Chapter 21 · Omniscience Glitch

"Stop moving, or I'll give you a reason to actually bleed," Vera snapped, her voice cutting through the static screaming in my skull.

I didn't stop. I couldn't. My knees hit the grated floor with a metallic clang that echoed like a gunshot. The world wasn't just blurry—it was fracturing. I could see three versions of the same corridor, three different shades of gray, all overlapping like a bad VHS tape. Every time I blinked, the walls shifted two inches to the left.

"I can't... I can't see straight," I gasped, my voice sounding like it was coming from the bottom of a well.

"Great. Just great," Vera muttered. I felt her hand grip my shoulder, shoving me hard against the cold concrete wall. She didn't do it gently. She pinned me there, her face inches from mine, eyes scanning my pupils for signs of neurological collapse. "You jammed a high-tier protocol chip into your brain without a buffer. What did you expect? To wake up with a PhD in time travel?"

I tried to push her away, but my arms felt like they belonged to someone else.