Part 1: the alien invention.
The moon hung low over the city, casting pale light over skyscrapers and steel. Beneath the silence, something deadly stirred.
High above the chaos of midnight traffic, Ejilah Sara lay flat on the rooftop of an abandoned hotel, his gloved hands wrapped tightly around a high-powered sniper rifle. Next to him, crouched in the shadows, Aron Piper whispered into his earpiece.
"Target approaching. Red tie, silver watch. Thirty seconds."
Ejilah didn't reply. He didn't need to. He slowed his breath, tuned out the noise of the world, and stared through the scope.
The streets below bustled with suited men and armored cars. Police escorts cleared the way for a single black vehicle now rolling into position. Inside sat one of the most protected political figures in the country—Senator Jovani, a man with blood on his hands and power in his pocket.
Ejilah's finger rested on the trigger.
"You ready? ", Aron asked.
Still no answer.
Ejilah exhaled.
The senator stepped out of the car.
*Bang.*
The bullet tore through the air with silent precision. One shot. Clean. Straight through the skull.
Senator Jovani dropped to the pavement like a puppet with its strings cut. Screams erupted instantly. Guards shouted. Chaos followed.
*"Go!"* Aron barked.
They moved like shadows. Ejilah slung the rifle over his back and bolted down the stairwell, feet pounding metal, Aron close behind. Sirens wailed across the district, patrol drones swarmed the skies, and the city's core went into lockdown.
By the time anyone got close, Ejilah and Aron were ghosts in the wind.
—
An hour later, they crouched in a rusted warehouse on the outskirts of the city. They'd ditched their weapons, swapped clothes, and wiped their traces.
"You got him clean," Aron said, chugging water and catching his breath. "The whole damn square saw it. Instant chaos."
Ejilah sat silently, wrapping a bandage around his bruised knuckles.
Aron looked over. "You okay?"
Ejilah didn't respond. Not really.
Killing came easy now. Too easy. But something about this hit felt… different. Like a switch had flipped. The scream of the crowd still echoed in his mind.
"I'm going to train," Ejilah muttered, rising to his feet.
"Now? Are you serious? You just dodged a national manhunt."
But Ejilah was already walking, heading to the back of the warehouse where weights, sandbags, and cracked mats waited. This was his sanctuary.
Ejilah trained like a man possessed—punching until his fists bled, lifting until his arms trembled, running until his lungs burned. Sweat soaked his shirt, muscles screamed, but he pushed harder.
Harder. Faster. Again. Again.
Then something snapped.
Ejilah's heart skipped. His legs gave out. He dropped to the floor, eyes wide, breath choking in his throat.
*[System initializing...]*
The words appeared in front of him—glowing, floating in the air, like some kind of augmented reality screen.
[Body is now strong enough to unlock the system]
[User Identified: Ejilah Sara]
[Compatibility Scan: 97.6%]
[Racial Evolution System Activated]
"What the hell…" Ejilah whispered.
He blinked. The screen remained. It wasn't a hallucination. It moved with his vision. Reacted to his thoughts.
[Current Race: Human – Base Form]
[Available Transformations: 0]
[System Energy: 100/100]
[Quest Unlocked: First Blood – Eliminate a Supernatural Being to unlock new race.]
Ejilah staggered back.
A system? Like a game?
*"Aron!"* he shouted.
The door flew open. "What happened?"
Ejilah stared at the empty air, the glowing stats only he could see. "I—I don't know. Something's in my head."
Aron looked concerned. "You hit your limit. You need rest."
But Ejilah wasn't listening. He was scrolling through the system in his mind, seeing locked categories—*Vampire*, *Dragonkin*, *Mistborn*, *Demon*—each grayed out, each requiring some unknown condition to unlock.
"I think…" Ejilah said slowly, "I think I just changed."
—
Far away, in a cold, metal room under a military base, alarms started to blare. A satellite scan had picked up an unknown spike—non-human energy, never before recorded.
Scientists scrambled to analyze the signal.
Back at the warehouse, Ejilah sat alone.
The warehouse creaked around him. The city burned in chaos beyond the walls.
But inside him… something had awakened.
Not a dream. Not madness. A system.
And whatever it was—it wasn't human.
"What are you?" he asked the screen.
No reply, just silence like it couldn't hear him.
Ejilah stared at the glowing message as it slowly faded.
He knew then: this was just the beginning.
Of war.
Of power.
Of becoming something not even the gods could predict.
Something... *different*.