I spent the whole night trying to calm myself down.
Not because it worked—but because my mind was too chaotic to decidewhich thing I should panic about first.
The ability was real.The anomalies were real.And their reaction to me was far too extreme.
Those facts stacked like a mountain,and any hint of sleep simply packed its bags and left.
In the morning, the cat sat on the table,staring at me with an expression that basically said:
"Well? You done pretending to be dead?"
"…Yeah, yeah. I know. Time to practice."
I sat upright, placed my hands on my knees,and tried to focus on that part of my chest.
It didn't take long—that faint tingling sensation returned.
Not like a heart attack.More like…a thin line extending from inside my body,reaching toward something I couldn't see.
Yesterday it felt like "something's wrong."Today, the feeling had direction.
Like a place in the room was breathing,sending out subtle waves that pushed toward me.
That place—that sensation—was the source.
"Source… Source point…"
The term surfaced on its own.
Back when I worked on ERP systems,whenever something broke,the first thing I did was find the source—the exact point where the bug began.
This was the same idea,just in a far more cursed version of reality.
I slowly extended my hand toward the "wave origin" I felt.
The air around my fingertips wobbled,not from wind,not from dizziness—but as if the resolution of the roombriefly stuttered.
Shadows in the room lagged behind the objects,catching up half a beat later.
Like the world skipped a frame.
"…There it is."
The cat's ears twitched.Its eyes narrowed slightly,focused on my hand.
It didn't stop me.Which—hopefully—meant this was still within the acceptable range.
I tried again, this time more carefully.A bit more pressure.
It felt like I poked the air with a finger.
The invisible thread tightened—then snapped back into me,sending a cold ripple through my chest.
My vision dimmed for a second.I grabbed the table to steady myself.
"Yep. Still has side effects."
At least, for now,it was just dizziness, irregular heartbeat,and a jolt like I skipped a line of code.
No collapsing on the floor.For a normal person, that counted as "pretty okay."
I steadied my breathing.
"Alright. Conclusion one:Space really does react to me.Conclusion two:Using it still makes me want to pass out.Conclusion three…"
I paused.
"…It might actually increase my odds of surviving."
Saying it out loud made it feel real.
If the anomalies kept escalating,then I needed to escalate too.
Otherwise, the next time something happened,I wouldn't even have the right to run.
I closed my eyes.This time, I didn't reach out with my hand.I focused on the thread itself.
One second.Two seconds.
Nothing.
Then—on the third second—the wave pulsed again.
Not in front of me.In the corner of the room.
As if someone poked that part of space with their fingertip,making the entire area contract slightly.
I looked toward the corner.
It looked normal.Just wall, floor, shadow.
But the sensation pointed straight at it.
"The source point…"
I whispered it before I could stop myself.
Not because it was a grand term.I just needed a word for the place where the anomaly concentrated.
If I used "source point" for debugging work,I could use it for this broken reality too.
The cat was already there,sniffing the floor.
Its tail swayed slowly—measuring, calculating.
Then it lifted a pawand tapped the air.
I felt it clearly—
The wave at the source pointflattened slightly.
Not gone.But relieved,like someone let out a bit of air from a balloon about to burst.
"…You're way more experienced than I am."
The cat glanced at me.Its expression said:
"No shit."
A strange feeling rose in my chest.
This didn't feel like divine intervention.Didn't feel like ghosts.Didn't feel like some chosen-one fantasy.
It felt more like—
Something in the world's structure had been malfunctioning for a while.Now the damage was seeping outward,and I, Jeff, just happened to step right on one of the cracks.
And the cat next to mewas some kind of maintenance tool.
A grumpy one.
"What are you looking for?" I asked.
It ignored me,still checking the space near the source point,as if searching for a missing piece—something chipped off and hiding in the cracks.
The image reminded me of a word—
"Frag—"
The rest vanished.Cut off cleanly.Like someone pressed delete on the thought.
I froze.
Something unseen in the worldhad tapped my mind.A warning:
"Not yet."
"…Got it," I muttered.
I sat back on the bed.My hands were still trembling slightly.
If it was just the occasional anomaly,maybe I could hope I'd never run into one again.
But now it was obvious—I wasn't chasing the anomalies.
The anomalies were drifting toward me.
I wasn't a random bystander anymore.
"I should… train this.At least until it stops making me dizzy."
The cat jumped back onto the tableand tapped the back of my hand with its tail—like stamping approval.
For the first time,its presence actually calmed me.
The fear was still there.But for once,I wasn't just being dragged by it.
If the world really was breaking,if more anomalies would appear,if new source points kept opening…
Then I needed to do one thing—
Before everything collapsed,I had to become someonewho could survive.