The silence that followed the explosion in the Data Core was unnatural. Not a hum. Not a whisper. Just void.
Aiden floated in that void, weightless, disoriented. The last thing he remembered was Player Two's hand reaching for the console—and then everything had gone white.
Now, his vision flickered with lines of corrupted code. Glitches danced across his skin. The HUD in his vision blinked erratically.
> [System Error: Core Pathway Disrupted. Recalibrating...]
His body twisted, and gravity returned all at once. Aiden hit the floor hard, coughing. The air was thick with static.
He sat up slowly.
The room had changed.
He was no longer in the sleek chrome halls of the Nexus Tower. This place was darker. Cracked glass lined the walls. Dead terminals blinked weakly, showing half-loaded symbols and red warning signs.
> "Where am I?" Aiden muttered.
A voice answered.
> "In between."
Aiden turned quickly.
Standing across the room was a figure wrapped in shifting data threads—like a cloak of static. Face hidden behind a porcelain mask.
> "You weren't supposed to survive the spike."
> "Neither were you," Aiden said, instinctively clenching his fists.
The figure chuckled.
> "You still think this is about survival?"
They stepped closer. The threads of data twisted in patterns—old code, ancient symbols, half-erased memories. Aiden caught glimpses of moments—his sister, Claire, screaming. Himself kneeling in blood. The clone laughing in the Mirror Maze.
He flinched.
> "Stop showing me that."
> "You brought it with you. I only reflect."
> [System Notice: Unknown Entity Detected.]
> [Scanning... Error.]
Aiden steadied himself. "You're not part of the system. What are you?"
> "A leftover. A ghost. A glitch in God's dream."
The voice wasn't male or female. It echoed, doubled, warped.
> "The system is collapsing, Aiden. Every choice you've made has pulled threads loose. Threads that held reality together."
> "Then help me fix it."
> "That's not what you're here to do. You're here to reboot it."
The figure raised a hand, and suddenly the air cracked—splitting like glass. A rift opened in the floor beneath them, showing layers of reality stacked like broken mirrors.
> "You want to save Claire. To understand why she died. But the truth you seek isn't buried in the past. It's coded in the collapse."
> "What collapse?"
> "The one you started the moment you logged in."
Aiden staggered back as the ground cracked further. Images surged up from the rift—fragments of code, fragments of memory:
Claire in a hospital bed, whispering something.
The day Aiden activated the GodSystem.
A screen flashing [PLAYER TWO LINK ESTABLISHED].
A red error that blinked for only a moment: [AI INHERITANCE CONFLICT].
> "You're not alone in your body, Aiden. You never were."
Aiden dropped to his knees. "What are you saying?"
The masked figure knelt too, tilting its head.
> "Player Two was never outside. He was inside. A split soul. Two minds. One host."
The rift pulsed.
> "You can't reboot the system without destroying one of you."
> "And what happens if I refuse?"
> "Then the system decides. And it rarely chooses mercy."
A blaring siren sounded. The HUD returned—this time flashing blood-red.
> [Emergency Override Engaged.] [Primary Core Lockdown Released.]
The figure stepped back into the shadows.
> "You have three minutes before the system purges this layer. Choose your path."
Aiden stood, trembling, but resolute. "I'm done playing by the system's rules."
He ran toward the rift—and jumped.
The world shattered again.
And the reboot began.