That’s what woke him.
Rei blinked slowly, his eyes dry, as if he’d been dreaming inside a dream. But this wasn’t the soft, surreal drift of slumber.
This was the distorted heartbeat of something trying to die.
He sat up, bones creaking like cracked data. Around him, the once-majestic Core Archive—the mind-world where he’d once seen the truth—was falling apart.
The sky above wasn’t a sky anymore. It was a broken projection of code, glitching like a scratched vinyl record. The ground beneath him shimmered like water... and smelled like static.
"I’m not supposed to be here," he muttered.
And the Archive remembered.
Ghosts of memories flickered around him:
Jay laughing in the cafeteria.
Jay sleeping in class.
The scenes replayed like corrupted files, phasing through the crumbling air.
Rei stood, wincing. His feet echoed against nothing. He reached for his pocket, fingers brushing against a familiar object—
The broken classroom bell key. A fragment of the Dream Layer he’d held onto.
He clutched it tight.
I reset everything... didn’t I?
But something had gone wrong.
Jay... should’ve been safe.
Rei turned, and saw the Central Archive Core. It once looked like a massive crystal spire, full of ordered dreams and stabilized memories. Now it resembled a fractured tree, roots hanging in midair, leaking black strands of regret.
From its center pulsed a familiar signature.
Faint. Flickering. But alive.
"You idiot," Rei said, half-laughing, half-breathless. "You came back."
[ALERT: Phantom Core Breach Detected] f|ree(w)ebn\o.vel.com
[Warning: Anchor Jay Kazuo engaged in Identity Collapse]
[System Lockdown Failing]
They’re rejecting him.
Trying to erase him like they almost erased me.
He gritted his teeth.
His boots hit the glitching floor as he broke into a run.
As the path warped and twisted beneath his steps, echoes whispered:
"You were forgotten."
"You weren’t chosen."
"You’re just a reset code in human skin."
Far above, the Archive sky flickered again. Something massive moved in the mist—like a machine made of silence.
And for a moment, Rei felt it.
Watching both him and Jay.
Something that hadn’t stirred in centuries.
[Observer Node Online: ???]
Rei’s eyes narrowed as he sprinted toward the collapsing core.
He didn’t care what gods or systems watched.
This time, he wasn’t waking up without his friend.