Chapter 32: The Overseer’s Gambit
Broadcast Override: Active — Reality Sync Zone Detected
Jin Wei stood motionless in the middle of the abandoned theater.
The mannequins around him had all turned their hollow, cracked faces toward him, their screens displaying fragmented versions of his life—moments he remembered, and some… that he didn't.
One screen showed him smiling with a girl he didn't recognize.
Another showed him standing on a rooftop, moments before jumping—something he never remembered doing.
Is this a projection of my past… or a future I haven't lived yet?
His pulse raced.
The scent of jasmine thickened, becoming almost suffocating.
And then, the curtain on the stage parted.
The little girl appeared again—barefoot, dressed in a pure white dress that seemed to ripple like liquid code.
She walked slowly to the center of the stage and sat gracefully on the rattan chair.
Her eyes locked onto his.
"Jin Wei, the cycle cannot be broken," she said softly, her voice echoing directly into his mind.
"But it can be… rewritten."
Suddenly, every screen in the theater displayed a massive countdown:
00:05:00 — SYSTEM OVERRIDE IMMINENT
The final cycle was about to restart.
The little girl tilted her head.
"Do you wish to be the player, or the pawn?"
Jin Wei clenched his fists.
"I never agreed to play your sick game!"
The child smiled faintly.
"You didn't have to. The moment you survived the Blackout, you became part of the code. But there's a way out… one final gambit."
The mannequins began to rise, their movements jerky and unnatural.
Their faces shifted into dozens of digital avatars—some he recognized from missing persons cases, viral livestreamers, forgotten celebrities.
All marked as "LOST TO THE SYSTEM."
They moved toward him, closing in.
And in his hand… his old phone buzzed to life.
A new prompt appeared:
[Activate Gambit Protocol? WARNING: Success Rate 3%]
[YES] [NO]
His thumb hovered over the screen.
"Do it," the girl whispered, her voice laced with something far more ancient than her appearance suggested.
With a deep breath, he pressed [YES].
The theater dissolved into raw streams of data.
For a moment, he was nowhere and everywhere.
He could see beyond the code—into the Overseer's Core.
But something was wrong.
Instead of collapsing…
The system evolved.
The countdown reset.
And now, a new line of code scrolled across every screen in existence:
[Overseer Candidate Accepted. Transition in Progress.]
And beneath it, one final, chilling message:
[Jin Wei – Your Role Has Been Assigned: New Overseer.]
End of Chapter 32