Max did not sleep well that night.
It was not fear exactly, nothing had actually happened after that strange shimmer in the sky. The glow had faded and the city returned to normal, cars still moving, music still drifting from late night clubs, people still living their lives like the world had not just blinked strangely for a second.
But the image stuck in his mind.
Something had pulsed up there, something big.
Max lay on his back staring at the ceiling in the dark, one arm behind his head, the other resting across his stomach.
"Dammit man," he muttered quietly. "Whole alien barrier o'er the planet and ain't nobody tripping."
He rolled onto his side and finally drifted into sleep sometime near dawn.
…
When morning came, it came loud as someone knocked on his door like they were trying to break it.
BANG! BANG! BANG!
Max shot upright. "Yo, what the f*ck!"
The knocking continued.
BANG! BANG! BANG!
Max stumbled to the door still half asleep and yanked it open, and there stood Jalen outside looking wide awake. "Bro you still sleeping?"
Max squinted at him. "It's morning."
Jalen leaned against the door frame, looking at him. "Yeah and rehearsal starts in 20 minutes".
Max groaned. "Ain't no way dawg."
He looked at the clock behind him.
[8:41 AM.]
"Sh*t!"
Jalen laughed. "I told ya last night to set an alarm."
Max ran a hand through his hair while thinking to himself. 'Man the system should come with a built in alarm'.
He grabbed a hoodie from the couch and pulled it on while walking toward the bathroom. "Give me 5 minutes."
Jalen called from the doorway. "You got 3."
Max brushed his teeth like a man fighting time itself and two minutes later, they were jogging down the hallway toward the elevator.
Max was still tying his shoe laces as the doors opened.
"You always this f*cked up in the morning?" Jalen asked.
Max shrugged. "Creative people don't do no mornings."
They stepped into the elevator along with a few other contestants. Victor Kane stood near the back looking completely put together as usual, Max glanced at him and smirked.
"You wake up like that?"
Victor raised an eyebrow. "Unlike some people I value preparation."
Max nodded slowly. "Yeah yeah, Mr. Perfect."
Jalen snorted.
The elevator opened and everyone moved toward the rehearsal floor. Today, the practice hall felt different. There were more cameras, more staff members, and more energy literally.
The host of Golden Stage stood near the front speaking with the judges. When the contestants gathered, he clapped his hands.
"Alright, everyone listen up!"
The room quieted.
He smiled brightly. "Today, we begin the first official challenge round."
Behind him, a large screen lit up.
["Challenge One"]
["Interpretation Performance"]
Max crossed his arms. "Interpretation?"
The host explained. "Each contestant will be given the same song."
The screen displayed the title, it was a classic emotional ballad known across the world. The host continued.
"Your task is not to copy the original." He pointed toward the contestants. "Your task is to make it yours..."
Standing beside him, Jalen nodded slowly. "Aiiit, that kinda dope."
The judges sat at a long table observing quietly. Adrian Vale especially, the director judge, watched the contestants with sharp interest.
And just as expected, his eyes briefly stopped on Max then moved on.
The host finished explaining. "You will each perform your interpretation tomorrow night on the main stage."
Murmurs immediately spread through the room. One day of preparation time was not a lot of time, but it was all they had.
Max scratched his chin. "Pressure round, innit?"
Jalen leaned toward him. "We got this."
Max shrugged. "We'll see."
With the briefing done, the first practice sessions that morning began immediately as contestants spread across the rehearsal hall working through different versions of the song.
Some turned it into slow emotional pieces, others experimented with tempo but Max knew that this was just surface rehearsal.
The true rehearsals would be done in the closet of their rooms later.
Victor Kane stood near a piano, adjusting the melody with precise control. Max listened from across the room and the different was clear; compared to everyone else Victor's version sounded powerful.
It was technically flawless.
Max nodded quietly. "Yeah, he good."
Lila practiced near one of the mirrors; her version sounded soft and haunting, almost like a completely different tone.
Max exhaled and grabbed a microphone before stepping onto a small rehearsal platform.
He closed his eyes as the melody played softly through the speakers. Max hummed the opening line first, testing the emotional tone.
["Singer Class activated!"]
Then he started.
His voice carried across the room with quiet strength, but halfway through the verse he stopped. Something felt wrong.
It felt too clean, too controlled.
Max scratched his head. "Nah..... that ain't it."
He stepped off the stage and paced slowly, other contestants practiced around him but Max barely noticed.
He kept thinking about the meaning behind the song.
The original version had poetic, emotional lyrics about loss, about regretting something, and about wishing you could go back and fix something that was already broken.
Max leaned against the wall thinking, then something weird happened.
The Actor Class inside him stirred!
["Emotion simulation available."]
Max blinked. 'Oh?'
A faint prompt appeared.
["Would you like to explore emotional memory reconstruction?"]
Max tilted his head. 'System you getting fancy now'.
He accepted the prompt and immediately, a quiet wave passed through his mind as suddenly memories surfaced.
These were not new memories, but old ones. Moments from his previous life. Arguments with friends, missed opportunities, the day he almost gave up on music completely.
Max inhaled slowly as emotion gradually filled his chest like rising water.
He walked back onto the rehearsal stage. This time, when the music started he did not think about technique, he simply sang.
The first line came out rough. Imperfect, but honest.
The room slowly grew quiet, even a few contestants stopped practicing. Max's voice carried the weight of something real now.
By the time he finished the final line, the room was so mesmerized that silence lingered for a second.
Then someone clapped softly.
Max opened his eyes, Lila stood nearby smiling.
"That felt real." She complimented with a smile on her face.
Max scratched the back of his neck. "Yeah... just some old ass trick."
Victor quietly watched from across the room, his expression looked more serious now.
Competition had truly begun.
…
While competition ramped up in the Golden Stage building, far above Los Angeles the faint shimmer from the night before pulsed again.
But this time it was invisible to almost everyone as the Artifice Network surrounding Earth trembled slightly.
And somewhere beyond that glowing barrier, something massive continued pressing quietly against it.