The corrupted forest was still after the battle, eerily still. The fragments of broken monsters had long dissolved into static, but the air carried a weight, as if the entire system was holding its breath.
Arin sat at the edge of the clearing, his back against a fractured tree that looped endlessly between whole and hollow. His jagged weapon rested across his knees. His hands wouldn't stop trembling—not from fear, he told himself, but from anger.
Anger at Kael. Anger at this broken world. Anger at himself.
Every time he closed his eyes, he saw Kael's smirk, heard his voice calling him weak. And worse, he saw the players who had chosen to follow him.
Arin dug his nails into his palms. "Damn it… I can't let him—"
A sharp ripple ran through the ground.
The forest around him stuttered, the sky above flickering like a corrupted video file. A metallic chime rang out, loud enough to shake his bones.
Then, the air split open.
Lines of glowing red code slashed across the heavens, forming massive screens that hung like judgmental eyes.
A voice—cold, mechanical, absolute—echoed through every corner of the world.
[System Announcement: Patch v.1.0 Scheduled.]
[Time Remaining: 30 Days.]
[Warning: Corrupted Data Will Be Deleted.]
Arin's chest hollowed. The words burned themselves into his vision, refusing to fade.
"Patch…?" he whispered, almost not believing it.
Lyra stood across from him, her silver hair reflecting the glow of the system messages. Her corrupted arm pulsed violently, static trailing from her fingers. For the first time since he had met her, she looked shaken.
"No," she murmured, shaking her head. "They can't… They sealed this world. They abandoned it. They weren't supposed to touch it again."
But the message didn't stop. New lines scrolled across the red sky.
[Identified Corrupted Data: 3.2%]
[Target: NPC Fragments, Bugged Zones… and Players with Exploits.]
Arin's stomach lurched. His entire body went cold.
Players with exploits.That meant him.
His title. His powers. His only reason for surviving this nightmare—declared a virus to be wiped clean.
He staggered to his feet, his pulse hammering. "No… no, no, no. If they delete corrupted data—if they delete me—"
His thoughts spiraled. What would happen? Would he vanish? Would it feel like dying again? Or worse—would his consciousness be erased entirely, as if he had never existed?
Lyra's voice trembled, low but sharp. "It's not just you. I'm corrupted too. If the patch completes… I'll be erased."
Arin turned to her. Her face was pale in the crimson glow, her eyes wide with something between fury and despair.
And for once, Arin had no answer.
The silence between them stretched heavy, broken only by the faint crackle of static in the trees.
Then—footsteps.
Slow, deliberate. Crunching across the fractured grass.
Arin spun, weapon raised, heart pounding. Lyra's corrupted blade flickered into her hand.
A figure emerged from the treeline. A player.
Their avatar was unstable—parts of their cloak blinked in and out of existence, and their hood was half-consumed by static. Their face glowed faintly with corrupted lines of code. Yet their eyes were calm. Too calm.
They smiled when they saw Arin.
"You saw it too, didn't you? The patch. The end of everything."
Arin's grip tightened on his weapon. "Who are you?"
The player tilted their head. "Names don't matter anymore. What matters is survival. And Kael has promised it."
At the sound of that name, Arin's gut twisted. "Kael…"
The stranger's corrupted grin widened. "He says we don't have to fear deletion. He says when the patch comes, he'll take control of it. Rewrite it. And those who follow him… will live."
Arin's blood ran cold. Kael wasn't just gathering strays. He was promising them salvation.
The figure's eyes locked on Arin's, their voice soft but cutting. "You can run. You can hide. But when the patch hits, you'll vanish like all the others. Unless you join him."
They didn't wait for his answer. Their body flickered into pure static and dissolved into the night, leaving the forest empty once again.
Arin stood frozen, the words pounding in his head.
Kael wants to control the patch.
If he succeeded… he wouldn't just be powerful. He would be untouchable.
Arin's fists trembled. His first death had trapped him in this world. Now the system itself had marked him for deletion. And Kael was racing ahead, building an army to bend the rules in his favor.
Thirty days. That was all the time left.
Arin looked up at the sky, at the crimson words scrolling endlessly like a countdown to oblivion.
He had been given a broken power in a broken world. Maybe that was a curse. Maybe it was a gift.
Either way…
He was going to use it.