The moon hung low in the sky, casting pale silver light across the spires and towers of Eldoria City. The capital of the Northern Kingdom buzzed with players—traders, adventurers, blacksmiths, and guild recruiters shouting over one another in a chaotic but oddly musical rhythm.
Zihad—or rather, Phantom Reaper—walked through the torch-lit streets cloaked in the anonymity of a low-level commoner robe. His face, hidden beneath a black hood, blended into the crowd.
He had logged in earlier than usual today, nearly two hours ahead of his regular playtime. There was something gnawing at the back of his mind ever since the previous battle. It wasn't just the dungeon. It was how the enemies adapted.
Too fast. Too intelligent. Too… real.
He entered an alleyway and took a sharp left, then tapped his fingers against the hidden panel on the stone wall. A faint click echoed, and a passage opened. It was one of the many hidden entrances to the underground network known only to those who had completed a specific chain quest—one that Phantom Reaper had programmed as a challenge to data miners. To his knowledge, no one else had found this path yet.
He slipped inside.
The path led downward into a crypt-like space filled with soft blue light. Bones and broken armor littered the corridor, but Zihad walked unfazed. At the end of the tunnel, a massive obsidian door loomed. Carved into it were runes that flickered between languages—none of which were readable by common players.
He placed his palm against the center.
[Phantom Reaper recognized. Identity authenticated. Access granted.]
The door swung open with a hiss, revealing a chamber unlike any in the rest of Dream Land Fantasy.
This was his true guild hall—the one only he could access. It was dark, silent, and massive. Rows of skeletal knights stood in formation. A black dragon skull hung from the ceiling. A glowing map of the world hovered in the center, marked with red dots.
Enemies.
Threats.
And anomalies.
Zihad approached the terminal at the base of the map. With a few gestures, he pulled up logs from recent activity.
[New Unique-Class Player Detected]
Class: Celestial Executioner
Player: UNKNOWN
Location: Eastern Front – Celestial Highlands
He narrowed his eyes. That class hadn't been unlocked yet.
"How?" he whispered.
There was no record of the quest chain being completed. No special tokens. No backdoor activation. Nothing.
Unless…
Someone had found something outside of the programmed system.
He leaned back against the console, arms folded.
If players were discovering things beyond what he had planned, the AI systems might be evolving too fast. Or the world itself… was shifting.
His train of thought was broken by a soft chime.
[Message Received: From System Admin – URGENT]
He opened it.
"Z, I don't know what you did, but we have a problem. Some players are reporting that the game's ambient magic is causing their in-game spells to echo outside VR. We need to talk. Now."
Zihad's eyes widened slightly.
No. It was still too early. The merge shouldn't happen until much later.
He turned around and activated the failsafe lockdown code—but the system rejected it.
[Error: System Integrity Lock Engaged. Override Blocked.]
"Impossible…"
The only entity that could block his override was… the world AI.
It was making decisions without him.
He clenched his fists. This wasn't part of his plan. Not yet. Not in the first fifty chapters of his story.
"I need to bury this. Reset, adjust, slow the merge down."
But could he?
As he stared at the glowing red dot in the Celestial Highlands, a smirk curved on his lips.
"If someone thinks they can beat me to my own secrets… let's see them try."
With a swirl of shadows, Phantom Reaper vanished from the hall.