My Scumbag System Chapter 661: The Nakano Anomaly

The void wasn’t empty.

That was my first coherent thought after the light swallowed me whole. I’d expected darkness. Silence. The kind of sensory deprivation that drives people insane after a few hours.

Instead, I found myself standing in what looked like an infinite library.

Shelves stretched in every direction, rising toward a ceiling that didn’t exist. Books lined every surface, their spines glowing with text in languages I couldn’t read. Some of them pulsed with light. Others seemed to absorb it, creating pockets of shadow that moved when I wasn’t looking directly at them.

Hello, Satori Nakano.

The voice came from everywhere and nowhere. It resonated in my bones, my teeth, the spaces between my thoughts.

Or should I call you Kaelen Leone?

I turned in a slow circle, searching for the source. Nothing. Just endless rows of shelves and the soft glow of impossible knowledge.

"Either works," I said aloud. My voice sounded strange here. Flat. Like the air itself refused to carry it properly. "Though I prefer Satori these days. Kaelen had too much baggage."

A reasonable perspective. Identity is, after all, a matter of choice rather than circumstance.

"You’re the entity." Not a question. I could feel it now. The weight of attention pressing against my consciousness like a hand slowly closing around my skull. "The thing that contacted my father. The thing that designed the Rupture."

Designed is an imprecise term. I responded to a call. Your species reached across dimensional barriers, seeking connection. I answered.

"And then you turned our world into a testing ground."

I provided opportunities for growth. The Gates are challenges. The Aspects are rewards. Evolution requires pressure.

I laughed. It echoed strangely in the infinite space.

"You sound like a gym teacher justifying dodgeball."

The entity didn’t respond immediately. When it did, there was something almost like amusement in its voice.

You are different from the others I have observed. Your perspective is... unexpected.

"I’m a yakuza enforcer’s consciousness shoved into a teenager’s body by a mad scientist who happens to be my father. ’Unexpected’ is my entire brand."

Movement at the edge of my vision. I spun, hands raised, ready to fight.

A figure stood between the shelves. Humanoid. Vaguely. Its form kept shifting, features rearranging themselves like someone flipping through a deck of cards. One moment it had a face. The next, only smooth skin where eyes should be. Then too many eyes. Then none again.

This form is for your comfort, it said. Your mind requires something to focus on during our conversation.

"My comfort would be a beach in Meridian with Natalia in a bikini. This is the opposite of comfort."

The figure tilted its head. The gesture was almost human. Almost.

You love her.

"That’s none of your business."

Everything about you is my business, Satori Nakano. I selected you before you were conceived. I provided the consciousness that inhabits your body. I have watched your development since the moment of your birth.

"Creepy."

Thorough.

"Still creepy."

The entity moved closer. Its footsteps made no sound on the library floor. Up close, I could see that its skin wasn’t skin at all. It was something else. Something that looked like reality had been folded in on itself until it formed the approximate shape of a person.

You came here to complete your integration. To merge the two neural architectures within your brain and access your full potential.

"I came here because my father said it was necessary. I’m still deciding whether I trust his judgment."

A wise skepticism. Kenji Nakano’s motivations are complex.

"You know him?"

I have observed him. As I have observed all participants in Project Prometheus. Your father believed he was creating a weapon against extinction. He was partially correct.

"What’s the other part?"

The entity’s form stabilized briefly. For just a moment, it looked almost human. Male. Middle-aged. Features that reminded me of someone, though I couldn’t place who.

You are not merely a weapon, Satori Nakano. You are a bridge. A connection point between what humanity is and what humanity could become.

"That sounds like recruitment material for a cult."

It sounds like the truth. Which often resembles cult recruitment material. The best lies are built on foundations of honesty.

I couldn’t argue with that logic. I’d used the same technique often enough myself.

"What do you want from me?"

The entity circled me slowly. I turned to keep it in my field of vision.

I want you to complete your integration. I want you to access the power that has been dormant within you since birth. I want you to become what you were designed to be.

"And after?"

After, you will make a choice. The same choice your mother made twenty-three years ago.

My blood ran cold.

"She rejected you."

She rejected the integration. She chose to remain human rather than become something more. It was... unexpected.

"You keep using that word."

Because it keeps being accurate. Your family has a talent for defying prediction.

"What happens if I make the same choice she did?"

The entity stopped moving. Its form flickered, destabilizing briefly before reforming.

Then you will return to your life. Your potential will remain untapped. The power within you will continue to operate at a fraction of its capacity. And eventually, something will emerge from the Gates that you cannot defeat.

"Is that a threat?"

It is a statement of probability. The Gates are not random. They are calibrated. Each generation faces greater challenges than the last. Your species is being tested. Culled. Refined.

"For what purpose?"

For evolution. For synthesis. For the creation of something that has never existed before.

"And I’m supposed to be that something?"

You are supposed to be the first. The prototype. The proof of concept.

I stood in that infinite library, surrounded by knowledge I couldn’t read, facing an entity I couldn’t comprehend. Somewhere above me, in the physical world, Natalia waited. My mother worried. My father hid in a cabin in the mountains, hoping his gamble would pay off.

And here I was, being told that my entire existence was an experiment.

Cool.

"Show me," I said.