Everything was black—until it wasn't.Then it was fire.Kael's scream caught in his throat as he slammed face-first into the muddy ground. His body wasn't in his gaming chair. It was heavier, meatier. Real. He scrambled to his knees, coughing, blinking away static that kept flickering across his vision like broken pixels.> [ERROR: Connection Lost.][WARNING: Unauthorised Entry Detected.][Glitch Class Assigned.][System Integrity: 19%]“What the hell…” Kael muttered, shaking his head. “This isn’t the game menu. Where’s the fucking UI?”A burning village stretched out in front of him, half in ruins, lit by an orange sky that rippled like a living flame. Screams echoed in the distance—guttural, human. Monsters roared back. Charred corpses lined the cracked stone path ahead, and the smell hit him next—burnt flesh and wet dirt.This was Eden Break, sure. The architecture, the textures, even the weather effects—it was all too real. But it wasn’t the beta. It was wrong.So wrong.And so fu

The Crashwraith howled, a sound like a corrupted hard drive screaming. Its face pulsed with data fragments, flickering images of players caught mid-death: their last expressions frozen in agony.Its voice was static.Kael skidded beside Zari, coughing. The air tasted like copper and ash. The crater was melting around them, data streaming upward like reversed rain, glowing with corrupted red and void-black threads.> [WARNING: Class Conflict Detected][Entity: Crashwraith is incompatible with Player Class.][Glitch Override Recommended.]Zari didn’t wait.She launched forward, blade slicing clean through the air—then stuttering, skipping like a scratched disc. Her sword phased through the Crashwraith’s shoulder.No damage.“What the hell—?!” she gritted.The Crashwraith turned on her, its form reconfiguring mid-swipe, its limbs becoming tendrils of code, barbed with cursor spikes and error loops. It struck.She barely blocked it, sliding back several feet, boots carving through corrupt

Zari sat silent.The fire Kael lit flickered weakly, burning on hacked mana threads and broken system fragments. They were deep underground now hidden in a quarantined server room, marked OUT OF BOUNDS in every system layer.Her voice was flat. Dead.“I didn’t die in a crash.”Kael stared at her.She wasn’t looking at him… just… through him.“I remember fire. Screams. Not from me. From the others. Eight of us logged in that day. Closed beta. NDA iron-clad. We were promised something real. Something revolutionary.”She turned.Her eyes weren’t wet, but they looked like they should be.“They weren’t lying.”> [Companion Sync: 22%][Accessing Shared Memory Fragment: ZARI-ROOT][Warning: Viewing May Cause Permanent Corruption]Kael didn’t hesitate.The world bent again.And he was there.Memory Dive: 2 Years AgoLocation: Eden Break Alpha Server – Room G: Playtest ChamberZari was younger. Leaner. No sword. No combat gear. Just a visor, a pulse suit, and trembling hands gripping her contr

> [Location: SubNet Echo — Bunker LVL: 0.0X][Accessing Forbidden Layer…][Admin Override Detected: BLOCKED][Status: Hostile Encryption Present][Firewall Integrity: Compromised]The entrance wasn’t a door.It was a scar in the server’s core—a ripped line of code stitched shut with red warning threads and glitch-blood runes. The moment Kael touched it, it bled.The pain wasn’t physical. It was personal.Zari sucked air between her teeth. “This place is cursed.”Kael nodded. “Good. That means we’re close.”They stepped inside.And the temperature dropped.The walls weren’t textured. They were raw. No polish. Just developer notes, corrupted devlogs, and unfinished player assets flickering like hallucinations. One screamed, “I’M STILL IN HERE.” Another simply read: “Don’t trust the syntax.”They reached the main chamber and it wasn’t empty.A dozen figures stood in the shadows.Armored. Scarred. Eyes glowing with that same glitchfire Kael felt in his veins.And one stepped forward, her

> [System Access Granted: Echo Archive – Level BLACK][Viewer Status: GLITCHWALKER – UNRESTRICTED][WARNING: This archive has been classified as NON-HUMAN COMPATIBLE]The bunker’s server heart was quiet now, its pulsing light dimmed to a soft amber. What remained of the Glitchborn were treating the wounded and salvaging what they could. Kael sat alone in the Archive chamber, staring into a console that wasn’t really a console. It was a mindport.Zari stood behind him. “You sure about this?”He nodded. “I need to see it. All of it.”Riven’s voice came from the doorway, heavy and hoarse.“Don’t just watch. Listen. The Archive doesn’t show you the truth. It makes you feel it.”Kael placed his hand on the port.His mind went dark—then blinding.> [EchoStream 0001 Initiated][Subject: Developer Log // H.A.D.E.S. Project Genesis // Date: ???]The world reassembled around him.Not game code. Not servers.A lab.Real.Cold. Fluorescent lights. A whiteboard filled with notes.> "REALMODE ISN’T