The night settled over Los Angeles like a black velvet curtain, the kind that slowly dropped over a stage after the lights dimmed. And beneath it, the city hummed with restless energy.
From the window of his apartment in the Golden Stage residence building, Max watched the streets far below come alive with headlights and music drifting faintly through the warm air.
Max sat cross legged on the floor with his back against the couch, his guitar resting across his lap as his fingers lazily brushed across the strings.
He was not trying to write anything serious, just letting the sounds roll around the room like loose marbles, seeing which ones might settle into something worth keeping.
The Artifice System interface floated faintly in his vision.
["Singer Class"]
["Active"]
["Acto r Class"]
["Active"]
["Com bat Artist Candidate"]
["Pending"]
Max glanced at the last icon and chuckled. "Man, you really tryna get me into a fight huh?"
The system did not respond, it never really did unless something triggered it. By now, Max already had his suspicions about the true motives of the Artifice System though he couldn't settle on something concrete yet.
Max plucked a few more notes, humming quietly.
His voice filled the apartment, it was deeper and smoother now. The singer class upgrade had changed something subtle but undeniable in his throat.
When he sang now the sound carried with more weight, like it had gravity. He stopped playing and looked toward the ceiling.
"Aiit system," he said quietly. "What else you gat for me?"
The interface expanded slightly.
["Artifice Energy"]
["Total: 1134"]
Max's eyebrows lifted. "Oh damn."
The internet was still feeding him energy. Every new viewer, every person replaying his performance, every comment from someone feeling something real from his music, it all trickled into his Artifice pool.
Max whistled softly. "Okay okay... we moving."
He set the guitar aside and stood up, stretching his arms. His body still carried a faint restlessness from earlier, from the fight he had witnessed in the hallway.
Not the fight itself exactly, but the rhythm of it. Punches, dodges, shifts in weight. Even in chaos there had been patterns.
Max shook his head. "Why the hell is that still stuck in my brain?"
He walked to the kitchen and grabbed a bottle of water. Halfway through drinking it, the system flickered again.
["Combat Expression Recognition"]
["Training Opportunity Detected"]
Max blinked. "You serious right now?"
Another prompt appeared.
["Would you like to begin Basic Combat Artist Conditioning?"]
Max stared at the screen for a long moment as he tried to imagine what that meant. Training? Sweat? Probably pain.
He scratched the back of his neck. "I mean... I ain't tryna become Bruce Lee or Mike Tyson overnight."
But the idea of being completely helpless in this world did not sit well with him either. Afterall, Artists here had real power and though he didn't encounter one yet, Max was pretty sure that not every artist played fair.
He sighed. "Aiit, fine."
He tapped the prompt and the system notification expanded.
["Begin training."]
The system reacted instantly as a soft vibration spread through his body again, this time focusing on his muscles rather than his chest.
["Basic Combat Awareness unlocked."]
Max's posture adjusted slightly, and his balance shifted as the system whispered a simple instruction in his mind.
["Move."]
Max looked around his apartment. "Move where?"
The system projected faint glowing lines on the floor. They were… footwork patterns? Max stared. "Yo... you giving me dance steps?"
But as he followed the first step, he realized something. It did feel like dancing. Left foot forward, right foot pivot, weight shift, guard position. Max repeated the movement slowly, then again, and again.
His body slowly started to understand the rhythm behind it. After a few minutes, sweat formed along his forehead.
"Damn.... okay... I see what you did there, Didier Drogba."
He wiped his face and laughed quietly. "So fighting really is just aggressive choreography huh?"
The system did not disagree.
Thirty minutes later, Max collapsed onto the couch breathing heavily. His legs felt like noodles, but something inside him felt sharper and more directed. He felt like he had more control over his body.
It was almost like his body had been introduced to a language it had never spoken before. He closed his eyes for a moment, then his phone buzzed. Max grabbed it lazily.
It was a message from Jalen.
["Bro check ArtStream right now."]
Max frowned. "What he yelling about?"
He opened the app and instantly, he noticed that the Golden Stage trending page had updated again.
But this time something else caught his attention. A new clip had appeared near the top, it was Victor Kane's rehearsal footage.
Max tapped it.
Click!
Victor stood alone on a small stage, microphone in hand.
The performance looked intense as his voice soared through the practice hall with incredible control, hitting notes that felt almost surgical in their precision. Max leaned forward slightly.
"Damn... this bloke..."
Victor finished the clip with a dramatic flourish and beneath it, the comments exploded in a frenzy.
["This dude insane!"]
["He about to win Golden Stage easy!"]
Max leaned back on the couch slowly, his competitive instinct stirring. Victor Kane was not just confident, he had the ability to back his confidence. He was good, really good. Max rubbed his chin thoughtfully.
"Aiit... challenge accepted."
He stood up again and grabbed his guitar, and within a few seconds the room was filled with music once more. But this time, Max did not play casually. He experimented, testing his vocal range, testing his emotional projection and letting the singer class guide his instincts.
After an hour, he finally stopped. His chest rose and fell slowly as he caught his breath.
The system interface appeared again.
["Training Session Completed!"]
["Singer Class Proficiency Increased."]
Max grinned, but before he could celebrate too much another system notification appeared.
["External Artifice Disturbance Detected!"]
Max blinked. "What?"
Just in time as suddenly, the window behind him rattled softly as a strange vibration passed through the air outside.
Max walked to the balcony and stepped out. The night sky above L.A was like dark glass, but something shimmered faintly across the stars. Max squinted.
High above the city, a faint glow pulsed like distant lightning trapped behind invisible walls.
He frowned. "What the hell is that?"
Footsteps rushed onto nearby balconies as other contestants also reacted to the anomaly, staring upward too. Jalen leaned over the railing from the next apartment. "You seeing that?" He asked.
Max nodded slowly. "Yeah."
The glow flickered again, then it faded and silence returned to the sky.
For a moment, everyone was perplexed but they soon forgot about it as they slowly retreated back inside. Max remained on the balcony a little longer, his instincts whispering something uneasy.
The system remained quiet.
But somewhere far above Earth's atmosphere, something had just stirred against the massive barrier protecting the planet.
Max rubbed the back of his neck, then he muttered quietly to himself.
"Damn... hope that shield thing holding up."