The stone corridor opened into a vast canyon of shattered code. Floating chunks of land drifted lazily through the air, some glowing, others broken. In the distance stood a city—towers warped by time, neon veins running through walls, bridges defying gravity.
> Zone Reached: NEXOS – The Abandoned System City
> System Sync: 24%
> Warning: Hostile AI Detected
Kazen stepped forward, eyes locked on the city. He passed through a shimmering gate. A wave of static brushed over him—cold and sharp.
Inside, the city was quiet.
Too quiet.
Shattered data signs blinked with phrases like "ERROR 503," "UPDATE FAILED," and "USER DISCONNECTED." It felt like walking through a dead internet. He moved carefully between buildings, hand near the glowing mark on his arm where the Soul Drive symbol burned faintly.
He found something unexpected—a child.
Or at least, something that looked like one.
The small figure sat alone near a cracked terminal, humming.
Kazen approached slowly. "Hey… you okay?"
The child looked up. Its eyes were empty sockets with lines of floating code inside. "You are… not corrupted," it said.
"I guess that's a compliment," Kazen muttered.
"You have the Rewrite Flame," the child said. "That means… maybe you can fix us."
"Who are you?"
The child blinked. "I'm just a Patch."
> New Entity Detected: Patchling v0.7
> Role: System Assistant (Beta)
> State: Fragmented
"Patch," Kazen said. "Do you know who built this place?"
The Patchling pointed toward the tallest tower. "The Architect used to live there. But he disappeared after the Reset."
"What's the Reset?"
"The day the gods broke the rules."
Before Kazen could ask more, a tremor shook the street. Then a robotic howl.
From the shadow of a nearby building, four-legged machines emerged—rusted, jagged, glowing red.
> Enemies: Corrupted Crawlers – Level 6
> Weakness: EMP-Type Attacks
Kazen activated Code Rewrite.
> Edit: [Magnetic Field - Increase x5]
> Area: 10m radius
> MP Cost: 33
The crawlers twitched and sparked violently. One exploded immediately. Kazen charged the rest with Soul Drive active, moving like lightning.
> Critical Hits
> XP Gained: +390
> Level Up: 5 → 6
When the dust settled, the Patchling floated toward him.
"You can do it," it whispered. "You can fix what they broke."
Kazen stared at the cracked tower of the Architect. Whatever truths were hidden in this system world… they were inside that tower.
And he was going to reach them, no matter how broken the path was.