Jay had stopped pretending he was okay about ten seconds ago.
The dream-world had always felt like some surreal playground—vivid, weird, but manageable. Something he could understand... or at least sleep through.
The skies above shimmered with cracks. Like glass stretched too far, the clouds fractured, revealing something cold beneath them—an empty grid pattern, like a half-rendered blueprint.
Alicia stood at the edge of the cliffside garden, where Jay had first pulled her into the dream-space. Her long braid danced in slow motion—time was starting to lag.
"Jay," she said quietly. "You feel it too?"
Jay nodded, not even trying to hide the sharp chill rolling down his spine.
"Yeah. Something’s breaking."
He turned toward her. His lazy half-lidded eyes were sharper than usual now. Not panicked—just focused.
Alicia’s fingers curled around the glowing pendant she’d crafted in a prior dream—originally just a symbolic anchor. But now, it pulsed erratically. Like it was screaming silently.
"He’s being attacked. Something wrong is near him."
Jay exhaled, gaze flicking to the cracked horizon. "I felt him slip... like someone else was trying to overwrite him."
He clenched his hand. When he opened it, the familiar blue System HUD shimmered back into view—but it was glitching. Whole menus were missing.
[ERROR: ADMIN PRIVILEGES IN CONFLICT]
[WARNING: NULL SIGNATURE DETECTED]
[SUGGESTION: RETREAT OR CONFRONT]
Jay chuckled dryly. "Helpful as ever, huh?"
Alicia stepped closer, placing a hand on his shoulder.
"Whatever it is... it’s part of the old system, isn’t it?"
"Yeah. I think the system didn’t die. It mutated. And now it wants to reclaim me... through Rei."
Alicia’s brows furrowed. "That’s why reality’s folding. Rei’s the key to your freedom—but if something infects him..."
"It rewrites the whole thing," Jay finished grimly. "Turns this dream into a cage again."
A moment of silence passed between them.
Then Alicia took his hand. Firmly.
"We stop it. Together."
Jay blinked at her. "Since when did you become the reckless one?"
She smirked. "Since the Lazy Genius started acting serious."
Jay sighed. "Touché."
He raised his free hand toward the sky.
The cracks pulsed, sensing his presence.
The System responded with resistance.
But something deeper—older—responded to Jay himself. Not code. Not programming. Something that had always lived inside him.
[ADMIN OVERRIDE: ACCEPTED]
[PASSAGE TO NULL-ZONE AUTHORIZED]
[ANCHORING SECOND USER: ALICIA ELENORA VELDORA]
The world warped around them.
Their surroundings bled into motion blur—then froze—
And across the void... the battlefield of broken code.
Two figures clashed in a spiraling dreamstorm:
Rei, clutching fragments of his truth—
And a dark shadow in Jay’s shape, moving with surgical hatred.
"Time to crash my own party," Jay muttered.