Moonstone City was breathtaking but unfortunately, I couldn’t appreciate it. I attempted to check my status screen again, the instinctive mental command as natural as breathing.

  [ERROR: ENERGY SIGNATURE CORRUPTED. RECALCULATING...]

  The notification pulsed a sickly red in my vision before dissolving into digital fragments. I tried again, focusing harder.

  [ERROR: ENERGY SIGNATURE CORRUPTED. RECALCULATING...]

  Cold panic spread through my chest. Without access to my status screen, I couldn't monitor my resources, couldn't access my trait, couldn't activate abilities. The psychological equivalent of suddenly going blind.

  A medical technician entered, the same one with the translucent-skinned augmentations I'd seen earlier.

  "Can't access status.” I managed; my voice rough.

  The tech glanced at monitoring equipment beside my bed, expression professionally neutral. " Whatever happened to you in that rift caused unique destabilization patterns. The Administrator will want to discuss this with you. I've notified them of your consciousness. Someone will be here when they're available." The tech adjusted something on my monitoring device. "Rest. Your physical injuries are healing well, but your dimensional attunement remains... problematic."

  "Problematic how?" I pressed.

  The tech hesitated. "You appear simultaneously present in multiple dimensional frequencies. It's theoretically impossible."

  I closed my eyes, attempting the mental command sequence again.

  [ERROR: ENERGY SIGNATURE CORRUPTED. RECALCULATING...]

  Sleep claimed me before the error message fully faded.

  I woke to sunlight streaming through floor-to-ceiling windows. Not the medical facility's dome, but pure, unfiltered morning light reflecting off impossibly tall structures of crystalline material.

  I sat upright, momentarily disoriented. Instead of a hospital bed, I found myself on a plush sofa in what appeared to be a penthouse atop one of Moonstone City's signature spires. The space was minimalist—polished surfaces in whites and silvers, furnishings that seemed to float rather than rest on the floor, and those panoramic windows revealing the city in breathtaking detail.

  Moonstone City stretched before me like a geometry problem solved by gods. The central spire—easily five times taller than any building I'd ever seen in Lighthouse City—rose from the circular city's core, a perfect white needle splitting the sky. Around it, concentric rings of structures created an intricate circular artwork, each building seemingly grown rather than constructed. Transparent walkways connected the upper levels, with citizens moving along them like blood cells through arteries. The dimensional barrier surrounding the city was nearly invisible from this height, only detectable as slight distortions where light bent unnaturally at the edges.

  Below, the artificial island gleamed white against the deep blue of the Atlantic, its perfect circular shape an impossibility against the chaos of natural coastlines. I had only seen such images in Network broadcasts, never in person.

  Across from me, a bald man with a neatly trimmed white beard sat watching me. The man wore simple clothing—a grey tunic and loose pants—that nonetheless conveyed quality beyond anything available to E-tiers. He sipped from a clear glass containing amber liquid, his eyes never leaving my face.

  The silence stretched uncomfortably. I tried to access my status screen again.

  **[ERROR: ENERGY SIGNATURE CORRUPTED. RECALCULATING...]**

  "Who are you?" I finally asked. "Where am I?"

  The man continued staring, taking another unhurried sip before responding with just three words:

  "Don't do it."

  "Don't do what?" I demanded, standing. "What are you talking about? How did I get here?"

  The man simply repeated himself, voice calm and measured. "Don't do it."

  "That's not an answer," I snapped, frustration building. "Where am I? How—"

  The room dissolved around me like mist under sunlight. I gasped as my surroundings shifted back to the hospital room, the transparent dome overhead, monitoring equipment beeping steadily beside me.

  I was sweating, heart racing as if I'd just sprinted through an unstable rift. The medical tech looked up from a console near the door, surprised.

  "Are you alright? Your biometrics just spiked dramatically."

  I stared at them, trying to process what had happened. "I was... somewhere else. A penthouse. With an old man."

  The tech approached, checking the monitors. "You haven't left this room. You've been unconscious for nearly fourteen hours."

  "But I was there," I insisted. "I saw Moonstone City from above. I could see everything."

  "Dimensional fracturing can cause perception anomalies," the tech offered carefully. "Your mind exists partially across multiple reality planes right now. It's possible you're experiencing bleed-through from adjacent dimensional states."

  I lay back, staring at the ceiling. "I'm losing my mind."

  "No," the tech corrected. "You're experiencing it across multiple simultaneous realities. The Administrator will explain more."

  [ERROR: ENERGY SIGNATURE CORRUPTED. RECALCULATING...]

  The next time I opened my eyes, I found myself in a different penthouse. The architecture was similar—clean lines, minimalist design, panoramic windows—but the space felt more functional, less residential. A conference table of polished black material dominated the center, surrounded by floating chairs that seemed unsupported by any visible technology.

  Through the windows, Moonstone City appeared from a different angle, revealing features I hadn't noticed before. The concentric rings were actually divided into districts, with subtle color variations indicating different purposes. The innermost ring surrounding the central spire glowed with soft blue light—government facilities, perhaps. The second ring shimmered with golden energy—likely high-end residential areas. The third ring pulsed with various colors as energy transfers occurred between structures—research and development sectors, based on the patterns.

  Taken from Royal Road, this narrative should be reported if found on Amazon.

  An elderly woman sat across from me at the table. Her silver hair was pulled into a severe bun, and her charcoal suit appeared to be composed of material that occasionally rippled like liquid. Her posture communicated authority that transcended tier designations.

  She studied me with the clinical interest of someone examining a particularly unusual specimen. When she finally spoke, her voice was precise, each word carefully measured.

  "Not worth it."

  I leaned forward. "What's not worth it? Who are you? Why am I here?"

  The woman remained perfectly still, not even blinking as she repeated, "Not worth it."

  I slammed my hand on the table in frustration. "That's not—"

  Reality shifted again, the conference room dissolving as the hospital room reasserted itself around me. The medical tech wasn't present this time, but the monitoring equipment continued its steady rhythm of beeps and hums.

  [ERROR: ENERGY SIGNATURE CORRUPTED. RECALCULATING...]

  "I'm going insane," I whispered to the empty room.

  The pattern continued. Each time I woke, I found myself in a different location within what I assumed was Moonstone City. A research laboratory with equipment I couldn't begin to comprehend, where a middle-aged woman with subtle A-tier insignia told me "The price is too high." A botanical garden housed inside a crystal dome, where twin children with unnaturally symmetrical features whispered in unison, "The pattern breaks with you." A circular chamber with walls displaying real-time dimensional activity across the globe, where a man whose eyes reflected dimensional energy simply stated, "Choose differently."

  Each time, my attempts at conversation failed. Each time, reality dissolved around me, returning me to the hospital room. Each time, my status system produced the same error message when I tried to access it.

  [ERROR: ENERGY SIGNATURE CORRUPTED. RECALCULATING...]

  By the fifth occurrence, I had stopped trying to make sense of the experiences. Were they hallucinations? Dimensional bleeding? Actual teleportation? Without my status screen and abilities, I felt crippled, reduced to something less than a blank.

  After the latest episode—involving an elderly man whose body appeared partially translucent who had simply stated "End it."—I lay in my hospital bed, staring at the transparent dome above. Through it, I could see a small portion of Moonstone City's skyline, the impossible architecture of the S-tier bastion looming over me like judgment.

  I had been at the hospital for nearly a week according to the medical tech, though my subjective experience felt both longer and shorter. Time seemed slippery, unreliable—another system malfunction to add to my growing list.

  The door to my room slid open with a soft hiss. Instead of the medical tech, a woman entered wearing the distinctive uniform of Stability, her insignia marking her as C-tier. Her posture was military-precise, her expression professionally neutral.

  "Volt," she stated rather than asked, consulting a tablet. "E-tier, Level 16. DOMAIN ENGINE(CURSED) trait."

  "That's me," I confirmed, sitting up. "Minus the functioning trait part."

  She nodded once, acknowledging the information without comment. "The Administrator will see you now."

  "About time," I muttered, swinging my legs over the side of the bed. My muscles felt weaker than they should after a week of inactivity, my raider's physiology usually resistant to such deterioration. Another concerning sign.

  "You'll need these," the agent said, placing a stack of clothing on the bed—simple garments in the light gray color reserved for non-residents in S-tier cities.

  "The Administrator," I said as I dressed, "that's the city leader, right?"

  The agent's expression didn't change. "No. The Administrator oversees Moonstone Memorial Hospital and Research Center. That's where you are now."

  "This is a hospital?" I asked, looking around at the luxurious room. "Seems a bit excessive for an E-tier."

  "You're in the High-Value Anomaly ward," she replied. "Your case presents unique research potential."

  "Lucky me," I said dryly, attempting to access my status screen yet again.

  [ERROR: ENERGY SIGNATURE CORRUPTED. RECALCULATING...]

  I followed the agent through corridors of polished white material that seemed to glow from within. The walls weren't just decorative—I noticed subtle energy patterns flowing beneath the surface, likely some form of dimensional stabilization technology. In Lighthouse City, similar tech existed only in the Stability headquarters, and even there it was cruder, visible only as occasional pulses rather than this constant, elegant flow.

  Other patients were visible in similar rooms with transparent domes, some connected to equipment far more complex than what had monitored me. One chamber contained what appeared to be a D-tier raider suspended in a cylinder of blue-tinted liquid, numerous cables connected to implants along their spine. Another held a seemingly normal woman whose skin occasionally rippled with what looked like dimensional energy—perhaps another victim of rift instability.

  Medical staff with various augmentations moved between rooms, their expressions uniformly professional. One technician's eyes glowed with a soft blue light as they manipulated a holographic display—likely an A-tier with some form of neural interface augmentation. The casual display of high-tier technology reminded me just how far removed Moonstone was from the struggling E-tier districts back in Lighthouse City.

  "What exactly makes me valuable research?" I asked the agent as we walked. "The dimensional fracturing?"

  "That information is classified," she replied without breaking stride. "The Administrator will provide whatever details are deemed appropriate."

  We entered a gravity lift—a technology I had only heard about, never experienced—and rose several floors without any sensation of movement. Unlike the crude elevators in Lighthouse City that operated on ancient pulley systems, this technology manipulated gravitational fields directly. I felt weightless but perfectly stable, as if the concept of "up" had simply been redefined.

  Through the transparent walls of the lift, I caught glimpses of different hospital levels—surgical theaters with equipment that defied my understanding, laboratories where researchers in protective suits worked with what appeared to be raw dimensional energy, and recovery wards where patients floated in zero-gravity environments.

  When the doors opened, they revealed a spacious office with views overlooking both the hospital complex and the city beyond. Through the floor-to-ceiling windows, Moonstone City spread out in its perfect circular design, the concentric rings of buildings gleaming white against the blue Atlantic. The central spire rose in the distance, making Lighthouse City look like Lower Residential, its surface occasionally rippling with energy transfers that connected it to the surrounding districts.

  I stood for a moment, absorbing the view. From this height, I could see the dimensional barrier surrounding the city—nearly invisible except where sunlight caught it at certain angles, revealing a subtle iridescence like oil on water. Beyond that barrier lay the chaotic world I knew; within it, an impossible perfection that still felt unreal to me despite standing in its midst.

  The office itself was minimalist yet clearly designed for someone of significant authority. The furniture appeared to be grown rather than constructed, with smooth organic curves that complemented the room's circular design. A large desk faced the entrance, various holographic displays hovering above its surface, all currently blank.

  "The Administrator will join you shortly," the agent said, gesturing me toward a seating area. "Do not attempt to access any systems or equipment."

  The moment the agent's footsteps faded down the corridor, I glanced around the Administrator's office with calculated interest.

  "Do not attempt to access any systems or equipment," she'd said.

  Which meant there was something worth accessing.

  I waited ten seconds, making sure she wasn't returning, then moved toward the large desk with its hovering holographic displays. The workstation was high-tier technology, probably thought-responsive rather than sound-activated like the crude systems in Lighthouse City.

  I reached out, running my fingers along the smooth surface of the desk. Nothing happened.

  "System activate," I whispered.

  The displays remained blank.

  I focused my thoughts, imagining the mental command structure that might activate an the interface, drawing on everything I'd heard about thought manifestation systems.

  A subtle vibration ran through the desk, and for a moment, one display flickered—showing what looked like dimensional energy signatures before immediately shutting down.

  [ERROR: ENERGY SIGNATURE CORRUPTED. RECALCULATING...]

  The error message flashed in my vision, but something else happened simultaneously—a ripple of energy that felt like static electricity ran up my arm from the desk's surface.

  "Interesting," I murmured, moving to a cabinet built into the wall. It had no visible handle, just a smooth white surface with a subtle glow beneath. I pressed my palm against it.

  The cabinet remained sealed, but my status error message flickered differently:

  [ERROR: ENER—SIGNATURE MATCH DETECTED—UNSTABLE—RECALCULATING...]

  The message fragmented, parts missing, then reformed to its original error state. My heart rate spiked. Something in this room was reacting to my corrupted dimensional signature.

  The gravity lift doors hissed open behind me.

  I turned casually, as if I'd simply been admiring the view through the windows, to face whoever had arrived.