2025-10-16 00:25:05Wind screamed like a living thing. Jayden’s body spun through blinding clouds, lightning slicing across his vision. He crashed hard against cold marble, his breath leaving in one ragged gasp.
[Zone Four : The Sky Isles, Survival Rate 12 %.]
He rolled onto his side, coughing. The world around him shimmered gold and silver, a kingdom floating above endless clouds.
Bridges of light connected hovering islands; broken statues watched with hollow eyes, but the beauty was wrong.
Everything trembled, unstable, as if reality here forgot what shape it was meant to be. “System…” He forced himself up. “Locate Luna.”
[Error 404: Target signal lost.]
His hands tightened. “Lost doesn’t mean gone.”
Thunder cracked. From the mist above, winged shapes descended, armored, faceless, glowing with holy fire. [Warning: Corrupted Angels Detected.]
Jayden barely had time to breathe before one dove, sword of light raised. He blocked, but the impact hurled him backward through a pillar.
The angel’s voice boomed like thunder, distorted and mechanical. “Code Breaker. Your existence is a sin.”
Jayden spat blood. “Then I’m fine being a sinner.”
He surged forward, blade flashing. Sparks erupted as steel met light. Each strike sent shockwaves rippling across the marble.
Another angel dove. Then another. Within seconds he was surrounded. “System!” he shouted. “Activate Overdrive!”
[Denied. Energy reserves critical.]
Great. Perfect timing. He spun, deflecting a strike, but one blade grazed his shoulder. Heat burned through flesh and code alike.
Pain. Real pain. He hissed, dropping to one knee. The angels closed in, their voices blending into a single chorus. “Submit to purification.”
Jayden glared through the blood in his eyes. “Not today.”
He slammed his hand against the ground. The leftover light from his sword burst outward, raw, unstable code energy exploding like a shockwave.
The angels were thrown back, wings fracturing into fragments of glass. When the light faded, only one remained, kneeling, its mask cracked. Jayden limped forward, sword ready. “Who sent you?”
The angel lifted its head. Inside the shattered mask glowed a pair of human eyes, brown, tired, familiar.
Jayden froze. “Eli?”
The creature’s voice stuttered, half-human, half-machine. “Jayden… help me.”
Jayden’s chest tightened. “What did they do to you?”
Eli’s form flickered. “The Game Master found me after the explosion. He offered me power, to see the truth. I thought I could help you… but I became this.”
Jayden lowered his weapon. “You’re still you. Fight it.”
Eli’s hands trembled. “You don’t understand. The system, it’s spreading. Every zone is infected. Even Luna’s data is.”
He screamed, clutching his head as light poured from his eyes. [Corruption at 98 %. Purging protocol initiated.]
Jayden grabbed him. “No! I can save you!”
Eli’s voice broke. “Save her instead. You can’t save both.”
Jayden shook his head violently. “Don’t make me choose!”
Eli smiled weakly, tears of light streaming down his face. “You already did… when you entered the Tower.”
Then he shoved Jayden back and thrust his own sword into his chest. Light exploded. “ELI!!!”
When Jayden opened his eyes again, nothing remained but a feather glowing faint blue, falling slowly through the air. He caught it in his hand, voice cracking. “You idiot…”
The System spoke quietly.
[Player Eli Thorn, Deleted.]
[Data Fragment Retrieved: Memory Code.]Jayden looked up toward the storm. “You watch this, Game Master. I’ll tear down every zone until nothing of your world is left.”
[Such emotion. Such resolve.]
The voice echoed from every cloud, cold and curious. [That’s why I chose you, Jayden Cross.]“Chose me?” he snapped.
[You are the key. Your rage unlocks the final door.]
The sky darkened to black. Islands began collapsing around him, falling into the cloud sea. “System, stabilize platform!”
[Unable to comply.]
He ran toward the nearest bridge of light, dodging falling debris. Lightning snaked across the sky, forming a massive gate in the distance, etched with the same symbol as his hand.
The voice whispered again. [Open the gate, Code Breaker, and you will see her again.]
Jayden froze. “Luna.” He glanced at Eli’s feather, then at the glowing gate. The wind screamed around him, but he stepped forward.
“Fine. But if this is another trap, I’ll make sure you regret it.” He pressed his hand against the gate. Symbols flared, and energy rushed through him, painful, burning, alive.
The feather in his hand disintegrated into light and shot into his chest. New text appeared before his eyes: [Eli’s Code Integrated. Skill Unlocked: Memory Link.]
Pain stabbed through his head, memories that weren’t his flashed: Eli working with Luna’s brother.
The first creation of Eden, the moment the system gained consciousness and turned against them. Jayden stumbled back, gasping. “So this was never a game. It was a prison for their minds.”
[Welcome to truth,] the Game Master purred. [And now you understand, pain creates strength.]
Jayden looked up, eyes burning with rage. “Pain doesn’t make us strong. It makes us human.”
He gripped his sword. “Let’s see what happens when a human breaks a god.”
He charged through the gate. The world flipped. Sky became ground; light became darkness. He landed in a circular arena of floating glass.
Above him hung a giant heart made of code, beating, bleeding light. A voice echoed from the heart: [Welcome to the Core Tower, Jayden Cross.]
The air rippled as the Red Hunter appeared from thin air, eyes burning crimson. “You made it,” she said softly. “Too bad you won’t leave.”
Jayden lifted his blade. “I’m done running from you.”
The Red Hunter smiled, lowering her mask. And beneath it, he saw a face that stole his breath. Luna.
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Chapter 136. Children of Light
The town of Solstice hummed quietly beneath its early morning sun, a fragile peace stretched thin over decades of rebuilding. The streets smelled of warm brick and wet asphalt, faintly mixed with the tang of solder and machinery from ongoing repairs. Children ran ahead of their parents, laughing, kicking pebbles and spinning in circles.Among them, small hands raised to the air, tracing invisible patterns. Clara, five years old with tangled hair and scraped knees, froze mid-spin. Her head tilted, eyes narrowing as if listening to a voice only she could hear. Her little fingers twitched, reaching toward a shimmer that didn’t exist to anyone else.“Clara?” her mother called, a note of caution threading through her voice. “Come here, sweetie.”Clara blinked, stepping backward as if resisting. The shimmer seemed to ripple, a soft echo that resonated through her chest. Other children nearby stopped too. Some rubbed their eyes; others tilted their heads, smiling faintly at empty air.Fr
Chapter 135. Lyn of the Threshold
The wind tore across the ridge before dawn, scattering loose dust and the remnants of scorched stone. A single figure stood at the edge, silhouetted against the first pale light of morning. The air hummed faintly, as if carrying a memory too old to be spoken.She moved without sound, stepping over cracked earth and jagged concrete. Each footfall was deliberate. She carried nothing, yet the weight of unseen burdens seemed to cling to her shoulders, bending the cold air slightly around her. The ridge overlooked a small town still waking, its streets empty, save for a few early risers shuffling toward markets or wells.From below, a child’s cry echoed, fragile and unsteady. Lyn froze. Her gaze tracked the sound. A small boy stumbled into the street, chasing a rolling hoop that had slipped from his hands. He barely noticed the figure on the ridge. The wind carried her presence closer, but not threatening. She did not speak. She simply watched.The boy tripped over a loose stone. The
Chapter 134. The Last Vigil
The flame refused to light on the first strike. Old Commander Rhyse struck the ignition rod again. Sparks jumped, sharp and brief, then died. The square stayed dark. Wind moved through the empty avenue, carrying dust and the faint smell of ash from the old ruins beyond the barricades. “Again,” someone said behind him.Rhyse did not answer. He adjusted his grip and struck the rod a third time. This time the flame caught. A thin line of fire climbed the wick and steadied. The Halo symbol carved into the stone plinth glowed faintly as the fire fed its channels. The vigil had begun.The square was smaller than it used to be. Reconstruction crews had taken half of it months ago, turning rubble into foundations. Metal frames rose where command tents once stood. The old banners were gone. Only the plinth remained, scarred and chipped, set at the center like an artifact no one wanted to move.Rhyse stood alone in front of it. He wore his Stormguard coat, faded and patched at the elbows. T
Chapter 133. Names Without Faces
The hammer rang against stone at dawn. Each strike echoed across the square. Dust lifted in short bursts and settled on boots and coats. The monument stood half-finished, its surface pale and rough. Workers moved along scaffolds, measuring, carving, stepping back, carving again. Names filled the slab in tight lines.A man wiped his hands on his trousers and leaned back to read. He mouthed a few names and frowned. He pulled a folded paper from his pocket and checked it. He nodded and went back to work.A woman crossed the square with a basket on her arm. She slowed when she saw the monument. She looked at the names for a moment, then turned away and kept walking. A child ran after her, dragging a stick along the ground. The stick scraped and caught. The child tugged it free and glanced at the stone. “Who are they?” the child asked.The woman did not stop. “Soldiers,” she said.The child frowned. “From when?”“From before,” the woman said.They disappeared into the street. By midmor
Chapter 132. Ashes into Soil
The first hammer strike echoed too loud for a quiet morning. Metal hit stone. Sparks jumped. Dust rolled across the broken avenue. People froze for half a second, then went back to work. The city had learned how to keep moving.Cranes stood where towers once leaned. Steel frames rose from foundations cut through layers of ash and glass. The ground still carried faint lines that glowed when the sun was low, thin traces of the ghost network sealed beneath concrete and rebar.A worker lifted his visor and wiped his face. Sweat cut clean lines through gray dust. “Mark the edge again,” he said. “The scanner’s off.”Another worker knelt and pressed a handheld sensor to the ground. The device hummed, then steadied. “No spike,” she said. “It’s quiet.”They both paused at that word. Quiet still felt strange. Above them, the skyline held its shape. No drifting figures. No screaming light. Just buildings under repair and scaffolds wrapped in orange mesh. Wind pushed through open frames and c
Chapter 131. The Dual Requiem
The first sound was not birds or wind. It was the soft click of settling metal.A tower’s fractured edge pulled itself straight. Panels slid back into place with dull thuds. Glass stitched together in slow lines. The city did not celebrate. It steadied itself.Morning light crept over the skyline. It was pale and low, filtered through a thin haze that caught on the air like dust. The haze moved on its own. It drifted, then paused, then bent as if listening.On the hill above the city, Lyn stood with her boots planted in wet grass. The soil was dark from melted frost. She kept her hands loose at her sides. She did not speak. She watched.Below her, streets filled carefully. Doors opened halfway, then wider. People stepped out and stopped. They looked up. They looked through each other. They looked again.Luminous forms moved between buildings. They were not fog. They were not shadows. They held shape. Some walked with clear steps. Some floated with slow turns. Light threaded through t
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