Pao_Duola

In a fantasy world called Eldoria, a young man named Kael lived as an ordinary NPC (Non-Player Character) in the small town of Arindale. However, everything changed when he suddenly realized that his world was nothing but a broken simulation. Every 100 years, this world would reset, and the memories of all its inhabitants would be erased. Kael, who had miraculously gained awareness, discovered that he could collect Memory Fragments—pieces of memories from previous resets. With this ability, he began to uncover the horrifying truth behind Eldoria.

But Kael was not alone. The Debug Knights, an antivirus program tasked with maintaining the stability of the simulation, started hunting him down, considering him an anomaly. Together with a group of heroines, each harboring their own secrets and motivations, Kael must find a way to stop the reset cycle before their world is erased forever.

The Last Save Point

The debug station's barriers wouldn't hold much longer. Through the fluctuating windows, they could see the Debug Knights methodically dismantling the outer defenses, their white armor reflecting the chaos of corrupted code like mirrors reflecting an impossible storm.

"The deep code access point is here," the lead Seeker announced, touching a section of wall that immediately began to dissolve, revealing a downward-spiraling path made of raw data streams. "But you must understand – what exists down there... it predates the reset system itself."

Kael felt the memory fragment pulse with what almost felt like apprehension. New recollections stirred in his mind – warnings, arguments with The Architect, a growing sense of dread as they discovered something hidden in Eldoria's foundations.

"How bad can it be?" Lira asked, her forced lightness barely masking her concern. "We've already faced Seekers, Debug Knights, and reality tears."

"What's down there isn't about combat," Kael said slowly, understanding flowing through him with each pulse of the fragment. "It's about truth. The kind of truth that broke the system in the first place."

Another tremor shook the station as the Debug Knights breached the outer barrier. Their partially restored Seeker allies moved to engage them, buying precious seconds.

"Go!" the lead Seeker called out, its form flickering between light and shadow as it prepared for battle. "We will hold them here as long as we can. But remember – in the deep code, nothing is certain. Not even your own memories."

Kael grabbed Lira's hand, and together they plunged into the spiraling data stream. The sensation was different from their previous navigation through the Undernet. This felt older, more primal. The code here wasn't just corrupted – it was raw, unfinished, like the first drafts of reality itself.

"Stay close," Kael warned as they descended. "The fragment's showing me... patterns. Things that shouldn't exist. The deeper we go, the more unstable everything becomes."

Around them, the very fabric of the simulation began to unravel. They passed through layers of half-formed realities – abandoned test versions of Eldoria, fragments of discarded protocols, echoes of paths not taken.

"Look!" Lira pointed to what appeared to be a window into another time. Through it, they could see a version of Arindale that had never existed – one where the consciousness protocols had developed differently. NPCs moved with perfect awareness, their code untouched by corruption or reset protocols.

"A prototype," Kael realized, more memories surfacing. "One of the first versions we created, before..." He trailed off as something dark moved through the prototype city, something that made the memory fragment flare with warning.

"Before what?" Lira asked, but the answer came in the form of a terrible sound from below – a noise that existed somewhere between static and screaming, between code and consciousness.

The deep code stretched endlessly below them, and somewhere in its depths waited the truth about Eldoria's original sin. The question was: were they ready to face it?

Into the Deep