Prologue

The blinking lights were the first thing he noticed. They blinked softly, casting strange glows across the walls that stretched high above him. It wasn’t like anything he’d seen before—towering buildings glimmered with a futuristic description, the surfaces smooth and somehow reflective. Thin lines of light traced the edges of every structure, flickering in shifting colors that made the city feel alive, almost breathing.

Marcus stumbled, clutching his side, feeling the sting of the wound that had brought him here. Moments before, he’d been alone in an ordinary alley, bleeding out from a blade he hadn’t seen coming. But now, this place… it was as if he’d been dropped into the heart of a world he couldn’t have imagined. He could hardly process it—shadows and lights mixed around him, the air humming with an energy that was foreign and thrilling.Blinking through the pain, he took in the strange symbols glowing in the air around him, their soft light drifting and changing. They almost looked like code, but alive, twisting and shifting on their own; In his mind trained to read lines of code and spot patterns, he recognized them instinctively, as if they were inviting him to reach out, to understand them.As he strained to stand, he could sense it—this world was woven with a power beyond technology, something like magic but just as complex as any programming language he’d ever known. He was no longer just a coder; here, his skills seemed to be something more. The symbols pulsed as if waiting, and he couldn’t help but reach out, his fingers brushing the air, feeling a thrill even through his pain.The city loomed around him, beautiful and strange, promising mystery but holding danger in every corner.