The timer was still running.02:43:1802:43:17
It floated quietly in the lower-right corner of my vision—no sound, no animation—as if someone spliced a game's HUD into my eyes and forgot to install the audio pack.
The platform looked normal.People pulled suitcases,carried kids,picked drinks at the vending machine.Announcements played like usual—just thinner, missing the high end,as if the sound passed through thick glass.
But every time I blinked,the "normal" loosened.
A man checking his watch—his hand motion replayed for half a second.A flattened scrap of paper—twitched,jumped two centimeters forward,skipping everything in between.
Yesterday I might've blamed fatigue.Not now.
Not with a symbol hanging on the edge of my visual nerve,turning every micro-stutter in the airinto a giant alarm.
The Source burned steadily in my chest—not flaring,just full.Delay hovering near 0.2 seconds,like someone pushed the slider to the limitand froze it right before the line.
The ARC field testers had backed off to the far side of the platform.Not leaving—just keeping distance.Earpieces pressed against their necks,eyes scanning the readings around me.
They weren't watching me.They were watching the data bleeding off of me.
I tried not to think about AE-00.Which made my mind push it forward anyway.
Observation-class.Annoying term.Not because it meant danger—but because it meant something was actively watching.
And things at that leveldon't watch casually.
The timer hit 02:42:59.
The air shifted.
Sound dimmed across the whole platform—not muted,just lowered,like the world's volume dropped to 20%and something inaudible filled the rest.
The edges of my vision trembled.Not noise—a faint "second screen" overlay.
The real platform underneath.A pale misaligned outline on top.
I blinked.Both layers aligned—then split again.
The Source pulsed hard.Delay spikedright to the edge of what I could still control.
"…Vienna is really rolling out the welcome mat, huh."No answer.
Then the people flow began to warp.Not deliberately avoiding me—but a two-meter empty circle formed around me,as if the world silently flagged the area as a restricted zone.
Heat spread through my chest.The symbol flickered deeper in my vision,like chalk lines drawn in the dark.
"I get it…"I wasn't even sure who I was talking to—the Source,ARC,or AE-00.
Timer hit 02:41:30—
The far end of the platform collapsed inward.Not physically—the perspective caved,as if the vanishing point had been punched downward.
Every shadow around metilted toward it at the same time—then snapped back.
Delay let me catch an extra half-frame:light draining out of the world,saturation sinking into negatives,leaving only harsh contrast.
And then—a gaze.
Not from a person.Not from one place.From everywhere.From the structure itself.
My chest froze,then heated violently as the Source pushed back.
The symbol locked dead center in my vision—not flickering,not glitching,but solid,like a main menu UI opening.
Lines sharpened,forming something between language and geometry.
Text appeared:
○ AE-00○ Observation Layer○ Link: B-39 / UFO-Park-01
"…You've got to be kidding."
Everything stopped.
People didn't slow—they froze.Mid-expression.Mid-breath.
A girl's fingers hovered above her wallet.A father's half-spoken word stayed stuck in his throat.The announcement cut mid-syllable,leaving a clean, unnatural silence.
Only two things moved:
The timer—02:41:1202:41:11
And me.And the burning Source.
"…So that's how it is."
A glance inward clarified the scene.This wasn't time stop.Not spatial freeze.More like the system removed everything unrelated to mefrom the active computation layer.
AE-00 was watching.The system didn't want noise.
Almost considerate—if it weren't terrifying.
The symbol rotated.New text surfaced:
○ Source Delay: 0.19s○ Sync Stability: 72%○ Classification: Candidate / Sourcebearer
"…Who said you guys could label me like that."
Still, my hand tightened.The Source contracted,delay scraping the edge of instabilitybefore I forced it back down.
No way I was breaking downin front of an observation-class entity.
If I was being watched—
Fine.
I inhaledand pushed the delay upward.0.19 → 0.20 → 0.21 → 0.22
Space stuttered with me.The second layer sharpened.
Beneath Vienna Central Station—another outline formed.
UFO Park.The ring of nine-floor buildings.The twin mound "eyes."
Two maps forced into alignment.A yin-yang node.
This station…was one of its endpoints.Or at least stamped by the same rule.
The Source thrashed.The symbol shook.AE-00's presence solidified—not as a figure,but as a structure leaning toward me,an unseen eye connected directly to my vision.
ARC must've seen something too.I could imagine the panic—spikes, overlaps,protocols firing red.
B-39's feed showinga "Candidate Sourcebearer"directly observed by AE-00.
If I were them,I'd go drink water too.
Timer reached 02:40:00.
A concept pressed into my mind:
○ Confirmed○ Line Connected○ Observation Start
I steadied my breath.
"…Alright then. Watch all you want."
I held the delay at a razor-thin boundary—not safe,not dangerous.
The world's pull eased.The calibrated sting dissolved.
The timer blinked—and vanished.
Sound snapped back:
Footsteps.Steam hiss.Distorted English announcements.
People moved againas if nothing happened.Coins dropped.Sentences finished.Motion resumed.
ARC field testers straightened.One looked at me—cautious,serious—but didn't approach.
Protocol had activated.This was beyond their level.
The Source cooled.The symbol retreated.My heartbeat slowed.
I let out a long breath.
"…So you guys don't just bite people after all."
TESCO's monsters flashed in my mind,overlapping with this moment.Wild creature vs. proctor with a clipboard.Jarring difference.
But one thing was certain:
Monster or proctor—I was officially on the exam paper.
And somehow…my lips curled.
"Then come on."
If the yin-yang node had reached Vienna—my training groundwas no longer just a park in Bratislava.