"This is a military exclusion zone. A high-priority experiment is currently in progress," the officer's voice boomed. "All unauthorized personnel are ordered to disperse immediately. Failure to comply will result in immediate detention or lethal force."
The live-streamers, who only moments ago had been shouting about "the truth," felt their bravado evaporate instantly. Faced with the cold steel of armored vehicles and soldiers whose eyes held zero hesitation, the influencers scrambled backward, nearly dropping their expensive camera rigs in the dirt.
"Guys... I think we need to back off," one stuttered into his phone. "This isn't a light show. This is real."
"Forget the stream! Turn that thing off before they seize it!" his partner hissed.
They retreated behind the cordon, joining the thousands of citizens who stood on the highway, staring at the distant facility shrouded in a pulsating, multicolored halo. The air felt heavy, charged with a static that made their hair stand on end.
The Fortress: Meditation Chamber.
Steve's eyes were clamped shut, his brow furrowed in concentration. The energy within him surged like a wild stallion, galloping through his meridians and scouring his consciousness.
The Perfect Tier-4 Awakening was more than a physical upgrade; it was a sublimation of the soul. Steve felt a barrier in his mind shatter, followed by an eruption of mental power that felt like a dormant volcano finally waking.
The sensation was transcendent. Though he hadn't manifested a new ability, his mastery over Extreme Cold and Spatial Manipulation underwent a qualitative metamorphosis. Previously, a spatial jump required a brief moment of focus—a "wind-up."
Now, space bent to his will as naturally as breathing. The temperature of the room pulsed with his heartbeat; he could feel the individual water molecules in the air, each one a servant waiting for his command.
"So this is the true Fourth-Order," Steve whispered, his voice echoing in the silent chamber.
The gap between this state and the "Tier 4" he had seen in the Zombie World was an abyss. He felt confident he could now crush a Fifth-Order mutant with a single thought. It seemed the power scaling varied wildly between dimensions; a Tier 1 from a high-level civilization was clearly superior to a Tier 1 from a dying wasteland.
BOOM!
A tangible pillar of golden light exploded from Steve's body. It tore through the reinforced dome of the Fortress and pierced straight into the heavens. The massive, multicolored vortex that had blanketed the capital was instantly punctured by the domineering golden lance. Then, as if struck by an invisible hammer, the clouds shattered into millions of shimmering motes and dissolved into nothingness.
Washington, D.C.
Millions of eyes witnessed the miracle. If the rainbow clouds had been an atmospheric anomaly, the golden beam that shattered the sky was an act of God. For a long minute, the city was silent, the hum of traffic and the shouting of crowds replaced by a collective, breathless awe.
At a prestigious high school near the capital, students and teachers had long since abandoned their evening studies. They crowded the windows, staring toward the horizon where the light had originated.
Among them, Stefanie clutched the window frame, her heart pounding against her ribs. That's the direction of the base... the direction of home.
She knew the bearing better than anyone. "Big Bro?" she whispered.
She remembered the mysterious potions he had brought home—the ones that had transformed her own physique. If those were just the beginning, then this... had he reached a level beyond human comprehension?
The Kremlin: Emergency War Room.
Across the ocean, high-resolution satellite footage played on a loop. The golden beam shooting from the heart of the American capital flickered on the screen, reflecting in the grim eyes of the assembled generals.
"This is not a natural phenomenon!" a Five-Star General roared, slamming his fist onto the mahogany table. "The Americans are testing a super-weapon. Is it a climate-control array? A directed-energy strike from orbit?"
The Russian President stared at the screen, his face a mask of cold calculation. "First, they stabilized the gold markets with impossible reserves. Now, they demonstrate the power to alter the very heavens. If they have mastered energy-manipulation on this scale, the global balance is dead.We're done for!"
He stood abruptly, his voice cutting through the room like a blade. "Activate every sleeper agent we have. I don't care about the cost or the exposure. Find out what is happening inside that facility."
Similar scenes were playing out in London, Paris, and Tokyo. Encrypted orders flew across the globe as intelligence agencies—the FSB, MI6, and Mossad—all turned their full attention toward the mysterious "Fortress."
On international forums, the internet was melting down. #USSuperWeapon #TheGoldenBeam
[Did you see the satellite feed? That wasn't a cloud-seeding op. That was divine intervention.]
**Are we really still talking about trade wars? They just erased a storm with a light beam. We're living in a different world now.**
**Relax, it's probably just a high-altitude tech demo.**
**Wake up! Look at their recent moves—the Americans are prepping for something massive. We're all just spectators now.**
**Come on, America can't even take on third-rate dictatorships like Venezuela anymore. The US is done for. The communist world revolution is just around the corner, just you wait**
**@Elon ban this dumass above please...**
The Fortress.
Steve stepped out of the chamber, feeling refreshed and hyper-aware. His mental reach was now so vast he could sense the heat signatures of the crowds and the lenses of the cameras outside the perimeter without even trying.
"I didn't think breaking through would cause such a scene," Steve muttered with a wry shake of his head.
"Director Steve! Are you alright?!" A group of senior researchers and officials rushed toward him, led by a frantic Randy.
"I'm fine," Steve said with a relaxed nod. "Did we manage the public fallout?"
"We're trying," the head of Public Relations said, mopping sweat from his forehead. "Director, the scale was too large for a total blackout. We've issued the standard 'Meteorological Experiment' protocol."
"Good. Put it out," Steve said. "The anomaly is over. Tell the press there's nothing more to see."
Soon, an official notice appeared on every major news outlet:
[OFFICIAL STATEMENT REGARDING ATMOSPHERIC ANOMALY]
The optical phenomenon observed over the capital tonight was the result of a successful test involving new high-altitude meteorological intervention technology. The experiment has concluded; all data parameters are normal. Citizens are advised not to gather near the test perimeter.
The comments sections were a battlefield of skepticism:
**Cloud seeding? Cloud seeding that shoots a golden laser into space?**
**Translation: 'We have a super-weapon too advanced to show you peasants.'**
**Standard CIA tactics. I 'believe' it. Definitely.**
**What else can they say? 'A guy in the basement just reached Level 50 and ascended to godhood?' I'll take the weather tech story.**