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The World of Eidolon
In the year 2030, humanity's relationship with virtual reality evolved from mere entertainment to full-body immersion. The Haptic-Cybernetic Neural Sync (HCNS) was born—a technology that directly connected the human brain to a game, transmitting real-time sensations like touch, pain, emotion, and even the flow of blood. VR was no longer a mere escape; it was an experience as real as life itself.
Games no longer relied on controller inputs or screens; players entered full immersion pods, where their bodies were essentially put into a hyper-realistic dream state. When you played, you lived in the game. The suit's sensors monitored every heartbeat, every breath, every shiver down your spine, adjusting to your body's needs as though the world itself was alive.
But while games like Eidolon.exe promised a utopia for hardcore players, a darker truth simmered beneath the surface.
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The Rise of Eidolon.exe
In the twilight of this golden age of gaming, one game stood above the rest: Eidolon.exe. A groundbreaking MMORPG, it was hailed as the future of virtual reality. Players didn't just walk through landscapes—they felt heat, cold, and fear. They could smell the crisp autumn air, taste the dust of battle, and hear the whispers of ancient gods in their ears.
The game boasted a world so vast and detailed, it was described as "the closest thing to being a god in a dying world." Legends circulated about secret quests, invisible bosses, and treasures that could change the course of history. Some said the game was more than just a game; it was a world unto itself, designed to test the limits of human ambition.
But then came the glitch.
During a secret boss battle, an untested final boss—known only as [??]—was triggered. It should have been the ultimate challenge, the endgame boss no one could defeat. But something went wrong. The boss wasn't just a part of the game… it was the game's heart.
A massive glitch rippled across the code, breaking reality itself. Players who died in the glitch were not just disconnected from the game; they disappeared. Some never logged out. Some were found dead in their pods. Others simply vanished, their bodies and minds forever locked in the world of Eidolon.
The game was shut down, erased from every platform. No one spoke of it again.
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Sable
The first thing you need to know about Sable is this: He wasn't always a failure.
Once, he was one of the best.
Before the crash, he was a strategist-tank hybrid—the backbone of a top-tier team. He didn't just win battles; he dictated them. His mind was sharp, calculating, always thinking two steps ahead of the enemy. Sable had the perfect balance of intellect and power, making him the go-to leader in any raid.
But that was before the Eidolon disaster.
When the final boss was summoned, Sable made a mistake—a fatal mistake that triggered the glitch. The world shattered. And his team paid the price. The glitch warped reality around them, and those who were still logged in when the server shut down were forced to live with the aftermath.
He wasn't the only one to survive, but he was the one who carried the guilt.
He watched his friends leave the scene one by one, some to the real world, others to never return. He couldn't move on. His obsession with the game, with fixing what had gone wrong, consumed him. He had a secret—something that kept him awake at night.
The glitch wasn't just a malfunction. It was the key to something more. Something dangerous. Something that no one else knew.
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The Message
Seven years passed since the game was shut down, but Sable couldn't forget.
He lived in his basement apartment, surrounded by old VR gear and tech, tinkering with broken systems and data from the game, trying to piece together what happened. He had moved on from playing the game, but he never stopped studying it. He had no choice. It was the only way he could understand.
And then… it came.
A single mysterious file drop appeared on his screen late at night.
> Eidolon_Restore_v1.01.exe
No sender. No origin.
Just a single line:
> "Finish it. 10 million credits to the winner. No respawns. No mercy."
His heart sank as he stared at the screen. The file was encrypted—impossible to trace, locked with a unique key. This was no ordinary file. This was the game. But it couldn't be.
He reached for his old VR rig, gathering dust in the corner. A machine that should have been obsolete by now, yet its needles and connectors seemed to beckon him. This wasn't just a game. This was the same game that had shut down seven years ago—the one that had trapped players in its glitches.
This was the return of Eidolon.exe. And the rewards were not just virtual.
10 million credits—real-world money. But the risks?
Eidolon.exe wasn't just a game. It was a gamble.
A gamble where life and death played by the same rules.
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The Players Are Back
Sable knew he wasn't the only one to receive the file. He didn't hesitate. He reached out to his old team, the players he once trusted above all else.
Nyra: The savage dual-blade wielder, a high-risk, high-reward DPS who once fought like a storm.
Zeke: The quiet genius who could manipulate magic like a program, but always stayed in the shadows.
Ashen: The sharpshooter whose tragic past left scars deeper than any physical wound.
Lyra: The healer, the one who kept them all alive… but something in her had changed since the last time they played.
They didn't hesitate either. They understood. There was no turning back now.
Eidolon.exe was open again.
But it wasn't just a game.
It was unfinished business.
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End of Chapter 1
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