Chapter 3 — The First Rewrite
Aris drifted inside the hollow sphere of gray still in shock of what has just happened till his thoughts led him to his world he lost unconsciously pulling him to it. Surrounded in it's midst partially gray static— all what was left of Pawn World 819. Shattered continents spun like dying embers. Oceans had evaporated into dust. No sky, no sound, just the faint hum of deletion residue, like static caught between radio channels.
He could still taste the ash of the world that had been. It clung to his breath.
> [World Status: 99.99% deleted.]
[Core: Unstable.]
[Recommended Action: None. World scheduled for purging.]
He floated for a while, silent. The nothingness pressed close, whispering the same mechanical death sentence over and over.
Then he spoke. "Recommended action—rewrite."
A pulse of silver light burst from his chest. Strings of glowing code wrapped around his arms like tattoos, crawling to his fingertips. They moved like living things, rewriting him as much as the world.
> [Skill Activated: Reality Rewrite (Lv 1)]
[Scope: Local Sector.]
[Input new rule…]
Aris closed his eyes. He remembered laughter. The warmth of tavern fires. The smell of wet earth after rain. The way sunlight spilled across the wooden rooftops of the old villages before deletion. He held onto that memory as if it were gravity itself, an anchor in the digital sea.
He whispered, "Rule One: Survivors cannot be deleted."
The void screamed.
Color slammed back into existence. A floating island snapped together from scattered fragments of code—stone, soil, and a strip of fractured sky. Wind howled for the first time in centuries.
Aris collapsed to one knee, fingers digging into solid ground. The island glowed faint blue beneath his palm.
> [World fragment stabilized.]
[Origin Node created.]
He looked up—air trembling, dust rising—and for the first time since the world ended, he heard sound. Real sound. The hum of life trying to return.
Then a soft chime echoed beside him. Pixels condensed into a figure—a girl in white, her hair trailing lines of code that shimmered and faded.
She blinked, eyes trying to focus. "Player… Aris Vane?"
His breath caught. "…Lyra?"
> [NPC – Healer Class / Status: Residual Data Ghost]
Her outline flickered like a candle in wind. "I—I thought everyone was gone."
"They were," Aris said quietly. "I rewrote that part."
Lyra lifted her hand. The air shimmered at her touch, light fracturing around her fingers as if the world itself was remembering how to exist. "You're not supposed to be here," she whispered. "None of this is."
"Neither are we," he said with a faint, tired smile. "Guess we match."
But the light dimmed as quickly as it came. The sky trembled—first gray, then red.
A spear of light pierced through the clouds, bathing the island in a harsh crimson glow. The air turned metallic; data threads vibrated with alarm.
> [Alert: Guild Detection Signal Received.]
[Violation: Unauthorized World Creation.]
[Response: Deploying Purge Units.]
Aris's jaw tightened. "They noticed."
Lyra backed away, the fear in her eyes painfully human. The air tore open, revealing six sleek, winged figures descending through the breach—chrome angels wrapped in shifting code.
> [Purge Unit α01–α06 Deployed.]
[Objective: Eliminate anomaly Bug #000.]
Aris rose slowly, dust swirling around his boots. Silver light flared in his eyes. "Round two already?"
He turned to Lyra. "Get behind the Node. If we lose it, this world dies again."
She hesitated. "You can't fight them, Aris. They're system-level entities!"
He grinned, that familiar edge of madness creeping into his calm. "Good thing I'm not part of the system."
The Purge Units raised their blades—pure compressed data gleaming red.
Aris snapped his fingers.
> [Reality Rewrite Lv 1 → Command Input: Gravity = Optional.]
The world inverted.
The Purge Units shot upward, flailing as the ground rebelled against its own pull. Fragments of rock rose like reversed rain. Lyra clung to the Node, her hair floating in the airless pull.
"You changed the laws—" she gasped.
"Temporarily." His voice was calm, but sweat traced his temple. "Ten seconds before it reverts."
He lunged forward, grabbed the nearest Unit by the chest, and drove his hand through it. Light exploded, cold and electric. Data bled out in white mist.
> [New Skill Acquired: Error Assimilation (Lv 2)]
[Effect: Absorb and convert hostile code into energy.]
Power roared through his veins, heat mixing with pain. His vision stuttered with code flashes.
The remaining Units reoriented mid-air, forming a circle. Their blades ignited, glowing like miniature suns.
Aris flexed his hands. "Come on, system. Show me your updates."
Six beams crossed the air in a perfect lattice of annihilation. Lyra screamed his name.
Aris whispered: "Rule Two—Reflection = True."
The beams curved mid-flight, snapping back toward their senders. The explosion cracked the newborn sky, light devouring sound.
When the dust cleared, only one Unit remained—half-destroyed, dragging itself across the cracked stone. "Anomaly… will… be… purged…"
Aris walked toward it, each step echoing through the hollow air. "No," he said quietly. "The world already was."
He placed his hand on its head. "Now it's reborn."
Light flared once more—and then silence. Only wind.
> [All hostile units neutralized.]
[Skill Upgrade: Reality Rewrite Lv 2 → Lv 3.]
[New Effect: Alter localized laws for 10 seconds.]
Lyra stepped from behind the Node, her voice trembling between awe and disbelief. "You just… rewrote physics."
Aris exhaled, hands shaking, half-laughing through the fatigue. "Physics deserved it."
The island pulsed beneath them. Roots of light stretched outward into the void, connecting to unseen fragments. Pawn World 819 was breathing again. Fragile, but alive.
Then another alert blinked before his eyes—cold, crimson, and absolute.
> [Guild Overseer Network Update: Anomaly Bug #000 confirmed active.]
[Protocol Ω initiated.]
[Deploying High-Tier Hunter Unit: Seraphim Prime.]
The wind stilled. Even the Node seemed to shiver.
Lyra looked up, her voice small. "Aris… what's a Seraphim Prime?"
He stared into the darkening sky where something vast was moving—wings of light unfurling across the heavens like a sunrise made of wrath.
He smiled faintly, exhaustion in his voice. "Probably our next problem."
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