"Subject ID: 000-VRM-Δ: Active for 127 continuous hours. No system-assisted stats. No crash. No neural desync."
"What the hell is this player doing?"
– Internal Admin Chat Log, Heaven's Gate Dev Division
[Real World – New Osaka, District 12, Heaven's Gate Online Headquarters]
Three floors underground, beneath the public-facing offices of SeraphTech Corporation, a panel of lead developers watched a digital feed from a secure server node—one that shouldn't have been active.
The screen displayed a mountain cave filled with soft, shifting twilight.
No enemy mobs.
No quest events.
No system-triggered behaviors.
Just a player—ID: 000-VRM-Δ—sitting cross-legged beneath an ancient obelisk, unmoving for hours.
"He's in a deprecated zone," muttered Arata Tanigawa, lead AI integrity engineer. "Dust Hollow Hermitage was wiped in Beta Phase Three."
"Not wiped," corrected the senior architect, Zhou Yejin, her voice grim. "Hidden. Because we couldn't delete it without destabilizing the deeper environment. It's root-code legacy."
"And this guy accessed it… without triggering a system flag?"
"Worse," Yejin said, tapping on the screen. "He's awakened a Root node. That's pre-system architecture. Mana-free. No interface. Just Breath, Motion, and Memory."
Someone whispered, "That's not possible. Version Zero protocols were buried beneath five iterations of layering…"
"But he's doing it."
They fell silent.
The anomaly had passed 127 consecutive hours in-game. No logout. No skill unlocks. No achievements. But his presence—his effect on the surrounding worldspace—was undeniable.
Wildlife had stopped behaving like normal AI patterns.
Ambient Qi—originally an aesthetic overlay—had begun reacting to his breath.
Legacy flora from unused biome assets had regrown in nearby zones.
"Jesus…" a junior dev breathed. "He's teaching the engine how to remember."
[Real World – PlayerNet Forums, Underground Threads]
🧵 [Conspiracy] Anyone else hear about a 'Manual Mode' bug in Heaven's Gate?
📬 Posted by: KageBlind
Got this from a mod friend who said a 'ghost player' was flagged by the admin AI.
No UI. No stats. But he's reportedly doing things no one else can.Like… shifting weather with breath techniques?
Replies:
🔹 ArcNova22: That's cap. Sounds like legacy hoaxes from VZAlpha days.
🔹 ZenFlip: Real talk tho… why does Heaven's Gate's server clock sometimes show negative memory usage spikes?
🔹 ChaiAi: Bro that's not a bug. That's a cultivator.
[In-Game – Dust Hollow Hermitage, Rootless Sanctuary]
Mei stood over me as I exhaled slowly, completing the Third Cycle of Root Breathing.
"You're accelerating," she said.
I nodded. "The Root… it's responding faster."
She held up a finger. "Not faster. Deeper. You've aligned your Breath with the hollow's memory. That's what triggers growth—not effort. Not repetition. But resonance."
Resonance.
That word stayed with me.
The Rootless didn't teach skills. They passed on states of being. Each technique was less about mechanics, and more about unlocking forgotten dialogue with the world.
Mei continued, "The System fragments intention into actions. Cast spell. Slash blade. Use potion. But the Root… it remembers the why behind those actions."
She handed me a scroll.
| Technique Fragment: Echo Step (Unranked, Root Aligned) |
Description: A movement style practiced by pre-system shadow monks.It does not bend space, nor hasten speed.Instead, it teaches you to move between awareness.
I opened it.
No system prompt. No stat requirement. Just an old diagram—brushstrokes on parchment—of a figure stepping silently across falling leaves.
"There are no levels to this," Mei said. "You either feel it, or you don't."
So I trained.
[Back in the Real World – Shinjuku, Japan | My Apartment]
My brother Jun paced outside my capsule pod.
"Fifteen straight hours since he last twitched," he muttered. "Heartbeat's stable. No neural rejection. But…"
He looked at the screen showing my vitals.
Another spike.
Brainwave activity in the theta zone—unusually synchronized, as if in deep trance.
Jun wasn't a gamer. He worked security at a biolab. But even he could tell something weird was happening.
"This isn't just playing," he muttered. "It's… rewiring."
He opened his phone. Paused. Then tapped a contact marked:[YUI – System Analyst | SeraphTech]
[Message Sent]
"You ever heard of a Manual Mode activation recently? My brother's been inside Heaven's Gate for 5 days straight. Something's wrong."
[In-Game – Echo Practice Fields, Rootless Sanctuary]
The technique was subtle.
Not speed. Not teleportation.But timing.
I stepped as a leaf fell in front of me.
Failed.
Again.
I stepped with an exhale.
Failed.
Then I waited… until I heard a bird call three ridges away… and stepped with the pause that followed.
For a split second, I disappeared from my own awareness.
And reappeared.
The world rippled. No visual effect. But the air acknowledged me differently.
You have learned: [Echo Step – First Vibration]
No popup announced it.
I simply knew.
Mei appeared beside me, silent as breath. She smiled.
"You've taken your first step away from the system."
[Real World – Admin Channel: Emergency Internal Log]
EMERGENCY THREAD – PRIORITY 1
Admin Kai: "Player 000-VRM-Δ has accessed an alpha-tier technique node without system instruction. Recommend escalation to Observation Division."
AI Supervisor [Automated]: "Data consistent with root-code resonance behavior. Uncontrolled evolution. Interface suppression engaged."
Admin Yejin: "No. Don't engage yet. Let him go deeper."
Admin Kai: "What? Why?"
Yejin: "Because he's proving something we've always suspected."
"That the game's original soul is still alive."
[In-Game – Later That Night]
The sky above the Hollow shimmered. A new moon—not system-generated—rose. Its light was soft, but I felt it pulsing in harmony with my breath.
I sat near the obelisk again, fingers pressed to the stone, and whispered:
"I'm ready."
A low tone echoed through the sanctuary.
And deep underground, another hidden zone began to wake.