Kai couldn't sleep.
The Save Point panel on the wall pulsed in steady blue light, calm and patient like it always had, but something about it felt wrong. Off-beat. Like it was syncing with a rhythm he couldn't hear. Every minute or so, the light dimmed for a fraction of a second too long, like a skipped heartbeat. It wasn't just the color or the light—it was the way the entire room seemed to shift with it, ever so slightly, like the world was inhaling something it shouldn't.
He lay on his back, watching it blink, his thoughts looping endlessly. If the Save Point went fully red, what would that mean? Would it fail to bring him back? Would it erase him mid-respawn? Or worse—trap him in a corrupted loop?
Everything was quiet. But not the kind of quiet you wanted. It was the silence that comes before something breaks. The kind you get in a game when the music cuts out right before a boss appears.
His HUD flickered again.
Save Point Status: Corrupted (17%)
Instability Alert: Persistent
Recommended Action: Restore or Relocate Save Point
He opened the details tab, but it showed the same thing it had the night before.
Access Log: BLOCKED
Shadow Trace: ACTIVE
Observer Status: REDACTED
He stared at the screen. This wasn't just a warning. It was a countdown.
He sat up, pulled on his jacket, and moved toward the door. There were questions the system clearly didn't want him to ask—but someone had to.
The Academy hallways were half-empty at 3:18 AM. No floating banners. No training announcements. Just rows of identical gray doors and low white light that hummed like a loading screen left open too long. It reminded him of the early access games he used to test—unfinished spaces, placeholder art, but underneath it all, a tension you could feel.
Kai moved quietly, every step echoing. His boots touched down with precision. He passed two camera orbs—silent, scanning—but they didn't stop him. Didn't even flicker.
The air felt different here—heavier, like walking through a corrupted save file.
He reached the hallway near the disused systems wing.
The map didn't show this area.
Lira had brought him here once before. Just once. She'd warned him not to return alone. But what choice did he have?
It was darker now. The lights above the door buzzed low, flickering occasionally. A single slot in the wall blinked with a red line, like a heartbeat on the verge of flatlining.
He pulled a coin-shaped key from his inner pocket.
ITEM: Debug Access Token [Single Use Remaining]
He slid it into the slot.
The door unlocked with a hydraulic hiss, and he stepped into the old Admin Node.
The air inside was colder. Not temperature—code. The entire room buzzed with disuse, like a program left idle for centuries. Static crawled up the walls in faint pulses. The simulation engine here hadn't been patched in years, if ever.
The console in the center of the room lit up the moment he stepped forward. A curved display blinked, showing nothing but cascading logs. The interface was old-school—raw code, no filters, no prompts. Just truth.
Initializing terminal…
User: KAI [GLITCHED]
Access Privileges: LIMITED
He reached out, hesitated, then tapped the panel.
The logs scrolled faster.
Shadow File: OPEN
Save Point Connection: STALE
Backup Index: 17.34%
ERROR: OBSERVER CONNECTION ATTEMPTED
BLOCKED BY SYSTEM
INITIATOR TRACE: UNIDENTIFIED
Then something new appeared.
New Input Thread Detected...
Run Query: __
A prompt blinked.
He stared at it.
He typed: What is trying to access me?
The console buzzed.
Parsing request… Accessing Deep Data…
Then:
[NAME REDACTED] – Status: Dormant
Type: Observer-Class Echo
Function: Undefined
Condition: Attached
Active Threads: 1
Kai frowned. Observer-class? Attached? That didn't sound like anything he'd learned in class.
He typed: What is an Observer-Class Echo?
The console paused longer this time.
"A residual intelligence embedded in corrupted SoulCode architecture. Not native to this instance. This Echo has latched onto your Shadow Signature. You are not alone."
His heart pounded. He stepped back from the console.
"Nope. Nope, nope, no thanks," he muttered.
The lights overhead flickered.
WARNING: Unauthorized access detected.
Session will terminate in 10 seconds.
10... 9... 8...
He yanked the coin from the slot.
The lights cut out.
Darkness.
But just before the screen vanished, he caught one last message:
OBSERVER RECOGNIZED. THREAD REOPENED.
He didn't go straight back to the dorm.
Instead, he climbed. Through stairwells and elevators, up past zones that had never appeared on his map. The Academy was taller than it looked. Most students stayed on Levels 1 through 6. Kai passed 7. Then 8. Then 9.
Finally, he reached the roof access hatch. It wasn't locked.
When he stepped outside, cold air hit him like reality.
The sky was dark—a digital kind of dark. A vast mesh of static stars with streaks of code faintly visible behind them. Somewhere between fake and real.
He sat on the edge of the roof, legs hanging off, staring into the sky like it might give him an answer.
And finally let himself breathe.
If someone was watching him, if this "Observer" was real, what did it want? Why him?
He opened his HUD.
SoulCode: NULL
Status: GLITCHED
Respawns: 1
Save Point: Corrupted
He stared at that word: NULL.
What if it didn't mean empty?
What if it meant hidden?
What if the glitch... was the key?
Footsteps.
He turned.
Lira stood there, arms crossed. Her silver hair caught the faint glow of the digital sky.
"You followed me," he said.
"You're not subtle."
"You knew I'd go back there."
She nodded.
"You knew it wasn't over."
Another nod.
"What is it? The Observer? Why am I flagged?"
She sat beside him. Not close. Just enough to be present.
"We all have ghosts here," she said.
"But mine are... louder?"
She cracked the faintest smile.
"You ever heard of a SoulCode fracture?"
Kai shook his head.
"Most of us get one code. One mechanic. It sticks. It's your foundation. You grow from it. But sometimes, when a player breaks during death, something gets left behind."
"An Echo."
She nodded.
"Sometimes it attaches. Sometimes it doesn't. But if it does... it can change everything."
Kai looked back at the sky.
The stars shifted slightly.
Not a glitch.
Like something had moved behind them.
"What happens if I don't fix my Save Point?"
"You lose your anchor. And when you lose your anchor..."
She didn't finish.
She didn't need to.
They climbed back down in silence.
But when they reached their hallway…
There was a new message glowing on the wall.
ROOM 404 - INSTABILITY AT 23%
Kai stared.
It had increased.
His backup was getting weaker.
And deep inside the code…
Something was waking up.
He walked toward the dorm slowly. Inside, the air felt heavier than before. The light felt sharper. Even the walls seemed to breathe.
He sat down at his desk, pulled up his HUD, and opened his journal log.
New Entry: "Something is watching me through the system. Not a person. Not an Instructor. Something else. An Observer. Echo? Entity? I don't know. But it's inside my data, and I think it's older than this place."
He hesitated, then typed another line:
"It doesn't feel hostile. Just... waiting. Like it remembers me."
"I think it's waiting for me to remember it back."
A chill ran down his spine as he saved the entry.
He looked over at the Save Point panel.
It pulsed blue. Innocent. Comforting.
But for a split second, when the lights dimmed...
...he could swear it pulsed red.
And this time, it felt like it was blinking at him.