Phased Exile

In the near future, humanity has perfected a chilling solution to crime: exile. But this is no ordinary punishment. Offenders aren’t locked away—they’re shifted into a parallel layer of existence, close enough to see reality, but forever barred from touching it. Nico, an elite assassin, finds himself abruptly trapped in this liminal space. He can watch his life continue, hear the world around him, even stand in the same rooms—but every attempt to reach, to speak, to interact, meets nothing but emptiness.As he struggles to comprehend the rules of this strange exile, Nico begins noticing others like him—fractured echoes of consciousness, glimpses of lives running parallel to his own, hints of truths just beyond perception. The world itself responds to attention, thought, and intent, folding and twisting around him in impossible ways. Exile is no mere punishment—it’s a system, a study, a test of consciousness across overlapping realities.With every observation, Nico is drawn deeper into the architecture of a multiverse designed to isolate, measure, and manipulate. And as he realizes the full reach of this invisible hierarchy, he begins to understand the terrifying truth: what has been done to him may one day be done to anyone, anywhere, without warning—and the watchers are always waiting.