"When the countdown begins, the world forgets to blink. But
some… begin to hear."
The first of the 72 hours had just passed. The Countdown had
began, and with it came more mysteries. It was now hour 71, and Eric couldn't
sleep.
He sat hunched on the rooftop, knees drawn to his chest, as
grey sunlight filtered through the cloud-wrapped sky. Not grey with rain, but grey
with weight, like the sky had grown tired of pretending.
His system interface hovered faintly before his eyes, almost
as if syncing with his breathing. He was glad to see that he began this hour
with a new skill unlocked.
"[Welcome, Seeker.]"
"First Node Unlocked: [Aether Pulse]"
" Aether Pulse is a non-lethal scan that reveals hidden
truths, energy fields, and veiled entities within a limited radius. Cool-down:
10 minutes."
Eric loved the sound of this new skill. He instinctively
wanted to use it there and then.
"Wouldn't it be wonderful to unravel these hidden truths and
veiled entities!" he thought excitedly. He whispered the command.
"Pulse."
The response was instant. The air around him shimmered. Eric
braced himself.
At first, nothing changed. But then… shadows shifted. Walls
blurred at the edges. Shapes not meant for eyes began to glow beneath
surfaces—like roots beneath skin. Along the edge of the rooftop, a glyph he'd
never seen before lit up in indigo flame.
"Hidden Marking Detected."
"Language: [Unknown –
Non-Terrestrial]."
"Origin: Pre-Awakening Installation."
A voice whispered through the wind:
"You were seen before you were
born…"
Eric spun, heart racing. But as always there was no one
there.
"Who saw me?" he pondered as he started moving. He descended
the stairwell cautiously.
He felt something weird, something unexplainable —the
building wasn't breathing properly. That was the only way he could explain it.
The walls felt hollow. The pipes echoed weirdly.
He got down to the hallway and turned a corner—and froze.
A child stood at the far end of the hallway. Maybe five
years old. In a tattered white dress. She held a radio against her ear, turning
the dials. The sound was faint but unmistakable. It was static.
The girl looked up at him.
"Do you hear them too?" she asked.
Eric stepped closer. "Who are you?"
The girl turned the radio toward him. The static screeched
for a split second—then spoke.
"SEEKER 04-02 DETECTED. INITIATING INTERFERENCE
PROTOCOL."
The child dropped the radio. Her eyes went pure black. Then
she whispered in a voice not her own:
"The first wave awakens. The failed ones rot. You…
are late."
Eric backed away, panic rising. Then his system came in
handy.
"[Warning: Anomaly Detected –
Temporal Parasite].
Skill Unlock Available: [Null Eye] – Passive Resistance to
Low-Level Reality Distortion].
Auto-Installing..."
The girl dropped to her knees, coughing violently. Her eyes
returned to brown. She looked up at him, terrified.
"Make them stop," she sobbed. "Please. They're in my teeth."
And she collapsed.
Eric pondered on what had just happened. The girl was among
those who could hear static! The system had termed it as temporal parasite.
What more mysteries the 71st hour held terrified
him. His thoughts about others being affected in unknown ways were soon confirmed
when he left the hallway, entering the streets.
He noticed that the world had gone eerily quiet again. People
moved strangely on the streets. They were all jerky and appeared blurred at the
edges. Some walked barefoot. Others wore mismatched clothes, like they'd
dressed during a seizure. Many talked to themselves, some to the sky.
The weather was also changing ominously. A dense fog rolled
in from the west, but there was no wind.
This fog had something sinister about it and Eric's system
pinged.
"[Local Anomaly Detected: Fog of
Syncopation]"
"Effect: Rewrites
short-term memory of all non-bonded
lifeforms."
"Duration: Lasts
13 minutes."
Eric processed the feedback from the system. He crouched
behind a kiosk, heart thudding, and waited to see what happens to the named
non-bonded lifeforms. He did not wait for long.
From across the street, he saw a man walk into the fog, then
walk out again twenty seconds later. Surprisingly, the man was dressed
differently, bleeding from one ear, and was muttering in perfect binary.
"That quick!" Eric asked, surprised.
Another man entered. Came back out laughing hysterically.
Then lay on the ground and whispered, "I died in there. I'm just remembering
how to be alive."
Eric took a breath.
"Time to find out what is inside the fog," he told himself. He
stepped forward. Just then the system cranked loudly:-
"[WARNING: Seeker Class not yet
immune to mental loop fields. Exposure to Syncopation Fog may result in skill
mutation or irreversible loss of identity.]"
"What!" He froze for a moment then retreated.
Later that hour, he found the body of a man. It was twisted.
Its skin stretched like parchment. The man had no eyes—but around him, a system
screen still flickered in the air.
It read:
"CANDIDATE #219:
Alignment Failed. Forced Override Attempted."
"Result:
Disintegration."
Eric's system pulsed, notifying him that he had met a False
Candidate.
"[False Candidate Identified."
"The Candidate attempted manual
bonding without neural acceptance.]"
"Note: False
Candidates can be manipulated. Some become hostile. Others… serve."
"New Threat Tier
Logged: Broken Ones."
Suddenly, the corpse twitched. Eric stepped back. The system
ranked the corpse as a threat to him. He couldn't risk it.
The corpse, however, didn't move again—but something
slithered from beneath its ribs. Something dark. The thing scurried into the
shadows.
Eric's breath caught.
"This is too much," he whispered, sensing the real threat
posed by the broken ones.
Then a message blinked:
"This is only
Hour 71."
The system opened again—this time automatically.
A world map unfolded before him—but it wasn't the Earth he
knew. It was fractured, gridded into hexagonal sectors. Only eight sectors
remained active.
Each sector had a Seeker Beacon—all dim except one. This was
Sector 5, Identified as the East African Rift. This was Eric's sector. The
stats of the sector read;
"Sector 5: East African Rift."
"[Beacon Stability: 1%]"
"[Next Seeker Activation: 03:44:59]"
"[Other Candidates: Unknown]"
"[Coordinating Protocols: Delayed.]"
"[Interference Level:
Red.]"
Eric stared at the blinking grid. The stats were not
encouraging.
Before he pondered more, he was interrupted. It came from above.
It was a voice—not the system— and it spoke from the clouds. It was female,
layered with static.
"Seeker 04-02. Welcome to the Fold. The Earth has been
judged. You… are its gamble."
Then silence.
Eric dropped to his knees, his head pounding.
Far in the distance, lightning forked upward—from ground to
sky. And the child's voice echoed again, the one who had a radio with static. She
sounded faint in his ears, but the message was clear;
"They're building the Eye again…"