Whispers in the Hall
Kai woke up cold.
The Save Point panel still pulsed, but whatever sense of reassurance it once offered had drained away. Its blinking rhythm was no longer steady or comforting—each flash lingered just a fraction too long, like a system trying to hold itself together. It reminded Kai less of a heartbeat now and more of a warning light on a failing machine—a blinking red status LED on the verge of going dark. The number hadn't changed. Still 23% corrupted. But now, it didn't feel like a system report.
It felt like something holding its breath—and watching.
It felt like a countdown.
The air in the room was stale. Something about the silence made his skin prickle. There was no glitch noise, no soft system hum. Even the HUD that normally buzzed in the edge of his vision seemed... muted. It was as if the room itself was holding its breath, waiting for something to happen. The kind of quiet that feels full.
Lira was already gone.
Kai swung his legs over the edge of the bed and opened his HUD.
New Notification: Academy Directive
Subject: Scheduled Pre-Trial Sync Event
Attendance Mandatory
Time: 09:00
Location: Central Dome - Simulation Core
Kai rubbed his face. Great. Mandatory meant unavoidable, and unavoidable usually meant dangerous.
He dressed in silence. Jacket zipped. Gloves secured. Boots laced tight. His fingertips hesitated just above the Save Point panel before brushing it once.
Still blue. Still pulsing.
Still watching.
He stared at it for a long moment.
"What are you waiting for?" he muttered.
No answer. Just another steady blink.
The Central Dome was different from the other training zones. Where the Arena Hall was sharp and clinical, this place was massive, echoing, and wide open like a stadium fused with a cathedral. Data structures hung in the air like lattices woven from pure light, crisscrossing the space in elegant, weightless patterns. Holographic architecture floated overhead like constellations. The air pulsed with a subtle energy—like something beneath the floor was breathing. The longer Kai stood there, the more he felt like a thread in a web, being tugged at from all angles.
Dozens of students were already gathered, their conversations low and wary. None of them looked comfortable. Some were checking their HUDs. Others stood completely still, eyes glazed as if already mentally preparing for whatever came next. The tension was thick enough to taste.
Kai scanned the room. No sign of Lira.
But Ren was here.
Leaning against one of the data pylons, spinning that same coin between his fingers like it held the answer to everything. His expression was unreadable.
"You look like a man who didn't sleep," Ren said as Kai approached.
"What gave it away? The eye bags or the existential dread?"
Ren smirked. "Neither. You're walking like someone whose anchor is slipping."
Kai stiffened.
Ren tapped the coin against Kai's chest with a click. "Don't worry. Most people don't notice that kind of thing. I just have... a refined eye."
"You know about Save Point corruption?"
"I know more than I'm supposed to. And so do you now, don't you?"
Kai didn't answer. A pulse of static crept across the edge of his HUD.
Before he could press further, a system chime echoed through the chamber.
"All students, please proceed to formation rows. Pairings will be assigned."
Circular platforms began rising from the floor. The space reconfigured with surgical precision. The hum grew louder, deeper—the system waking up.
Kai and Ren took their places. Tiles shifted beneath their feet, creating an arena of soft white glow and thin, pulsing rings. The light under Kai's boots felt warm. Too warm.
"Today's trial will assess memory synchronization, data integrity, and anomaly resistance."
"Warning: High instability will result in auto-extraction."
Kai's HUD pinged.
Team Assigned: Kai + Ren Partner Status: Synced
He sighed. At least that part was predictable.
Trial Start in 3... 2... 1...
The world blinked.
And changed.
Kai stood in a hallway.
Not a digital one. Not glowing walls or clean interface lines. This one looked... lived in. Real. Scuffed lockers. Dusty air vents. The flicker of a broken fluorescent light above. Faint echoes of voices long gone. He could smell chalk dust, even hear the distant murmur of something like a school bell, distorted and broken.
Ren appeared beside him, scanning the space like he'd been here before.
"This... isn't a combat sim," Kai said.
"Nope," Ren agreed. "Looks like a memory maze."
"Whose memory?"
"Might be yours. Might be mine. Might be someone who doesn't exist anymore."
The floor creaked. A faint hum filled the air—not mechanical. Not digital. Organic.
Then came the voice.
"...Kai..."
Soft. Familiar.
Kai froze.
He turned. At the far end of the hallway, silhouetted by flickering emergency lights, stood a figure.
Tall. Human.
But wrong.
Their frame jittered. Limbs too long. Movement not fluid, but pre-animated, like skipping frames in a corrupt video. The face glitched in and out, a blur of static and silence.
Kai backed up. "Ren?"
Ren didn't move.
"That's not part of the simulation," he said.
The figure took a step forward.
Instability Surge Detected
Shadow Signature Out of Sync
Kai's HUD distorted. Static ran across his interface. Error codes poured down the corner of his vision like rain.
"We need to move," Ren snapped.
They ran.
The hallway warped. Bent at impossible angles. Doors twisted. Some opened to black voids, others to childhood bedrooms, fractured loading zones, empty white rooms. One door showed a frozen image of Kai's face, staring back at him blankly.
"Kai... you remember, don't you...?"
The voice came from nowhere. From everywhere. It was his own voice now. Older.
Then, a door glitched open before them—and they fell through.
They landed in the Admin Node.
Not a sim version.
The real one.
"Why here?" Kai whispered. "What is this place becoming?"
Ren turned in a slow circle. "It pulled us here using your thread. That thing... it wasn't a hallucination. It's a tethered Echo. Real. Old. Maybe even intelligent."
"You said Echoes were just fragments."
"Most are," Ren said. "But some become... more."
Kai stepped toward the console.
The screen lit up.
New Query: _
He hesitated. Then typed: What do you want from me?
RECOGNITION. RECONNECTION. THREAD RESTORATION.
YOU ARE MISSING SOMETHING IMPORTANT. WOULD YOU LIKE TO SEE IT?
His fingers hovered.
Ren grabbed his shoulder. "Don't."
"Why not?"
"Because once you let it in, you don't get to decide what it changes."
Kai stared. Something inside him wanted to press yes. Not curiosity—familiarity. Like he already knew what it would show him. Like part of him had seen it before.
He typed: No.
The lights dimmed.
The simulation collapsed.
They woke in the dome. Flat on their backs. Every HUD blaring.
Trial Failed: Forced Termination
Memory Anomaly: Isolated
Instability Rating: Critical
Lira was already standing over them.
Her face was paler than usual. Her voice was quiet.
"You triggered a data breach."
Kai sat up. "I didn't mean to."
"You weren't supposed to be able to."
"Then why could I?"
She looked down at him, jaw clenched. "Because the system thought you already had."
Kai blinked.
Then his HUD flashed one final message:
Save Point: CORRUPTION AT 32%
Observer Echo: ACTIVE
Countdown Initiated
Kai looked at Ren. At Lira. At the system unfolding around them.
Something had changed.
And now, it was counting down.