Everett stood perfectly still in the center of the room. He had dropped his arms to his sides. His heavy black greatsword, the Null-Edge, rested quietly in his pale, gray, artificial right hand. His chest was covered in bloody white bandages. He had exactly 1 Health Point. He stared directly into the eyes of Rourke, the Resistance leader. "Shoot me, then," Everett whispered calmly. "Let's find out if I am real."Behind the metal desk, Mr. Daniel laughed a cruel, cowardly laugh. "Do it, Rourke! He is the virus! He wrote Code 0! He is going to delete the world!"Rourke’s hands were shaking. He had respected Everett. He had believed in the Man in the Sky. But the glowing green System code on the wall clearly showed Everett’s name next to the absolute deletion protocol. Rourke believed the computer. He did not believe the man. Rourke squeezed his eyes shut. He pulled the trigger. A massive, blindi

The clean man on the floor swallowed hard. He looked at the giant, bloody, scarred monster standing in front of him. He looked at the heavy black sword. He looked at the pale, gray, fake right arm. The clean man was terrified of Survivor Everett. "My... my name is Everett," the clean man stuttered, his voice shaking. "Everett Lang. Please, sir. I am just a software engineer. I just got a promotion today. Don't hurt me."Everett Lang. It was his name. Survivor Everett lowered his heavy black sword. The tip of the blade rested on the soft carpet. He suddenly remembered the glowing golden text from the boss fight with the Temporal Executioner robot. The System had awarded five hundred thousand Experience Points to a "Player: Everett Lang" in an alternate timeline. The System had routed the reward into the future, into a different reality. This was that reality. This was that timeline. This

The one-second delay finished. The black sword swung forward. The jagged teeth of the Null-Edge smashed into the side of the Blood-Hunter. The Code Degradation ripped the beast apart. The monster shrieked, exploded into a shower of boiling red blood and blue pixels, and died instantly. But it was too late. Survivor Everett dropped his sword. He fell to his knees next to his Alternate. Success Everett lay on the soft gray carpet. Blood poured from his chest, ruining his nice clothes. His neat dark hair was messed up. His glasses were broken. Survivor Everett grabbed the dying man’s hand. "Hold on," Survivor Everett cried, tears streaming down his scarred face. "Lyra! Help him! Please, try to heal him!"Lyra ran over and fell to her knees. She pressed her bare hands against the terrible wounds. She closed her eyes. She strained, trying to force the blue magic from her soul. But the magic was gone. She was ju

The hallway was narrow. The second wolf ran along the wall, defying gravity, and lunged at Silas. Silas pulled the trigger. The heavy bullet flew through the air, but it passed harmlessly through the wolf’s glitching body. "Bullets don't work!" Silas yelled, dropping his rifle and pulling his combat knives. The wolf snapped its jaws at Silas's face. Before the wolf could bite him, a loud, booming noise ripped through the hallway. It was not a sniper rifle. It was the heavy, deafening roar of a massive machine gun. A stream of bright, glowing blue bullets tore through the dark hallway. The bullets were not made of lead. They were made of pure, solid System energy. The blue bullets hit the second Chrono-Hound. The static-wolf screamed as the energy ripped its code apart. It exploded into dust. The third wolf turned around to look at the new attacker. Three more glowing blue bu

Lyra opened the kit and began to apply the cool, healing gel to Everett’s burned shoulder. "You trust this guy?" Silas whispered in Everett's ear, keeping his voice extremely low. "I don't like him. He is too loud. And you look like you have seen a ghost.""He is a ghost, Silas," Everett whispered back. "He is an Alternate. From the same timeline as the other Everett. In that timeline... we were best friends."Silas’s eyes widened. "Oh. Damn."Silas understood the terrible psychological torture Everett was going through. Everett was standing next to a man he knew was evil, but who was acting with pure, genuine love. "Listen, Ev," Vodka said, leaning against the railing of the stairs. "I know things look bad. The world is going crazy. But we have fought impossible odds before. Remember when we took down that Warlord in Sector 9? We only had two knives and a broken flashlight. We survived because we stuck together. We will sur