Chapter 1

Luke Alexander stared at himself in the mirror one last time. His face looked pale and gaunt, and the bloodshot veins in his eyes spread out like cracks in glass.

Three days had passed since the crude particle collider in his basement had accidentally created something that shouldn't have existed in this universe: the Abyss Particle. He hadn't slept once since then.

The tiny black dot floated inside a magnetic containment field.

It carried enough energy to drag the entire Eurasian plate into the Earth's core, but it also had the power to open the door to an age of unlimited energy for mankind.

Luke knew that the second this thing became public, every major power in the world would come after him. If he vanished without a trace, that would probably be the best-case scenario.

After seventy-two straight hours of fear, excitement, and mental torture, every other option had started to feel too dangerous.

The moment the call connected, Luke spoke in a rough, exhausted voice, but his tone stayed steady. "I want to activate Project Homeward. I have something that needs to be handed over to the government."

*****

The basement air smelled thick with ionized ozone and spoiled takeout.

Luke dug his fingernails into his thigh hard enough to leave deep purple marks. The sharp pain helped clear the haze in his head.

At the center of the room, the homemade collider let out a deep mechanical hum. The black particle floated silently inside the containment field.

It reflected no light at all. It looked less like an object and more like a hole cut out of reality itself. Faint distortions twisted the air around its edges, barely visible to the naked eye.

Every time Luke stepped closer, tiny stinging sensations crawled across his skin, like invisible needles piercing through his cells.

The particle he had named the Abyss Particle vibrated at a microscopic level hundreds of millions of times every second. Luke held his trembling hand above the power switch.

If he shut the system down, the magnetic field would collapse, and the particle would instantly release enough energy to reduce the entire apartment building to atomic dust.

But if he kept it alive, humanity's entire energy structure would change forever.

He turned his head toward a yellowed group photo hanging on the wall. It had been taken ten years earlier, right after he got kicked out of the Summit Program.

Back then, he had still looked confident and full of life. Standing beside him was Ned Ray, smiling neatly at the camera like the perfect model researcher.

Ned was Luke's lifelong rival who first called him an "academic madman."

Luke let out a slow breath through his dry, cracked lips. Then he dug an old rotary phone out from a pile of junk. It was the only private line he had secretly kept after leaving his old workplace.

His finger moved slowly across the dial. Each turn of the rotary wheel echoed through the silent basement with the grinding sound of old gears.

"Project Homeward. Authorization code: 109-Gamma," he said.

The line went completely silent. About five seconds later, a cold voice broke through the static. "Biometric verification in progress. Researcher Luke, keep the line open. Coordinates confirmed. Remain where you are."

Luke slid down against the wall, drained of all strength. Behind him, the collider continued humming like some giant beast trapped inside a cage, breathing heavily in the dark.

Exactly fifteen minutes later, chaotic footsteps echoed outside.

Three black business vans silently sealed off both ends of the street. The tires moved so quietly across the pavement that the silence around them somehow felt even creepier.

Luke's front door was sliced open by a hydraulic cutter. The sharp snap of breaking metal triggered a storm of barking from nearby apartments.

"Attention, all teams. High-energy radiation confirmed. Level-two protective suits required," someone said.

A man wearing a black tactical vest and special communications gear stepped into the basement first. He removed his gas mask, revealing a clean-shaven face. It was Ned.

He still wore the same perfectly tailored suit. His leather shoes clicked steadily against the damp floor.

His eyes swept across the basement, taking in the mix of poverty, chaos, and unmistakable genius.

His gaze lingered briefly on the tangled wires before finally settling on Luke, curled up in the corner.

"Luke, you always manage to surprise me," Ned said. "Usually by making yourself look homeless."

He crouched down and reached out a hand. But he never actually touched Luke. Instead, he kept a careful distance and pointed toward the black particle. "Is that the thing you mentioned?"

Luke ignored the hand. He pushed himself upright against the wall and pointed toward a nearby monitor. "All the deduction data is stored there. I didn't make backups."