Chapter 7: Checking it Himself
923 Words
A lone man walked through the ruins, shattered homes, broken walls, and silence heavy in the air. In the distance, he caught sight of something unusual, a faint mist clinging to the ground and a pulse of purple light flickering through the frost.
In the next instant, he vanished, only to reappear at the source of the light. Kneeling, he extended a hand, grasping the glow as if it were tangible. Slowly, deliberately, he began to absorb it.
The light surged as he absorbed it, faint whispers echoing in his mind... fragments of data, broken memories, lost voices from the battlefield. One, in particular, made him pause.
He froze, eyes narrowing beneath the haze. “That presence again…” he muttered under his breath. “It can’t be—”
The purple glow flickered out, leaving only silence and the sound of wind sweeping through the ruins.
"No... he died a long time ago. It can't be his son… can it?" the unknown man muttered, his voice low, uncertain... almost shaken.
> System: Traces of recent events detected. Virtual replay available. Do you wish to proceed?
He straightened, dust scattering from his cloak as his eyes began to glow faintly, flickering in rhythm with the purple light beneath his boots.
"Yes," he said coldly. "Show me everything."
The world around him distorted. From the mist, two figures formed, spectral projections moving through the air like memories. One bore the insignia of the Sovereign Guild; the other, a young man holding an ancient wand pulsing with impossible energy.
"The captain..." he whispered, narrowing his gaze. "The one who unleashed Frost Veil and froze the entire zone… and that boy… who is he?"
> System: That boy is a player, the one who wields an ancient staff… the one who unleashed the purple flickering light.
The words froze him. For a moment, everything inside him stopped, his breath, his thoughts, his will. His eyes widened, then slowly shut as his hand trembled into a fist.
Fear. Sadness. Recognition.
He drew a deep breath, exhaled heavily, and straightened his posture. The softness in his face vanished, replaced by the resolve of someone burdened by truth.
"System," he said, voice low but firm, "we’re heading that way. Track their path and guide me."
> System: As you wish.
He walked through the projection of the system... and in the blink of an eye, he vanished.
To where Kyle and the Captain are…
They moved through a jungle deep within the Broken Zone, far from any safezone’s protection. Sunlight slipped between the towering trees, scattering gold across their path. For the first time in what felt like ages, the air was calm, no monsters, no System warnings, only the quiet songs of unseen birds echoing through the mist.
It was a peace that felt borrowed.
“How long have I been out, Kyle? And how long was I frozen?” the Captain asked, glancing at him as they walked side by side.
“You’ve been frozen for at least a week, Captain,” Kyle said, his tone gentle. “No one dared to touch you. Even the glitches respected your presence.”
“Respect?” The Captain stopped, voice rising with disbelief. “For what! killing my entire squad!?”
Kyle turned to him, eyes steady but sad. “No… for sacrificing yourself. You gave two of your men a chance to live. Even the enemies here knew what that meant.”
The Captain’s expression softened into silence. They continued walking, the forest whispering around them. Between the branches, fragments of sunlight shimmered like dying embers.
“So…” he muttered at last, forcing a faint smile. “This place still remembers honor after all.”
Kyle chuckled softly at the captain’s remark, though his gaze lingered on the distant canopy. “Yeah… even glitches seem to understand the meaning of balance. This jungle—” he gestured at the glowing mist weaving through the trees “—it’s like the System’s forgotten corner. Quiet, but still alive.”
The captain brushed a hand against the bark of a silver-veined tree, its pulse faintly syncing with his own heartbeat. “Alive, you say… or just pretending to be?”
Kyle didn’t answer. The stillness felt heavier now. The chirping stopped. The wind froze mid-breath.
Then, in that fragile silence, a faint tremor rippled beneath their feet.
Leaves began to fall, slowly at first, then spiraled upward against gravity. The air shimmered, bending like glass under pressure.
Kyle looked up. “It’s starting again, Captain.”
The captain clenched his jaw. “The System… it’s rewriting this zone.”
And in a blinding surge of light, the jungle folded in on itself, turning serenity into chaos.
"So, Kyle... this is the Broken Zone—the very core itself," the captain said, his eyes scanning the trembling air around them. "It’s like data, a line of code. Once a data is corrupted, it gets deleted, and rewritten. Sometimes renewed, sometimes replaced. It’s... alive, in its own way."
The ground pulsed faintly beneath them. Then, everything glitched, trees flickering into pixelated static, the horizon bending like broken glass.
In the blink of an eye, the forest vanished.
Kyle gasped as his body shot upward, suspended tens of thousands of feet in the sky. Wind roared in his ears.
"What the he—!" he shouted, gripping his wand, his mana surging as he stabilized midair.
"Kyle! Look down!" the captain yelled, his voice cracking with disbelief. “Are those... orcs?!”
- Writer
