The morning sun warmed the polished concrete floors of the Quantum Nexus R&D lab in Estonia, the air still and humming with quiet, focused intention. Elian sat at his terminal, wearing the familiar BCI headset, the soft hum of Muse's core a barely perceptible vibration in the room. He leaned back for a moment, taking in the blank canvas of the digital workspace before him—a moment of serene contemplation—until something flickered across his vision.
A new tab.
Not a prompt. Not an alert. Not a cryptic error message he'd grown accustomed to deciphering.
A full, intuitive menu.
[SYSTEM DASHBOARD – VERSION 1.1.0]
He blinked, once, twice. "What the—" he muttered aloud, his voice a low rumble of surprise.
He hadn't touched anything. No new upgrades installed. No theories unlocked that would logically trigger a UI overhaul. But there it was, hovering inside his mental interface like it had always belonged: a neatly categorized UI panel, sleek and responsive. Clean. Intuitive. Impossible.
He focused on it, a mental command, and the system unfolded like a lotus blooming in his mind, revealing layers of previously hidden information.
[USER PROFILE]
Name: Dr. Elian Rho Tier: I System Points: 14 Upgrade Tokens: 1 Tier Progress: 62%
"What is this?" he muttered aloud, his brow furrowed in disbelief.
It didn't stop there. He mentally scrolled, and the full tech tree appeared, crisp and navigable.
[TECH TREE – TIER I]
(Scroll to View More…)
🔋 Energy & Propulsion
Nuclear Fusion Power: (clean, unlimited energy generation) Ion Propulsion Engines: (efficient in-space thrust) Compact Quantum Chips: (quantum-level processors) Electromagnetic Lift Systems: (frictionless terrestrial transport, levitation technology) Warp Field Generators (Theoretical): (early-stage concepts for faster-than-light travel) Advanced Geothermal Tapping: (Harnessing deep earth heat for power, even in non-volcanic regions) High-Efficiency Solar Arrays (Orbital/Terrestrial): (Next-generation photovoltaic systems with near-theoretical maximum energy conversion)
🌍 Planetary Engineering & Resource Management
Asteroid Mining: (automated resource harvesting from space) Terraforming Prototypes: (early-stage geoengineering) Ocean & Climate Control Systems: (weather stabilization) Atmospheric Water Harvesters: (large-scale atmospheric moisture condensation for arid regions) Underground Habitation Structures: (self-sustaining subterranean complexes for extreme environments) Vertical Farming & Bio-Integrated Agriculture: (Hyper-efficient, closed-loop food production systems for dense urban areas and off-world colonies)
🤖 Advanced Manufacturing & Health
Atomic 3D Printer: (molecular-precision fabricator) Nanobot Swarms: (for repair and medical delivery) All-Disease Cure Toolkit: (broad-spectrum treatment suite) Extended-Lifespan Therapies: (longevity science) Personal Transporter (Short Range): (point-to-point material and biological transfer within confined spaces) Synthetic Organ Cultivation: (On-demand growth of complex human organs and tissues for transplant, eliminating rejection issues)
⚙️ Robotics & Automation
General Purpose Androids: (Humanoid robots capable of performing complex tasks in varied environments, learning, and adapting) Autonomous Construction Swarms: (Self-organizing robotic units for rapid, large-scale infrastructure development on Earth and off-world) Smart Infrastructure Networks: (Integrated AI-controlled urban and industrial systems for optimized resource allocation, traffic, and public services) Automated Resource Extraction: (Highly efficient, fully autonomous mining operations on diverse planetary bodies) Bio-Mimetic Robotics: (Robots designed to mimic biological forms and functions for enhanced agility and adaptability)
🚀 Space & Defense
Interplanetary Space Flight: (crewed Mars/farther missions) Planetary Defense Grid: (asteroid interception systems) Advanced Orbital Habitats: (modular, self-sustaining space stations for long-term habitation) Automated Drone Fleets (Adaptive): (autonomous aerial and orbital surveillance/response units) Space Elevator Construction Protocols: (theoretical framework for ground-to-orbit transport infrastructure) Orbital Solar Power Stations: (Large-scale energy collection in space, beaming power wirelessly to Earth)
🧠 Cognitive & Psionic
BCI Signal Translator: (Installed) Psionic Interfaces: (experimental cognitive broadcasting) Collective Consciousness Network: (preliminary framework for shared mental workspaces) Dream Weaving & Manipulation: (conscious control and design of dream states for therapeutic/cognitive enhancement) Synthetic Empathy Modules: (AI-driven constructs for understanding and generating emotional responses) Memory Augmentation & Recall: (Neural implants or therapies for enhanced memory capacity, recall precision, and potentially, shared memory banks)
[POINTS MENU ENABLED]
Remaining Points: 14 Unlock Token: 1
[REWARDS LOG]
Room-Temperature Superconductor: +3 Points Muse Integration Stack: +2 Points BCI System Build: +3 Points Tier I Theory Upload: +6 Points Chapter 20: Romantic Milestone ❤️ (Unofficial XP, narrative morale boost.)
Elian stared, his mind racing.
"Are you kidding me?" he muttered, a slow burn of incredulity and indignation building. "This was here the whole time? No menu? No points indicator? Not even a 'Congratulations, you're building a civilization' popup? I've been manually typing half this research like an idiot, coaxing Muse along step by painful step." His fists clenched, a vein throbbing faintly at his temple. "They gave me god-tech and shipped it with a beta interface! A barebones UI from the Stone Age!"
He paused, then narrowed his eyes at the air in front of him, at the invisible forces he now knew were playing games.
"Oh, I see how it is. Just keep the brilliant human in the dark while he unlocks Type I advancements using command-line garbage. Real classy, you interdimensional clowns." He extended one middle finger, a defiant gesture, to the unseen system. "Next time, ship it with tooltips."
Elsewhere...
In the metadimensional echo of an infinite gallery of observers, the Dokaversals flinched. The projected image of Elian's gesture seemed to ripple through the very fabric of their reality.
Zaruun Null floated toward the observation pool, clutching his celestial stress sphere, which pulsed erratically. "He's on to us. He knows."
"He doesn't know for sure," muttered Vr'N'gul-42, its paradoxical form shifting nervously. "He's just angry. It's a human coping mechanism."
"He gave the system the middle finger!" Boop squeaked, its algorithmic glow flickering rapidly. "That's basically a declaration of war, isn't it? Against higher dimensional entities!"
Zaruun glowered at the pool, the glowing image of Elian's indignant face. "You realize what this means, right? He's figured out the UI was a patch job. He's deduced our intervention."
Boop whispered, its chimes barely audible, "He almost figured out we screwed up badly enough to deserve it."
"We don't screw up," Vr'N'gul insisted, though its voice lacked conviction.
The Author's voice echoed, resonant and slightly exasperated, from behind a ripple in spacetime. "You did this time. Spectacularly."
The three Dokaversals turned in horror, finding the Author leaning casually against a pillar of condensed narrative.
"You patched the interface after four chapters of manual suffering," the Author said, unimpressed. "He nearly reached Tier II using command-line garbage and sheer willpower. That's divine malpractice. It's also bad storytelling to make your protagonist unnecessarily suffer without payoff."
Zaruun sputtered. "We are elder architects of probabilistic causality! We guide nascent civilizations!"
"You're also UI-challenged," the Author retorted. "And frankly, a bit cruel."
Boop peeked at the timeline logs, its algorithmic data streams suddenly displaying alarming information. "Guys… his future self? Tier VI. I just got pinged. A very strong ping."
"Yeah," Vr'N'gul said, shifting uncomfortably, its form briefly glitching. "His future self just pinged across a causality axis. A direct data burst."
Zaruun turned pale—or whatever the conceptual equivalent of that was for a retired cosmic architect. His stress sphere pulsed violently. "Already? A Tier 17 echo? But he's still Tier I here!"
Boop peeked at another scanline, its internal light dimming slightly. "Yeah. Future Elian. Tier 20 or higher. And he's… looking directly back at the Observation Gallery."
The room went utterly silent, the cosmic hum momentarily ceasing.
Then Boop added, its voice a tiny, frightened chime: "He's probably smarter than all of us combined. And he looks furious."
Zaruun drained his mug in one long, miserable slurp of imploding gravity. "He's going to be unbearable. Utterly insufferable."
"Should we go visit him?" Vr'N'gul muttered, a flicker of genuine fear in its paradoxical essence.
"Yeah, that is a good idea, Vr'N'gul, but in a future chapter," the Author said, a sly grin spreading across their face. "When he's less... prone to cosmic middle fingers."
Back in the Lab
Elian was still fuming, but now with a sharp, determined intent. The indignation quickly morphed into strategic planning. He opened the points allocation screen, the intuitive interface making it effortless, and ran a mental sweep across his available options, assessing each technology with newfound clarity.
He selected:
Nuclear Fusion Power – 5 points Compact Quantum Chips – 2 points Asteroid Mining Infrastructure – 3 points Atomic 3D Printer – 2 points Extended-Lifespan Therapies – 2 points
[14 Points Allocated. Updated Tier Progress: 30%.]
[Token Unused.]
He grinned, a predatory gleam in his eyes. "Now we're getting somewhere. No more guessing games."
Jenna entered the lab, carrying two mugs—one filled with steaming coffee, the other with herbal tea—and a couple of protein bars. "Hey. You've been staring at nothing for twenty minutes, Elian. Did Muse finally crash under the strain of your chaotic thoughts?"
"No," he said, taking the coffee gratefully. "System just… improved. Quietly. Like it didn't want to admit it screwed up for months."
She raised an eyebrow, a knowing smirk on her face. "You're talking about the weird invisible interface you never let me see, aren't you?"
"Exactly that. It's infuriating. But now I've got full system access, proper tier tracking, and a blueprint list that actually scrolls. It's beautiful, even if its origin story is highly suspect."
Jenna smirked, leaning against his chair. "And all it took was yelling at the sky and giving an invisible system the finger?"
"I think I scared a god. Or at least their cosmic IT department."
She chuckled softly and sat beside him, their shoulders brushing. "Good. They deserved it, for making you suffer through such a clunky system."
He smiled faintly, still scrolling the elegant interface only he could see, already planning the next wave of advancements. For once, the system didn't feel like a baffling mystery. It felt like a partner.
A silent one.
With extremely late patch notes.