Kazen sat beneath a synthetic sakura tree, the leaves shifting colors with the system's mood. They used to be pink. Now they shimmered in violet—an aftereffect of the void distortion. It wasn't just cosmetic. The system was… remembering something it wasn't supposed to.
He tapped open his hidden system console—the one only observers could access.
> Observer Menu
> Access Level: Partial
> Status: Awakening
His fingers hovered over a blinking prompt.
> Decode Origin Trace?
Before he could touch it, Patchling appeared beside him with a soft blink.
"You saw it too, didn't you?" she asked.
He didn't answer right away. "Yeah."
Rael joined them, carrying three energy rations. "So, what's an Observer-Type exactly? Some kind of admin class?"
Patchling shook her head. "No. It's older than that. It's… pre-system."
Oroth walked in from the forest edge, holding a fractured core crystal. "I found this inside the sealed breach."
The core was cracked but still pulsing. Data leaked from it in waves, and each wave showed flashes of unknown script. Not the system's usual code—but something alive, ancient.
Kazen stared. "That's not part of this version of the game."
"Because this isn't a game anymore," Oroth said. "It's a memory engine."
They all looked at him.
Rael frowned. "What does that even mean?"
"It means the system isn't just controlling reality—it's recreating one it already lived through. Over and over."
Patchling floated closer to the core. "Someone used this world to simulate history. Maybe their own. Maybe someone else's."
Kazen's screen pinged.
> Origin Decoding: In Progress
> Warning: Cross-Timeline Interference Detected
> Estimated Source: User ID 000–Null Root
His heart skipped.
That ID had only shown up once before—on the day he died in the real world.
"Patchling…" he said slowly. "This system—it's not just a second life."
She looked at him, worried. "It's your first, isn't it?"
He nodded.
Then the sky glitched—just once. A single frame flickered, revealing a silhouette watching them from behind the system's interface.
Not a god. Not a player.
Something… between.