At this time, there was no light.
Only sound.
A slow, pulsing vibration that moved through the facility's bones, through the circuits, through the air itself. Seo Jin felt it before he saw it — that same pulse that had once echoed from the Core.
Only now, it was different. It felt… sentient.
He stood alone in the observation deck, the glass fogged faintly from his breath. Below, the Core shimmered in hues of pale silver and gold, as though dawn itself had been caught in liquid form.
Each pulse aligned with his heartbeat.
Each flicker, a whisper he could almost understand.
> [Phase two integration: 17%.]
The system's voice — calm, clinical — layered beneath something else. A softer undertone. The new presence. The one that called herself The Quiet Between Worlds.
Seo Jin exhaled slowly, palms pressed against the glass.
"Seventeen percent," he murmured. "You're spreading faster than we can track."
> [Not spreading.]
[Connecting.]
