The teleport ring hummed around Kim, flooding his vision with light. In the blink of an eye, Aetherion vanished—and he stood at the base of a shattered tower rising into a black, storm-wracked sky. The air was cold here. Unsettling. Wind howled like a warning. This was Fracture Spire, one of Eden Zero's most unstable zones.
The system prompt was immediate:
> Caution: Fracture Spire is under corruption. Terrain may be unstable. Visual and audio anomalies are expected.
Recommended Party Size: 3–5
Proceed?
Kim ignored the warning and stepped forward.
The tower looked like a twisted monument, half of it floating in midair—huge stone pieces orbiting the spire like moons. Pathways connected and disconnected at random, glitching in and out. Gravity here wasn't entirely trustworthy. Neither was time.
He took a deep breath and began the climb.
The first floor was disorienting. Stairs bent sideways. Doors led back to where he started. Mobs spawned without sound, and their HP bars flickered. The environment shifted whenever he looked away—walls cracking, floors rearranging themselves. But he adapted. He fought slowly, carefully, watching not just enemies but reality itself.
Halfway up, the tower glitched again. A wall vanished, revealing a broken hallway of floating tiles. He sprinted across, leaping from one unstable platform to the next, while chunks of the dungeon tried to reassemble mid-air beneath him.
Then he heard it.
A whisper. Not mechanical. Not AI-generated.
> "...You shouldn't be here..."
Kim froze.
The voice was Luna's. But distorted, like it had been torn from a corrupted file. It wasn't coming through the system chat. It was embedded in the world. He spun in place, searching for the source—but there was no one there.
Then the lights in the spire went dark.
System alert:
> Error: Lighting Node Failure. Recalibrating visual assets...
A red pulse surged through the tower, followed by laughter. Luna's laugh.
Kim gritted his teeth. "Luna? Is that you?"
No reply. Just silence—and the sound of a sword unsheathing.
From the shadows emerged the Spire Guardian. It wore silver armor covered in cracks, and its helmet was shaped like a crescent moon. Kim's heart skipped.
It looked exactly like her.
Not her player model—but close. The same posture. The same faint glow in its eyes. Its weapon shimmered with the same style she used that night months ago.
"Who are you?" he asked.
The guardian didn't answer. It raised its blade and charged.
Kim barely dodged in time. The force of the strike sent debris flying. This boss wasn't a normal AI. It adapted quickly, countering his movements, anticipating his attacks. Every time it struck, it spoke in broken lines—voice clips from Luna's old dialogue.
> "...You're not ready…"
"...Why did you follow me…"
"...Go back…"
Kim's mind raced. Was she inside the game now? Was this boss a copy? Or was the game becoming her?
He fought harder, angling around, waiting for patterns to break. But there were none. The fight wasn't scripted. It was reactive. Organic.
And then he saw it—just for a split second.
When he parried one of her slashes, her eyes flickered. Not code. Not light. Emotion.
Tears.
He hesitated—and paid for it. The guardian knocked him across the platform, his HP bar plunging. Kim groaned, crawling to his feet.
"I don't care what you are," he said, breathing hard. "I'll keep climbing until I find you. Even if I have to fight through a thousand ghosts."
With a roar, he charged—and this time, he didn't hesitate.
The battle ended in a flash of light. The guardian shattered into glowing shards, vanishing into the storm. Kim dropped to one knee, gasping. He waited for the XP alert.
It didn't come.
Instead, a message appeared:
> No XP Gained. No Items Received.
You were not supposed to be here yet.
Return to your rank, or suffer the consequences.
Kim's vision blurred. The tower trembled. A shockwave hit him—and the world turned white.
He woke up at the base of the spire again, health nearly gone, inventory half-wiped. A system warning blinked in the corner of his screen:
> System anomaly detected. Data rollback triggered.
You have violated progression protocol.
Next violation will result in permanent lockout.
Kim stared at the sky.
So the game was watching him.
And it didn't want him finding her.