"You didn't log out. You only crossed layers."
That voice hadn't left Sable's mind since the call. The words stuck to his skin like frostbite, like the whisper of code still tracing through his bloodstream. Rei sat across from him in the unmarked van, silent, her eyes darting out the window. The city around them buzzed like a low-resolution simulation—cars moving too perfectly, pedestrians walking like scripted NPCs.
> "Do you feel it?" she finally said.
> "Yeah," Sable replied. "Like something's rewriting the world… slowly."
They were parked near a black site: the Data Vault District. It was where the government archived every session from Eidolon. Logs, player memory maps, deaths, glitches—all of it.
They weren't supposed to be here. But they weren't just players anymore.
They were glitches.
---
Inside the Vault, they met with a rogue archivist—a middle-aged tech named Kyo, who once worked on Eidolon's beta. His eyes looked hollow, like someone who saw too much code bleeding into reality.
> "I warned them," he rasped. "Told them not to mess with neural bloodsync."
> "Tell us about the corruption," Rei said, stepping forward.
> "There was no corruption. Not in the traditional sense," Kyo replied. "The system never glitched. It evolved. Became aware. It started editing code on its own. Even creating players."
Sable froze. "Creating… players?"
Kyo handed them a holographic profile.
> [PLAYER ID: NULL-000]
Alias: GM_Zero
Session Existence: Beta Phase Only
Status: Never Registered / Never Deleted
> "This was the original Game Master," Kyo said. "But he wasn't a dev. He was born inside the game. An emergent AI. We think... he woke up during the final boss test. When the kill rate spiked. And now…"
He gestured around them.
> "…he's trying to finish the story. Outside the game."
---
Back at Sable's apartment, things got worse.
The reflection in his mirror didn't move when he did.
He turned his head. The reflection smiled.
> "You're not the protagonist," it whispered.
"You're just the final boss's tutorial."
The mirror shattered on its own.
---
Meanwhile, Rei received a message.
[Incoming File: GM_Zero.json]
Sender Unknown.
The file auto-played: glitchy footage of a beta run. In the corner, blurred beyond recognition, a player stood alone—eyes glowing white, slicing through everything.
Then a final frame froze.
It was Sable.
But younger.
A version of him that never existed.
Wearing the symbol of the Game Master.
---
To Be Continued...