A City of Survivors
After the brutal initiation, MC was officially accepted into the Fractured Realm—but that didn't mean they were welcome.
The other Anomalies kept their distance, their gazes filled with either suspicion or curiosity. Kain remained the only familiar face, while Nova continued to watch MC like they were a ticking time bomb.
MC spent their first few hours wandering through the city, trying to make sense of this impossible place. Unlike the rigid, sterile environments controlled by the System, the Fractured Realm breathed.
Walls pulsed with strange energy. Buildings folded in and out of existence. Time itself felt unstable, moments stretching and contracting unpredictably. Yet, the people here moved with purpose, unbothered by the chaos.
They had adapted.
MC, however, felt like an intruder.
Then, a new message appeared before their eyes—one different from any they had seen before.
> SYSTEM LOG: LOST DATA DETECTED.
DO YOU WISH TO RECOVER?
MC's pulse spiked. This was not a standard System prompt.
And worse—no one else seemed to see it.
Hesitant, MC reached out and selected YES.
---
The Vision
The moment they confirmed, reality fractured.
The city blurred, dissolving into scattered data, and MC was no longer standing in the Fractured Realm.
Instead, they were in a place they didn't recognize—yet felt hauntingly familiar.
A research facility.
Dimly lit corridors. Screens filled with endless lines of code.
And figures—scientists, programmers, working frantically. Among them, a man stood at the center, his eyes locked onto an unstable stream of energy suspended in midair.
MC's breath caught. They knew this man.
Before they could process how, his voice cut through the vision.
"They made a mistake."
The energy flared—distorting, unraveling. The screens flashed warnings in bright red.
> CRITICAL ERROR. SYSTEM OVERLOAD IMMINENT.
PROJECT: INFINITE SYSTEM—FAILING.
Panic spread through the facility. Scientists ran, alarms blared. The man in the center didn't move, just whispered:
"This isn't how it was supposed to be."
Then, his gaze snapped toward MC.
Their blood ran cold. He could see them.
"You shouldn't be here," he murmured. "But if you are, then that means…"
Before he could finish, the vision shattered.
---
Back to Reality
MC stumbled backward, gasping.
They were back in the Fractured Realm. The city was unchanged, the people still moving as if nothing had happened.
But MC's hands were shaking.
That place—that facility—it was real. And somehow, it was connected to everything: the System, the anomalies, and their own existence.
Kain appeared beside them, frowning. "You okay? You look like you just saw a ghost."
MC swallowed hard. "I think I did."
They didn't know what the vision meant yet. But one thing was clear—
The Infinite System wasn't just a program. It was a mistake.
And now, that mistake was waking up.
Ghosts in the Machine
A Secret No One Remembers
MC's heart was still racing as they sat in one of the many shifting alleyways of the Fractured Realm. Their hands trembled as they tried to process what they had just seen.
The research facility. The man who had looked at them as if he knew them.
And the words that wouldn't leave their mind.
> "The Infinite System was never meant to exist."
That wasn't just some lost piece of data. It was a memory—a fragment of the past the System had buried.
The worst part? No one else seemed to know.
MC glanced around at the anomalies walking through the city, their faces hardened by survival. They had been fighting the System for so long, but did they even know what they were truly fighting against?
They had to tell someone.
But who would believe them?
A familiar voice snapped them from their thoughts.
"You're acting weird."
MC looked up to see Kain standing over them, arms crossed. His usual smirk was gone, replaced by something closer to concern.
"Did something happen?"
MC hesitated. Kain had saved their life—more than once. But that didn't mean they could trust him with something this big.
Then again… what choice did they have?
---
Revealing the Truth
They told Kain everything.
About the System Log, the vision, the facility, and the man who had seen them. They expected skepticism, maybe even laughter.
But Kain's expression darkened as they spoke.
"That… shouldn't be possible," he muttered, running a hand through his hair. "The System wipes out anything it doesn't want us to see. If you accessed a memory like that…"
MC leaned forward. "Then what?"
Kain exhaled. "Then you're in way more danger than you realize."
MC frowned. "I'm already on the System's hit list. What's worse than that?"
Kain gave them a sharp look. "The Eye."
A chill ran down MC's spine. They had heard whispers about the Eye, but no one had given them a straight answer on what it actually was.
"Care to explain?" MC asked.
Kain was quiet for a long moment before finally speaking.
"The System is just the front-facing part of this world—the rules, the structure, the code that keeps everything running." He tapped the side of his head. "But the Eye? That's something else. It doesn't enforce the rules."
His next words sent a shiver through MC.
"It writes them."
---
The Eye's True Nature
MC stared at him. "You're saying the Eye created the System?"
Kain shook his head. "No. I'm saying the Eye rewrote it. And whatever the System was before? It's been erased. Replaced."
MC's mind raced back to the facility, to the man whispering, "This isn't how it was supposed to be."
Had he been talking about the System? Had it been something else before the Eye took control?
Kain continued. "The Eye doesn't just correct errors. It doesn't just erase people. It rewrites reality itself. The only reason we're standing here, free, is because the Fractured Realm exists outside its reach."
MC swallowed hard. "But if the Eye finds us…"
Kain's jaw tightened. "Then we don't just die. We get rewritten. And no one will even remember we existed."
A heavy silence settled between them.
Then, MC asked the question that had been burning in their mind.
"How do we stop it?"
Kain laughed, but there was no humor in it. "You don't. No one does. No one even knows where the damn thing is."
MC clenched their fists. "Then we find it."
Kain's laughter stopped. He looked at them like they had lost their mind. "You're serious?"
MC nodded. "If it rewrote the System, then there has to be a way to undo what it did."
Kain exhaled. "You're insane."
MC smirked. "So are you. Otherwise, you wouldn't have brought me here."
For a long moment, Kain just stared at them. Then, to MC's surprise, he grinned.
"Alright, screw it. You want to find the Eye? Then we're gonna need help."
---
A Dangerous Alliance
Later that night, Kain led MC through the winding paths of the Fractured Realm, past the ever-shifting streets and buildings. The deeper they went, the less stable reality became—walls flickered, space bent in impossible ways.
Finally, they arrived at an old structure unlike the rest of the city. It didn't shift or change. It stood still, solid.
A temple.
MC frowned. "What is this place?"
Kain exhaled. "The one part of the Fractured Realm even we don't mess with."
He pushed open the doors. Inside, torches flickered with unnatural blue flames, casting eerie shadows on the walls. At the center of the temple stood a single figure.
A woman.
Her back was turned, but MC could feel the power radiating from her—something ancient, something… broken.
Kain spoke cautiously. "Nova."
MC blinked. Nova? The same Nova who had nearly killed them on their first day?
Nova turned, her violet eyes flashing in the dim light. "So, you finally grew a spine," she said to Kain before shifting her gaze to MC. "And you. You're already causing trouble."
MC crossed their arms. "You expected anything less?"
Nova smirked. "Fair enough. So, what is it this time?"
Kain glanced at MC before speaking. "We need to find the Eye."
For the first time since they met her, Nova's confident expression faltered.
"…You have no idea what you're asking."
MC met her gaze. "Then enlighten us."
Nova was silent for a long time. Then, she exhaled and turned away.
"You want to find the Eye? Fine." She glanced back over her shoulder, her expression unreadable.
"Then let me show you what happens to those who try."
She raised a hand—and the temple shifted.
The walls around them dissolved, revealing something far worse.
A battlefield.
Bodies—thousands of them—littered the ground. Some human. Some not.
All of them erased.
MC's breath caught in their throat. "This… this is…"
Nova's voice was cold. "The last group that tried to defy the Eye."
The wind howled through the empty ruins.
"Welcome to the remnants of the last rebellion."