The coin pulsed.
Not like a menu icon or a notification. I mean it literally pulsed — a soft, rhythmic glow that throbbed with light every few seconds, like a heartbeat in my palm.
The system message had been vague:
Twilight Coin Active.
Hidden Market entrance unlocked for the next 10 minutes.
Location: Dawn's Hollow (beneath the east fountain).
That was it.
No quest marker. No directions. Just a countdown and a creepy blinking trinket.
Naturally, I grabbed my crew.
"We're going underground?" Aiko asked, twirling a dagger between her fingers. "That sounds sketchy. I'm in."
Sera just nodded. "Markets like that usually carry illegal modifiers."
Brutus looked up from the sandwich he was holding. "I'm sorry—did you say illegal? Like, cheat codes?"
"No," I said. "Like gear that shouldn't exist yet. Items pulled from future updates or event rewards that never went live."
He blinked. "Still sounds like cheating."
"Only if we get caught."
He choked on his sandwich.
Dawn's Hollow was a low-level town on the outskirts of the starting continent. Most players ignored it after hitting level 10 — no fast travel, no good loot, and zero PvP zones. Basically, a dead corner of the map.
Which made it the perfect hiding spot.
We arrived just before midnight server time. The place was empty, except for a sleepy blacksmith NPC and a goat that kept ramming a barrel outside the general store.
"I don't see anything 'hidden,'" Aiko muttered, peering around.
I held up the coin. Its glow intensified near the east fountain — a small stone basin that looked more like a birdbath than a secret portal.
I stepped closer.
The air shimmered.
A message appeared above the water:
Access Granted – Hidden Market Portal Active
Time Remaining: 03:58
"Here we go," I said, and stepped in.
The world twisted.
I blinked and found myself standing in a massive cavern lit with floating lanterns and bio-luminescent moss. The ceiling stretched high overhead, dripping with crystals that hummed softly. Dozens of stalls lined the curving paths, each one manned by cloaked figures or strange NPCs I'd never seen before.
"Whoa," Brutus whispered, appearing beside me. "This place smells like… incense and sin."
Aiko materialized with a grin. "Now this is my kind of shop."
Sera appeared last, gaze sweeping across the stalls. "Half these vendors aren't in the base game."
"Exactly," I said. "That's the point."
The Hidden Market wasn't supposed to exist — not officially. It was rumored in the old forums, usually dismissed as a myth or a dev experiment gone rogue. But here it was.
And it was glorious.
One vendor sold scrolls with corrupted enchantments: +5 stats… but a chance to backfire.
Another offered "glitched" mounts — creatures that didn't follow map physics. A raptor that could run across lava. A beetle that ignored collision detection.
But what caught my eye was the Archivist.
He stood behind a crooked stall covered in scrolls, memory shards, and fragments of in-game cutscenes. His name tag simply read:
𝕋𝕙𝕖 𝔸𝕣𝕔𝕙𝕚𝕧𝕚𝕤𝕥
I approached cautiously. "You selling story?"
He nodded. "And secrets. Some lost. Some stolen. Some… borrowed from timelines that never were."
My heart skipped.
Timeline.
He knew.
"You've seen players like me before," I said quietly.
He tilted his head. "You mean dreamers who remember the past while shaping the present?"
I nodded.
"Yes," he said, "though most burn out before they reach this place."
"Why?"
"Because they try to change everything at once."
He picked up a memory shard — a small, glowing crystal — and held it out to me.
"This," he said, "is from the beta timeline. A cut questline removed before launch. It leads to an ancient guild ruin beneath Blackspire Canyon. No one remembers it exists… except you."
I reached for it.
But his fingers tightened.
"There's a cost."
"Of course there is."
"Not gold," he said. "Stories must be traded for stories. Show me a moment — something real. A truth you lived."
A window popped up.
Offer memory?
[Yes] [No]
Against every instinct, I clicked Yes.
A rush hit me.
Suddenly I was back — not in the game, but in that final match of the Apex Tournament. My old guild screaming in voice chat, spells flying, health bars dropping. And Zayn — RazorValor — standing still in the middle of the chaos, not casting a single spell. Just watching.
Then the memory snapped.
I was back in the Hidden Market, breath short.
The Archivist looked at me with something like pity.
"Betrayal," he said. "A potent currency."
He handed me the shard.
New Quest Unlocked: Echoes of the Forgotten
Location: Blackspire Canyon
Objective: Discover the Ruins of the First Guild
Reward: Unknown
Sera appeared at my side. "You okay?"
"Yeah," I lied.
"What did you get?"
"Something buried."
Aiko returned, arms full of rogue gear she definitely didn't need.
Brutus was still inspecting a floating battle spoon.
"I think this is cursed," he said.
"Then don't lick it," I replied.
We regrouped near the portal.
But before we left, the Archivist spoke again.
"Be careful, EchoPrime. Not all secrets want to be remembered."
And then we were gone.
Back in Dawn's Hollow, standing around a fountain that now looked just like any other.
Brutus yawned. "Well, that was weird and vaguely illegal."
Aiko grinned. "Weirdly legal, I think."
Sera nudged me. "You're quiet."
"Just thinking," I said. "We're about to start something big."
She nodded. "Then we'd better be ready."
Because once we entered Blackspire Canyon, there would be no more warm-ups.
Only truth.
And maybe a little revenge.