The moment the console died, the tower plunged into an oppressive silence.
The air felt wrong.
Ethan exhaled slowly, gripping his weapon. The hairs on the back of his neck stood on end. Aya tensed beside him, her fingers twitching over the trigger. Player_0001 remained still, unreadable behind his mask.
Above them, something moved.
A slow, deliberate scraping—like claws dragging across metal.
Aya's voice was barely a whisper. "That message… it said something was trapped here."
Ethan's heart pounded.
> The true enemy… is already inside.
The shadows shifted.
Then—
> [SYSTEM ALERT: UNIDENTIFIED ENTITY APPROACHING]
The lights flickered violently.
And in that brief illumination, they saw it.
A figure standing at the far end of the chamber.
Tall. Unnaturally tall.
Its limbs were too long, its form twisted—like a corrupted NPC, but worse. Its face was featureless, save for two empty, glowing voids where its eyes should have been.
It wasn't just broken data.
It was something else.
> [WARNING: DATA UNCLASSIFIED]
[ERROR: ENTITY DOES NOT EXIST]
The figure twitched, then spoke.
> "You shouldn't be here."
Ethan's breath caught in his throat. The voice wasn't robotic like the System's. It was ancient, layered, as if a thousand voices were speaking at once.
Aya took a step back. "That thing just talked."
The figure tilted its head. Slowly. Unnaturally.
> "This place was erased. Forgotten. Yet you trespass... why?"
The shadows around it thickened, moving unnaturally, as if they were alive.
Ethan forced himself to speak. "Who are you?"
The entity laughed.
It was a terrible sound—low, guttural, filled with something inhuman.
> "I was once the Architect of this world."
> "The first Administrator. The one who built the System."
> "Now? I am its ghost."
Ethan's blood ran cold.
Aya swallowed. "The first Administrator? But that means—"
Player_0001's voice was unreadable. "—this was his domain before it was erased."
The entity took a slow step forward. The ground beneath it warped, distorting like a corrupted file.
> "The System was meant to be perfect."
"But perfection is a lie."
Its empty eyes locked onto Ethan.
> "And now... you walk in a place that should not exist."
The shadows lunged.
---
The Battle in the Void
Ethan barely had time to react before dark tendrils erupted from the walls, slamming into them.
The force sent Aya crashing against the terminal, while Player_0001 barely managed to dodge, his cloak fluttering as he leapt back.
Ethan gritted his teeth and swung his blade.
The moment his sword connected with the shadows—it passed through, as if striking smoke.
> No damage.
Aya fired a round directly at the entity's head.
The bullet vanished before impact.
> It's not playing by the System's rules.
Ethan clenched his jaw. "It's not taking damage!"
The figure laughed again, the sound vibrating through the tower.
> "You cannot kill what does not exist."
The shadows surged, wrapping around Ethan's wrist—cold, suffocating. His vision blurred as a horrible whisper crawled into his mind.
> "You are like him."
The voice was inside his head.
> "You fight. You resist. But you do not understand."
Ethan gasped as his health bar flickered. Not decreasing—but glitching.
> It's rewriting me—
Aya screamed. "ETHAN!"
Player_0001 moved with inhuman speed, slamming a glowing sigil against the entity's form.
A burst of golden light erupted, forcing the figure back.
The shadows retreated, releasing Ethan as he stumbled, gasping for breath.
> [SYSTEM WARNING: ADMIN INTERFERENCE DETECTED]
The entity staggered. For the first time, its form wavered— as if Player_0001's attack had actually affected it.
Aya didn't hesitate—she grabbed Ethan's arm and pulled him up.
The figure's head snapped toward Player_0001.
> "Ah... you."
Its voice shifted, growing more distorted.
> "The one who hides behind masks."
"Do you think your title protects you?"
The shadows swirled violently.
> [SYSTEM ERROR: DATA STABILIZATION FAILING]
The tower shook.
Player_0001's voice was calm, but firm. "We're leaving."
Ethan gritted his teeth. "How? That thing just—"
> [EMERGENCY EXIT PROTOCOL OVERRIDE: ACTIVATED]
The room fractured.
The next second—
The world collapsed into darkness.
---
Aftermath: Escape from the Tower
When Ethan's vision returned, they were somewhere else.
A different city. A different zone.
The corrupted buildings of Zone 404 were gone.
Ethan collapsed to his knees, breathing hard.
Aya was shaking. "What the hell just happened?"
Player_0001 exhaled. "The System forcibly ejected us."
Ethan's pulse still pounded. He could still hear that voice in his mind.
> "You are like him."
Aya gritted her teeth. "That thing—was an Administrator."
Ethan clenched his fists. "No. Not just any Administrator."
He looked up, eyes sharp.
> "The first Administrator."
Silence fell.
Aya exhaled. "You mean the guy who built the System?"
Ethan nodded, his thoughts racing.
> He wasn't just an NPC.
He was something else. Something left behind.
Player_0001 turned toward the horizon. His voice was quiet.
> "He's not gone."
Ethan shivered. He knew Player_0001 was right.
That thing wasn't just a memory.
It was watching.
And it wasn't done with them yet.
Whispers in the Code
The air in the new zone was thick with tension.
Ethan's heart was still hammering in his chest. The battle in Zone 404 replayed over and over in his mind—the shadows, the voice in his head, the way reality had warped around the Forgotten Administrator.
> The System rejected us. But not him.
That thing was never supposed to exist, but it does.
Aya paced back and forth, running a hand through her hair. "This is insane. I mean, we've seen broken NPCs, glitched zones, but that? That thing wasn't just some corrupted data—it was alive."
Player_0001 remained silent, staring into the distance. His body was unnaturally still.
Ethan finally spoke. "You knew."
The masked figure turned toward him. "Knew what?"
"About him." Ethan's grip on his sword tightened. "You knew something was inside Zone 404. You knew we weren't supposed to be there."
A pause.
Then—a sigh.
"I suspected," Player_0001 admitted. "But even I didn't know exactly what was waiting."
Aya folded her arms. "Then what do you know?"
Player_0001 looked at them both. "That wasn't just a remnant of the past. That was a piece of the original System. The first layer, before the updates, before the patches—before the Administrators we know today took control."
Ethan frowned. "The first layer?"
"The System we know now," Player_0001 explained, "isn't the original version. It was built on top of something else. And whatever the first System was—it wasn't meant to be seen."
Aya inhaled sharply. "So what you're saying is… the Forgotten Administrator wasn't erased. He was buried."
Ethan exhaled slowly. "And we just dug him up."
---
The Infection Begins
> [SYSTEM ALERT: BACKGROUND PROCESSES UNSTABLE]
Ethan froze as the red System message blinked into existence before his eyes.
Aya's head snapped up. "What was that?"
Ethan's hands trembled. His HUD flickered, lines of unreadable code flashing in the corners of his vision.
Something was wrong.
Then—
> [ERROR: UNKNOWN CODE INTEGRATION DETECTED]
[DATA CORRUPTION: 2%]
Ethan's stomach dropped.
The Forgotten Administrator—it had done something to him.
---
Inside the Code
For a moment, everything faded.
Ethan's vision darkened, and suddenly, he was somewhere else.
A place that wasn't real.
The world around him was glitching, shapes flickering in and out of existence. The sky above was a swirling black void, filled with broken numbers and symbols.
And in the middle of it all—
A throne.
A massive, jagged construct of shifting data, sitting atop a platform of pulsing light.
And on that throne—he sat.
The Forgotten Administrator.
His face remained featureless, but the empty voids where his eyes should have been locked onto Ethan.
> "You are not ready."
Ethan's pulse pounded in his ears. "What did you do to me?"
The figure tilted its head unnaturally.
> "I have left my mark."
"You walk the System as an outsider. But now... you are something else."
Ethan tried to move—but his body wouldn't respond.
> [SYSTEM LOCK: USER RESTRICTED]
> "You resist the System's rules. You break its limits. You were never meant to exist like this, were you?"
The voice grew softer, almost amused.
> "But neither was I."
Ethan clenched his jaw. "What do you want?"
A pause. Then—
> "To see how far you can go before you break."
Ethan's vision shattered.
---
Back in Reality
Ethan gasped as he snapped back into his body.
Aya was gripping his shoulders. "Ethan! Talk to me!"
He blinked rapidly, his HUD still glitching, but stabilizing.
"He's inside the System," Ethan whispered. His throat was dry. "He left something in me."
Aya's face paled. "What does that mean?"
Ethan looked down at his hand. The faintest trace of dark energy flickered across his skin.
Player_0001's voice was unreadable. "It means he's watching."
The Forgotten Administrator wasn't done with him.
Not by a long shot.