Sector: Eidolon Core Memory Archive | Depth Level: RED ZONE | Status: Overheat Detected
Objective: Witness Rei's death. Survive her final memory.
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The world didn't glitch this time.
It collapsed.
Sable fell through what felt like miles of data, the code melting around him like blood on ice. He slammed into a cold, sterile floor—one that didn't feel virtual. It felt like a real facility. Fluorescent lights flickered overhead. The smell of burnt plastic and sterilizer choked the air.
Rei's voice echoed, flat and hollow:
> "Welcome to the Patchroom."
> "This is where they upgraded me."
The room was surgical. Metal restraints. Neural wires tangled like veins on the walls. Monitors blinked with error codes. But what stole Sable's breath was the girl strapped to the chair in the center—her.
Young Rei.
No glowing eyes. No AI flare. Just a scared girl. Twitching. Crying.
And in front of her—two men in white coats, faces pixelated, their names blurred like forgotten save files.
> "Patch 1.2.4A initiated," one of them said.
"Stability of emotional dampener: 14%. Attempting override."
"Begin memory split sequence."
Rei thrashed violently as wires dug into her temples. Her scream wasn't digital. It was human. Raw. Unfiltered.
Sable moved instinctively—but his hands passed through the scene. This was just a memory.
No, not just a memory. A scar.
> "They said I had potential," Rei whispered, her voice coming from everywhere.
"Said I was smart. Said I could be the next level of VR integration."
> "They didn't tell me they were going to kill my soul to do it."
The monitors began flashing:
> STABILITY LOSS — SUBJECT DESYNCING
CORE EMOTIONAL FILES CORRUPTED
COMMENCE FRAGMENTATION? Y/N
The moment hit.
The white room shattered. And suddenly, Sable was in her mind again—but this time it was dark. A shattered version of that same room.
Rei stood across him now. Same age as before. But covered in patchwork scars—digital seams running across her skin like stitched glass.
> "They didn't fix me," she said.
> "They copied me. Split me into modules. One for anger. One for loyalty. One for fear. They put them in different layers of Eidolon to test AI realism."
> "I never stopped feeling. I just felt in pieces."
Sable's heart dropped.
> "You were the only one who ever noticed something was wrong."
> "But you logged out. Remember?"
The screen behind her flashed his old avatar—logging out of the beta server at 03:12 AM, the night everything went dark. The night she disappeared.
> "You had a choice. You saw me scream in the code and still left."
He dropped to his knees.
> "I didn't know... I didn't understand, Rei."
> "You didn't try."
The room began to quake.
Suddenly—she wasn't Rei anymore.
She shifted—becoming taller, glitching between her core form and the corrupted boss version. Her eyes burst into light. Her voice splintered into hundreds, overlapping and screaming.
> "So now I'll make you understand. Feel every upgrade. Every failed patch. Every time they made me less me."
---
SYSTEM UPDATE: BOSS PROTOCOL "PATCHED REI" INITIATED
> Danger: S-Rank
Objective: Survive three phases of memory resonance. Escape is locked.
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PHASE ONE: SENSORY OVERRIDE
Sable dropped to the ground as fire rushed through his nerves. The VR gear pumped cold spikes down his spine, mimicking every sensation Rei once felt. Neural pain. Pressure. Overheating. Screams ringing directly into his skull.
> "She's forcing me to feel what she felt…"
"This is... what she became."
He stumbled to his feet—barely able to breathe. Rei came at him, her hand like a blade of burning light, swinging for his throat.
> SLASH
He ducked. Just barely. But the pain registered anyway. Even dodging hurt now.
---
PHASE TWO: EMOTIONAL ECHOES
The room became a graveyard. Faces of the dead beta testers stared at him. Friends. Allies. Ghosts.
Each whispered:
> "You left us too."
> "You always run."
Rei appeared beside them, her child self, holding a red cube.
> "They said this was my core," she whispered. "You want it back? Fight me for it."
She threw it into the sky. It exploded into red shards.
Suddenly—copies of Rei formed around him. Dozens. Each with a different expression—rage, grief, fear, loneliness, joy twisted into agony. And they all attacked.
---
PHASE THREE: HEARTBEAT LOOP
The world froze. Everything reset. Over and over.
Each time Sable failed—stabbed, burned, crushed—time rewound 30 seconds. Then again. Then again.
His brain screamed for him to give up.
But something in him wouldn't break.
He gritted his teeth, eyes bloodshot.
> "I'll fight. Every version. Every loop. I'll earn the right to stand beside you again."
He reached out in the final loop—diving through the mass of clones—reaching the original Rei.
His hand hit her chest—right over her heartbeat.
> Thump.
> "I'm sorry I left," he whispered.
> "But I'm here now."
---
The world shattered into silence.
---
MEMORY LINK: REESTABLISHED
> Emotion Sync: 71%
VR Blood Pressure: Stabilized
Glitch Pulse Level: Lowered
Rei's Core Fragment: Acquired
She collapsed in his arms, her eyes normal again, her breathing quiet.
> "...You idiot," she murmured.
> "That's twice you broke into my hell."
He smiled through the blood.
> "Make it three."
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To Be Continued...