[ARC Internal File / Redacted]Case ID: AE-NS-04Location: Neusiedler See (Deep-Layer Interface Zone)Status: Unresolved (6 attempts)
Multiple deep-layer read attempts triggered,all interrupted before full formation.Observers experienced layer-shear at 14–23 meters.Several instruments malfunctioned or vanished.(Black Box 1: ████████)(Black Box 2: ████████)
Latest Assessment:Deep-layer structure is initiating a "compatibility check."Target: Unknown.
Recommendation:If the sequence activates again,withdraw all personnel to a minimum 50-meter distanceto avoid being entered into the synchronization protocol.
The bright line rose from the lake again.
Not light—a column of rhythm,forcing the water upward like something underneath was breathing.
My source-point jerked forward,half a second ahead of my body.Like the world had decided my position for me.
Patch dropped low.Emilia stepped back as her device screamed.Alden remained still,and space held together because he did.
The lake rose.Collapsed.Rose again.
A circular projection surfaced—transparent, incomplete,like an interface updating in real time.
Symbols flickered inside it,misaligned, overlapping,aligning again…then misaligning once more.
The circle pulled everything toward its center.
I pressed the source-point.My shadow thickened into stacked layers,delay passing one full second.Wind froze.Sound vanished.
Symbols hovered at the edge of my vision—not in front of me,but inside the act of seeing.
Images surged through the cracks:tower-base geometry,ring structures,patterns pinned beneath the lake.
Emilia's voice broke:"Jeff… your data density is spiking—"
Alden's gaze hardened."He's past the return point."
The ring rotated—not physically,but in its rules.Water re-tiled itself like a glitched mosaic.
Patch's snarl split into static,the pressure warping its sound.
A curve of symbols extended out of the ringand attached itself to my chest.
The world muted instantly.
Emilia's hand froze mid-reach.Time peeled off like a layer of film.
Only the source-point kept moving—pulsing a tight, coded rhythm.
More symbols gathered.The ring brightened.Something transparent rose at the lake's center—no limbs, no face, no weight—yet perfectly aligned with the surrounding space.
It waited.
Alden whispered:"…It's verifying compatibility."
The symbols merged into a vertical line.Struck my chest.
My body burst apart and reassembled in one motion.Vision turned over itself.
For one second,the world reduced to a single frame—
the full lake-core structure,language, geometry, and rhythmpressed into the shape of a format.
Not a creature.Not a relic.Not technology.
A read-point.
The symbol inhaled.Aligned.Decided.
Reading the source-point.Reading… me.
Patch leapt in front of me.Its cry bent under the pressure.
When awareness snapped back,I was kneeling by the shore,lungs burning with cold air.
Emilia clutched my arm."You were— Jeff, you were being pulled inside—!"
Alden stood ahead,brow like stone."This isn't a lake phenomenon.This is a global-tier reader waking up."
The water returned to still black.Too calm.
But the line in my chest stayed tight,anchoring me to the center.
A thought surfaced—not mine,but spoken through my awareness:
"Source-point match: complete."