Chapter 10 — Ava’s Code

Yuto stood in the Null-Class Sanctuary, heart still thumping from the final blow he had delivered to the Cleaner. Smoke—data-smoke, more accurately—drifted upward from where its code had disintegrated, dispersing into streams of binary mist. His sword arm trembled. Not from fear. From the question that now echoed endlessly in his mind:

> "Yuto?"

His sister's voice. Clear. Familiar. Not corrupted. Not glitched.

He touched the edge of the terminal once again, expecting static. Instead, a soft hum emitted from it, gentle and resonant. For a moment, the room dimmed.

> [Memory Archive Accessed — ID: AVA_27 — Status: Corrupted]

A beam of blue light shot out and projected a fragmented video above the console.

A small girl. Long black hair. Her laughter echoing in a summer-lit living room. The camera shook as someone behind it laughed too—probably Yuto himself. But the video started flickering. Her face glitched. The laughter distorted into static.

> "Save me."

Yuto took a sharp breath, stepping back from the projection. It flickered out as suddenly as it had appeared.

> "System... who accessed this memory last?"

> [Access Log: Redacted. Override Signature: DEV-R / ALPHA-NULL]

> "Alpha-Null…? Another class?"

He reached out to the console again, this time trying to force an override, but it refused to respond.

> [User Permissions Denied — Clearance Level: Unknown]

Suddenly, the entire chamber pulsed. Not visually—but like a tremor through the digital fabric of the world. Lines of old code—languages he had never seen—rippled across the walls like ghosts from dead updates.

> [You have acquired Ava's Code Fragment: 1 of 7]

> [Fragment stored in Hidden Memory Bank. Cannot be moved, traded, or copied.]

His interface glitched again. Something new blinked beneath his stat board: "Ava Fragment - 14% Synced."

He stared at it. Was it tracking her consciousness? Her soul? Or some lingering echo of her data?

The air shifted.

Outside, the corrupted sky was clearing. But the world was not normal. Birds flew in reverse loops. NPCs walked in silence, their heads turning a split second after their bodies moved. A merchant sold bread that shimmered like water. Everything felt wrong. Like the simulation was slowly losing its ability to act normal.

> "Did my fight with the Cleaner break the system?"

As he stepped out, something else hit him—pain.

It wasn't from the game. It was from his real body. His chest tightened. He leaned against the old stone of the Sanctuary wall, his breath quickening. It faded within seconds, but it was real.

His hand trembled. Not virtually—physically.

His body was syncing more with the game. But that shouldn't be possible. No class offered this. No system update allowed it.

He moved through the distorted town. A few NPCs looked at him and immediately turned away. Some bowed. Others glitched into nothing.

Then, an NPC child tugged on his coat. Pale eyes. Glitched shadow.

> "The dream is folding."

Yuto turned. "What?"

The child smiled faintly and vanished into static.

Far away, in the sky above what should've been the Capitol Tower, a single floating window appeared—briefly—before vanishing. It wasn't a player. It wasn't a system menu. It looked like a… camera feed.

> "Someone's watching me."

He kept walking.

He brought up his mission log.

> [Main Mission: Unknown Class Recovery – Progress 2%]

[Side Mission: Survive Cleaner Encounter — COMPLETE]

[Secret Fragment Mission: Ava's Code (1/7)]

A new notification appeared:

> [Auto-Recording ON: Memory File '001_YU-REC.AVA']

[WARNING: This file may not exist tomorrow. Save externally.]

He felt the Sanctuary's static field weakening. His presence had triggered something unstable. If he stayed longer, the place might collapse entirely.

> "Log out," he said quietly.

> [Logging out… Sync: 14.7%]

The world collapsed into black. His HUD faded. Weightlessness gripped him.

And then...

He opened his eyes.

He was lying in his room.

The ceiling fan spun overhead, humming gently. It was dusk outside, the sun casting long shadows through the curtains. His headset lay beside him, and his body felt... off. As if the connection hadn't fully ended.

He reached for his phone. Notifications were normal. Nothing alarming.

Then, just as he sat up—

He heard it.

A voice.

Soft. Gentle.

From nowhere. Not from the headset. Not from the window.

> "You have to wake up."

He froze.

No one else was in the room.

And that voice… it didn't belong to anyone he knew.

He stared at the wall for several seconds, heart pounding.

Was the game leaking into reality? Or had reality started bending first?

Whatever the truth was—Yuto knew this wasn't just about Ava anymore.

Something larger was coming.

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End of Chapter 10 — Volume 1 Complete.