Kei opened his eyes and instantly knew something was wrong.
The air smelled like ash.
The sky was a loop — flickering between night and day like a dying lightbulb.
He wasn't in the corridor anymore.
He was in a battlefield... but one frozen in time.
Warriors locked mid-strike. Blood hanging in the air like floating glass. Buildings half-collapsed, suspended as if someone had hit "pause" on the universe.
And then he saw it—
Himself.
Fighting.
No — a version of him. Same face, same jacket… but different energy. This Kei was faster, deadlier, with glowing circuit-like markings across his neck and arms. His eyes were lit with deep blue fire.
Neuromancer power.
Kei watched, hidden in the timestream.
The enemy this other version fought was monstrous — a cybernetic creature stitched with ancient armor, shifting through timelines with each move.
Kei felt a strange pain behind his eyes.
The memories were trying to flood back.
This battle—he'd fought it. But it had been erased.
Someone — or something — had deleted it from time.
And now, the system was leaking fragments back into him.
> [Memory Echo Restored: The Forgotten Battle — 12%]
The world around him glitched.
The warrior Kei and the enemy clashed again — light exploding like thunder. And then, in a blink—
The cybernetic enemy turned and looked at Kei.
The real Kei.
"You shouldn't be here yet," the creature growled.
"The Neuromancer awakens too early."
The battlefield started collapsing like broken code. Fire turnedtobluedata. People into numbers.
Kei felt something burn into his hand — a symbol.
Not of time. Not of power.
But a lock.
A memory seal.
And the enemy's final words before vanishing:
"You can't outrun what you erased."
Back in the real timeline, Kei jolted awake — back in a dark room, breath ragged.
On the wall behind him, the number 22 glowed in red.
The next door.
And on his palm, the seal still remained—pulsing.