They crossed the invisible boundary in a cautious line, stepping from the trembling edge of the world into something that felt broken. Not in the way of ruins or decay—but like a song played in reverse, or a puzzle with the wrong pieces forced together. The air grew colder, yet thicker, like breathing through silk soaked in oil.
The light changed, too. Not darker, exactly—just wrong. The sun filtered in at odd angles, casting shadows that didn't match the direction of their bodies. Trees with bark like cracked glass stretched overhead, their branches twisting into spirals and claw-like shapes. Some grew upside-down, roots in the air, as if gravity was more of a suggestion here.
The party didn't speak at first. Even MC, for once, kept quiet.
It was Kaela who broke the silence after they passed a cluster of stones shaped eerily like frozen people. "This place is alive," she murmured. "But not in a good way."
Luna stiffened. "System energy… is leaking here. But it's corrupted."
They didn't have time to process that.
The first creature appeared without warning. One moment the path was clear, the next, something crawled out of a puddle that hadn't been there before—a doglike form made of smoke and bones, with eyes that glitched like a screen buffering mid-scream.
Jax tried to sing a spell and accidentally belched fire instead (he'd been sipping from a potion "for confidence"). The fireball hit the monster dead-on, and for a split second it looked like a clean hit—until the creature split in two and reformed behind them.
Iris shouted a time-stopping incantation, freezing it mid-leap. Kira rushed forward, twin daggers glowing, and sliced at its core. The creature shattered like cracked crystal and dissolved into the earth—but its laughter echoed even after it vanished.
"It wasn't alive," Luna said softly. "It was data. Corrupted data running loose in reality."
More followed.
Not in waves, but in fragments—like the Forbidden Zone was testing them. A half-wolf with metal wings. A spider made of mirrored panels that reflected their faces back at them, distorted into grins. A baby, crying, floating five feet above the ground until it opened its mouth and let out a banshee's wail.
MC tried copying one creature's ability, only to turn his legs into literal noodles for five minutes. Lina had to carry him like a sack of potatoes while yelling at him to stop wiggling.
Despite the horrors, they laughed—because that was the only way to not scream.
But the further they went, the more unstable the terrain became. Buildings appeared, whole villages that flickered in and out of existence, ghost towns that replayed the same moment in time over and over like a broken record: a child dropping a toy, a door closing, a lantern tipping and falling—but the fire never catching.
They passed a gate that had no hinges. A bridge made of paper. A lake that reflected stars instead of sky.
Jax started humming a song no one recognized. Luna stared too long at a glitching tree and had to be pulled away before she walked into it.
Then they found it.
A clearing, ringed by statues of hooded figures with no faces. In the center, a pedestal. On it: a glowing orb that pulsed with corrupted System energy, swirling with the same dark hue that had plagued the monsters.
It wasn't a quest reward. It wasn't loot.
It was bait.
And they had just walked straight into the trap.
The ground cracked. The shadows split.
Dozens—no, hundreds—of monsters began pouring out of the trees, glitching into existence like skipped frames in a nightmare.
MC gripped his staff tightly. "So… we fight?"
Kira scoffed, blades raised. "No. We survive."
And just like that, the Forbidden Zone roared to life—and the chaos truly began.
END OF CHAPTER 57