He opened his eyes and stared towards the ceiling. A functional white, just like the rest of the room. He closed his eyes again and listened, silence. He took a deep breath and renewed his resolve.

Today I will succeed! Today I will leave this world that hates me behind!

Today I will do it! Today I will leave this world behind for good!

Today I will find a new home, a better place!

Today I will go beyond!

The lights in the small room were already on, which meant that is was time already. He put on the clothes hanging over the only other piece of furniture: a white chair. As soon as he opened the sturdy looking door the silence ended; constant noise entered his ears. It sounded like a swarm of bees flying right next to his ear.

This place was called: The Bridge. It was located 300 meters below the largest single machine ever built, the Large Hadron Collider. Which was located on the border of France and Switzerland. Nobody would be stupid enough to start digging beneath the world's potentially most unpredictable research lab. That, and the fact that if something went wrong here, and a part of Europe would go up in smoke, they could conveniently blame the Large Hadron Collider, was the reason this place is built here.

The first place he went was the canteen. There he ate a light breakfast. The canteen was empty since all the scientists and mechanics already had breakfast a couple of hours ago. The only reason that he ate later than the rest was because he, as the pilot, did not need much preparation time. So while the others were busy readying The Bridge, he was resting since his work as the pilot would only really begin after the others had finished most of their work.

After leaving the canteen he went straight to the center of the facility, where the machine that gave this place its name stood: The Bridge. As he neared the Bridge he saw a man in work clothing, who was one of the lower ranked scientists. The man looked up and opened his mouth.

“Good morning, Mr. Witt.”

“Morning”

After exchanging greetings with the scientist he went ahead and entered the wide dome-shaped room. Easily 500 meters wide and 20 meters high, this room was undoubtedly the biggest room in the facility. In the middle was a small depression and in that depression stood a 20 by 20-meter platform. On the platform stood a white egg-shaped capsule with a diameter of 3,4 meter and a door in it. Above the capsule hung many curiously designed tubes from the ceiling. Since most of The Bridge was located beneath the room, the room was rather empty even though The Bridge was one of the largest single machines on earth. The scientists jokingly called it “almost the largest single machine on earth.”

A man dressed like a classic scientist approached him.

“Morning Adam, are you ready?”

“Morning Daniel, and yes, I’m almost ready, I only need to gear up and I’m ready to go.”

“You already know, but I have to warn you again: you only have a 50% chance of surviving the jump and about everything that happens after the jump the odds are unknown. And even if you arrive safely you should know that 89% of the pilots do not make it back, and die in that other dimension! Are you sure you want to make the jump?”

“I wouldn’t have been here if not. I survived two wars already and I think I can handle another close encounter with death.”, Adam answered, slightly irritated at the fact that Daniel warned him for the fourteenth time for in the last 48 hours.

“ Even if you are willing to take that small survival chance since you already survived 3 times, this time is different. We’re going to throw you into the purple zone that has been expanding throughout the dimensional map since the start of this experiment and according to our calculations since long before that. We’ve already sent 5 pilots before you, yet none returned. We do not know if you even have a chance of survival.”

“As long as you sent me to a place where there is life...”

“Of course, I will! Are you still angry at me for that time I sent into you into a gas giant?”

“I’m just reminding you...”

Adam left Daniel behind and went to the changing room. His gear was already prepared so he just put it on and waited outside the changing room for the team leader to give the ready signal.

Nearly 10 minutes had passed when the sirens started and everyone started walking towards their positions. Adam also started walking towards the capsule. After he arrived he gave a thumbs up towards the operators behind the glass and entered the capsule. The door closed automatically.

His helmet’s built in HUD started to light up.

[Initializing] [pilot: Adam Xavier Witt; ID: 92]

Adam fastened his safety belts and commanded the system to be ready for the jump.

[start-up tests passed] [OS initialized] [H.O.O.K initialized] [systems initialized] [permission for launch granted] [ready to jump]

“I’m going to start the countdown, okay?”, Daniel’s voice came from the built in headset.

“I’m ready.”

“BRIDGE will be activated in”

“10”

“9”

“8”

“7”

“6”

“5”

“4”

“3”

“2”

“1”

“0”

Adam heard a high sound soon to be replaced by a deafening rumble as everything around him seemed to shake and his breakfast tried to escape his stomach. 10 seconds later everything was silent and the shaking stopped. Adam knew what to do and braced himself for impact. Even for the BRIDGE’s state-of-the-art technology, it was difficult to get the capsule to appear exactly on the surface. Because of that, it was normal for the capsule to fall down a few meters upon arrival.

But the impact never came.

After a few minutes, Adam understood that the impact would not come. He removed his helmet and unfastened his seatbelt in preparation for disembarkment.

Cautiously he tried to open the door, but the door would not budge. He gave a harder push, but still, the door did not budge one bit. Again he pushed, this time using all of his strength at once, but it was futile, the door didn’t budge an inch.

Did I end up in the ground or something, or maybe I ended up right before a wall?

One last time he pushed, using all his might, but the door remained unmoved. Left without any other option he could only activate the emergency ejection. The door came loose, but not in the way Adam had thought it would. Faster than Adam could react, the door flew inwards and pressed down upon him

What the fuck!

Water filled the cabin in no time and it was only then that Adam understood the dangerous situation he was in. Submerged he forcefully opened his eyes only to see the indistinct lights of the capsule’s command panels through the murky water.

[converting]

Huh? Did the HUD break?

Adam’s thoughts didn’t linger any longer on the seemingly broken HUD since he knew he had to escape the capsule, but the increasing pressure from the water forced him to close his eyes. He struggled for his life and finally escaped the broken door. With his feet, he pushed off and finally succeeded in escaping the capsule. With great difficulty, he tried to open his eyes again, only to see nothing.

Darkness? Wich way is up? How am I going to survive this? Am I going to die?

Lost in the perpetual darkness of the murky water Adam’s lungs started to hurt. The hurting got worse until they were practically screaming for air. He started to gasp for air and water filled his lungs. The pain became worse and his conscious started to fade. A different kind of darkness took over his vision. Everything became distant as the silence returned.

[conversion complete] [race determined] [age determined] [initial stats determined] [skills determined] [Skill gained: Swimming] Skill gained: Waterbreathing] [Skill gained: Pressure Resistance] [Skill gained: Cold Resistance] [Skill gained: Fisheye] [Titles determined] [Title gained: Outsider] [Title gained: Survivor] [Title gained: Amphibious] [User integrated] [Welcome to the System]