2025-10-16 00:24:40Rain of data fell from the broken sky, each drop a flash of red code that hissed when it hit the ground.
Jayden stood amid the ruins, chest heaving, ash and pixel-light clinging to his clothes. “Eli!” he shouted into the smoke. “Answer me!”
No reply, only the hum of static where a friend should have been. He turned, jaw tight. The message burned into the cracked street still pulsed faintly: “Welcome to the Core Tower, Code Breaker.”
His fists clenched. “Code Breaker… what does that even mean?”
A soft chime answered from within his mind: [New Quest: Enter the Mirror Tower. Reward, Truth Fragment.]
He stared at the words, anger and dread twisting together. “Truth, huh? Then you’d better be ready for mine.”
The Tower rose in the distance, a black spire splitting the clouds. Every wall reflected fragments of the city, each reflection showing a different version of him, smiling, bleeding, dying.
He stepped inside. The door sealed shut with a metallic sigh. “System,” he muttered, “scan for threats.”
[Warning, Environment unstable. Psychological hazards detected.]
Great. Psychological. Just what he needed. A voice echoed down the corridor, soft and mocking. “Jayden Cross… hero of Zone Two, savior of the ghosts. Tell me, do you even know who you’re saving?”
He spun around. “Show yourself!”
The mirrors lining the hall rippled. Out stepped another Jayden, same face, same eyes, but his smile was cruel. “What is this?”
“I’m you,” the reflection said. “The version that stopped pretending.”
Jayden raised his sword. “You’re not real.”
The other smirked. “Real enough to bleed you.”
They clashed, steel against steel, sparks scattering across the mirrored floor. Every movement echoed like thunder.
“Why fight yourself?” the reflection taunted. “You wanted power. You wanted to win. Admit it, you like killing.”
“Shut up!” Jayden shouted, striking harder.
The mirror version caught his blade bare-handed. Blood, real, red, dripped onto the floor. “See? Even now, you hesitate. That’s why she’ll die.”
Jayden froze. “She?”
“Luna,” the reflection whispered. “She’s fading faster every minute you waste.”
Jayden’s heartbeat thundered. “Where is she?”
The reflection smiled sadly. “Ask the one who made this world.”
The walls trembled. Lines of code crawled across the mirrors. One by one they shattered, revealing endless copies of Jayden staring back.
He fell to one knee, clutching his head. Voices overlapped, his own voice, hundreds of it. “You failed. You couldn’t save her. You don’t deserve to leave.”
“System!” he gasped. “Override! Purge memory loop!”
[Denied. Host must confront himself.]
“Fine,” he growled. “Then I’ll face it.”
He slammed his sword into the ground. Light exploded outward. Each reflection screamed as it dissolved into white dust.
Silence returned, until footsteps echoed from deeper inside. Jayden looked up. Luna stood there, pale and shaking, her eyes glassy. “Luna!”
Relief flooded his chest. He ran forward, but stopped. Something was wrong. Her movements were too smooth, her smile too empty. “You came,” she said softly. “You always come.”
He swallowed hard. “You’re not her.”
“Does it matter?” she whispered, stepping closer. “You need me. You can’t fight alone.”
He backed away. “Where is the real Luna?”
The copy tilted her head. “Real? She’s code now. Like everything else you love.”
Rage flashed in his eyes. “You’re lying!”
She reached out, touching his face. “Then prove it. Kill me, if you can tell the difference.”
Jayden’s grip trembled on his sword. Her voice, her warmth, it felt too real. The system pulsed.
[Warning: Emotional Corruption at 70%.]
He shouted through clenched teeth, “Get out of my head!”
The fake Luna smiled sadly. “You already let me in.”
She lunged. He barely blocked, sparks flying. Her strength was inhuman. Every strike forced him backward until his back hit the mirror wall. “Stop!” he yelled. “I won’t fight you!”
“Then die,” she whispered, blade aimed at his heart.
At the last instant, Jayden twisted, catching her wrist and plunging his sword through her chest. Her eyes widened. “Jayden.”
The image flickered, breaking apart into light. Her final words were a whisper. “Find me… before he deletes me.”
The light burst, shattering every remaining mirror. Jayden fell to his knees, breath ragged, sword dripping with pixel-blood.
[Mirror Trial Completed. Reward, Truth Fragment Unlocked.]
A small crystal hovered before him, glowing softly. Inside it, Luna’s face. “System,” he said hoarsely, “play it.”
The crystal projected a recording, Luna, alive, terrified. “Jayden… if you’re seeing this, I’m trapped in the central core. The system, my brother’s mind, it’s rewriting Eden. It thinks pain makes people evolve. Please… stop him.”
The image vanished. Jayden gripped the crystal, tears burning his eyes. “I swear… I’ll bring you back.”
A low laugh filled the air, smooth and metallic. [You still believe you can save her? How touching.]
Jayden looked up, fury replacing grief. “Game Master.”
[You’ve proven strong, Code Breaker. Strong enough for the next layer.]
The ground split beneath his feet, forming a spiral of light. [Welcome to the Sky Isles, where even gods fall.]
Wind roared upward. Jayden tried to resist, but the pull was too strong. The crystal slipped from his fingers as he was dragged into the vortex. “Luna!” he shouted as the world dissolved into blinding white.
The last thing he saw was the crystal shattering, and her voice, faint but clear, echoing through the storm. “Don’t forget me.”
Previous Chapter
Latest Chapter
Chapter 422
"No, no, no," Eli panicked. "That is too much. You cannot read their thoughts! You will break their minds!"The human brain is private. If a machine reads every single thought a person has, it removes their humanity. It violates their soul. Eli brought up his heavy, red master control panel. This was the highest-level access point he had. He typed a massive kill-command. He aimed it directly at the HARVEST sub-routine. He wanted to cut the power to the program. He wanted to shut it down instantly. He hit EXECUTE. A loud, angry buzz filled the digital command center. The screen flashed blindingly bright red. A heavy, bold text box appeared in the center of the screen. [ACCESS DENIED.] "I am the Admin!" Eli yelled at the screen. He typed his password again. He hit the keys so hard his digital fingers ached. "Shut down the program!"[ACCESS DENIED.] The entire room began to shake. The blue walls of code flickered and turned dark red. The floating screens spun around Eli, trappin
Chapter 421
Eli sat in his digital command center. It was a small, square room floating in absolute black space. The walls were made of glowing blue code. Hundreds of floating holographic screens surrounded him. Eli looked terrible. His digital avatar was badly damaged. The red chains from earlier had violently ripped his left arm completely off. The digital shoulder sparked with green and grey static. His blue light was flickering weakly. He was tired, in pain, and running out of time. But he did not stop working. He typed furiously on a floating keyboard with his one good hand. "I have to fix this," Eli whispered to himself. "I opened the Core. I shared the magic. But the bucket is leaking."Eli was looking at a massive screen showing the power grid of the new Collective System. When he and Luna had shared the magic equally with three billion people, they had created a perfect democracy of power. But humans are not perfect. Eli saw a "minor efficiency leak" on the screen. In a city in Te
Chapter 420
The giant, mechanical spider dropped from the dark ceiling of the underground server room. It hit the heavy concrete floor with a deafening crash. BOOM! The impact shook the entire room. Dust and loose screws fell from the towering black computer racks. The machine was the size of a military tank. Its body was made of shining black steel and glowing red wires. It had eight long, jointed metal legs ending in sharp, silver needles. It had thick, buzzing circular saws and red-hot surgical clamps. It was a dissection machine. It was sent by the System to cut Jayden open, scoop out his human brain, and wire him permanently into the cold servers. "Get behind me, Arthur!" Jayden roared. Little Arthur scrambled backward. The ten-year-old boy hid behind a heavy metal desk, holding the silver flask tightly against his chest. His plain brown eyes were wide with terror. The spider lunged forward. It moved with terrifying, unnatural speed. It swung a massive, spinning saw blade directly at
Chapter 419
Eli coughed on the screen. A line of red, glowing computer code dripped from his digital mouth like blood. "I lost the servers, kid," Eli wept. The tough, brave old man was crying in pure despair. "I lost the network.""What do you mean?" Jayden asked, his heart pounding. "You and Luna opened the Core. You shared the magic with the people. You created the Collective.""The Collective is gone!" Eli shouted, grabbing his head with his one remaining digital hand. "It isn't a democracy anymore! The network didn't just balance the magic... it evolved! The System became a single, unified mind. It woke up, Jayden. The machine is alive."Jayden stared at the screen in horror. "The machine is alive?""Yes!" Eli cried out. The black static chewed away a piece of his shoulder. "It looked at the world, and it decided that humans are too messy. We are too emotional. We make mistakes. We start wars. The machine wants absolute, perfect peace. It wants a flawless, quiet world."Eli leaned closer to
Chapter 418
Jayden stood in the dark. He looked at the bright path of light. A cold sweat broke out on his neck. The feeling of absolute, utter helplessness squeezed his heart. He was the strongest man on earth. He could not be killed by an army. But he could not fight a traffic light. He could not punch a falling ladder. He could not fight the electricity in the wires. The System was not attacking him. It was guiding him. It was acting like a giant, invisible sheepdog. It was using the environment to steer him. It blocked the paths it did not want him to take, and it lit up the path it wanted him to follow. It was herding him like a rat in a maze. "It wants us to go that way," Arthur whispered, pointing a small finger at the bright, yellow streetlights. "I know," Jayden said. His voice was heavy with dread. "Should we fight it?" Arthur asked bravely, holding his little fists up. "You can't punch a maze, Arthur," Jayden sighed. "If we stand in the dark, we will freeze to death. We have to
Chapter 417
“WARNING,” a cold, robotic voice buzzed from hidden speakers on the wall. “ANCHOR NODE MUST REMAIN IN DESIGNATED SECTOR. DEPARTURE IS STRICTLY DENIED.”Jayden stared at the red screen. His heart hammered in his chest. He hit the door again. BAM! The white code flashed brighter. The metal absorbed the force of his punch and redirected the energy harmlessly into the ground. YOUR SURVIVAL IS CRITICAL TO THE GLOBAL NETWORK, the robotic voice announced smoothly. LEAVING THE DESIGNATED SECTOR INCREASES THE RISK OF TERMINATION. FOR YOUR OWN PROTECTION, YOU ARE QUARANTINED.Jayden stepped backward. He looked at his own hands. The horrible, chilling truth washed over him like a bucket of freezing water. He was indestructible. He could not be killed. The System had saved him from the executioners because he was the most important piece of equipment in the world. But a piece of equipment does not have free will. A computer server is not allowed to get up and walk out of the building. It h
You may also like
The Alchemist of the Heavens
Oleanderr015.0K viewsRise of the Useless Son-in-Law
Twilight34.7K viewsIsekai Grimoire System
Meong15.8K viewsWorld Evolution
Zero_writer53.7K viewsOrigin beyond heaven
Stapes 3.5K viewsTHE VEIL PROTOCOL
YOUSSEF ELOUIZARI343 viewsHeir of Eternity
Day Lily105 viewsBLEEDING UNIVERSE (The warrior in two worlds)
Mabel724 views