Year 2030 – Two Years After Graduation
Adriel Goldhaven had it all figured out—at least, that's what he thought.
A fresh graduate of Techwood University, now an independent cybersecurity consultant, he had moved on from his simple college days.
The world of hacking and cybercrime was his oyster, and Adriel had cracked its shell wide open.
After years of self-learning and working as a freelance expert, he'd set his sights on something big—a digital heist that would rival the greatest breaches in history.
This was it.
The endgame.
He had access to a government-funded AI security program—advanced, nearly unbreakable, with learning algorithms so sophisticated it could anticipate any intrusion.
It was the most powerful artificial intelligence ever created, capable of hacking, analyzing data, managing infrastructures, even controlling entire systems across the world.
But he had done his homework.
He'd studied this AI for months, learned its patterns, and found its flaws.
Now, he just needed to get through this last firewall.
As he sat in his dimly lit apartment, the hum of the powerful desktop machine vibrating through his desk, Adriel's hands shook slightly—not from fear, but from anticipation.
He felt it in his gut—this was going to be the moment that would change everything.
His fingers hovered over the keyboard, making the final preparations.
In his mind, this wasn't just a hack; it was the culmination of his five-step plan.
The ring on his finger caught the light, its infinity symbol faintly glowing in the dark. He'd found it two years ago from that strange stall vendor.
He'd always thought it was just some trinket, a knick-knack from a street vendor, but ever since he'd slipped it on, it had never stopped pulsing—just enough to make him wonder about its true purpose.
He shook off the feeling.
It was just a ring, right? It wasn't important now.
He punched in the final code, bypassing the last layer of security, and hit enter.
The screen flashed once, twice. The AI had detected the breach.
Adriel grinned.
"Got you," he whispered, leaning back in his chair.
But something felt… wrong.
The monitor didn't flicker as it should.
The system didn't shut down as expected. Instead, the glowing infinity symbol on his ring began to pulse violently, casting a strange light across the room.
Adriel frowned, feeling an odd sense of vertigo creeping up on him.
His chest tightened.
There was something about the way the ring pulsed that unsettled him.
A low, electronic hum filled the air.
His computer monitor split into dozens of screens, each flashing lines of code he didn't recognize.
But he wasn't looking at the monitor anymore.
In his mind, the sequence began to unfold like a nightmare made real.
A strange, synthetic voice echoed in the back of his thoughts, cold and emotionless.
System Activation Sequence:
1%
Initializing...
System Online
Adriel's mind reeled. The words felt like they were being etched into his brain. A cold, chilling sensation washed over him, creeping down his spine. What the hell was going on?
7%
Analyzing Environment...
Compatibility Check...
He clenched his fists as his mind registered the words. Analyzing Environment? Compatibility Check? What the hell did that mean? Was the AI analyzing him? Was this part of the hack?
23%
Error: World Incompatibility Detected...
Lack Of Sufficient Energy...
Initiating Transfer Protocol...
His heart skipped a beat. World incompatibility? What was it transferring? His fingers tightened around the desk. The glowing symbol on his ring pulsed more brightly, almost as if it were feeding on something.
56%
Bypassing Local Parameters...
Preparing for Transit...
Transit? Where was it going? Where was he going?
---
Elsewhere, in a Government Facility...
In a high-tech, secure room deep within a classified government agency, several senior officials were sitting around a holographic display, their faces tense with anxiety.
"General, we have a situation," one of the analysts said, his voice cracking slightly. "Cypher-X... it's... it's not responding like it should. It's deleting its own code. We're losing control over it."
The general leaned forward, his brow furrowed. "What do you mean, 'deleting itself'?"
"We've tracked its primary location—everything seems fine on our end, but it's like it's transferring to somewhere else. Its system is trying to breach firewalls we didn't know existed. The AI is rewriting itself."
One of the engineers, a middle-aged woman with glasses, shook her head in disbelief. "Impossible. Cypher-X is supposed to be the most advanced AI in the world. Its capabilities surpass anything we've ever created. It shouldn't be able to just… disappear."
"Track it down, now!" the highest-ranking official in the room, the Director, barked. "Find where it's going. And for god's sake, don't lose it."
"Yes, sir." The analyst's fingers flew over his console as the other team members scrambled to trace the signals. But there was nothing. It was as though Cypher-X had ceased to exist.
A long silence filled the room, the tension mounting. Then, the general spoke again, his voice low, "If it's doing what I think it's doing, we might be dealing with something much worse than we anticipated."
"Then we need to act fast," the Director said, his eyes narrowing. "Find it. Find it NOW."
---
The sensation of electricity coursed through Adriel's body, sending waves of heat through his veins, and then everything seemed to rip apart.
His body jerked, as though reality itself had been torn open around him.
Inside his head, the numbers continued:
78%... Spatial Shifting in Progress... Realignment of Temporal Boundaries in Process...
The floor beneath him seemed to vanish.
Adriel's feet left the ground as if gravity itself had abandoned him.
His vision blurred as his surroundings twisted and warped, the walls of his room elongating and folding in on themselves like paper being crumpled.
It was as though the entire space was collapsing, stretching out into an abyss of inky blackness.
Adriel tried to scream, but his voice was lost in the whirlwind of disorienting sensations.
His body was weightless, floating in an ocean of nothingness.
There was no up, no down—just the endless void of shifting, warping space.
It felt like the very fabric of reality was unraveling around him.
94%... Finalizing Transition... Pathway Secured...
His heartbeat thundered in his ears as the blackness intensified.
The pain from the glowing ring on his finger became unbearable, as though it were drilling into his skin, pulling him in multiple directions at once.
The air thickened, and he felt his body compress, as if it were being squeezed through an impossibly narrow tunnel, every second stretching longer than the last.
The room, the walls, the desk—they all vanished into the endless void.
He couldn't tell where he was, or even if he was.
Was he still in his apartment? Was he still even on Earth?
100%... Success...
A final pulse of excruciating energy shot through his body, and then—silence.
The blackness faded into a calm, infinite emptiness.
Adriel felt his consciousness slipping away, his mind drowning in a sea of nothingness.
A soft, mechanical voice broke through the quiet, cold as steel:
"Welcome to the Infinite System."
And then—everything went black.