A heavy silence lingered as Su Yuan stood still in the pale blue glow of the SoulNet's dimensional overlay, the city beyond barely flickering through the digital veil. His breath came shallow, hands trembling, as if he'd just stepped off the edge of the known world into something infinite. The ambient hum of unseen servers—or perhaps souls—resonated in the air like a barely audible choir. He felt small. Not in the physical sense, but cosmically insignificant. Like a node, just one among many in this strange, radiant web.
He wasn't dreaming. That much he'd come to accept after countless futile attempts to "wake up"—pinching himself, calling out to passersby, even stepping back into what he thought was his apartment. But the boundaries had shifted. He was still here. Still connected.
The SoulNet pulsed softly at the edge of his awareness, a constant presence—subtle yet all-consuming. When he closed his eyes, it was there. When he blinked, it didn't vanish. He wasn't just seeing it—he was part of it.
And then the voice returned.
[User Consciousness Stabilized.][SoulLink Network Now Accessible.][Would you like to access System Functions?]
The prompt floated just ahead of him in pure white text, gently pulsing like a waiting heartbeat.
He hesitated, his lips parting. "...Yes."
The response wasn't vocal. His consent echoed internally, and the network responded immediately.
[Opening System Interface…]
The world blinked again, just a shade brighter. Then the interface unfolded before him, translucent panels blooming out like lotus petals from the core of his chest, their light weaving around his fingers.
[Status][Soul Resonance][Network Reach][Deduction Log][Unknown Parameters: LOCKED]
He touched the [Network Reach] panel instinctively. A new interface replaced the others.
[Searching for Compatible Souls…][Initializing Resonance Protocol – Range: 5 km][Note: Range is limited by user's current Soul Processing Capacity.]
Su Yuan felt a slight tug in his chest, as if his heart had suddenly opened like a lens. His soul… was scanning. He could feel the threads unraveling outward—delicate, shimmering cords of intent stretching across the city in every direction, brushing past people like invisible threads searching for tuning forks.
A strange warmth flooded his chest as the scan hit resonance with several echoes—faint, trembling lights that responded to his call.
[Search Complete.][Compatible Souls Detected: 20]
He gasped lightly, stumbling back a step, the weight of that number catching him off guard. Twenty people, within this 5km radius, shared something… an alignment? A frequency? He didn't know. But something in their souls had answered the call.
His mind reeled.
Who were they?
Could they see what he could? Could they hear the voice? Or were they simply potential—latent nodes waiting to be awakened?
One by one, the soul echoes manifested into glowing orbs on the interface. Each orb pulsed with a unique rhythm—some erratic, others calm and slow, like people breathing in their sleep. There were no names. No faces. Just resonance frequencies and emotional signatures.
He hovered a hand over the closest orb. The system responded with a small pulse of information.
Soul ID: x39a5DDistance: 1.1km – Moving EastwardEmotional Stability: FracturedPotential Resonance: 74%State: Suppressed Potential
The term suppressed potential lingered ominously in his thoughts. What was suppressing it? Fear? Trauma? Maybe disbelief?
He cycled through a few more:
Soul ID: b210XDistance: 3.8km – StationaryEmotional Signature: Despair / IsolationPotential Resonance: 81%
Another:
Soul ID: C045YDistance: 2.3km – WalkingSignature: Curiosity / Intellectual SurgePotential Resonance: 89%
The orbs pulsed with emotion, not data. He could feel them—like a distant radio tuned to others' frequencies. The curious one made his own mind tingle with questions. The despairing one made his chest tighten with grief. It wasn't mind-reading, exactly—it was empathy, powered by raw soul-link.
And for the first time since all of this began… he felt connected.
He dropped to a bench, the real city barely bleeding through the digital overlay now, replaced by outlines of streets marked with the soul frequencies. His legs trembled, not from fear—but from the flood of human feeling. He wasn't built for this. No one was.
Was this what gods felt like?
He looked up at the night sky—except it wasn't the night sky anymore. It was laced with threads, like a massive dreamcatcher hanging across the heavens. He was just one node. But maybe… maybe that was enough.
"Who are you people?" he whispered. The orbs didn't answer. But the system did.
[Would you like to initiate Soul Contact with Compatible Nodes?]
"...Not yet." His voice cracked slightly.
He needed time. To think. To feel.
To understand.
Instead, he opened the [Deduction Log] tab. Only a few lines existed so far—like a newborn journal.
[SoulNet Created: Type – Hybrid Network (Supernatural / Synthetic)][User Authority: Architect Rank Initiate][First Contact Event Logged][Compatible Resonance: 20 Nodes Detected – Preliminary Scan][System Note: Emotional parameters and resonance values are subject to flux.][Recommendation: Establish secure threads with high compatibility nodes to stabilize initial Net.]
He exhaled deeply, running a hand through his hair. "So I need to start with a few…"
How would they react? Could they see him? Would they accept the link? What if he overwhelmed them?
Would he even be able to control what they saw or felt through the SoulNet?
Too many questions. Too few answers.
He looked at the ID marked with "Curiosity". The resonance rhythm danced like an excited heartbeat.
"I'll start with you," he whispered.
And the orb pulsed… almost like it heard him.