2026-07-31 07:38:32Darkness swallowed the conference hall.
People screamed.
Someone knocked over a row of chairs.
Camera flashes exploded in every direction.
“Stay calm!”
“Get down!”
“Move away from the stage!”
Security guards rushed toward the exits, but none of the electronic doors responded.
They were locked.
Alexander immediately stepped beside Ethan.
“The building has been sealed.”
Ethan nodded.
“It wasn’t done manually.”
His silver system flashed.
Foreign Network Detected.
Unknown Authority Override.
System Access Level: Creator.
Electronic Control Lost.
Ethan frowned.
“So the Creator can control technology…”
Noah stepped forward.
His calm expression had disappeared.
“This is bad.”
Lucien Draven remained surprisingly relaxed.
Almost…
As if he had expected this.
Professor Orion slowly looked at Lucien.
“You knew this would happen.”
Lucien didn’t deny it.
“I knew today would attract him.”
Evelyn stared at him.
“You used yourself as bait?”
Lucien smiled faintly.
“No.”
“We all became bait.”
The silver eye on every screen suddenly blinked.
Then…
The mechanical voice echoed again.
“Scanning…”
“Legacy Hosts Confirmed.”
“Guardian Confirmed.”
“Successor Confirmed.”
“Collection Protocol Beginning.”
The lights flickered.
The temperature inside the hall dropped sharply.
A little girl in the audience began crying.
Her mother held her tightly.
No one understood what was happening.
Only Ethan and Noah exchanged worried looks.
Noah whispered,
“It’s starting.”
Ethan looked at him.
“What exactly is ‘collection’?”
Noah didn’t answer immediately.
Instead…
He slowly removed his jacket.
Underneath…
A strange silver mark covered the left side of his chest.
It looked exactly like the symbol of the Legacy System.
“I’ve seen this before.”
Ethan looked confused.
“Where?”
Noah took a deep breath.
“On every Host who disappeared.”
Silence.
Professor Orion stepped forward.
“Noah.”
“You mean…”
Noah nodded.
“The Creator doesn’t kill Hosts.”
“He retrieves them.”
Alexander frowned.
“Retrieves?”
“For what?”
Noah’s face became pale.
“I don’t know.”
“No one who was collected ever returned.”
Suddenly…
Every screen turned completely white.
The silver eye vanished.
A countdown appeared instead.
00:05:00
The mechanical voice spoke again.
“Five minutes until collection.”
Panic spread through the hall.
People rushed toward the emergency exits.
Nothing opened.
Several security guards tried breaking the glass walls.
The glass didn’t crack.
Alexander barked orders.
“Get everyone away from the windows!”
“Crown Guards!”
“Protect the civilians!”
“Yes, Chairman!”
The guards immediately began organizing the frightened crowd.
Meanwhile…
Ethan’s silver system displayed another notification.
Private Communication Request.
Sender: Unknown.
Accept?
Without hesitation…
Ethan selected Accept.
The world around him disappeared.
The conference hall faded away.
He found himself standing inside an endless white space.
There was nothing.
No walls.
No floor.
No ceiling.
Only silence.
Footsteps echoed behind him.
Ethan slowly turned.
A young man stood a few feet away.
He looked to be around twenty-five years old.
Simple black clothes.
Calm eyes.
A gentle smile.
Nothing about him looked extraordinary.
Yet…
Ethan instinctively knew.
This was the most dangerous person he had ever met.
The young man smiled.
“Hello, Ethan.”
His voice was warm.
Almost friendly.
Ethan remained alert.
“Who are you?”
The young man tilted his head.
“I’ve had many names.”
“But…”
“I suppose you know me as…”
“…the Creator.”
Silence.
Ethan stared at him.
“You created the Legacy System?”
The young man chuckled.
“No.”
“I only inherited it.”
Ethan’s eyes widened.
“What?”
The Creator slowly walked past him.
“You’ve been asking the wrong question.”
“The question was never…”
“‘Who created the Legacy System?’”
He turned back toward Ethan.
“The real question is…”
“Who created the first Creator?”
Before Ethan could respond…
The white space began cracking like shattered glass.
The Creator sighed.
“Our time is almost over.”
He reached into his pocket.
Then tossed Ethan a small black chess piece.
A king.
Ethan caught it.
“What is this?”
The Creator smiled.
“A reminder.”
“Never trust the player…”
“…who insists they’re on your side.”
His body slowly began fading away.
Ethan shouted,
“Wait!”
“Why are you collecting the Hosts?”
The Creator stopped disappearing.
For the first time…
His smile vanished.
His eyes became filled with sadness.
“I’m not collecting them…”
“I’m trying to save them.”
The white world shattered completely.
Ethan was thrown back into reality.
He found himself standing in the conference hall again.
Only a few seconds had passed.
But everyone was staring upward.
Above the center of the hall…
A massive silver circle had appeared in the air.
It slowly rotated.
Crackling with blue energy.
Noah’s face turned white.
“No…”
“It’s here.”
Professor Orion whispered,
“The Collection Gate…”
Then…
One by one…
Blue beams of light shot down from the circle.
Their first target…
Was Ethan.
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Latest Chapter
Chapter 109: Legacy Reawakened
The blue screen flickered.It was unstable.Unlike the flawless interface Ethan had relied on throughout his journey, this one was fractured.Tiny cracks spread across its edges as though the system itself had suffered tremendous damage.The familiar mechanical voice spoke again.It was weaker than Ethan remembered.Yet…He smiled.After everything that had happened…It still sounded like home.Legacy System…Emergency Restoration… 7% Complete…Warning… Core functions unavailable…Reason… Legacy sacrificed during the Final Convergence…Ethan’s heart pounded.“So…”“You survived.”The screen remained silent for a moment.Then…A new sentence appeared.Correction…This unit did not survive.This unit… was remembered.The words struck him harder than any attack ever could.Remembered.Not rebuilt.Not repaired.Remembered.The blue screen slowly continued.Human belief…Shared memories…Legacy fragments carried within countless lives…Emergency reconstruction successful.Ethan finally un
Chapter 108: The Sky Breaker
The crack spread across the blue sky.It didn’t happen all at once.Thin fractures crawled outward like veins across glass, stretching from one horizon to the other.Each new crack released a faint silver light.The peaceful meadow beneath Ethan’s feet trembled.Birds that had been singing moments before suddenly took flight.The gentle breeze vanished.An unnatural silence swallowed the world.Ren’s small hand instinctively reached for Ethan’s.His fingers were trembling.“They found us.”Ethan looked down.“Who?”Ren swallowed.“The ones who don’t want us remembered.”Another deafening roar echoed overhead.This time…It was closer.The sky shattered a little more.Chunks of blue light drifted downward before dissolving into countless glowing particles.Ethan had seen worlds collapse before.He had watched stars disappear.Yet…There was something uniquely terrifying about watching the sky itself come apart.Not because it looked destructive.Because it looked…Wrong.Like reality w
Chapter 107: The First Face
Every step echoed inside Ethan’s helmet.Crunch.Crunch.Crunch.The lunar dust compressed beneath his boots as he followed the countless footprints stretching toward the enormous black doorway.Mission Control remained connected through his communicator.“Ethan, your oxygen levels are stable.”“Heart rate elevated, but within acceptable limits.”Dr. Brooks’ calm voice filled the silence.Professor Orion spoke next.“Distance to the structure: four hundred meters.”“Proceed carefully.”“I will.”Ethan answered.He never took his eyes off the doorway.The closer he came…The larger it became.From orbit it had looked massive.Standing beneath it…It was overwhelming.It rose into the endless darkness above him like a mountain carved from midnight.Its surface reflected nothing.Not sunlight.Not stars.Not even Ethan himself.It was as though the doorway refused to acknowledge reality.Back on Earth…Sophia stood inside Mission Control.Her hands remained folded tightly together.She h
Chapter 106: The Man Who Walked Through Silence
By sunrise…Ethan had made his decision.He would go.Not because he trusted the beings beyond the black doorway.Not because he believed they meant no harm.But because he had seen something in the message that no one else seemed willing to acknowledge.They had asked.Twice.First…May we speak?Then…One may come.An enemy didn’t ask permission.An enemy simply invaded.Whatever waited beyond that door…It wanted to be heard.Whether that was a blessing or a trap…Only one way existed to find out.The launch facility came alive before dawn.Floodlights illuminated the enormous launch pad while engineers hurried around the silver shuttle.Unlike the bulky spacecraft used during the early years of space exploration…This one had been built after the Seven Days.Human technology had advanced dramatically with knowledge recovered from the Architects.Its engines were cleaner.Its shields stronger.Its navigation system could cross the distance between Earth and the Moon in less than th
Chapter 105: The Invitation
No one celebrated.Although the footprints had stopped appearing…Although the black doorway had remained closed…Not a single person inside Mission Control believed the danger had passed.If anything…The silence felt heavier.It was the silence of two strangers looking at one another across a great distance.Waiting.Wondering who would speak next.Dr. Elena Brooks stood beside the communications console, replaying Ethan’s transmission.“My name is Ethan.”“You asked if you could speak.”“You can.”She listened to it three more times before finally muting the speakers.“I’ve worked in aerospace for seventeen years.”She slowly shook her head.“I spent my entire career preparing for first contact.”She smiled weakly.“I never imagined it would begin with… permission.”Professor Orion nodded.“Neither did I.”Hours passed.The black doorway did not move.The Moon remained quiet.Scientists continued monitoring every satellite, every telescope, and every sensor aimed toward the far sid
Chapter 104: Beyond the Black Door
The three knocks echoed through Mission Control.Slow.Steady.Deliberate.Every person in the room froze.No one spoke.No one breathed.The sound wasn’t coming from the speakers anymore.It seemed to resonate through the walls themselves.Three knocks…Yet it felt as though something enormous had struck the fabric of reality.Then…Silence.Emergency lights flickered back to life.Rows of monitors rebooted one after another.Technicians hurried to their stations.“Power is returning!”“I’m reconnecting to the lunar station!”“Signal stabilizing!”Dr. Elena Brooks leaned over one of the consoles.“Get me visual confirmation.”The largest monitor flashed.Static filled the screen.Then the image cleared.Everyone stared.The giant black doorway still stood on the Moon’s far side.Exactly where it had been before.Silent.Motionless.Almost…Innocent.Kai slowly let out the breath he had been holding.“I hate doors.”Lyra looked at him.“You hate everything.”“I especially hate mysteri
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