The screen went dark.
Derek didn't move. The room was quiet again. A heavy kind of quiet, like the world itself was holding its breath.
And then something shifted.
There was no visual. No ripple of energy. No alert from the System. But something else was there—imposing, yet unseen. Not in the house, not outside—but everywhere.
A voice came, without a source.
"Hah... they're already screaming."
It wasn't deep or dramatic. Just amused. The kind of voice someone might use while watching ants fight over crumbs.
"Didn't think it would be this noisy this early. They're more fragile than the projections suggested, but far more... animated."
There was a crackle behind the words, like the edge of a frequency not meant to be heard.
Suddenly, Derek felt an eye watching him, trying to scan him and peer into his secrets. He visualised a giant eye in the sky; before that eye, he was nothing, everything about his past and his future would be known.
