Part A – Orientation Zone
The air in Vasena's main corridor felt too clean, as if the filters were running at three hundred percent of a normal hospital's standard. Ryu walked behind two escorts who never gave their names, passing white walls that occasionally flickered with blue holograms. Each panel displayed graphs, training schedules, or access tiers.
Teenagers in white uniforms moved through the halls, some looking like they had grown up too fast. A few carried tablets. Others held test reports. None of them joked. None of them laughed. They looked like living batteries being carried to a charging station.
Ryu said nothing. His eyes swept over the space as if the corridor were a puzzle laid out for him to decode.
"Orientation unit ahead," one of the escorts said.
The hall opened into a large chamber. The ceiling rose as high as an underground stadium, and the walls were made of metallic panels layered with nano-ceramic that absorbed sound. White light fell without casting shadows, making the entire room look like the inside of someone's mind.
Gifted children filled the space. At least a hundred of them, and this was only Zone 1.
Ryu observed them carefully. Some were reading databases. Some sat in silence, waiting for instructions. Some leaned close and whispered about test results. When Ryu entered, several heads turned toward him.
Their looks were not friendly. They were analytical.
"That the Redlock kid?" someone whispered. "No. He's from that murder case," another muttered. "They say his wave pressure isn't normal." "Seriously?"
"I heard he almost froze the medical unit."
Rumors spread fast. Vasena was a nest of small-scale spies learning to study each other.
Ryu stood in the middle of the hall. He did not look awkward. He did not look nervous. He was simply still. The quiet around him made him feel like a black dot on a white canvas.
The escort beside him scanned the faces in the crowd, then raised his voice. "Attention. New subject, Ryu Alverion. First session begins in five minutes."
"Subject?" a boy muttered. "Not a cadet?"
"Of course not. Redlock kids don't enter as cadets." Ryu listened but did not respond. He already knew the difference between a cadet and a subject.
Cadet: a trainee agent. Subject: a potential experiment. The difference was small on paper, but deadly in reality. The escort turned to him. "I will take you to your barracks. Orientation comes after."
Vasena's barracks were nothing like a school dormitory. The doors were thick white metal, cold to the touch, with a thin violet line drifting along the surface, a sign of an active security system.
When the door slid open, Ryu saw four beds lined up in perfect order, each separated by a shoulder-high glass panel. Soft white lights illuminated the room, making it feel more like a capsule on a space station than a bedroom.
A boy sat on the bed closest to the window. His hair was short, his eyes sharp, his posture nervous. Ryu recognized his face.
"Aki," he said quietly.
Aki's head jerked up, eyes widening. "You… you actually made it in?" They did not hug. They did not smile. They only exchanged a look of shared understanding. Aki stood.
"You okay? I heard the medical test went crazy." "Not that much," Ryu answered.
"Seriously? I heard there was some kind of signal or whatever, I don't even get it. But everyone's talking about you."
"Let them."
Aki sighed and glanced around the room. "This barrack holds four people. Two aren't here yet. They say they're top-tier geniuses from the northern provinces."
Ryu opened the small locker beside his bed. Inside were standard Vasena clothes, a Grey-level access card, and a basic biometric reader. Aki dropped back onto his mattress.
"You know a lot of kids here are going to hate you," he said.
"Why?"
"Because you're a subject." Aki stared at the floor. "And because of the rumor that you brought trouble in from outside."
Ryu looked at him for a moment. "Are you afraid?" Aki gave a thin smile. "I'm afraid of everyone here. Just… a little less afraid of you."
Ryu sat down. "Why?"
"You're different." Aki shook his head. "I don't know how to explain it, but if other people are dangerous… you feel like something beyond that."
Ryu did not deny it. He simply studied the white wall ahead. The barrack door slid open again. The escort from earlier gestured toward them. "Barrack 47, move to Orientation Hall." Aki glanced at Ryu. "We going?"
"We're going."
They stepped out together. As the door closed behind them, Ryu felt something. Very faint. Almost like a breath brushing the back of his skull.
Not a voice. Not yet. Just the scrape of a frequency. Like a code trying to find its connection.
Ryu turned his head slightly. The corridor was empty.
But he knew. This was not his imagination.
Part B - A Thousand Heads of Genius
The Orientation Hall was far larger than the space Ryu had seen earlier. It was oval, like a giant conference room stripped of chairs. The walls gave off a soft white glow, and recessed niches along them displayed real-time data feeds from every province in the Dominion of Astryx.
The main display dominated everything.
TOTAL CADETS: 1379
TOTAL SUBJECTS: 43
TOTAL SPECIAL CANDIDATES: 3
Aki swallowed. "Three special candidates. That's god level."
"You are wrong," Ryu replied calmly. "That is the level they want to turn into gods."
Aki stared at him, puzzled. Ryu did not elaborate.
An instructor entered through the main door. Long black hair, white coat, eyes sweeping the hall with effortless authority. This was not Cassandra Nox. Not Arvis. Not a chief mentor. Just an orientation instructor.
Even so, her presence was enough to silence over a thousand children in an instant. "Welcome to the National Vasena Facility," she said. "Before you learn how this place operates, you must accept one fact."
Her gaze moved slowly across the room. No one dared blink.
"You are not students."
"You are not soldiers."
"You are not future scholars."
The instructor leaned forward slightly.
"You are national investments."
A ripple of murmurs ran through the hall, fading almost as quickly as it began.
"There are three primary tracks in Vasena," she continued.
"Cadet Track.
Subject Track.
Closed Track."
Her eyes brushed over Ryu for a fraction of a second. He noticed. So did Aki. "Damn… she looked right at you," Aki whispered.
"You are paying too much attention," Ryu replied.
Some of the children shifted uneasily. One raised a hand. "Instructor, what is the Closed Track?" She smiled faintly. "That is a track that cannot be discussed, including by me."
A perfect answer to plant questions in a thousand minds. While she continued explaining schedules and baseline expectations, Ryu studied the hall. He saw something rare: a full spectrum of genius types.
A boy with glasses and a retinal data link shimmering across his eyes. A tall girl wearing a neural compression band. A dark-skinned boy watching everyone like a predator in a crowd of prey. Twins with voice-modulation devices resting at their throats. A fifteen-year-old with a provincial investigation badge pinned to his uniform.
Tigers. Wolves. Big cats of every kind, wrapped in white. "See?" Aki murmured. "Everyone here is extreme."
"They are not my opponents," Ryu said quietly. Aki stared at him. "You talk like you already know who your real opponent is."
Ryu did not answer.
The instructor activated the central holographic projector. Light spread like mist across the hall.
A loud thud exploded behind Ryu.
BAMM!
The sound of a body hitting the floor. He turned. A sixteen-year-old boy had collapsed, clutching his chest, gasping for air, his face drained of color.
The instructor reacted immediately. "Medical unit." Two drones dropped from the ceiling.
The boy trembled, raising one shaking hand to point straight at Ryu. "There is… pressure…" he panted. "When he walked in… the world went dark…"
The hall froze. Dozens of eyes locked onto Ryu. Some took a half step back. Others stared at him as if he were a live explosive.
Aki's voice wobbled. "Ryu… you're making people faint just by walking past them?"
Ryu did not answer. He did not flinch. Because he felt it again. That frequency. That faint scrape. As if something were scratching from the inside of his skull. Growing clearer. Drawing closer.
Not words. Not yet. But the intensity spiked.
He closed his eyes for a heartbeat. "Ryu Alverion, is there a problem?" the instructor asked.
"No," he said.
He opened his eyes slowly.
"There is no problem." The instructor did not entirely believe him, but she did not press the issue. "We will continue orientation."
Ryu remained silent, but inside his mind the signal shifted. It felt like a string of code trying to break apart and reorganize into a shape. Not a human voice. Not mechanical.
Pure intent. Pure pressure. Something waiting for a cue to fully form.
The orientation screen shifted, showing the official schedule. First Week Training Schedule
Basic Physical Conditioning
Cognitive Training
Pattern Deconstruction
Psychological Balance
Medical Tier 1
Investigation Tier 1
Hand-to-Hand Combat Tier 1
Introductory Strategy
Passive Interrogation
Anatomical Hacking (selected only)
Aki stared. "You have got to be kidding me. This is just week one?"
Ryu studied the list. His expression did not change. Inside, though, something in his mind began connecting the items on the schedule to himself.
All disciplines. All skills. All structures.
His brain was already building an internal map of Vasena, tracing its logic, marking its blind spots and potential openings, long before any training officially began.
"In three weeks," the instructor said, "we will select the top two hundred to enter the core track. The rest will remain in the outer track."
The entire hall tensed. All except Ryu.
He understood something the others did not: the core track was not his destination. His goal was not to become the best. His goal was to uncover the truth.
Aki nudged him. "You want to get into the core track, right?"
"No."
Aki almost choked. "Are you insane? Everyone here would kill for that."
"That is not what I am here for."
"Then what are you here for?"
Ryu's eyes lifted to the main screen. To the list of subjects. To the data about his father's death. To the Redlocked record of his mother. To the hidden Echo Mind entries.
"To find something that went missing," he said at last.
Aki did not ask more. The tone in Ryu's voice did not belong to a thirteen-year-old. It belonged to someone who had already lost everything once.
Before orientation ended, the instructor called a name. "Kael Veradin. Step forward."
The space shifted. A boy walked to the front. Tall, solid posture, eyes sharp as blades. About fifteen years old.
Whispers rippled through the hall.
"Kael from the eastern province…" "Tactical war genius…" "He scored ninety-eight out of a hundred on the initial conflict exam…"
"He is practically guaranteed for the core track…"
Kael stood in front of the instructor. "You will lead the introductory tactical class next week," she said. He nodded, then turned toward the crowd. His gaze moved, steady, measuring, and stopped on Ryu.
Their eyes met.
No words. No explicit challenge. But everyone in the room felt two things.
Kael saw Ryu as a threat. Ryu saw Kael as nothing to be concerned about. "You just made an enemy," Aki whispered, his voice shaking.
Ryu looked at Kael for a moment longer, then turned away as if the boy's attention meant nothing. Kael's fist clenched at his side.
The instructor watched both of them and added a note to her internal console.
"SUBJECT 4-7 AND CADET KAEL: POTENTIAL CONFLICT."
When the session ended and the children began to file out, Ryu paused again.
The scraping was back. Stronger. More focused.
As if something, or someone, was trying to understand how his mind worked. The frequency pressed in.
Thud. Thud. Thud. Thud.
Aki glanced over. "Ryu? You okay?"
Ryu rubbed his temple. "…I am fine."
But in his head, the frequency was almost a voice now.
Almost. Not words. Not clear. Just a push, like an alien presence trying to spell something with his neurons.
Ru…
Ryu…
It still could not quite form. He drew a slow breath. He knew one thing with complete certainty. Whatever was trying to get into his head was not coming from outside the facility.
It was coming from within Vasena itself.
As he stepped through the hall exit, a side screen lit up with a fresh system update.
NEURO-FREQUENCY WARNING
PATTERN SHIFT DETECTED
SOURCE: UNKNOWN (INTERNAL)
SUBJECT: RYU ALVERION
STATUS: WATCH CLOSELY
Ryu stopped and looked at the screen.
"Ryu, come on!" Aki called. Ryu turned. The frequency stirred in response. Gentle. Almost like a greeting.
Thud… thud… t…
He closed his eyes for a moment. He did not reply. Just as he approached the barrack corridor, the facility speakers chimed.
"Ryu Alverion. Report to Assessment Room, Level Two." Every child within earshot stiffened. Aki whispered, "Ryu… Level Two Assessment… that is where NV's ghost hangs around."
Ryu opened his eyes.
He understood. This was the first step toward something there would be no walking back from.