[Jay – 1:22 minutes remaining on Dreamer’s Lock]
The air was quiet—but not peaceful.
Jay sat atop the broken rooftop, arms behind his head, legs stretched out like he was on summer vacation. But inside?
A war raged. Not of swords or spells—but of concepts.
[System Timer: 00:01:38]
[Dreamer’s Lock holding]
[Warning: Unregistered Echo detected]
He cracked one eye open.
Floating just outside the boundary of his Lock—a ripple. A silhouette. No—a paradox. Not light, not dark. Not even real, not yet.
The universe hiccupped.
"You’re early," he murmured.
The ripple spoke. No voice. Just presence.
❝You disturb the order. Sleepwalkers should not dream.❞
Jay’s lazy smile twitched.
"Oh. So you’re that guy."
[Rei – Internal System: Error Recovery]
His body ached. Not with pain—but with friction. Like his existence was rubbing against something that rejected it. Jay’s power—his Lock—was keeping everything stable, but Rei’s system was still glitching.
And worse... he remembered something.
Something he wasn’t supposed to.
The name that had flickered into his HUD moments ago.
[Memory Thread: ∆NULL-01]
[Reconstructing Identity File...]
Jay stood before a being outside the System, and Rei’s instincts screamed—run. But something deeper held him rooted.
A child’s voice echoed in his corrupted mind:
"If they dream outside the rules...
then what makes a rule real?"
The ripple took form.
Not completely. More like a sketch. A suggestion. Like if a god had been erased and only its memory still lingered.
❝Your thoughts warp reality. Your laziness pollutes structure.
You should not exist.❞
"I’ve heard worse from my homeroom teacher."
Behind him, the Purifier twitched again.
The ripple glared at it—and it bowed.
Rei’s system caught the term:
[Entity Class: PROTO-ROOT]
[Alias: The First Dreamer]
[Relation: Creator of the Pathless Thread]
[Status: Sealed / Awakening]
[Jay – final 20 seconds]
"Let me guess," Jay said, still bored, "you’re the reason this whole system exists. Or got rewritten. Or broke. Or whatever nonsense Rei’s been muttering in his sleep."
❝I am the first paradox. The one who broke the sky to breathe.
You follow my footprint—without permission.❞
Jay’s eyes opened fully.
For once... no drowsiness. Just steel.
"You made the system to stop dreamers."
❝No. I made the system...
A cold chill spread through the rooftop.
[Jay – 00:00:03... 00:00:02...]
He glanced up at the sky.
Then back at the entity.
"Then let’s do this right."
[NEW THREAD FORGED: "Dreamwalker Path"]
[Anchoring Conflict to Parallel Layer]
[Dreamer’s Lock Transferring Authority...]
And the ripple faltered.
❝...You can’t pass it to him. He is unstable.❞
"Exactly. He’s perfect."
—and the rooftop vanished in a pulse of fragmented light.
[Rei – Perspective Override]
[YOU HAVE BEEN MADE: INTERLOCUTOR OF DREAM]
[WARNING: MEMETIC INFECTION FROM "FIRST DREAMER" POSSIBLE]
[Countermeasure: Jay Sama’s Thread Gifted]
[Integration: 11%...]
Through dreams, timelines, concepts, broken code, and stolen memories.
And at the end of it all... f r\eew,eb novel.c(o)(m)
A boy stood in white, facing him.
But someone with his eyes.
His laziness—infinitely older.
"Welcome to the corridor," the boy whispered.
"We’ve been waiting."