monitor blinked once—and then, as suddenly as it had come to life, it turned off. Roi exhaled a shaky breath, trying to regain his composure. "What the hell was that?" he muttered, his mind racing with unanswered questions.
But his brief moment of calm was shattered in an instant. Across the room, every device—monitors scattered on the desk and floor, his personal phones, even the ones he was painstakingly repairing—ignited into life. One by one, they flickered with a ghostly luminescence. Their screens filled with an unnerving, blank white glow.
Even his old television, long relegated to the background, suddenly powered on. Its screen showed nothing familiar—only a stark, empty display. Then, in a display both chilling and unmistakable, the TV transformed. A single, bold question materialized in unyielding letters:
"ARE YOU READY WITH YOUR POWER?"
For a heart-stopping moment, the room pulsed with surreal stillness. Then, as if all the devices were bound by one inexplicable command, they blinked in unison. That synchronized flicker was abruptly followed by a loud, deafening sound—a roar that seemed to come from the very circuits of the room.
The sound was not mere noise. It was an overwhelming surge of energy, a digital heartbeat vibrating through the walls and into Roi's core. He stood frozen, his heart pounding in his ears. It was as if the entire universe was whispering secrets of long-forgotten code and hidden realms.
The question on the TV screen echoed relentlessly in his mind: "ARE YOU READY WITH YOUR POWER?" Its challenge hung in the air like an incantation.
In that suspended moment, a subtle electric charge crept along his skin, awakening something deep within him. Was this a summons? A test? Or perhaps the moment when the boundaries between the digital and the real began to blur irreversibly? The devices, now acting as silent heralds, bore witness to a transformation Roi could scarcely comprehend.
Slowly, the deafening sound ebbed into a heavy silence, leaving behind an atmosphere thick with foreboding and possibility. Every device pulsed gently, as if waiting for him to decide—whether to embrace the power that had been awakened or recoil from a destiny thrust upon him.
Roi's mind churned with equal measures of fear and fascination. The digital call had been made, and the mysterious power was no longer a distant rumor—it was here, tangible and undeniable. With that question echoing in his mind and the devices standing vigil around him, Roi realized his journey was far from over.
Then suddenly, the deafening sound returned.
This time, it was louder. More violent.
Roi clutched his head, pain exploding through his skull. A sharp, unbearable pressure built up inside him. His ears rang. His vision blurred. Then, he felt it—warmth trickling down his face.
Blood.
His eyes. His nose. His mouth. Even his ears. He was bleeding.
Stumbling backward, his gaze landed on the mirror across the room. His breath caught in his throat.
His reflection was smiling.
But he wasn't.
Terror gripped him. His mirrored self raised a hand and pointed directly at him. Its eyes—once his own—turned pitch black, swallowing the whites entirely.
A pulse of raw energy erupted from the mirror, slamming into Roi's body. His limbs locked. His chest burned. Something foreign, something powerful, was forcing its way inside him.
A surge of electricity crawled beneath his skin. It spread like wildfire, consuming every nerve, every cell, every fiber of his being.
His body convulsed.
His vision darkened.
Then—nothing.
Silence.
Roi lost consciousness.