Chapter 6: Echoes of the Lobby
The fire had burned low.
Zayn Arif sat with his knees drawn close, eyes half-lidded, listening to the soft crackling of the last embers. Around him, the jungle pressed in—silent, watchful, indifferent. Max lay nearby, motionless but not asleep. His ears were tuned to every distant branch snap, every rustle of leaf or twitch of wind.
Zayn wasn't used to sleeping like this.
Not anymore.
Not after everything that had happened.
Not with a literal death counter ticking in his mind.
[Respawn Cooldown: 40 hours, 58 minutes]
[Vital Sync: 84%]
[Progression: 4%]
A little gain. A few more breaths of borrowed time.
He couldn't sleep. His head buzzed with too many questions. The Hunter. The Cartographers. The "test" Ludo spoke of. And more than anything, the nagging weight of the unknown—why he was here.
He stood, careful not to wake Max, and slipped a little further from the satellite wreckage. The air felt heavier away from the firelight, thick with dew and the deep hum of nocturnal insects.
Zayn stopped beneath a slanted tree and opened the system interface in his mind.
It flickered strangely.
Like it didn't fully want to obey.
He focused.
[System Access: Temporary Interface Unlocked]
[Welcome, Zayn Arif]
[Respawn System v.??.?? – Build Unknown]
[Unlocked: Memory Trace Mode]
Memory Trace Mode.
It hadn't been there before.
He selected it.
The world darkened. Colors washed into gray. The forest shifted—and then froze. As if time had stopped.
And ahead of him, standing on the trail—
Was himself.
Zayn stared.
The projection wore his clothes. Carried his gear. But looked... older. The edges of his face sharper. His eyes tired.
[Memory Trace: Event Echo – Original Drop Zone]
[Time Elapsed Since Event: 3 Days, 14 Hours]
The ghost of himself moved.
It walked a few steps forward, paused, turned its head as if listening to something distant. Then it spoke—though the words were muffled, warped.
Zayn stepped closer.
The trace flickered.
Then he heard it.
"—shouldn't be here. Something's off. This isn't just another battle royale."
Then silence.
The trace looked up sharply, as if sensing him.
Zayn flinched.
[Trace Terminated – Interference Detected]
Everything snapped back. The jungle reappeared in full color. The night sounds resumed.
Zayn staggered slightly. His head spun.
What was that?
Another version of him?
A memory?
Or... something deeper?
He returned to camp, thoughts circling like vultures.
Max stirred as he sat down. "You left the fire radius."
Zayn nodded. "Didn't go far."
Max sat up. "You saw something."
Zayn hesitated. "A memory. From when I first dropped in. It... didn't feel like a recording."
Max narrowed his eyes. "The Respawn System's evolving. That means you're crossing thresholds most players never touch."
"What happens if it keeps evolving?"
"Depends," Max said. "Some players get stronger. Others glitch. A few start to lose their memory—who they were, why they came here. The system replaces it with fabricated objectives."
Zayn shook his head. "So you stop being you."
"In every way that matters."
They both sat in silence for a while.
Then Zayn said, "What happens when I hit 10%?"
Max didn't answer for a long time.
Finally, he whispered, "Then you stop being a player. And start becoming part of the system."
Zayn frowned. "You mean an NPC?"
"No," Max said. "Something else. Something worse."
—
They moved out the next morning, heading toward the ruins of an old map zone that Ludo had circled on their copy—"Zone 4-Delta." It was once a staging area. A training arena for tutorial-phase players.
But the tutorial had long since been removed.
Now it was empty. Overgrown.
And filled with echoes.
[Entering Dead Zone: Zone 4-Delta]
[System Control: None]
[Environmental Anomalies: Active]
[Progression Opportunity: Detected]
The first sign of something wrong was the ground.
It felt… sticky.
Zayn crouched and ran his hand over the soil. It left a faint residue on his glove. Not blood. Not oil. Something between digital data and ash.
"System decay," Max said behind him. "When a zone is forgotten, it doesn't shut down. It begins to rot."
Zayn stood slowly. "We're not alone here."
They moved cautiously through the ruins.
Half-buried crates. Collapsed walls. Signs that once, dozens of players trained here. Learned the basics. Respawned endlessly during early matches.
Now it was silent.
And then—
A low chime.
[Player Echo Detected]
[Name: "Rei\_205" – Status: Deceased]
[Playback Enabled – Yes/No?]
Zayn hovered over the choice.
Max said nothing.
He chose yes.
The environment shimmered.
A tall player with pink hair and a red jacket appeared ahead—an echo, translucent and staticky. She stood against the wall, holding a pistol. Her voice emerged, faint and cracked.
"Day 3. No more drops. No more voice chat. Max disappeared yesterday. I think the system is testing me. If anyone finds this… don't trust the lobby. It's not what it used to be."
Then she turned.
And pulled the trigger on herself.
The echo dissolved.
Zayn stepped back. "What did she mean—don't trust the lobby?"
Max was quiet. "You ever wondered what happens to players between matches?"
"They go to the lobby," Zayn said.
Max looked at him. "But have you *seen* the lobby since you got here?"
Zayn frowned.
He hadn't.
He hadn't been there once.
Just the Graveyard.
Just... waking in the game.
"No respawn player ever goes back to the lobby," Max said. "Because we're not players anymore. We're test subjects."
Zayn looked around the decayed training zone. The ruined tutorial. The echoes of people who once thought they were just in a game.
He clenched his fists.
"I need to get stronger."
Max nodded. "Then we find the next artifact."
Zayn raised an eyebrow. "Artifact?"
"Pieces of the old code. Items that were removed in past versions. They linger—fragmented. Hidden. They let you access parts of the system no one else can."
"And where's the next one?"
Max opened the old paper map and pointed to a circled name scrawled in black ink.
"The Lobby."
Zayn blinked. "But you said we can't go back there."
Max looked at him. "Not *normally.* But there's a hidden server switch in the eastern mountains. An abandoned VR boot gate. You find it—you backdoor into the Lobby."
Zayn stared at the name.
Lobby\_0X1-ROOT
[New Objective: Locate Backdoor Access to Lobby]
[Reward: Unknown]
[Progression Potential: Significant]
[Risk: Terminal]
He smiled grimly.
"Let's go."