The message blinked in midair like a heartbeat:
[NEW PLAYER DETECTED: USERNAME — ZERO.]
Kaito stared at it, disbelief tightening his chest.
"That's impossible," he muttered. "Eclipse servers were shut down three years ago. No one should be able to connect."
"And yet," Airi said softly, floating beside him, "this user is active. Signal strength: 100%."
"Where?"
"Northern Zone. The Frozen Archives. Estimated distance: 15 kilometers."
Kaito groaned. "Of course it couldn't be somewhere close."
He swiped the notification away and glanced over the glitching horizon. Shards of floating terrain hovered like islands, glowing code raining between them like fireflies.
"So, someone else is here," he muttered. "Question is — player, hacker, or ghost?"
"Perhaps all three," Airi said cheerfully.
Kaito sighed. "Thanks for the optimism, Cortana 2.0."
"My name is Airi."
"And you're a smartass program."
"I was designed by you."
"...Okay, fair."
The first step in rebuilding the world was figuring out how anything worked.
Kaito opened the World Editor (Beta) again, testing its limits. The menu flickered, then stabilized.
Rebuild Zone: 2% functional
Spawn Object: Error
Modify Code: Restricted
He tried a smaller command this time.
"/spawn path_block.stone"
The ground in front of him flickered, then formed a crude pixel path that led toward the floating archipelago of ice.
[PATH CREATED SUCCESSFULLY.]
He grinned. "Okay, that's progress. Airi, if I fall off this bridge, do I respawn?"
"Respawn function unavailable. You will die permanently."
"Good talk."
The journey across the broken world was eerily beautiful.
Every few steps, the landscape shifted from grassy plains to glowing wireframes, then back again. Trees glitched between real and holographic, their leaves streaming like data packets into the wind.
Once, he passed what looked like a half-frozen NPC town — silent, unmoving figures standing mid-animation, eyes blank.
"Frozen code," he murmured, touching one of them. The NPC's face flickered, muttering a corrupted line of dialogue:
"Wel…come… back… Ad…min…"
Then it turned to static and collapsed.
Kaito's stomach tightened. This wasn't just a broken game. It was a graveyard.
By the time he reached the edge of the Frozen Archives, the temperature had dropped. Breath misted in the air, and snowflakes made of code drifted lazily from a sky that couldn't decide whether it was night or day.
Massive crystal structures jutted out from the ground, glowing faintly — frozen data vaults.
"This place used to store player memories," Kaito said, gazing around. "Back when the devs wanted to make emotional AI NPCs."
"Then why was it abandoned?" Airi asked.
"Because they started remembering things they shouldn't."
The AI floated closer, her expression softening. "Master, this Zero user—"
"Yeah, yeah. I know." He scanned the area. "Show me their location."
Airi projected a holographic map. A red dot pulsed deep inside one of the ice structures.
He crept closer. The halls of the archive were lined with mirrors of ice — but not normal mirrors. These showed people.
Snapshots of old players frozen mid-battle, mid-laughter, mid-death.
Kaito caught a glimpse of himself — his old avatar, Rendark the Shadow Coder — trapped in one of the reflections, smirking like a ghost.
"Creepy nostalgia trip, ten out of ten," he muttered.
"Master," Airi whispered, "I detect energy movement ahead."
They rounded a corner.
And there — standing in the middle of a massive crystal chamber — was a figure.
A tall young man in dark armor, face hidden under a broken mask, holding a sword that shimmered like corrupted light. His eyes glowed faintly red beneath the visor.
[USER: ZERO — LEVEL UNKNOWN]
[DATA INTEGRITY: UNREADABLE]
Kaito raised a hand cautiously. "Hey! You! You're not supposed to be here!"
The figure turned his head slowly. His voice was metallic, glitched, but… human.
"Admin account detected."
"Yeah, that's me. Name's Kaito. I kind of run this broken world."
"Impossible," Zero said flatly. "The Admins are dead."
"Guess I missed the memo."
The stranger raised his sword. "Then I'll delete you myself."
"Whoa, whoa! Hold on!"
Too late. Zero lunged forward with inhuman speed. Kaito barely rolled aside, sparks flying as the sword sliced the ground.
"Friendly, huh?" Kaito hissed. "Airi, what level am I?"
"Level: None. You are a conceptual being without combat stats."
"Translation: I'm screwed."
"Correct."
Zero swung again, and Kaito ducked — the blade slicing through a column, shattering it into glowing shards.
"Okay, fine!" Kaito yelled, throwing up his hands. "/delete_enemy—"
[ERROR: COMMAND RESTRICTED IN PROTECTED ZONE.]
"Protected zone?!"
"The Frozen Archives are shielded from Admin interference," Airi said calmly.
"Of course they are!"
He sprinted backward, diving behind a broken pillar as Zero stalked closer. The air hummed with static, each step sending ripples of corrupted code across the floor.
"Listen," Kaito shouted, "I don't know who or what you are, but if we're both stuck here, we might as well talk before the existential murder starts!"
Zero paused. His glowing eyes flickered.
Then, quietly, he said, "You shouldn't be here."
"Yeah, well, tell that to my caffeine overdose."
A flicker of confusion crossed Zero's masked face. "You are… human?"
Kaito peeked out. "Last I checked. You?"
Zero didn't answer. He simply lowered his sword slightly. "If you are human, then you are in danger. This world is dying."
Kaito raised an eyebrow. "Thanks, I noticed. Kind of hard to miss the sky melting."
Zero looked up at the fractured horizon. "The Core is unstable. The system has begun rewriting itself. Soon, nothing will remain — not even you."
"Master," Airi whispered urgently, "I am detecting severe instability in this area."
Kaito's HUD blinked red.
[WARNING: WORLD FILE 'ARCHIVE_ZONE_3' IS COLLAPSING.]
"Oh, come on!" Kaito yelled. "I just got here!"
The walls of ice began to crack, releasing blinding streams of blue light. Zero's eyes widened. "The Core's awakening."
A massive shockwave tore through the chamber, flinging Kaito backward.
For a moment, everything went white.
When he opened his eyes, he was lying in the snow outside, gasping. Airi hovered over him, flickering.
"Master, are you functional?"
"Define functional," Kaito groaned, sitting up. "What the hell just happened?"
"The Frozen Archives self-purged. The data core reinitialized and expelled us both."
He turned toward the ruins. The entire structure was collapsing into light — and Zero was gone.
"Did he survive?"
"Unknown. But he left something behind."
Kaito looked down. In the snow beside him lay a small crystal shard, glowing faintly with data streams.
[ITEM OBTAINED: CORE FRAGMENT – ZERO.]
[DESCRIPTION: Contains partial system access key.]
He picked it up, and for a moment, a distorted voice whispered in his mind:
"If you wish to live… reach the System Core."
Kaito shivered. "Well, that's not ominous at all."
"Master," Airi said seriously, "there is more."
"What now?"
"The Core Fragment is rewriting part of your code."
Before he could react, blue light erupted around him, lines of code spiraling across his arms like tattoos.
[NEW PERMISSION GRANTED: MODIFY CODE — 10% FUNCTIONAL.]
He blinked. "Wait. I can edit the world now?"
"Partially," Airi said. "But be careful — the system may see you as a virus."
Kaito grinned. "Let it try. I'm the best damn virus it'll ever meet."
He looked out over the broken landscape, the glowing fragment pulsing in his hand.
Somewhere out there, Zero was still alive. And if what he said was true, this world wasn't just broken — it was alive and trying to erase itself.
"Fine," Kaito muttered, pocketing the shard. "You want a god? You'll get one."
[SYSTEM: QUEST UPDATED — FIND THE SYSTEM CORE.]
[REWARD: FULL ADMIN ACCESS / REBIRTH COMPLETE.]
Airi smiled faintly. "You sound excited."
"Excited? No. Terrified? Absolutely. But if I'm going to die again, I'm doing it with style."
He raised his hand.
"/create motorcycle."
A burst of light, a sputtering sound — and a half-rendered hover bike appeared, missing a wheel.
"…Close enough."
"You're enjoying this too much," Airi sighed.
"Hey," Kaito grinned, climbing on, "if I'm stuck in a broken world, I might as well ride through it like a boss."
And with that, he revved the flickering bike and sped off toward the horizon —
toward the heart of the dying world,
toward the Core.
End of Chapter 2