The ship creaked softly beneath their feet as the corrupted ocean slowly faded into code.
Not with a bang, not with a crash — just a quiet unraveling. Like the game itself was sighing.
Raka stood at the edge of the Pirate Ship's bow, watching the horizon dissolve pixel by pixel into nothing. He felt different now. Lighter, maybe. Like something inside him had been cut loose.
"I still don't get it," he said, quietly.
"Get what?" Iqiww replied, adjusting the strap on his back where twin blades rested.
"How that thing knew everything about me," Raka said. "It fought like me. Moved like me. Even remembered my best days better than I do."
Iqiww didn't respond at first. He just stared at the sea of corrupted code below, hands in his pockets.
"This world isn't just made of game files," he finally said. "It's built on memory. Every kill, every laugh, every rage quit — it's stored here. Somewhere."
Raka raised an eyebrow. "So you're saying this place is… like a graveyard?"
Iqiww gave a half-smile. "Something like that."
Suddenly, the sky above flickered — and a new interface unfolded before their eyes like a hologram.
> [New Zone Unlocked: Forgotten Vault – Data Graveyard]
[Map Transferring in 3... 2... 1…]
And just like that, the ship vanished beneath their feet.
---
Raka hit the ground on his back.
Hard.
He gasped and sat up — coughing up thick, cold air that tasted like static. The world around him was nothing like the ship.
It was… a wasteland.
Vast fields of corrupted terrain stretched out under a blood-black sky. Broken avatars — frozen mid-motion — were scattered across the land like tombstones. Some were curled into balls. Others reached out, mouths open in silent screams, never rendered fully.
Old usernames flickered above them, most too glitched to read.
"Where… are we?" Raka whispered.
Iqiww crouched beside a shattered helmet half-buried in the data soil. "The Data Graveyard," he said. "Where accounts go when they're deleted… or forgotten."
They walked through the eerie silence. Wind howled, but nothing moved.
Then they found it — a massive statue, built from twisted chunks of code. It was shaped like a knight, but its chest was missing… hollow, like something had been ripped out of it.
At its base was a terminal — old, rusted, and blinking weakly.
Iqiww knelt beside it and tapped a key.
> [Boss Initialization in Progress...]
[Vault Guardian Awakened: CODE KNIGHT - "V1.R.EX"]
The statue groaned.
Its eyes lit up — dull orange at first, then blazing red.
Armor slammed shut across its body, sealing it like a tomb. With one thunderous step, it moved. The ground shook.
"Get ready," Iqiww muttered, drawing both blades. "This one's not a memory."
"What is it then?" Raka asked, backing up slowly.
"A watchdog," Iqiww said. "Built to make sure nothing ever leaves this place."
The Code Knight raised a giant corrupted blade — jagged and unstable — and pointed it toward Raka.
> "Unauthorized Data Detected. Termination Imminent."
Then it charged.
---
To Be Continued...