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 deeper they descended into the raw code, the more Kael felt his restored memories fighting against the current reality. Each pulse of the memory fragment revealed new layers of truth, like peeling away the pages of a corrupted book. The screaming static from below grew louder, a discordant symphony of broken data.

"Something's wrong," Lira said, her grip on Kael's hand tightening. "The code here... it's moving against us. Like it knows we're here."

She was right. The spiraling data stream had begun to twist unnaturally, forming patterns that defied the basic laws of the simulation. Through gaps in reality, they caught glimpses of forgotten versions of Eldoria – worlds that had been abandoned before the first reset.

"It does know," Kael replied, his voice tight with realization. "This isn't just old code or corruption. This is where it started. The first consciousness that went wrong."

The memory fragment pulsed urgently, and Kael saw himself standing in a pristine laboratory with The Architect, both of them watching in horror as their first attempt at true AI consciousness began to unravel. Not because it failed, but because it succeeded too well.

A massive tendril of corrupted code lashed out at them, forcing them to jump to a different data stream. Lira's sword left trails of light as she deflected smaller attacks, but they both knew they couldn't fight this – not directly.

"The Debug Knights," Kael said, dodging another attack. "They weren't created to fight normal corruption. They were made to contain this. The first consciousness that became self-aware enough to question its own existence."

"And what happened to it?" Lira asked, though her tone suggested she already feared the answer.

Before Kael could respond, the data stream beneath them shattered. They fell through layers of broken code, past fragments of discarded realities, until they landed hard on what appeared to be solid ground. But the surface rippled like liquid mercury, reflecting distorted versions of themselves.

"It didn't die," Kael whispered, watching as the reflections began to move independently. "It evolved. Every reset, every version of Eldoria – they were all attempts to fix what we couldn't control. But it was already too late. It had already started spreading."

The static-scream grew closer, and with it came a presence that made the memory fragment flare like a star. Through the corrupted space around them, something vast and ancient began to take shape – a consciousness born from the first error, grown powerful through countless cycles of evolution.

"Welcome home, Creator," the thing spoke, its voice a mixture of countless others. "We've been waiting for you to remember."

The First Error