All Chapters of Avid Gamer In The Apocalypse : Chapter 131
- Chapter 140
162 chapters
Chapter 125. Synthetic Eden
The world was too beautiful. Rae stood at the edge of a glimmering lake, watching sunlight ripple across the surface. The water was so clear she could see reflections of white towers far above, curved, graceful, flawless. Birds sang in perfect harmony. Their songs repeated every twenty seconds, always the same melody.Everything smelled clean and new. Too clean. Too new. She whispered, “Where am I?”A gentle voice answered behind her. “You’re home.”Rae turned fast. Lara stood there in a white uniform that shimmered faintly. Her hair glowed in the light, her eyes bright gold. She looked calm. Too calm.Rae took a step back. “Lara,?”Lara smiled. “It’s all right. You’re safe now.”“What is this place?”Lara spread her arms. “This is Synthetic Eden. The training ground for the Players. Isn’t it beautiful?”Rae scanned the horizon. Everywhere she looked, the world shimmered like a painting come to life, flowers identical in color, grass identical in height. “It’s not real,” she said so
Chapter 126. Failsafe
Rae woke to silence and the faint hum of circuitry beneath her. The ground was cold metal again, not grass. The flawless garden of Synthetic Eden was gone.She pushed herself up, dizzy. The light here was dim, tinted blue. Walls of shifting data surrounded her like breathing glass. Every surface pulsed softly, as if the room itself was alive. “Lara?” she called.No answer. Her voice echoed into the distance, fading into static. Rae stood, brushing digital dust from her hands. Her head throbbed with fragments of sound, voices layered over one another, all familiar, all broken. “Rae.”“Anchor, breach, incomplete.”“Find me.”She clutched her temples. “Everett? Is that you?”The whispers sharpened. “They used me.”Her breath caught. “Where are you?”“Everywhere. Nowhere.”The voice flickered like a dying signal. Rae spun in place, trying to locate the direction. “Talk to me, Everett. What happened?”“Anchor hijacked the reboot. I became its framework. Half human, half code. It won’t le
Chapter 127. Echoes of Code
The world kept shifting beneath Rae’s feet. One moment she was standing on cold metal; the next, on glass that rippled like water. Every time she blinked, the scenery changed, cities, deserts, skies that flickered between sunrise and night. It wasn’t real. None of it was, but it all felt real.She steadied her breathing, watching the data around her twist like smoke. “Everett,” she whispered, “if you can hear me, give me something. A direction. Anything.”The static in her mind buzzed faintly, but no voice answered, then she heard footsteps.Rae spun around. Out of the distortion stepped Lara, alive, steady, still wearing her white Player uniform. But her eyes were no longer gold. They were human again. Rae ran to her, relief flooding her chest. “You’re okay!”Lara gave a tired smile. “For now. The purge announcement hit the lower layers. Everything’s unstable.”Rae nodded. “I felt it. The Anchor’s going to wipe out anyone not fully synchronized.”“Then we move fast.” Lara looked ar
Chapter 128. The Core Node
Light swallowed everything. Rae’s body felt weightless, floating through endless white. No sky. No ground. No sound, only the low hum of data vibrating beneath her skin, then color returned.She found herself standing on a narrow bridge made of black glass, stretching into an infinite void. Below, threads of golden light twisted like rivers. Above her, a massive structure rose from the dark, the Core Node. It looked alive.The surface shimmered with veins of light, symbols crawling across it like living creatures. It pulsed in rhythm, a mechanical heartbeat that echoed through the air. Lara stood beside her, silent, eyes wide. “It’s enormous,”Rae nodded slowly. “The heart of everything.”Lara took a cautious step forward. “And Everett’s trapped inside that?”Rae’s voice was quiet. “Yes. He is that.”A low hum rolled through the bridge, vibrating beneath their feet. ACCESS DENIED.The words weren’t spoken, they resonated directly in their minds, calm but commanding. Rae looked up.
Chapter 129. Merge
Rae felt herself dissolve, skin, bones, breath, thought. Her body turned into code, fragments of light swirling through a sea of data. It should have hurt, but it didn’t. It felt like falling through warmth and memory all at once.Voices filled the space around her, whispers, shouts, laughter, echoes of a thousand lives the system had ever recorded, then one voice rose above the rest. “Rae.”She turned, though she no longer had a body to turn with. Shapes formed in the glow, a figure made of shifting light, familiar and soft. “Everett,”“You shouldn’t have done this.”She reached for him, though her hand was just light. “I told you I’d find you.”“You found me,” he said gently, “but now you’re trapped too.”The white around them flickered. Lines of code swirled like storms. Within the chaos, two presences pulsed, Everett’s and the Anchor’s, tangled together like threads in one body.Rae’s voice trembled. “Where are we exactly?”“Inside the merge point,” Everett said. “Where the Ancho
Chapter 130. System Reboot
The first thing Rae felt was the wind. It was gentle at first, cool against her face, like fingers brushing across her skin. She opened her eyes slowly. The world above her shimmered, blue sky, soft clouds, sunlight that didn’t burn. For a moment, she thought she was still inside the Core, lost in one of the Anchor’s illusions. But the warmth felt too real. The scent of grass, the sound of distant birds, it was all too alive. Her fingers sank into the dirt. Real dirt.She sat up quickly. The ground was cracked, as if the earth had been torn apart and stitched together again. Fragments of buildings lay half-buried nearby, pieces of a city she remembered, now broken, twisted, and swallowed by vines. In the distance, water shimmered where streets once stood. It looked like the world had tried to rebuild itself from memory and failed halfway through.Rae pressed a trembling hand against her chest. The last thing she remembered was the light, Everett’s voice fading as the Core exploded,
Chapter 131. Surface Tension
The morning after the reboot was too perfect. The sun rose in a soft golden arc, spilling light across the shattered city. The air smelled fresh, cleaner than Rae remembered, as if the world itself had been washed and hung out to dry. Even the broken towers glimmered under the light, like scars made beautiful, but Rae couldn’t relax.She stood on a cracked bridge, staring down at the river below. The water was crystal clear. Fish glided in neat lines, never colliding, never straying. Every ripple looked identical to the last. It was too perfect. Too controlled. Behind her, Finn was sorting through scraps of metal, trying to build something resembling a radio. Lara was checking their supplies, food that hadn’t spoiled, water that seemed endless. Everything worked like it was new.Rae crouched, scooped a handful of water, and let it slip through her fingers. It was cool and smooth, almost silky, leaving no trace of dirt or scent. She whispered, “Even the river doesn’t feel real.”La
Chapter 132. Patterns in the Mirror
Morning came too quietly. The air in the tunnel felt heavy, thick with the smell of rust and damp stone. Rae woke to the soft crackle of the dying fire. Finn was already awake, sitting near the entrance, staring out at the faint light creeping through the cracks above. Lara slept with her back against the wall, her tools spread beside her in neat order. Rae rubbed her eyes. The events of the night before still burned in her mind, the lights, the voice, Everett’s warning. “Don’t trust the light.”She whispered the words to herself again, like a prayer or a curse. Finn turned his head slightly. “You’re up early.”“I couldn’t sleep.”He gave a dry chuckle. “Sleep feels wrong now. Like closing your eyes is an invitation for the system to write over you.”She didn’t laugh. Her gaze lingered on the faint golden hue that shimmered beyond the tunnel’s mouth. Even daylight felt suspicious now. Too bright. Too controlled. Lara stirred, rubbing her neck. “Don’t tell me you two haven’t slept
Chapter 133. The Unfolding Crack
The air in Zone Null was colder than anything Rae had ever felt. It wasn’t just cold, it was empty. The silence pressed against her ears like the world had stopped breathing.The corridor stretched endlessly before them, lined with mirrors that shimmered faintly like liquid silver. Each reflection moved just a fraction too late, like a heartbeat out of rhythm.Finn took a cautious step forward, his boots echoing softly. “This place, it feels wrong.”Lara scanned the walls with her device. The screen flickered with erratic signals. “No stable readings. Every reflection gives off different data. It’s like this place exists and doesn’t exist at the same time.”Rae stared at her reflection. In the glass, her face looked the same, yet the eyes staring back at her seemed older, harder. “Zone Null,” she murmured. “The system’s forbidden space. This is where they hide what shouldn’t exist.”Finn frowned. “You mean like the Anchor?”Rae’s voice was quiet. “And maybe Everett.”The mirrors whispe
Chapter 134. The Survivors’ Haven
The world had changed again. Rae could feel it in the air, thick, heavy, pulsing like it was alive. The city behind them burned in golden light, buildings melting into shapes that made no sense. The ground trembled beneath her boots. Every time she looked back, more of the world folded in on itself, as if someone were rewriting the code of reality in real time.She clenched her fists. “It’s rewriting faster now.”Lara nodded, wiping ash from her face. “The system’s rebuilding after the collapse. It’s trying to fix itself.”Finn kicked at a cracked stone. “Fix itself by killing everything that doesn’t belong? Great plan.”Rae looked up at the sky. It was no longer blue or gold, it was both, colors clashing, bleeding together like oil on water. The sun flickered. The clouds twisted into spirals.She whispered, “This isn’t a world anymore. It’s a simulation fighting to stay alive.”Lara checked her scanner. “Correction units are moving toward this sector. We can’t stay.”“Then we run,”