Day Zero

There is no sound when the shift happens.

Only a flicker—as if the universe blinked.

The countdown vanishes.

The NULL SHEPHERD collapses into a single pixel, buried deep behind the eye.

And the trio—Matthew, Sora, and Rin—open their eyes to find themselves…

Home.

Not a simulation.

Not a loop.

Not a mask.

The exact moment they entered Deathland.

Matthew stands in his bedroom, schoolbag slung on one shoulder, phone buzzing with a strange message:

生定死

"Enter the game: Life or Death?"

Only this time, his finger hovers instead of tapping.

Because something's different.

He remembers everything.

Every trial. Every betrayal. Every death.

He looks out his window. It's raining—but not acid. Just… normal rain.

Across the city, Sora is walking home, same route as always, earbuds in.

But every person she passes feels like a ghost. She can almost see through them, like remnants of games unfinished.

She stops.

There, on the wall:

A barely visible glyph from the King's Trail.

It was always there.

She just never saw it before.

Rin sits in her classroom, watching the clock tick toward 3:33 PM.

It's the moment the system opened the first portal beneath the city.

But now she sees it—on her desk, etched under years of carving and pen scratches:

"YOU AGREED TO FORGET. YOU DON'T HAVE TO AGAIN."

The trio receives the message at the same time.

The same way.

"Enter the game: Life or Death?"

Only now, beneath it, a new option appears:

[Yes]

[No]

[Rewrite]

They each freeze.

The NULL SHEPHERD didn't give them freedom.

It gave them clarity.

Now they remember why they entered the game.

What they lost before it even began.

And the truth that stings most:

They were already broken before Deathland.

The system didn't trap them.

It gave them shape.

But the cost was real.

Now they must choose.

They tap—simultaneously.

Not "Yes."

Not "No."

But Rewrite.

And instantly—

The world freezes.

The screen cracks.

And the countdown returns.

This time, it's not counting down to a game.

It's counting down to a new beginning.

Or a total collapse.

00:59… 00:58…