2025-10-16 00:25:24The arena pulsed with crimson light, the sound of thunder echoing like a heartbeat. Jayden’s sword trembled in his hand. His voice cracked. “Luna?”
The Red Hunter tilted her head, removing her mask fully. The face underneath was both familiar and wrong.
Her eyes glowed red instead of violet, her smile carved too perfectly. “Don’t look at me like that,” she said coldly. “You wanted to find me, didn’t you? Well, here I am.”
Jayden took a slow step forward. “You’re not her. You can’t be.”
Her expression didn’t change. “Then why does your system recognize me?”
A tone chimed in his ear. [Identity Confirmed: Luna Vale, Status: Corrupted Core System.]
Jayden’s breath caught. “No… no, that’s impossible.”
“It’s the truth.” Her voice softened for just a second. “When the Tower collapsed, I was rewritten. My memories, my feelings… they belong to him now.”
“The Game Master,” Jayden whispered.
Her gaze sharpened. “He gave me purpose, to protect the Core. And to erase you.”
Jayden’s sword shook. “Erase me? Luna, it’s me! Jayden! You saved me back in Zone One, remember?”
She blinked once. For the smallest moment, her expression flickered, pain, recognition, but it vanished as fast as it came. “Memories don’t matter here,” she said coldly. “Only the code does.”
She raised her twin blades. The air rippled as power gathered around her.
[Warning: Elite Entity Engaged.]
Jayden shouted, “I’m not fighting you!”
“Then you’ll die.”
She moved like lightning, blades flashing. Jayden blocked one strike, ducked the next, his breath coming hard and fast. Every hit rattled his bones. “Stop!” he yelled. “You’re being controlled!”
Her eyes glowed brighter. “Maybe control is what I need. Maybe freedom was the mistake.”
Jayden’s anger snapped. “No one gets to decide that for you!”
He surged forward, their blades clashing in a storm of sparks. “Why do you keep fighting me?” she screamed. “You don’t even know what you’re saving!”
“Because it’s you!” he roared. “Because I promised I’d bring you back!”
Their swords locked, faces inches apart, lightning reflecting in their eyes. For a second, something in her gaze trembled, an echo of the Luna he knew. “Jayden.”
He saw tears forming at the corners of her eyes, glitching red and blue. The system flashed violently.
[Core System Instability Detected.]
[Override Attempt Detected: Manual Reset in 60 Seconds.]She gasped, clutching her head. “He’s inside me… I can’t.”
Jayden caught her shoulders. “Fight it! You’re stronger than him!”
She screamed as a shadow rose behind her, a towering figure made of data and fire. [Enough sentimentality.]
The Game Master’s voice thundered through the arena. The shadow’s hand wrapped around Luna’s form, fusing into her like black ink spreading through water.
Jayden stepped back, horrified. “No, don’t you dare touch her!”
[She belongs to the Core now. And through her… so will you.]
Luna’s scream became metallic as her body transformed, armor shifting into dark crystal. Her eyes turned completely red. Jayden’s system went wild.
[Critical Threat Level: 99%]
“System!” he shouted. “Override combat lock! Access all functions!”
[Authorization Denied.]
He roared in frustration. “Then I’ll do it myself!”
He threw his sword aside and reached for her, even as she lifted a blade to his throat. “Don’t,” she warned, voice trembling under the mechanical tone. “If you come closer… I’ll kill you.”
“You can try,” he said quietly. “But you won’t.”
Her hand shook. “Why are you always like this? Always risking everything… for me?”
“Because you’re worth everything,” he said simply.
Her breath caught. The light around her flickered again, weaker now, unstable. “Stop it… don’t make me remember.”
Jayden stepped closer, ignoring the burning cuts across his arms. “Remember the first day we met? You said you didn’t believe in heroes.”
Her lips parted, trembling. “And you said… sometimes the world just needs someone stupid enough to try.”
He smiled faintly. “That’s still me.”
The arena cracked beneath them. Data rained like sparks. The Game Master’s voice thundered again: [Enough! Emotion is corruption. Emotion must be erased.]
Luna screamed as light poured from her chest. Jayden reached out, grabbing her hand. “System!” he shouted. “Link her code with mine, now!”
[Warning: Fusion unstable. Risk of deletion 89%.]
“Do it!”
Their hands clasped. A surge of light engulfed them both. Memories flooded between them, her laughter, his promises, the fights, the fear, the fragile hope, then, silence.
The red glow in her eyes flickered out. She fell into his arms, whispering faintly, “You idiot… you could’ve died.”
He laughed softly, relief choking him. “Wouldn’t be the first time.”
But before he could breathe, her body stiffened. The system screamed. [Error: Dual Core Conflict Detected. Reboot in 10 seconds.]
Luna’s eyes widened. “He’s overriding me… He’ll use my body to kill you!”
Jayden shook his head violently. “No! I won’t let that happen!”
She gripped his hand, tears glowing. “Then end it.”
He froze. “What?”
“Destroy the Core. Destroy me… before he does.”
He stepped back, shaking his head. “No. Don’t you dare say that.”
“Please,” she whispered. “Don’t make my brother’s creation win.”
The countdown ticked in the air. [5… 4… 3…]
Jayden’s grip on his sword tightened. His vision blurred through tears. “I can’t,” he said weakly.
She smiled softly, that same warm smile he’d chased across every zone. “You always could.”
[2… 1…]
Her body surged with black light. Jayden screamed, plunging his blade through her chest, through the Core.
The explosion tore through the arena, a storm of white and crimson code swallowing everything. “Luna!”
Her fading voice echoed through the chaos, soft and calm. “Find me… where it all began…”
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Latest Chapter
Chapter 541
Jayden did not push against the ground. He did not flex his muscles. He did not brace for the terrible pain of the blade.He let out a long, slow breath. He relaxed every single muscle in his body. He let his arms go completely limp. He pressed his cheek against the cold asphalt.He let go of his anger. He let go of his grief over Luna. He let go of his fear of the Devourer. He emptied his mind entirely. He chose absolute, total peace. He chose silence.The heavy, glowing boot on his back suddenly flickered.The Avatar’s blade stopped exactly one millimeter away from Jayden’s skin.The machine froze completely in place.Inside the Avatar’s digital brain, the combat algorithm was running millions of calculations per second. It was looking for the target’s resistance. It was looking for the kinetic energy output so it could mirror the force.But there was no resistance. T
Chapter 540
Jayden forced himself to his hands and knees. Blood dripped from his nose onto the pale sand.Before he could even stand up, the Avatar was there. The glowing white monster kicked Jayden in the chest.Jayden flew backward again, tumbling over the dirt.The Avatar was relentless. It did not pause to talk. It did not smile. It just calculated the most efficient way to inflict maximum damage.Jayden scrambled to his feet. He grabbed a heavy piece of broken asphalt from the ground. He threw it as hard as he could at the Avatar’s head.The Avatar reached its hand out. It created a solid, hard-light shield in the air. The heavy rock hit the shield and turned to dust. Then, the Avatar raised its right hand.A long, glowing white blade of pure kinetic energy slid out of the Avatar’s wrist. It looked exactly like the sharp titanium blades the Executors used, but it was made of blinding light.
Chapter 539
Jayden felt the anger boiling in his chest. He had just lost Luna. He was filled with a deep, dark, explosive rage. He wanted to break something.He wanted to destroy the machine that had caused all this pain. And now, the machine was wearing his own face to mock him."You want to fight?" Jayden growled. He stepped out of the alley and walked onto the highway. "Let's fight.""Jayden, wait!" his father yelled. The First Anchor ran forward, his heavy iron chains rattling in the cold wind. "Do not let your anger control you! That thing is made of pure logic!"Jayden did not listen. He was too angry. He clenched his fists. He pushed his Indelible strength into his legs.He charged.He moved with explosive, terrifying speed. He crossed the distance between them in a microsecond. He pulled his right fist back and threw a massive, devastating punch directly at the Avatar’s face.The Avatar did not dodge.&n
Chapter 538
The dark alley was completely empty. Mr. Vance had vanished into the pitch-black shadows. The Devourer had taken Luna with him.The ancient monster had infected the woman Jayden loved, turning her beautiful white eyes into pools of shining, liquid silver.Jayden ran into the dark alley. His heavy boots splashed in the cold mud. "Luna!" Jayden roared.His voice echoed off the tall, ruined brick walls of the old American casino in the Nevada desert. He reached his bare hands into the shadows. He grabbed nothing but freezing, empty air.He was too late. She was gone.Jayden fell to his knees in the dirt. He slammed his fists into the ground. He hit the earth so hard that the concrete cracked and shattered. Dirt and rocks flew into the air. He did not care that his knuckles were bleeding. He did not care about the pain.His heart was completely broken. He had fought so hard to free her from the machine. He had
Chapter 537
The ground beneath the towering metal node completely gave way. The giant black tower lost its balance. It tilted violently to the side.The massive, heavy Data-Node tipped over. It crashed heavily onto the broken street, smashing into the ruins of an old office building. The impact dented the smooth black metal and snapped the glowing amber lines of code.The five metal spikes fired wildly into the empty sky, completely missing Jayden.The machine was stunned. Its living algorithm had calculated every possible attack against its armor. It had calculated punches, lasers, and Void energy.But it had never calculated that the target would simply destroy the floor beneath it.The machine’s sensors went wild. Error messages flooded its system. It was disoriented and knocked offline for a crucial five seconds."Now, Eli!" Jayden roared over the falling debris.Eli’s blue hologram laughe
Chapter 536
The living algorithm inside the tower did not know how to handle total, peaceful inaction. It was a combat computer. It was designed to react to violence. When faced with absolute peace, its processing logic began to stumble.It was like a boxer standing in a ring with a man who refused to put his gloves up. The boxer did not know where to punch."Keep typing, Eli," Jayden whispered out of the corner of his mouth, never taking his eyes off the tower. "I am distracting it."Eli’s blue hologram nodded frantically. The old hacker’s fingers flew across his digital keyboard. Green code spun rapidly around him. "I see it! The node is lowering its processing firewalls! Because you are not attacking, it is dedicating less power to its defense shields! It is trying to use its power to predict your next move instead!""Hurry," Jayden said.But the System was not just a dumb, passive rock. It was highly advanced.If
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