The wooden door on the fourth floor of the old west wing groaned loudly as Raditya pushed it open. The air inside the room felt much heavier, as if the oxygen particles there had blended with the dust of ancient books, incense smoke masked by jasmine perfume, and the scent of overheated electronic circuits.The Absurd Paranormal Club’s meeting room was a systematic aesthetic mess. Flying saucer posters clashed with star constellation maps, several old tube monitors flickered with static noise, and a large round table with a cracked crystal ball placed in its center served as the room's center of gravity.Leo was sitting there, lighting a herbal cigarette that smelled like burning dry grass. Beside him, Tio was typing rapidly on a laptop covered in Illuminati stickers, while Luna sat cross-legged on a chair, her fingers busy twirling the ends of her hair as she stared at Raditya with an intensity that was almost predatory."Finally, Subject X arrives," Leo said, his voice husky yet fil

The carved teak door leading to the Merdeka High School faculty lounge looked like the gates of hell to Raditya, but to Leo, it was the mouth of a cave overflowing with metaphysical treasure. The late afternoon sun, beginning to slant, cast a long and utterly absurd silhouette of Leo, who wore a makeshift electromagnetic detector around his neck.Beside him, Tio held an infrared camera with an expression of moronic seriousness, while Luna constantly pressed her body against Raditya's muscular arm, ostensibly seeking protection while her mind was busy drafting blueprints for sexual harassment."The energy in this room is stable, but the scent is fishy... a spiritual residual," Leo whispered in a dramatic tone.Raditya only snorted, trying to take a deep breath. To him, the "energy" Leo felt was nothing more than mental garbage that his own brain circuits hadn't had time to clear out. The moment they stepped inside, Raditya's "mind radio" began to crackle, picking up the lingering though

The corridors of Merdeka High School that afternoon were like short-circuited high-voltage transmission lines. For Raditya, every step was sensory torture. After cleaning up the corruption and lewd scandal in the student council room with the Paranormal Club, his inner ear had become even more sensitive or perhaps, hungrier.The scent of hundreds of sweaty students, the smell of freshly changed pads, to the foul stench of anxiety from students who hadn't paid their tuition, everything distilled into a stream of information clogging his brain.The mind-radio in his head broadcasted nonstop nonsense. From a tenth-grader imagining how to catch his eye, to Mr. Budi still mourning the leaked secret of his blue underwear. Raditya felt his head was as heavy as a rock, but his now-sharp jawline and piercing eyes maintained an untouchable prince aura for anyone passing him.But, right at the corner near the Physics Lab, that constant pulse suddenly died. Silence. Absolute.Raditya froze. He st

The dim light of the infirmary greeted Raditya as his consciousness slowly trickled back. The scent of antiseptic and the faint, clinical odor of hospital soap stung his nostrils—a stark contrast to the stench of the toilet stall he had just left, or so it felt in his mind.His body ached in every joint, as if his muscles had been forcibly torn away and haphazardly stitched back together. His vision remained as dark as night, though a dull, throbbing gray had begun to pulse faintly. It wasn’t a hopeless, pitch-black void, but a gray that felt intimidating, confusing.He tried to move his right hand. It felt cold, and there was no reassuring response from his brain to even twitch a finger. His head pulsed, but the pain was more contained now, lacking the chainsaw-like explosion he had felt earlier.Leo’s concoction seemed to be working, though in a thoroughly unpleasant way. The silence was now wrapped in physical pain, replacing the chaotic cacophony of his thoughts. It wasn’t peace;

Raditya saw the teacher’s hand press something on a tablet he was holding.The device reacted. It glowed blue, sending a pulse upward toward the gathering black clouds. The clouds reacted. They looked alive.Raditya stared at the photo again. His throat tightened. Suddenly, a thought crossed his mind. This wasn't ordinary lightning. This lightning... it was triggered."Intentional," he whispered, his voice raspy and harsh. He was certain he had felt something that had eluded him all this time. "It wasn't a lightning strike. It was... a shot. Something was fired at the sky."He stared repeatedly at the cloud pattern in the photo. His skin crawled as he realized one thing that became increasingly clear: he hadn't been struck by lightning by chance. He had been attacked. With a method more intelligent and devious than he could have ever imagined. The lightning was channeled. Not from the heavens, but from above. From a satellite. Or something similar. Orchestrated by someone. Who?He fel