Jay’s eyes opened to a blinding ceiling light, flickering like a faulty mory. For a mont, everything felt... wrong. Not in a painful way—but like a dream was trying to follow him back through the cracks of sleep.
His mouth felt dry. His thoughts were sluggish.
> Why do I feel... watched?
He sat up.
The infirmary bed creaked under his weight. The school nurse’s office was empty. A clock ticked steadily in the background, but Jay noticed sothing else:
A faint blue shimr in the corner of his eye.
> [SYSTEM ALERT: Primary Anchor Status – UNSTABLE]
[Class: Lazy Genius – Partial Override Detected]
[Core Alignnt Conflict: Subject R.K.]
His heart didn’t race. His body didn’t shake. But his soul? That trembled.
He could feel sothing had shifted—no, been stolen—from within him.
---
> "...Rei," he murmured.
The na had always been there. Sowhere at the edge of his thoughts. But now it was central—a burning line carved into the walls of his ntal space.
Suddenly, his HUD flickered again.
A new tab appeared.
> [SHARED MORY LOG DETECTED]
[View Fractured Segnt?]
Jay didn’t think. He clicked.
And then—he saw it.
---
Rei. Fighting. Screaming. Bleeding.
Inside a world Jay never rembered building, but sohow owned.
The Dream Archive. The Chrono Phantom.
The System Transfer.
And... the truth:
Jay wasn’t chosen because he was talented.
He was chosen because he was apathetic enough not to fight back.
> "You weren’t lazy. You were made to forget."
Jay fell to his knees beside the infirmary bed.
His hands trembled.
> They gave power... to keep it away from Rei.
> And I let them.
For the first ti in years—no System enhancent, no amplified intellect—Jay felt his chest tighten.
It wasn’t sadness.
It was guilt.
The kind that cracked reality at the seams.
---
Outside the room, reality wavered.
Lights dimd. Walls vibrated slightly, as if the entire school was caught in an invisible pulse.
And in the center of the HUD, one final notification appeared:
> [SYSTEM ERROR 404: Dream Anchor Splitting Detected]
[Warning: The World is Beginning to Wake Up]
Jay stared at the flickering screen.
And for once, didn’t look away.
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