THE SOVEREIGN SYSTEM CHOSE ME

Chapter 6: The Difference in Power Levels

“You’re supposed to be dead,” the man said quietly, almost conversationally, as though he were making an ordinary observation.

Ethan kept his face blank, but every muscle in his body had tightened. “I don’t know what you’re talking about,” he replied carefully, forcing his voice to remain calm despite the alarm spreading through his mind.

The man studied him for a moment before a thin smile appeared on his face. “Don’t bother pretending,” he said, his voice almost amused.

He reached up and pulled the nurse’s lanyard over his head. The plastic identification card slipped free and struck the tiled floor with a soft clatter. He let it remain there as though it had already served its purpose.

“I watched them roll your body into the morgue three days ago,” he continued, his eyes never leaving Ethan’s face. “Head shot. Close range. There was enough damage that nobody expected you to survive.”

Ethan’s breathing slowed.

The man casually glanced toward the space just above Ethan’s brow, and that small movement made Ethan’s stomach tighten.

“Yet here you are,” the man murmured, his expression becoming more interested. “Standing on your own two feet as if nothing happened. I have to admit, that surprised me.”

“Who are you?” Ethan asked, keeping his voice low as he took a slow step backward toward the window, his mind racing through every possible way out. None of them looked promising. He was on the third floor, he had no weapon, and the only door was blocked by a man who had just calmly admitted to watching him die.

“Nobody you need a name for,” the man replied casually as he reached behind his back. “My employer only wants confirmation that loose ends are tied up properly, and you being alive complicates that.”

Ethan’s eyes followed the man’s hand, his muscles tightening as he prepared for whatever came next. He expected a gun, perhaps a knife, but instead the man pulled out a syringe. The needle caught the harsh fluorescent light as he held it up, its sharp tip glinting ominously between them.

Ethan’s stomach tightened.

The man noticed immediately and smiled faintly, seeming almost pleased by his reaction. “No gunshot this time,” he said, his tone strangely calm as he rolled the syringe between his fingers. “That would bring too much attention. A body discovered unresponsive in a hospital room is much easier to explain.” His thumb settled against the plunger, and his eyes remained fixed on Ethan. “A complication. A sudden reaction to medication. Perhaps something related to your surgery. Hospitals lose patients like that all the time.”

His smile slowly faded.

“Nobody would ask too many questions.”

Ethan stared at the syringe, his pulse beating harder with every second. The man's words made one thing painfully clear. He had not come to threaten him or gather information. He had come to finish a job that someone believed had already been completed three days ago.

“So that’s why you came here,” Ethan said, his voice tightening as anger pushed through the fear. “You weren't here to make sure I was recovering. You came back because someone wants me dead.”

The man’s expression hardened as he lowered the syringe slightly, his eyes turning cold. “You were never supposed to wake up,” he said, his voice stripped of the casual amusement from before. “Whatever happened to you changed that, but it doesn't change the order I was given.”

Ethan’s jaw tightened. “And what happens if I refuse to make things easy for you?”

The man stared at him for a moment before a thin, humorless smile returned to his face. “Then I suppose we do this the difficult way.”

His grip tightened around the syringe and then he lunged.

Ethan barely had time to react before the needle flashed toward his throat. His body moved on instinct, twisting sharply to the side as the syringe passed within inches of his skin. At the same moment, his hand shot forward and locked around the attacker’s wrist.

The man’s eyes widened.

Ethan felt the sudden strain in the other man’s arm as he tried to wrench himself free, but the strength behind his resistance barely registered. Ethan tightened his grip, and the man’s expression changed when he realized that the patient he had expected to kill without difficulty was holding him as though he weighed nothing.

He tried to recover quickly, driving his knee toward Ethan’s ribs, but Ethan was already moving. His enhanced reflexes seemed to recognize the attack before the man had even completed it, allowing him to pivot out of the way while simultaneously releasing the wrist. Then, without consciously deciding to strike, Ethan drove his open palm straight into the man’s sternum.

The impact was far more powerful than Ethan expected.

The man was thrown backward and slammed into the wall hard enough to crack the drywall, while the syringe slipped from his fingers and bounced across the floor before disappearing beneath the hospital bed.

For several seconds, neither man moved.

The fake nurse remained against the wall, one hand pressed tightly against his chest as he struggled to draw breath. His eyes stayed fixed on Ethan, but the confidence that had filled them moments earlier was gone. What replaced it was genuine disbelief, followed by something far more dangerous.

“You’ve got a System,” he rasped, and understanding slowly spread across his face. “You’re one of us now.”

“I don’t know what I am,” Ethan replied honestly.

Yet even as he spoke, his body had already settled into a defensive stance without conscious instruction. His weight was balanced perfectly over his feet, his hands loose at his sides, and every muscle seemed prepared to react the moment the man made another move. It was not a stance Ethan remembered learning, but somehow his body knew exactly what to do.

“But I know what you just tried to do to me,” he continued, his eyes narrowing. “Twice, apparently.”

The man’s expression hardened. Whatever surprise had momentarily broken through his composure disappeared as his face became cold and calculating.

“It doesn’t matter what you are,” he said, slowly pushing himself away from the damaged wall. “A fresh Level One Awakener isn’t going to be a problem for long.”

He did not reach for another weapon. Instead, his eyes flickered strangely, and for the briefest moment, Ethan saw a faint shimmer pass across them.

Then the atmosphere changed.

It was subtle at first, almost impossible to identify, but Ethan felt it immediately. The air inside the room seemed to grow heavier as an invisible pressure spread outward from the man, tightening around everything in its path. Even the space between them suddenly felt different, as though the room itself had become smaller.

At that exact moment, the familiar blue interface appeared across Ethan’s vision.

[Hostile System Signature Detected: Level 12]

[Warning: Significant Power Disparity Detected.]

[Recommendation: Exercise Extreme Caution.]

Ethan's eyes widened slightly as he stared at the notification.

Level 12.

He still knew almost nothing about Systems or how much stronger a person became with each level. He had only awakened recently, and he had barely begun to understand what his own System could do. For all he knew, the difference between Level One and Level Twelve might not have been as simple as the numbers suggested.

But even without understanding the details, he wasn't stupid.

One.

Twelve.

There was a reason his System had immediately warned him to use extreme caution.

Ethan slowly tightened his fists as he looked at the man across the room. Whatever a Level Twelve Awakener could do, there was no way a sensible person could look at the gap between them and believe it was insignificant.

He was Level One.

The man was Level Twelve.

And judging by the warning flashing across his vision, that difference was about to become very real.