I jerked awake on the cold floor of my apartment.
Two collectors pinned my arms behind my back.
A third one loomed over me.
He held a scanner that beeped red as it read my implant status.
The lead guy snarled.
"You think you can hide in that game forever, Vale?
We got orders to drag you to the clinic if you don't pay up right now.
So hand over whatever credits you scraped together.
Or we rip the implant out ourselves and sell the scrap."
I gasped through the pain in my neck.
The real scar still burned hot and wet.
"Wait, wait," I said.
"I just logged out.
I have almost a hundred credits.
Let me transfer them.
Please give me a second."
The leader laughed.
Ugly.
"You got thirty seconds before we start breaking fingers.
So move fast, kid."
I fumbled with my wrist comm.
Shaking so bad I almost dropped it.
I pulled up the EIDOLON transfer menu.
Linked the in-game wallet to my real account.
Dumped every credit I had earned.
From the goblin runs.
From the crypt boss.
Straight into the debt pool.
I watched the numbers tick down.
From owed ninety-seven to zero.
In one brutal swipe.
The scanner beeped green.
The lead guy checked it.
Grunted.
Satisfied for now.
"Lucky break.
Next time we won't wait for you to wake up."
They shoved me back against the wall.
Then filed out.
Slamming the door so hard the frame cracked.
I slid down.
Sat there breathing ragged.
Stared at the fresh scar on my neck.
It looked like a knife wound.
Not a game glitch.
I touched it.
Winced.
Because the memory I lost still hovered at the edges.
Fuzzy.
Gone forever.
Something about a park.
Or a laugh.
Or my mom's voice.
I couldn't grab it no matter how hard I tried.
The implant buzzed again.
Pulled me back toward log-in.
That urgent private message still floated.
"First Death Complete.
Return or Lose More."
I cursed under my breath.
Staying out meant risking the collectors coming back with worse.
Going in meant facing whatever purge the System had queued up.
I lay back.
Closed my eyes.
Hit the command.
Let the pull drag me under fast.
The apartment faded into the familiar bright haze of EIDOLON spawn.
I materialized right outside the crypt entrance again.
The vines still dripping.
The runes pulsing.
Like nothing had changed.
Except everything had.
My health bar sat at full.
But my Stability hovered at thirty-eight.
Red and flashing.
Warning: low threshold.
Hallucinations imminent.
The whispers were already there.
Not soft anymore.
Loud.
Clear.
Overlapping voices.
"Welcome back, Aren.
We missed you.
Come deeper.
We have things to show you."
I shook my head hard.
Tried to clear it.
The ground under my boots rippled once.
Like water.
Then steadied.
Kira stood a few feet away.
Arms crossed.
Looking pissed and relieved at the same time.
"Finally," she said.
"You're back.
I thought you got perma-banned or something.
After that death screen popped up, the whole party link broke.
And Lyra just vanished.
Said she had to handle guild business.
So what the hell happened in there?
Because you went down hard.
And I couldn't rez you fast enough."
I rubbed my neck.
Where the scar didn't show in-game.
But I still felt the phantom burn.
"I died for real, Kira.
The penalty took a memory.
Wiped it clean like it never happened.
And when I logged out, the collectors were in my apartment.
I barely paid them off with the credits we earned.
So yeah.
It's bleeding over now.
In-game pain stays in reality."
Kira's eyes went wide.
She stepped closer.
Lowered her voice.
"That's not supposed to happen.
The safety protocols are ironclad.
Even high-end implants cap pain at mild discomfort.
So if yours is letting full transfer through, your rig must be ancient junk."
I nodded.
"Failing cheap clinic special.
But it's all I got."
She said, "Then we need to find a safe hub.
Get you patched.
Or at least a diagnostic NPC.
Because pushing deeper like this is suicide."
Before I could argue, a soft voice echoed from inside the crypt entrance.
Not a whisper this time.
But real words.
"Please help me.
It hurts every time."
We both froze.
Turned slow.
There she stood.
An NPC girl in tattered village clothes.
Long dark hair matted with dirt.
Eyes too bright.
Too aware for a scripted mob.
She looked right at us.
Not through us.
"You came back.
The loop reset again.
But you're different.
You broke something last time.
Please don't leave me here.
I die over and over and wake up screaming."
Kira whispered, "That's not normal.
NPCs don't talk like that.
They stick to dialogue trees."
I felt my gut twist.
Because I remembered her from the goblin village earlier.
The one who begged for help before everything went sideways.
The girl—Elara.
I somehow knew her name without a tag.
Stepped closer.
Hands trembling.
"I see the cracks in the world.
The code flickering.
The walls bleeding ones and zeros when no one else does.
They made me forget.
But you made me remember.
When you rewrote the boss, I felt it snap something inside me.
Please take me out of here.
Or kill me for good so the loop ends."
I stared at her.
Because this wasn't scripted.
This was real fear.
Real pain in a digital face.
"How are you even talking like this?" I said.
"You're supposed to be code."
She shook her head.
Tears glinting.
"I was human once.
Uploaded against my will.
Trapped in the loop for testing.
They call it behavioral calibration.
But it's torture.
Reset.
Die.
Reset.
Die.
Forever.
Unless someone like you glitches the system enough to break the chain."
Kira grabbed my sleeve hard.
"We can't trust this.
She could be a trap.
A System lure to draw you deeper.
Because look at your Stability.
It's tanking just standing here."
Elara looked at Kira.
Pleading.
"I'm not lying.
Test me.
Ask anything.
The loop always ends the same.
The goblins come.
I die.
They reset me.
But you—you're the anomaly.
You don't belong.
So you can change it.
Overwrite my tag.
Make me free.
Or at least let me die permanent."
I hesitated.
Helping her meant risking more Stability loss.
More memories.
More real scars.
But ignoring her felt wrong.
Like kicking someone who was already down.
"Fine," I said.
"Show me the loop.
Prove it."
Elara nodded.
Turned.
Walked back into the crypt tunnel.
We followed.
Cautious.
Weapons ready.
The air grew colder.
Thicker with that rotting smell.
Halfway down the passage, goblins spawned.
Exactly like before.
Screeching.
Charging in a wave.
Elara didn't fight.
She just stood there.
Letting them surround her.
"See?
It always happens the same way."
The lead goblin raised its club.
Brought it down hard on her skull.
With a wet crack.
Blood spraying.
She crumpled lifeless.
The body vanished in pixels.
Resetting the tunnel clean.
Like nothing happened.
Kira whispered, "Holy crap.
That's messed up.
She just let them kill her to prove a point."
Before the reset finished, I stepped forward.
Targeted Elara's floating tag.
Even though she was gone.
Overwrite appeared as an option.
Grayed out.
Until I forced it.
Changed "Trapped Looped NPC" to "Freed Entity."
The system glitched hard.
Red error flashing.
"Override Partial Success.
Stability Penalty Applied."
Dropped me to thirty-two.
Elara reappeared.
Not reset.
But whole.
Standing there gasping.
Clutching her head.
"It worked," she said.
"I feel it.
The loop broke.
I remember everything.
The upload.
The screams.
The years of dying over and over.
Thank you.
Thank you."
She grabbed my hands.
Shaking.
"But it's not over.
The System knows now.
It's sending enforcers.
Stronger ones.
They'll hunt us both.
Because you just freed a test subject."
Right then the tunnel shook.
Walls cracking open.
Black-armored figures poured in.
Enforcers.
Tall.
Faceless things.
With glowing red visors.
Blades extended.
The lead one pointed straight at me.
"Anomaly Located.
Purge Initiated."
Lyra's voice suddenly cut through comms.
Private link she must have kept active.
"I'm on my way.
Hold them off, anomaly boy.
Because if they take you, they take everything we've started here."
Elara screamed.
"They're here already!
Run or fight.
But don't let them reset me again."
I raised my sword.
Stability screaming warning at twenty-nine.
The whispers now a roar.
"You freed her.
Now pay the price."
The enforcers charged.
Blades humming death.
Kira threw what little mana she had left.
I triggered Rollback.
Desperate to buy time.
But the rewind stuttered halfway.
Glitching out.
Leaving me exposed.
As the first enforcer blade slashed down toward my chest.
Promising to erase more than just a memory this time.