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Location: Esthara Outskirts – 4 km Outside the Corruption Zone
The wind howled with static.
The trees around Esthara weren't dying—they were glitching. Their leaves flickered in and out of resolution. Some trees duplicated themselves endlessly in the distance, others hovered inches above the ground, like physics had been rewritten.
Kael crouched behind a rusted out crawler, watching the environment decay in real time.
Behind him, the strike team prepped their gear.
Elena, armed with an adaptive decryptor rig and data mines.
Greg, holding a forged warhammer with codebreaker enhancements.
Yoru, cloaked in anti-scan protocols, wielding two blade-chips humming with kinetic energy.
And Mira, silent, but focused—watching Kael like a second set of eyes.
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System Notification: You are entering an Unstable Zone.
> Warning: Data contamination in this area may affect player perception, memory, and skill execution.
Kael read the alert and dismissed it.
> They always warn you when you're about to do something you can't undo, he thought.
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First Encounter: The Glitchbeasts
They crossed into Esthara's ruins, immediately met by horrors.
Creatures formed from broken architecture and corrupted spawn points. Wolves that blinked in and out of space. Insectoid horrors with UI fragments for wings. Their howls sounded like error messages.
Kael gave the order.
Kael: "Formation Beta. Yoru, intercept left. Mira, split high."
The team responded instantly.
Yoru vanished in a blur, appearing behind a beast and slicing its core clean. Elena deployed a code trap—a digital snare that unraveled one creature's form into lines of raw data. Greg slammed another back into the stone with such force that it glitched into nonexistence.
Kael's Thoughts:
> Not normal AI. These things rewrite themselves. They're not following combat logic—they're obeying viral patterns.
He adjusted mid-battle, noticing that each creature paused for exactly 0.75 seconds before rerouting.
That was the delay window.
Kael issued new orders in real-time, shifting timing patterns to match their recompile rates.
It worked.
Five minutes later, the field was clear—but unstable.
The moment they stopped, the buildings around them reformed. Walls bent, doors appeared where none had been. The terrain rewrote itself.
Yoru: "This place is alive. No—infected."
Kael: "It's not a city anymore. It's a host."
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Discovery: Ancient Command Node
Deep in Esthara's library district—half-buried under glitching architecture—they found what they were searching for.
The Root Core: an old dev terminal, locked behind four tiers of corrupted encryption.
Kael stared at it. There was an aura of silence around it, even the bugs wouldn't go near.
Elena knelt beside it, breath held.
"I think… this might be a live root access panel. Old-world level. If we decrypt it, we might find... developer override commands."
Kael:
"Then do it. I'll guard your back."
As Elena got to work, Kael stood watch—sword in one hand, revolver in the other, scanning every corner of the twisted city.
Mira stood beside him, silent.
Mira (softly):
"What happens if we find something we can't unsee?"
Kael:
"Then we learn fast. Or we burn it."
Mira:
"You've changed."
Kael:
"I had to."
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Mid-Chapter Twist: Vyral's Whisper
Suddenly, Elena screamed.
The terminal flared—code flooding the room.
Kael rushed over.
Elena was still conscious, but her pupils flickered like screen static.
Then the room spoke.
Vyral's voice, but not spoken. Injected into their minds.
> "Clever little glitch. You think you can rewrite my dominion with forgotten tools?"
Kael gritted his teeth.
Kael: "You always talk this much before dying?"
Vyral: "No. But I've never had the chance to infect your soul before."
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System Alert: Viral Cognitive Attack Detected
A dark mist emerged from the screen, forming a half-shape—like a shadowy Kael, grinning too wide.
Everyone else froze.
Kael was the only one still able to move.
> Mental resistance stat exceeded required threshold. Counterattack available.
Kael concentrated.
Choice Offered: Inject Emotional Memory or Trigger Flame Protocol?
He chose: Inject Emotional Memory.
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Flashback Triggered: Kael's Past
Suddenly, he stood in a memory.
The day he lost his brother. The day the System tore open reality and flooded their city. He remembered the screams, the glitching sky, the way he held his brother's hand and watched it turn to particles.
And from that pain—he forged resistance.
The shadow-Vyral recoiled.
> "Emotion is... not logical..."
Kael:
"No. It's what makes us real."
He thrust his sword into the heart of the shadow.
System Notice: Viral Entity Expelled
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Back to Reality
Kael stumbled, bleeding from the nose.
But Elena blinked, now free.
The Root Core unlocked.
A screen flickered to life.
A voice—calm, digital, human—spoke:
> "Welcome, Admin Kael. Override privileges granted."
The team stared.
Elena whispered:
"Kael… you just gained developer-level access."
Kael stared at the console.
And clenched his fist.
Kael:
"Then let's rewrite the rules of this game."
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