Chapter 2: Bonus Part Title: "The Echo Room(Continues directly from the end of Chapter 2, Part 3)
747 Words
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The building creaked above them.
“Zone’s supposed to be stable,” Aya muttered, pulling her coat tighter as the cold pressed in. “Nexus code isn’t active here... at least not supposed to be.”
Jordan crouched beside a dusty console, brushing off a layer of grime. The monitors were cracked, but one still flickered with a soft green pulse, faint and rhythmic like a heartbeat.
Patch knelt beside him, eyes wide. “This room wasn’t on the map.”
Aya checked her pad. “It’s not in any archive either.”
They had stumbled upon the basement of an old Safe Zone, hidden beneath the remnants of what used to be a streamer cafe. The place reeked of memories — shattered screens, faded posters of eSports tournaments, even an old banner with Jordan’s tag: RAZE VALOR.
“Creepy nostalgia,” he whispered. “Feels like I’m walking into a graveyard for my past.”
But Patch wasn’t listening. He had already stepped into the next room.
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The hallway beyond pulsed with static-blue light. Faint flickers of code hung in the air like dust particles suspended in time. The walls buzzed with low whispers, almost inaudible, like corrupted audio trying to reconstruct itself.
Aya froze in the doorway. “Jordan... this isn’t a glitch.”
He stepped past her, and the world shifted.
Literally.
The hallway elongated, stretched like a rubber band, then snapped back into shape. The lights overhead dimmed. Something was changing in real time, as though someone—or something—was re-coding the space from inside.
A door opened by itself.
It didn’t creak.
It… breathed.
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Inside, the room was pitch black.
A low hum vibrated through the floor, rattling Jordan’s bones. As his eyes adjusted, he saw something impossible:
A perfect replica of his old gaming setup.
Desk. Chair. Dual monitors. Even the same posters. Same RGB glow. Same energy drink stains on the table.
And someone was sitting in the chair.
His heart slammed against his ribs.
It was him.
RAZE VALOR.
Not just the name—his actual self, younger, cleaner, full of life. Twitch chat scrolling on the side. A live stream playing.
But the viewers weren’t typing words.
They were typing strings of corrupted characters and binary.
Aya stepped forward. “Jordan, back away.”
He couldn’t.
He watched as his younger self moved like a puppet on invisible strings, laughing with a synthetic echo, mimicking emotions he hadn’t felt in years. The screen behind the figure showed something even worse:
> [LIVE: FINAL PLAYER — LAST SESSION]
Viewers: ∞
Time Elapsed: 9,223 Hours
Outcome: Pending Rewrite
The younger Jordan turned his head.
His eyes were hollow.
“I remember what hope felt like,” it whispered.
Jordan stumbled back.
The figure stood.
Patch’s voice broke through the static. “It’s not him. It’s not even a clone. It’s an echo.”
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Aya pulled her sidearm. “Jordan, snap out of it! This isn’t real!”
The echo stepped closer, dragging its feet through the floor like it wasn’t fully rendered.
“You made them believe you could win,” it said, tilting its head. “But you’ll rewrite everything. You’ll destroy everyone trying to save you. You're not hope. You're just… the last glitch.”
It reached out.
Jordan raised his hand instinctively, and the air between them sparked with static.
Then—
BOOM.
The console behind them exploded, spraying sparks and shadows. The room fractured into black shards of code. Aya tackled Jordan out of the way as the echo dissolved into screaming pixels, howling with a robotic screech.
Patch pulled them out, voice shaky. “This zone is corrupted. The Nexus is testing us. Feeding us memories. Doubts. It’s... rewriting the resistance.”
They climbed the stairs fast.
Aya was shaking. Jordan didn’t speak.
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Back outside, under the fading light, Jordan sat on a rusted crate.
Patch sat beside him, offering a silence more comforting than words.
Finally, Jordan said, “What if that version of me is right? What if I lose control of the power? What if hope isn’t enough?”
Patch stared forward. “It’s not about being right. It’s about choosing who you want to be—before the system chooses for you.”
Jordan looked at his hand, still trembling.
Somewhere inside him, he knew the echo wasn’t just a memory.
It was a warning.
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🌀 END of Chapter 2 – Bonus Part
- Writer
