Subatomic Evolution

When I opened my eyes, I saw a white ceiling with no end.

I tried to move my head, but it hurt so much that I just stayed still in place without moving a muscle.

When I could finally move my neck and turned it right and left, I could see nothing but wight. Pure white. Deep white. And I could see no end.

It appeared like I was in an endless white palace. It was more like I was dreaming, and if it weren for the unmistakable ache all over my body, I would have never thought otherwise.

I mistakenly took the ease in my neck as a sign and tried to sit up, and another surge of pain ran over all my body and left me numb in my place.

Telling the time when you are surrounded by nothing but deep white color is very hard, and I don know how much time passed before I could move my body, but it sure felt like more than a few years.

All I could do after all that time was just to sit down and nothing more, and I was going crazy.

There was nothing, nothing at all except me, and only me in that whole goddamn place.

Not even a bed or a sheet under me. All the sentences that came to my mind started with the word ”I. ”

I am alone.

I have to get up.

I don know where I am.

I want water.

I am hungry.

I miss my moth….

When the last thought entered my mind, I suddenly jumped up, and it caused another wave of pain.

”I need to get out of here, ” I said a sentence out loud for the first time, and as soon as it left my lips, I felt like….. did I just talk in my sleep??

It was a feeling like when you are about to wake up, but you are still dreaming and say the thing that you wanted to say in your dream out loud.

Suddenly everything came back to me, and I opened my eyes.

Again, all I could see was white.

”am I still dreaming? Where did the pain go? ” I said aloud, trying to get out of this dream the same way I did with the first one.

But nothing happened.

I was surrounded by pure nothingness, and it was then that a thought entered my mind, ”am I dead? ”

Then, I panicked. Not because I might be dead, but because my mom would be alone with that as**le jack.

”no, you are not dead, ” a voice rang in my ears, and it felt like I had used my ears for the first time, hearing someone elses voice beside myself.

”Who is there? Where am I? ” I said, a little afraid.

Suddenly, not more than a few meters to my right, a door? slid to the right, and a tall, handsome man with white hair and silver eyes in a white lab coat appeared out of it, ”hello, Alex, my name is Lucile, and you are in my lab. Well, kinda. ”

Many questions came into my mind, but only one of them mattered to me, ”what happened to my mom? ”

”She is all right if thats what you could call it, ” said the man named Lucile before clarifying, ”your stepfather got bored of beating her after ten minutes and left her be. Overall, she didn sustain any internal or any injury that couldn be healed with a few potions. ”

When I heard his explanations, I felt both anger and relief at the same time. Anger toward my f**ing stepdad and relief that my mother was all right, according to the stranger named Lucile.

I took a deep breath to collect my thoughts, and when I finally was able to think clearly, another thought came into my mind, ”did you just say potions? You mean medicine, right? ”

”no, I meant potions, like the ones you use in video games and stuff, ” Lucile answered.

”What does that supposed to mean? ” I said, a little angry that he was joking about such a serious matter.

”sigh, just come with me; you will understand soon enough. There is no point in explaining everything twice when she can tell you everything you want to know from the beginning. ” Lucile said and turned around and started to walk, but when he saw me not moving, he turned his head and looked at baffled me before saying, ”aren you coming? ”

”are….. are those wings on your back?? ” I asked, not knowing how to react, seeing the wings just now that Lucile had turned around.

Lucile looked down and looked at his retracted white wings and sighed before growling, ”Silia, how many times do I have to tell you not to bring out the wings without my permission, ” and then looked at me before making his wings disappear and saying, ”yes, those were wings. And no, Im not an angel. Angels are not real, or thats what I think.

By the way, Lucile is not my actual name; its just an alias. ”

I didn know how to react to this volume of information I suddenly had to digest, but one thing was clear, ”I really am dreaming. ”

”sigh, ” Lucile sighed in dejection as if he had gone through this a few times, ”no, you are not. Gosh, I don have time for this. Just follow me and ask all your questions from Uriel. ”

”Are all of your alias the name of angles? And do all of you have wings? ” I asked subconsciously.

”ugh, NO. Now just shut up and follow me. ”

I was both annoyed and ashamed at the same time, but decided to keep my mouth shut and follow Lucile.

As soon as I exited the room, everything changed.

The white background I saw behind Lucile turned into a dark sapphire color all of a sudden, and when I looked back, I could see nothing but a sapphire-colored wall with the outline of a door with a small window on it that I could see the white room from.

Apparently, we were in a long narrow hall, surrounded by countless door outlines and little windows, the same as the one behind me.

As we walked, I looked through some of them, but they were all white and empty.

”what are all these doors for? ” I asked, forgetting the ”no question till we reach our destination ” rule.

”sigh, I keep my test subjects here, ” Lucile answered, clearly annoyed.

I wanted to ask, what test subjects? And that they are all empty, when he turned around and touched my forehead with his index finger and said, ”now you can see them. ”

I didn know what had just happened, and I didn even feel different in any way, but when I turned my head to look through the little window on my right, I saw a huge eye staring back at me.

I stumbled to the wall to my left, ”wh-what is that?? ”

Lucile puffed his chest like he was proud of something as he said, ”thats a mirage eye. This one is only a rare rank 3 monster, but catching them is like catching a literal mirage, but I was able to catch it; thats impressive, right? ”

I didn know whether to laugh at his proud expression or cry at the sight of the monster in front of me, but then I felt a cold sensation at the back of my neck like I was in danger, and when I looked back, I saw another monster behind the door on the left wall.

This one was a cheetah the size of a car, clad in lightning, and was looking at me like I was the most delicious meat in the world.

I blurted out, ”scary, ” and looked at Luciles amused expression before asking, ”are they real? ”

”as real as you and me, ” he answered, and I retorted, ”is THIS real? ”

He rolled his eyes at me before he turned around, continued walking, and said, ”I already said you are not dreaming, and THIS is all real. Just wait till Uriel explains it to you. ”

We walked past countless other windows, and most of them were empty.

After some time, as If bored, Lucile started explaining a few things, ”don worry about them jumping out, the strongest monster on this floor is an uncommon rank 5 monster, and Im more than capable enough to handle it by myself.

As for the question I think you have, monsters are categorized into ten ranks in terms of power and five grades in terms of rarity.

Rank 1 to 10 for their power and common, uncommon, rare, epic, and legendary grades for their rarity.

Right now, with your rings power, I think you can barely fight an uncommon rank 1 monster on your own, which is a lot of boost from a newly awakened ring.

But considering that it was your fathers, thats to be expected, I guess. in any case….. ”

At the mention of my father, I came out of my daze and asked, ”you knew my father? What do you mean about ring power? Was my father powerful? Who was he? What was he like? Is he even dead?

Why aren you answering? ”

When I cut Lucile in the middle of his sentence and bombarded him with my questions, his face, now looking at me, turned white as the wall in the lab room and said, ”OPS, I think Im in trouble. ”