Chapter 1: The selection
Geez my head!!
I blinked at the glowing numbers in the corners of my screen.
12:30am.
Great. Somewhere between debugging and questioning my life choices ,an entire day had vanished. After seven straight hours of coding ,my brain felt like overheated hardware seconds away from shutting down.
I stretched, cracked my knuckles, and reached for the shutdown button.
Then my speakers crackled.
I froze. My playlist had ended hours ago .
The room fell silent except for the soft hum of my laptop fan.
The speakers crackled again.
A voice emerged through the static.
"Connection established with Earth user 7,481,992,104".
I stared at the screen
"....Okay," I muttered ."Either first contact just happened or I've officially unlocked sleep deprivation hallucinations.
The voice spoke again.
"Welcome to ASTRA."
The screen flickered .
A symbol appeared at the center of the monitor -an intricate circle of stars surrounding a single glowing gateway.
Then another message appeared .
Initializing Candidate Registration....
Scanning biological signature....
Verification complete
Welcome, Candidate 05, representing Earth.
I blinked .
"Candidate?"
More text flooded the screen .
ASTRA
Interstellar Arena for survival, Trials, Rivalry, and Ascension.
Registered Civilization:4913
Active Candidate:24,565
Planet Designation: Earth
Candidate Real Name: Zuri Imarion
Candidate Number:05
Survival Probability:11%
My eyes stopped at my name, my breath caught.
"What's going on?!!" I Muttered
The screen flickered again.
A low hum filled the air around me ,like the world itself had started to breath differently.
"Candidate Zuri Imarion.... acknowledged."
The voice wasn't coming from the device. It was inside the space. Everywhere at once.
My heart tightened.
Before i could step back , the floor beneath me lit up thin glowing lines forming a circular pattern around my feet.
A symbol.
Something alive.
"Entry protocol initiated"
My name stayed frozen in the air like it had been carved into reality itself.
ZURI IMARION -CANDIDATE 05
Then beneath it
SURVIVAL PROBABILITY 11%
The number pulsed.
Once
Twice
Like it was mocking me.
I tried to move.
My legs didn't respond.
"What is this...?" I whispered, but my voice felt swallowed before it could finish leaving my mouth.
A sharp light burst upward.
Not warm. Not comforting.
It felt like being scanned apart piece by piece.
Memories flashed across my vision. A feeling i couldn't name. Like i was already chosen long before i understood, then everything stopped.
silence.
too clean.
Too perfect.
A new voice spoke-calm, structured, final.
""Welcome..... candidate 05."
"You are now inside ASTRA"
The ground disappeared ,and i fell into the light.
