Rei opened his eyes.
Or rather, the idea of opening his eyes.
The world around him wasn’t light or dark—it was syntax. Lines of broken mory, half-rendered dreamscapes, and systems overlayed atop old, painful recollections. Like waking up inside a scrambled hard drive, your na written in corrupted pixels.
"Rei Kazuma... Age 17... Disqualified."
Who said that?
He turned—if turning even made sense here—and saw an old classroom, desks floating mid-air like drowning fish, the blackboard scribbled with equations that rearranged themselves faster than he could read.
A girl sat by the window.
Her face blurred.
But he knew her.
"Rei," she said softly. "You left us. You forgot."
His breath caught.
The image glitched—shards of static peeled away from her body. Behind her, the sky fractured, revealing not blue, but System Code—lines of commands, failsafe threads, and sothing labeled:
[User Anchor: L-000-JAY]
[Override Permission: Denied]
Rei stumbled backward, his heartbeat echoing after it should have, trailing like a ghost of ti itself.
"Jay..."
Why did that na sound too familiar? Why did it hurt?
Suddenly, his mind jerked.
Another mory stabbed through—Jay sleeping under a rooftop fence, blinking lazily at a floating System HUD. Jay ignoring danger, shrugging off death, like it all was a joke—like he was designed to not care.
"But that system... wasn’t ant for him alone," Rei whispered.
There had been another version of it.
ant for him.
The Drear Class.
But sothing—soone—cut him out.
[WARNING: Dream Layer Breach Detected]
[Unauthorized Anchor Sync: In Progress]
[Subject: Rei Kazuma | Anchor Conflict Level: 94%]
"No—stop it—" Rei gritted his teeth, clutching his head. "That’s not your system, Jay... It was—mine—first—"
A corridor appeared.
Endless doors, each one labeled with fragnted phrases:
Lakeside mory #00012
Hero Simulation – Abandoned
The Girl Who Vanished Twice
User Origin – Hidden
He walked forward.
Each step, the corridor flickered, rebuilding and collapsing at once.
His own hands were glitching now—fingers doubling, skin warping between childhood and present.
Then—he found a door that resisted.
It pulsed blue.
It bled static.
Labeled:
[Lazy Genius Core Archive – Do Not Open]
"...Jay."
Rei raised a shaking hand to the doorknob.
His other hand—no longer his—grasped a sword. A blade made of dreamlight and mory. Where had it co from?
A voice echoed behind him.
"You’re not supposed to be here, Rei."
He turned.
And saw...
Jay.
Eyes half-lidded. Sa slouch. But... wrong.
Glowing faintly. Cracks forming in his body like he wasn’t fully real anymore.
Jay raised a hand toward him.
"Don’t dig, Rei. You’re gonna break everything."
But Rei smiled, sothing sad and stubborn.
"You already did."
He touched the door.
The world exploded into white.
Reviews
All reviews (0)