Chapter 173 Exogens I
Liam kept staring at the black screen, long after the video had ended. The room felt unnaturally quiet now, the kind of silence that screamed with buried truths. His father’s words echoed in his mind: You may already have abilities...
He clenched his jaw. So that was it? Was he just an experiment? A product of one of those horrifying procedures carried out in the bloodstained depths of this hidden lab? The thought twisted something deep inside him. The System, the enhancements—did they all come from here? From his father? From this place reeking of secrets and suffering?1
Lana must have seen the conflict etched on his face, the haunted look in his eyes, because she stepped forward and said softly, "Maybe he didn’t tell you everything. Maybe there’s something more to all of this."
But Liam didn’t answer. His body moved on its own as he walked toward the object covered by a thick, dust-cloaked tarp in the center of the room. With a single motion, he pulled it off.
All three of them froze.
Beneath the tarp lay a bizarre scientific device unlike anything they had ever seen. It stood about six feet tall, shaped like a massive vertical ring supported by a crystalline base. The material it was made of shimmered between black and silver, almost as if reality was glitching around its edges. Strange coils spun slowly in orbit around the ring, suspended by invisible forces. At its center was an empty space, framed by dozens of micro-thin filaments, like a giant mechanical iris. The surface shimmered as though it rippled with a pulse of its own.
Liam stepped around it cautiously, trying to understand what it was. The symbols etched along the base were alien—not just foreign, but inhuman. Even with his System-enhanced mind, he couldn’t decipher them. Lilith narrowed her eyes and circled the opposite side, frowning. "I don’t recognize any of this. This isn’t just advanced... it’s unnatural."
Lana tilted her head slightly, peering closer. Then she noticed something along the side of the machine: a small circular compartment that contained a glossy black liquid. It didn’t move like a normal fluid—it was thick and still, like tar encased in glass.
Curious, Lana reached forward and tapped it with her fingertip. Not hard. Just enough to test the texture.
The moment her skin touched the glass, the liquid shimmered with a strange black light.
A low hum vibrated through the floor.