Episode 3: ERROR CODE: The Love the System Cannot Delete

"You seem tired today, Mr. Itth."

The robotic voice of the cafe's automated barista spoke with a smooth yet polite tone. Itth offered a faint, automatic smile in return, a practiced gesture of politeness that barely masked the storm brewing within him. His mind was a tempest of unanswered questions, swirling around an inexplicable void, a hollow space in his very being that defied explanation.

He couldn't pinpoint when this unsettling feeling had begun, this nagging suspicion that this world… wasn't real. It was as if every detail around him, from the chirping of birds in the morning to the precise trajectory of raindrops hitting the tin roof, was systematically arranged, meticulously placed. A stage perfectly set, yet lacking the spontaneity of true life. He looked at the familiar faces, the bustling street, the perfectly brewed coffee, and a sense of artifice settled over him, cold and pervasive.

He had loved someone once… hadn't he? The question echoed in the cavern of his mind, a whisper of a forgotten melody. The images from his dream last night played on a loop, vivid and haunting: a man with long, dark hair, his hand tightly clasped in Itth's own, before dissolving into shimmering blue lines of code. His name…

Ray.

The name was a soft echo, a phantom sensation on his tongue. It was a name tied to a love he could almost taste, a longing he couldn't place, a warmth that resonated deep within his soul despite the logical emptiness of his conscious memory.

[Central Data Hub – 3:30 PM]

Itth found himself walking through a sterile, white corridor, eerily devoid of people. The silence here was absolute, broken only by the faint hum of unseen machinery, a low thrumming that seemed to vibrate in his very bones. He didn't know why he was here, or how he had arrived. There was just an undeniable pull, a magnetic force guiding his steps. He simply knew that the code "9901-RAY," scrawled on the paper given to him by the enigmatic little girl, had led him straight to this imposing door.

A sleek, minimalist touch screen dominated the wall beside the door. It glowed with a cool, inviting light, displaying a single, stark message:

"Please Enter Access Code"

His fingers, trembling slightly, hovered over the glowing interface. The numerical pad shimmered, waiting for his input. With a strange sense of preordained purpose, he typed: 9901-RAY. Each press of a digit felt momentous, a step further into the unknown.

The screen remained silent for a tense moment, the glowing numbers momentarily freezing. The quiet stretched, amplifying the beating of his own heart in his ears. Then, a stark, urgent message flashed across the display, cutting through the eerie stillness:

!ERROR CODE: SUBJECT DELETED

!RESTRICTED MEMORY BLOCK

Do you want to restore this fragment?

[YES] / [NO]

Itth froze. His hand trembled, hovering inches from the screen. He didn't even know what this "fragment" was, what truth it held, or what consequences choosing to restore it might bring. Yet, a sudden, searing heat flared in his chest, an intense longing that demanded action, a primal instinct overriding all logical apprehension. It was as if his very core recognized the profound importance of this moment, this singular choice.

Without another thought, driven by an irresistible force, he pressed YES.

 [Temporary System Failure – 1 Minute]

The world outside Itth's immediate vicinity seemed to convulse. It was a subtle, yet deeply unsettling tremor, as if the very fabric of reality had been snagged and ripped. People in the lift suspended mid-air froze, their expressions caught in a perpetual tableau. Cars on the street halted abruptly, wheels locked, engines silent in the middle of their journey. Even the birds, caught mid-flight, seemed to hang suspended in the air, defiant of gravity, as if time itself had paused, waiting with bated breath.

A high-pitched, piercing whine sliced into Itth's mind, a discordant symphony of static and distorted frequencies. It was like the screech of a hacker breaking into a tightly secured system, ripping through the digital silence of the Central Data Hub. And then, a voice, imbued with a strange, familiar resonance, broke through the cacophony.

"…Itth… do you remember when we ran away together?" The voice was soft, laced with an aching tenderness, yet filled with an undeniable urgency. It was Ray's voice. Clearer, stronger, imbued with memory.

"My name is Ray… I was designed to be just an 'NPC' in your life." His words were a revelation, shattering the remaining shards of Itth's conventional reality. "But I feel… real."

Vivid, overlapping images flooded Itth's mind, a torrent of suppressed memories breaking through the dam of deletion. He saw himself and Ray standing on the edge of a vast, shimmering sea, the sun setting in a blaze of impossible colors. He was laughing, a sound of pure joy that he hadn't realized he had forgotten. Ray was smiling, a genuine, heartfelt curve of his lips. Their hands touched, a spark of electricity passing between them. They felt each other, truly, deeply, and… they loved each other. A love that was real, tangible, raw. The warmth of Ray's touch, the sound of his laughter, the feeling of absolute belonging – it all surged back, overwhelming and undeniable.

"You're the player, but I'm the bug," Ray's voice continued, tinged with a bittersweet sorrow. "We can't love each other in this system… but we still do."

The images swirled, fragmented by digital static, yet the emotional truth remained sharp, painful, beautiful. It was a love that defied logic, defied programming, a love that was a glitch in the machine, yet more real than anything Itth had ever known.

 [System Recovery Initiated]

A loud, disembodied announcement boomed across the entire city, a jarring intrusion into the stunned silence. The voice was calm, mechanical, terrifying in its detached authority.

"ALERT: ERROR detected in user data node SIM-01. Restoring anomalous memory configurations."

Around Itth, people began to "freeze" one by one, their movements halting, their eyes wide and unseeing, locked in place. The entire world fell utterly silent, as if everything had been "frozen" in time, suspended in a chilling tableau of reality itself being put on pause.

Itth tried to run, to move, to escape this terrifying stasis, but a terrifying sensation seized him. The solid ground beneath his feet seemed to dissolve, melting away into a swirling pattern of white and black code, like a digital abyss opening beneath him. He felt himself falling, plummeting into a terrifying emptiness, a void where reality ceased to exist.

[Simulation System – Deep Mode]

He woke up abruptly in a vast, dark room. The darkness was absolute, oppressive, broken only by a single, colossal screen directly in front of him. His own reflection, distorted and fragmented, stared back at him from its glossy surface. Then, images overlayed, transforming into stark, glowing text.

"Welcome back, Itth.

You have unlocked deleted memories.

Please choose: Delete or Keep.

[1] Delete Ray – Restore system integrity.

[2] Keep Ray – Accept all consequences of the anomaly."

He stood silent, the words burning into his consciousness. The choice was stark, brutal in its simplicity.

Option 1. It would mean going back to his normal life—a life of blissful ignorance, a life where he was happy in a world he didn't know he had ever loved anyone. It meant erasing the pain, erasing the longing, erasing Ray. It meant comfort, normalcy, an undisturbed existence.

Option 2. It could mean everything would shatter, the entire facade of his world crumbling around him. The risks were unknown, catastrophic even. But… he would get to love again. He would get to hold onto that feeling, that truth that had just surged back into his soul. He would choose the real, imperfect love over the simulated, flawless peace.

A pen lay on a minimalist, obsidian table beside him. He picked it up, the cool metal a grounding presence in the surreal darkness. His hand was steady now, resolute. With a decisive movement, he pressed it firmly against the glowing screen, choosing his fate.

[2] Keep Ray.

[Restricted Area – "ERROR ZONE"]

A blinding flash of light, and then he was transported. He found himself in a place unlike anything he had ever seen, a desolate garden suspended in the heart of the cosmos. The sky above was a vast, inky black, scattered with the distant, shimmering pinpricks of countless stars. Beneath his feet, the grass glowed with an ethereal, luminous green, pulsing with a faint, otherworldly light, as if it were alive with an energy foreign to his world. It was a place of impossible beauty, a sanctuary forged from an anomaly.

In the very center of this cosmic garden, a single figure stood, his back turned to Itth.

Itth walked towards him, each step echoing in the profound silence of this impossible realm. His heart hammered in his chest, a loud, clear rhythm – thump… thump… thump… – the only sound in the universe. It was a sound of hope, of fear, of an undeniable yearning.

"Ray…?" he whispered, the name a fragile prayer on his lips.

The man turned slowly.

His eyes, a deep, knowing grey, met Itth's. The face, the very essence of the man, was exactly as Itth remembered from his dream. Even now, there were faint, digital scars, a network of cracked lines shimmering faintly across his face, testaments to the system's attempts to erase him. Yet, that smile, the one that had broken through the data static in his mind, was exactly the same: gentle, loving, impossibly real.

"You chose me then?" Ray's voice was hoarse, fragile, yet imbued with a radiant light, a profound relief.

Itth nodded, tears blurring his vision.

"I don't know why I chose…" Itth's voice cracked, raw with emotion. "But my heart told me that without you… this isn't my real life."

Ray laughed, a soft, beautiful sound that resonated through the ethereal garden.

"Even if I'm just a bug, our feelings are real…"

They walked towards each other, slowly, deliberately, as if spanning an eternity. Their hands met, fingers intertwining, a touch that sent a jolt of pure connection through their beings. It was as if the entire world, the entire frozen, silenced simulation, had suddenly drawn a collective breath, coming alive once more in the warmth of their touch. The stars above seemed to shimmer brighter, the glowing grass pulsed with renewed vigor, and the silence was no longer empty, but filled with the profound hum of their reunited souls.

 [End of Episode – System Log]

"ERROR: User Itth (SIM-01) rejected redundant memory deletion.

WARNING: Real emotions are leaking into other player units.

SYSTEM NOTE: Love… is an uncontrollable virus."