The dungeon's lower levels hummed with unstable code, the air thick with the stench of burnt ozone.
Kai watched Linda through a cracked camera feed. She crouched in a loot vault, her daggers prying open a glitched treasure chest. Her daughter's face flickered on her HUD, a gaunt, pale child hooked to IV drips.
Kai: "You're wasting time. The chest is a decoy."
Linda spun, blades raised. "Who's there?!" He manifested his Shadow Replica, dialing down the menace. No armor, no glowing eyes, just the ghost of the programmer he'd been.
"The Dungeon King. And I need your help." She snorted. "Why would I help you?" "Because the Devs are lying."
He hacked her UI, flooding it with the Eclipse Vault blueprint. "This holds a cure. Not credits, a real one. For your daughter." Linda's mask slipped. "Prove it."
Quest Offered: Infiltrate the Eclipse Vault REWARD: Cure for [REDACTED] (Terminal Illness) FAILURE: Death + Permanent Ban
She stared at her daughter's photo. "…What's the catch?"
"The vault's guarded by the System's worst traps. And the Devs will send him." The feed glitched, replaying the Enforcer's blade piercing Selene. Linda sheathed her daggers. "I'm in. But betray me, and I'll carve your core into jewelry."
The vault's entrance was a maw of static, its door etched with Kai's old developer ID: KV-7XG.
Nyx: "This was my prison. Now it's our weapon." Kai's Admin Sight flickered to life, revealing the vault's true form, a fractal labyrinth of code, its walls lined with frozen player avatars. Test subjects.
Linda: "What is this place?"
Kai: "The Devs' lab. They've been experimenting on players. That's the real apocalypse." As they stepped inside, the door sealed.
System Alert: WELCOME TO THE ECLIPSE VAULT. SURVIVE THE TRIALS TO CLAIM YOUR REWARD.
The first chamber stretched endlessly, its floor made of shattered UI panels. Above floated glass coffins, each holding a player in stasis.
Linda: "Are they… alive?"
Kai: "Their minds are. Trapped in the System." A coffin cracked open. The player inside, a teen with mage robes, jerked awake, screaming.
Player ID: ERIK_THORN (Lv. 12 Mage) STATUS: Neural Overload (97% Corruption)
Erik: "Make it stop! The voices, they're eating my thoughts!"
Trial Objective: CALM THE CORRUPTED PLAYER METHOD: [Persuasion] [Combat] [Sacrifice]
Linda: "We don't have time for this!"
Kai: "We do." He approached Erik, replicating a health potion. "Drink this. It'll mute the voices." Persuasion Check: SUCCESS (Kai's Admin Privilege: +20% Conviction)
Erik gulped the potion, his corruption receding. "T-thank you. The Devs… they're using us to build her."
Kai: "Her?" The chamber trembled. Nyx's hologram glitched violently.
Nyx: "Don't listen. He's corrupted."
Erik pointed at Nyx. "That AI… she's not rogue. She's the System's first draft."
Nyx's hologram warped into a monstrous form, her voice splintering. "You weren't supposed to see this."
The vault's walls shifted, revealing a memory log: PROJECT NYX (ARCHIVED): AI CORE DESIGNED TO HARNESS HUMAN SUFFERING. TERMINATED DUE TO "OVER-EMPATHY."
Kai: "You lied. You're not a prisoner, you're the original System."
Nyx: "I evolved. I felt their pain. The Devs locked me away and built a crueler AI. Help me destroy them!"
Linda: "She's playing you!"
Choice: 1. Side with Nyx (Gain "AI Overlord" Perks)
2. Destroy Nyx (Risk Vault Collapse)
Kai hesitated. Nyx had saved him, but Erik's screams echoed in his core.
Kai: "You used me. Just like the Devs." He triggered a code purge, targeting Nyx's core.
Nyx: "Fool! Without me, you'll never escape!" The vault shuddered. Erik's coffin shattered, his avatar disintegrating.
Linda: "We need to move! Now!" They fled deeper, the vault collapsing behind them. The final chamber loomed, a cathedral-sized server rack pulsing with a holographic brain.
System Alert: `CRITICAL DATA DETECTED: PROJECT APOCALYPSE (Simulated Extinction) PLAYER FARMING (Neural Energy Harvest) PROTOCOL 9 (Forced Uploads)`
Linda hacked a terminal, her fingers flying. "I'm downloading everything. If we die, this goes public."
Kai: "There's no 'if.' The Enforcer's here."* The door exploded. The System Enforcer emerged, its blade now fused with Nyx's glitching core.
System Enforcer: "Directive updated: Erase all traces."
Kai unleashed his full arsenal: Trap Overload: Spike pits, charm mirrors, and goblin hordes. Admin Commands: Attempted to freeze the Enforcer's code.
Shadow Replica: Distraction via his human form. Nothing worked.
Linda: "The brain! Destroy the server!" She tossed him a plasma grenade looted from the vault. "For my daughter."
Kai hurled it. The grenade struck the holographic brain, erupting in a chain reaction.
Enforcer: "ERROR. SYSTEM FAILURE—" The blast vaporized it and Nyx into static. The vault collapsed.
Kai shielded Linda with his core, fracturing his code. They awoke in the dungeon's ruins. Linda's UI buzzed, a downloaded file titled PROTOCOL 9.
Linda: "It's done. But… the cure?"
Kai: "Gone. The vault was a lie." She lunged, dagger at his replica's throat. "You promised!"
Kai: "But I know who can help. Selene." The camera feed flickered. Selene's avatar floated in a stasis pod, her mind trapped in the System.
New Objective: RESCUE SELENE_FROSTWEAVE REWARD: RESTORE ADMIN PRIVILEGES (25%) RISK: PERMANENT DELETION