DIVINE.EXE: Ascension Protocol

CHAPTER 2: Player Zero

Ryker reached the apartment door already running. It was half open.

The smell of metal hit first, followed by rot and alcohol.

He stepped inside and saw her.

His mother lay on the floor, her body twisted wrong, blood spread beneath her like a shadow that refused to move. The tiles were slick. Her eyes were open but empty. One arm was bent under her body, fingers curled like she had tried to grab something and failed.

For a second, Ryker didn’t breathe.

Then he screamed.

“What did you do?” he shouted.

His father stood near the sink, swaying. A knife hung loose in his hand. His shirt was soaked red. His mouth reeked of alcohol so badly it burned the air between them.

“Shut up,” the man slurred. “You’re making noise.”

Catalina whimpered.

Ryker turned and saw her crouched behind the table, knees pulled to her chest, hands over her mouth. Her eyes were wide. Frozen. Shaking so hard the table legs rattled.

Something broke loose inside him.

Ryker lunged. He slammed into his father’s chest, driving him back into the counter. The knife clattered, then scraped as the man snatched it up again. Ryker threw punches. Wild. Desperate. They landed, but they meant nothing. His father barely felt them.

The knife flashed up again.

Ryker raised his arms just as the blade cut the air where his face had been.

“Stay back,” his father growled, eyes unfocused. “I’ll do it again, you’re all useless.”

At that moment, the door exploded inward.

“Police! Freeze!”

A gun was raised. Then another.

His father hesitated. Long enough.

They rushed him. Hands slammed him down. The knife was kicked away. Metal cuffs snapped shut around his wrists. He shouted. Fought. Spit. It didn’t matter.

Paramedics flooded the room a few minutes afterwards. They knelt beside his mother. Pressed gauze. Called times. Shook their heads.

They lifted her onto a stretcher and rushed her out.

Ryker followed the ambulance in a daze.

She died before they reached the hospital.

No last words. No apology. No goodbye.

Just flatline.

After that, everything collapsed fast.

His boss fired him for abandoning his shift. No excuses accepted.

His father was charged and locked away. Life sentence. No parole talk.

The apartment became a quiet hollow.

Ryker stood in the kitchen every night staring at the stain the cleaners couldn’t fully erase. Catalina stopped speaking unless spoken to. She slept with the lights on.

Bills stacked up. Food ran low.

Ryker took any work he could find. None of it lasted.

A few weeks later, he wandered Gastrok City with nowhere to go and nothing left to sell.

That’s when he saw the flyer.

It was pasted crookedly on a dirt wall between broken ads and peeling paint.

CLARK INDUSTRIES VOLUNTEERS NEEDED

$5,000 REWARD

NO EXPERIENCE REQUIRED

ADVANCE HUMAN TECHNOLOGY

The Clark logo was stamped at the bottom. Clean. Sharp. Untouched by the filth around it.

Ryker stared at it for a long time. Five thousand dollars could change everything.

He signed up the same day.

They took him underground.

There were thirty of them. Young. Broke. Tired faces. People with no options. No families that would ask questions.

Weeks turned into months.

They were injected. Shocked. Cut open and stitched back up. Fed pills they weren’t told the names of. Locked in white rooms and observed through glass.

Some screamed. Some begged. Some stopped waking up.

Bodies were wheeled away without ceremony.

Then, the first breakthrough happened.

Henry.

One morning, he touched the concrete wall and it melted under his palm. Lava poured out like it had always been there. The room burned. Alarms screamed. Scientists cheered.

After that came Klause. He lifted a metal table without touching it. Crushed it midair.

Then Tony. Ice crawled across the floor at his feet, freezing everything solid.

At this point there were only seven test subjects still alive—three of which already got scientific breakthroughs.

Everyone waited for Ryker and the remaining three, hoping they would pull a cool power too. But weeks passed, and nothing happened. More tests followed. Stronger doses. Longer isolation. Pain pushed further each time.

Still nothing.

Eventually, only four of them were left alive.

Henry. Klause. Tony. And Ryker.

The scientists stopped looking at Ryker the same way. Their notes grew shorter. Their patience ran out.

One morning, they dragged him to the exit and shoved him out.

“No results,” one of them said. “Useless.”

They didn’t pay him.

Two years have gone by.

When Ryker returned home, the apartment door was unlocked.

But Catalina was nowhere to be found. Her clothes were gone. And her shoes, missing.

No note.

No message.

That night, Ryker searched everywhere he could think of, but Catalina was nowhere to be found. Eventually, exhaustion took him fast.

He didn’t hear the window break. He woke to hands on his throat.

Four figures stood around his bed. Hooded. Silent. Blades glinting faintly in the dark.

He fought back. But It didn’t matter.

They were stronger. Faster. Well trained.

He got beaten up to a pulp. And as the knife lifted for the final strike, the world stopped.

Everything froze.

The men. The air. The blood mid-drop.

Only Ryker could still move.

He stumbled back, gasping, staring at the frozen scene. His heart, hammering against his chest. His mind screamed.

A translucent screen appeared before his eyes.

SYSTEM INITIALIZATION COMPLETE

WOULD YOU LIKE TO BECOME A PLAYER?

GAIN POWER THROUGH COMBAT AND SURVIVAL

ACCEPT / DECLINE

Ryker didn’t hesitate.

“Accept,” he whispered.

The screen vanished.

Something exploded inside him.

A violent surge tore outward, ripping through the room. The frozen men shattered like glass. Bodies slammed into walls. Bone cracked. Blood sprayed.

Silence followed.

Another screen appeared.

CONGRATULATIONS

YOU ARE NOW A PLAYER

Ryker stood alone in the wreckage, breathing hard.

For the first time in years, something had chosen him back.

Then, his phone rang—’unknown’ flashing on the screen. When he picked—

“Hello Ryker Vale,” the voice said. “I have something for you.”