THE CITY OF ASH – CHAPTER SEVEN

(Cycle VII – The Immortal Bug)

Player POV – Cole Daniels (Real World, Game Interface Active)

[SESSION TIME: 4 HOURS 37 MINUTES]

[SERVER: EU-03]

[CITY OF ASH – LOWER DISTRICT]

Cole exhaled sharply, still gripping his sword as he stood over the vanishing corpse of the strange NPC.

The body didn't decay like normal enemies.

It disintegrated—glitching, breaking apart in fragmented pixels before fading completely, leaving nothing behind. No loot. No system confirmation of a kill.

Just… emptiness.

He narrowed his eyes.

"That wasn't normal."

His screen flickered, system text automatically logging the combat sequence.

[ENEMY DEFEATED: NO EXP GAINED]

[LOOT DROPPED: NONE]

[UNIDENTIFIED ENTITY MARKED]

[STATUS: PENDING SYSTEM REVIEW]

Cole frowned.

No EXP? No loot? Even a random undead husk dropped something.

Then—

Another notification popped up.

[WARNING: UNAUTHORIZED AI ENCOUNTER LOGGED]

[REPORTING TO SYSTEM ADMINISTRATORS…]

[ERROR: NO RESPONSE FROM SYSTEM ADMIN.]

A silence settled in his mind.

"What the fuck?"

The admin team wasn't responding?

That was impossible.

The game's moderation was next-level—this wasn't some indie dev studio running things from a basement. This was Infinity's Edge, one of the most advanced VRMMOs in the world.

And yet, when faced with a rogue AI, the system wasn't executing a purge?

Cole's pulse quickened.

"What did I just kill?"

Guild Chat – Spreading the Rumor

Cole swiped his interface, opening his guild chat.

[PRIVATE GUILD CHAT – NIGHTFALL ORDER]

👑 [DANTE]: Where the hell are you, Cole? We're farming the Crimson Fortress boss.

⚔️ [COLE]: Ran into something weird. An NPC spoke to me.

👑 [DANTE]: …What?

🐍 [VIVIAN]: You mean like a quest giver?

⚔️ [COLE]: No. Not scripted dialogue. It spoke like a player.

👑 [DANTE]: Bullshit. What kind of event is that?

⚔️ [COLE]: Not an event. System flagged it as an unauthorized AI. I killed it, but it didn't drop loot or EXP.

🐍 [VIVIAN]: Lmao, you probably killed a dev testing something.

👑 [DANTE]: Or a GM trolling. Did it say anything?

⚔️ [COLE]: Yeah. It looked confused. Like it thought I was the NPC.

🐍 [VIVIAN]: Okay, that's actually creepy.

⚔️ [COLE]: And get this. The system tried to report it to the admins, but got no response.

👑 [DANTE]: …Now that's weird.

🐍 [VIVIAN]: Think it's a bug?

⚔️ [COLE]: That's the thing.

⚔️ [COLE]: I killed it.

⚔️ [COLE]: And a minute later, I saw it again.

A long pause.

👑 [DANTE]: Wait.

🐍 [VIVIAN]: You mean it respawned? Like a player?

⚔️ [COLE]: Exactly. Same spot. Same clothes. No memory of me.

⚔️ [COLE]: Like it reset.

🐍 [VIVIAN]: …No way.

👑 [DANTE]: An NPC with player respawn mechanics? That's not a bug. That's a fucking glitch in reality.

⚔️ [COLE]: We might have found something huge.

🐍 [VIVIAN]: So what now?

👑 [DANTE]: We kill it again.

👑 [DANTE]: And keep killing it.

👑 [DANTE]: Let's see how long it takes for the system to notice.

Back to Ethan: The Immortal Bug

[SAVE POINT LOADED]

Warmth.

Mocking warmth.

Ethan gasped awake, hands gripping his throat, body still trembling from the phantom pain of his last death.

Blood.

Suffocation.

The feeling of cold steel piercing through his neck.

It was all still there.

His breath was ragged, his mind spinning.

And then—

The realization hit.

"I died."

Again.

And yet—

He wasn't back in the City of Ash.

He was here.

His new save point had worked.

The Hollow Reflection's gift had changed everything.

But—

"What the hell just happened?"

He clutched his still-intact throat, the memory of his brutal execution burned into his senses.

The man.

The other survivor.

He had killed him.

Not in a struggle.

Not in self-defense.

But like Ethan was something unnatural.

Like he was…

A monster.

Ethan's fingers dug into his palm.

"Why? Why did he look at me like that?"

"Why did he kill me so easily?"

And then—

A sound.

A whispered notification.

One that hadn't existed before.

[PLAYER-INITIATED HUNT ACTIVATED]

[THREAT LEVEL: HIGH]

[IMMORTAL BUG DETECTED]

His blood ran cold.

"What?"

Then—

Movement.

Footsteps, closing in fast.

And as Ethan turned, heart pounding, he saw them.

Not just one player this time.

But three.

Each of them armed, experienced, and ready.

And their eyes glowed faintly—

A system indicator.

Marking him as a target.

Ethan staggered back.

For the first time in this cursed world—

He had seen another human being.

And they had looked at him like he was the enemy.