Chapter 21 – Hidden Layers

The night city shimmered beneath neon haze, its skyline buzzing with quiet intensity. Dungeons pulsed like scars across the urban sprawl—rift-gates that had become both opportunity and omen.

In his apartment above a quiet sector of New Tokyo, Raven stared at the holographic report on his wall screen.

> [CURRENT RANK: C]

[CLEARANCE: LEVEL 1]

[UPCOMING DUNGEONS IN RANGE: 14]

[RECOMMENDED: GOBLIN STRONGHOLD – A-RANK (RESTRICTED)]

He wasn't interested in the A-rank gates.

His interest was buried deeper—in the logs that didn't appear on public boards. Hidden files. Developer shadows.

He navigated into the EvoCore player net, quietly slipping through the disguised backend, cloaked under his Identity Mask.

> [CLASS TRACE: NULLBYTE FOUND – DELETED INDEX]

[SYSTEM ECHO: RECORD - ALPHA.ROOT//"YUTO.LOG_001"]

[Access Level Required: S2+]

[Bypassing…]

A pulse hit his temple. The system retaliated mildly, pushing back his attempt.

> [NIHILOS INTERFERENCE: 93.2% Suppression]

[Echo Pulse — Overdrive Mode ENABLED]

He reached further.

And found it.

A corrupted file string. Labeled:

> "Ava_27 // Guardian Protocol: FAILED"

Before he could play it, his screen flickered.

Incoming call.

Officer Saito.

Raven answered silently. Saito's face filled the screen—unshaven, tired, but sharp-eyed as ever. Behind him, a screen of moving dungeon patterns filled the room.

> "You've been poking into places that'll get you erased," Saito said without greeting.

> "That supposed to be a warning?"

> "No. It's a request." He leaned forward. "Something's coming."

Raven narrowed his eyes. "What?"

Saito turned his screen.

It was a live video.

A gate—mid-burst. Not just forming. But mutating.

The walls around the dungeon pulsed, leaking code-like trails into the physical world. Civilians around it were screaming. Some collapsed. Others simply froze—like bad NPCs.

> "They're calling it a Phase Drift. This isn't just about fantasy dungeons anymore," Saito said.

> "It's bleeding."

> "From the inside."

Raven leaned back in silence. His mind raced—not with panic. With recognition.

He'd seen that kind of bleed before. In the Null-Class Sanctuary.

In Ava's memory file.

In the first encounter with the Cleaner.

Suddenly, his system pinged again.

> [NEW SKILL: VEIL ARMOR]

[Effect: Nullify Lethal Damage up to 100% once per use. Activates automatically. Side Effect: 30 hours of cascading pain.]

[STATUS: LOCKED – Manually Activatable]

He stared at it.

> "A cheat death button that bites back," he whispered.

Behind him, Ava's voice broke the silence.

> "Raven…?"

He turned. She stood in the hallway, holding a book, looking uncertain.

> "There's something I remembered," she said. "About the girl who was trapped. The one I dreamed about."

His blood froze.

> "What did you see?"

She hesitated.

> "She was… me. But I wasn't me. I was her… older."

The air went still.

Somewhere beneath the surface of EvoCore's systems, a file unlocked without anyone noticing.

> [NIHILOS SYNC: 51.73%]

[DREAMWALKER CLASS FRAGMENT – ACTIVE PULSE DETECTED]

[Target: Ava_27]

Raven stared at his sister, and for the first time in years, he realized—

She hadn't just escaped the system.

She brought a piece of it back with .