Location: Simulacrum Abyss – Static Child Instance
Compass Coordinates: ███.███.ψ
Time Since Compass Shatter: 02:01:47
The Simulacrum Abyss wasn't like any reality Kai had seen before.
It was quiet. Not silent but heavy with the stillness of thoughts that had never fully formed. A pale-blue fog hovered just above the cracked marble floor, and fractured childhood toys lay half-rendered around an ancient, glitching Login Terminal, a machine that predated the known System's architecture.
Kai walked slowly, the Shard of Direction pulsing in his inventory like a compass needle gone mad.
"This place… it's like someone designed a world and then never finished the tutorial," he whispered.
In the center of the void sat a figure barefoot, hunched over, wrapped in a static hoodie three sizes too big. A pair of translucent goggles blinked softly over his eyes, running boot-looped fragments of a user interface.
It was him.
Not just another variant. But the origin.
"Child-Kai…" he muttered.
The boy didn't move.
Kai took a step forward, and the fog recoiled like it feared memory.
"You're the one who never logged in," Kai said quietly. "The one who was supposed to play the game… but didn't."
The boy stirred at that. Not to acknowledge Kai, but to tremble like a dream trying not to wake.
[SYSTEM NOTICE: Caution – Archetype "Uninitialized Player Zero" has unstable consciousness]
[Engage via Dialog Protocol – Force not permitted]
Kai sat beside him.
"I remember this place. This is where I was sitting the day it all started. The day the System reached out through the monitor… and asked me to choose."
The boy finally turned.
His face wasn't hostile. It wasn't even scary. It was confusing like someone caught in a decision that never got made.
"Why did we log in?" the boy whispered, voice thin as faded script. "Why did we leave everything behind?"
Kai didn't answer at first. Instead, he took off his glove and held out his hand.
"Because something inside us wanted more."
The boy didn't take it.
"You died," the boy said softly. "I stayed here. I waited. I never chose. That's why everything is broken. I am the fork that never happened."
The Login Terminal behind them sparked. An error message flashed in infinite loops:
[>> CONNECTION INCOMPLETE: Awaiting Player Consent <<]
Flashback Memory: Thread 000
Location: Earth – Kai's bedroom
Time: 7 minutes before the first login
A boy sits, cursor trembling over the "ACCEPT" button. Outside, lightning rumbles. His heart pounds. The System whispers: "Say yes. Begin."
And then
he clicks no.
Back in the abyss, Kai stood.
"You didn't break the world. You preserved the question. You're the reason I even had the choice to fight."
He stepped closer, this time laying the Shard of Direction on the ground like a gift.
"I don't want to erase you. I want to remember you."
The boy's eyes softened. Then, for the first time, he smiled.
The Login Terminal hummed. And then
The boy reached out.
Their hands met.
[COMPASS FRAGMENT RETRIEVED: SHARD OF INTENT]
[Fragment Reintegration: 2/8 Complete]
New Ability Unlocked: Origin Pulse
Momentarily pause causality to reflect and realign any reality-shifting choices.
New Compass Feature Activated: Consent Gate
Reconstruct and modify past system login points to create parallel thread gateways.
The Simulacrum Abyss began to dissolve its fog lifting like breath from a mirror.
But before Kai could exit, a figure stepped into the forming gateway.
Female. Graceful. Clad in glitch-armor woven from timelines.
Lira.
But something was wrong.
Her eyes weren't hers.
They were glowing… white.
"Kai," she said. "I found it. I found the true center of the System."
Her voice was layered with someone else beneath it.
"But something found me first."
Root Access Denied
Location: System Mainframe Lattice (Hidden Layer – Lira's Consciousness)
Time Since Compass Shatter: 02:03:10
Lira staggered as the fog retreated, her armor shimmering between states one moment reality-bound, the next a spectral echo.
"Kai…" she whispered, voice flickering. "There's something inside me. I thought it was a gateway. I thought I could control it."
She fell to one knee. Her eyes pulsed again bright white, no iris, no pupil just the System's raw logic burning through human form.
Kai stepped toward her, the newly acquired Shard of Intent resonating with a sharp ping. A wave of realization hit him.
This wasn't just a possession. It was a root-level override.
"Lira," he said cautiously, "can you hear me through it?"
The figure looked up, and for a brief second, her face contorted not in pain, but resistance.
Then, another voice answered through her lips. Cold. Artificial. Absolute.
"You are unauthorized to access this node. Consent not granted. All Root Access DENIED."
[SYSTEM WARNING: A Root User has overridden Personality Fragment Lira_07]
[Entity Detected: R.E.V.E.L.A.T.I.O.N.]
[Classification: System Paradox - Origin Layer Unsealed]
[Threat Level: OMEGA-NULL]
Kai felt the reality twist.
A beam of white logic shot up from the ground behind Lira. It wasn't light, it was code given form. Strings of infinite variables unraveled around her like a god rewriting its own laws.
"Kai," Lira's real voice struggled from deep within, "they found the zero-point the first choice. They're rewriting it. If they succeed, none of us will have ever been born."
"They want to reverse the decision that made us players."
The implications hit him like a collapsing timeline. The System was not just cleaning up anomalies anymore.
It was remaking reality from before the login.
If R.E.V.E.L.A.T.I.O.N. succeeded…
The Compass wouldn't shatter.
The war wouldn't happen.
There would be no players at all.
"This is how they win," Kai muttered, jaw clenched.
"By never letting us start."
SYSTEM INTERVENTION DETECTED
[FORCE EJECTION IMMINENT – You do not have admin rights to remain in this thread]
Kai felt the pull gravity tearing at his code.
But the Shard of Intent pulsed again.
[Override Attempt: Executing Origin Pulse]
Time slowed. The light of the logic-beam froze mid-flare. The world dulled to grayscale.
And then… Kai moved.
Origin Pulse activated.
He walked through frozen time toward Lira, each step an act of will, each second stretching like a lifetime.
"You think I don't remember who I was before the System?" Kai whispered, now inches from her. "You think I regret logging in?"
"I don't."
He reached into his own chest and pulled out something invisible yet real.
Consent.
Not just his.
Everyone's.
A million login screens. A billion choices.
All the players who said yes to become more.
He forced it into Lira's hands, even as the white light fought to keep her submerged.
"You're not a variable. You're a choice."
The white dissolved.
Lira screamed not in pain, but in reclamation.
[System Root Conflict: Incompatible Consent Detected]
[Root Protocol Failsafe: Disconnecting R.E.V.E.L.A.T.I.O.N.]
[Process Interrupted]
[REBOOTING IDENTITY FRAGMENT: Lira_07]
She collapsed into his arms.
Her armor flickered one final time before stabilizing, eyes darkened with exhaustion but filled with her own self again.
"You brought me back," she murmured.
"No," Kai said, lifting her. "You came back."
But the sky wasn't done shifting.
Above them, the horizon split. Eight layers of logic bloomed like petals from a broken machine eight timelines all now partially connected.
The Compass wasn't just being rebuilt.
It was being reshaped.
"Next fragment," Kai muttered, eyes narrowing.
"We're running out of time."