1 Chapter 1

Large Hadron Collider, Geneva, Switzerland,

In the cold night, blinking lights on the control panel informed the Engineer there was a malfunction near the Atlas crossing point. A detector was showing odd readings and the associated error code was obscure enough to indicate the problem wouldn't be easily solved.

'I'll run a quick diagnostic and dump it on the morning shift.'

The tired Engineer rationalized his work ethic, as he got on his bicycle and started pedalling to the affected site. With such a complex machine, it was easy to lose track of version control, making it hard to grasp the changes made, and in this instance, the frustratingly generic description of the error code occupied his mind as his breath frosted the air.

He reached the designated site and parked the bicycle against the cool tunnel walls. The Engineer's mind was on autopilot as he engaged the safety lockout and started loosening the diagnostic panels connecting to the main detector.

'The detector looks fine…'

He thought, checking the readout from his probe, all systems were nominal. With growing suspicion, he walked over to the superconducting magnets responsible for focusing the beam. Their readout also looked fine, but a few magnets were running hotter than they should. He walked around to visually inspect them when his vision suddenly flared with a flash that was brighter than a thousand suns!

'Had I forgotten the safety lockout procedure?' Even, if he had, there were multiple systems in place to prevent such a failure. The blindness he was experiencing was most likely the symptom of fried optic nerves and parts of his brain. Thankfully, he wasn't in pain, and the confused panic gave way to a gradual sense of peace.

Only a moment had transpired since he entered the path of the proton beam before the facility entered emergency shutdown. Soon, there was only the hiss of leaking vacuum and the clicking coils of cooling compressors.

The engineer died peacefully, with only a lingering regret about the unfinished harem isekai he had been enjoying just minutes prior. His last conscious thoughts were carried by a wave of buzzing protons and muons, piercing through the decaying shroud of reality into the worlds beyond…