Chapter 2: The System That Hates You
> "Some worlds reject the cure before they recognize the disease."
---
Kairo walked.
Not because he knew where to go—
But because the world kept shifting behind him, closing paths as if it knew he didn't belong.
No minimap. No quest markers.
Just that humming sound.
That low digital growl in the sky.
Something was watching.
The trees whispered in numbers.
Binary ran through the veins of leaves.
Each time Kairo blinked, the forest rearranged—subtly, unnaturally.
As if reacting to his presence.
> [UNREGISTERED ENTITY DETECTED.]
> [SYSTEM PURGE: INCOMING.]
He looked down.
The grass beneath him pixelated, became black ash, vanishing one square at a time.
Something fell from the sky.
No wings. No gravity.
A cube.
Floating.
Silent.
Then—it screamed.
Kairo's knees buckled. Not from volume—
From code.
The scream was made of error messages. A storm of corrupted logic hit him in the chest like a crashing server. Blood ran from his nose. Or… was it code?
The blade appeared in his hand again.
But this time, it was different.
Glitching.
Flickering between forms—sword, chain, symbol, light.
> [Warning: Weapon not supported.]
[Reality may collapse.]
Kairo didn't hesitate. He ran toward the cube.
The world cracked around him.
The trees turned into data streams.
The sky screamed back.
And when he struck—
The cube shattered into a rain of golden letters.
One word floated in front of his face:
> ❝KEY.❞
He reached out.
The moment he touched it, the forest vanished.
---
He stood now in a white room.
Endless. Cold. Still.
A terminal screen blinked in front of him.
On it—only one line:
> "You are not supposed to know this, Kairo."
The system knew his name.
He typed with trembling fingers:
> "Then why do I exist?"
The screen responded instantly:
> "Because the game failed to delete you."
---
Kairo backed away.
The walls began closing in—not physically, but conceptually.
Space itself curled inward.
He wasn't just outside the system anymore.
He was inside something older.
And it remembered him.
---
🌀 Interactive Echo:
> The system tried to erase Kairo… but what if you were the glitch?
Comment what kind of power you'd want to break the rules of your own world.