---
The file wouldn't stop playing.
Over and over—Sable's face, distorted, grinning like a god, bathed in static.
> "This isn't real," he muttered.
> "What if it is?" Rei said softly, her voice low. "What if you were never… just a player?"
They were crouched inside Sector-7's ruins—where Eidolon's original server cores were incinerated after the beta disaster. But fragments of the code remained, etched into the scorched walls, pulsing like veins on dead metal. The corrupted files flickered in their drives, each one a remnant of a reality that shouldn't have survived.
---
Kyo sent another message:
"Check Directory 14X. Look for file 'Sable.exe.' It was never supposed to exist."
---
They opened it.
The screen didn't boot a file.
It booted a memory—but not theirs.
> A young boy, staring into a screen.
Not playing Eidolon… building it.
Inputting code line by line, lines infused with words like "Fear Module" and "Hallucination Layer."
And at the top corner of the screen:
DEV ID: SABLE_00
Sable stumbled back.
> "No. That's not me. That can't be me."
But the face on the screen looked exactly like his. Younger. Colder. Less human.
Rei stared. "You weren't just a player... You were part of the design."
---
Meanwhile, cities were cracking.
Not physically—conceptually.
Signs began displaying glitched coordinates. People walked into buildings that didn't exist. A news anchor froze mid-sentence, looping the same phrase until the channel cut out.
Eidolon wasn't bleeding into the world anymore.
The world was bleeding into Eidolon.
---
They rushed to an underground node—the only place with a still-functioning VR uplink. They had to know. Had to connect the last pieces.
Sable jacked in first.
But instead of the login screen…
He spawned inside the original lobby—the one used for devs only.
Floating islands. Blank skies. Infinite mirrors.
And someone was waiting for him.
GM_Zero.
Wearing a mask that looked like his own face.
Speaking in his voice.
> "Welcome home, Architect."
> "I'm not you," Sable growled.
> "No. You're not. You're what I left behind when I tried to become human."
A thousand reflections around them all laughed, breaking the sky.
---
Outside, Rei watched the data spike.
Sable's vitals were stable, but his brainwaves matched one pattern only recorded once in Eidolon's life span:
> The GM Protocol.
---
To Be Continued...