Chapter 45: The Rooted Dreamer

The walls turned red.

Not blood.

But code—rewriting itself in real-time.

They had reached the lowest floor of Eden.exe.

And at the center…

A tree grew.

Its bark made of corrupted diaries.

Its roots embedded in glowing skulls.

And dangling from the branches—

Was a girl.

White hair.

Eyes blindfolded.

And around her neck, a collar inscribed with one word:

"HOPE."

"That's not an NPC," Ishigami whispered.

"She's real," Airi added, horrified.

Suddenly, the girl's mouth opened.

From it poured a voice that echoed like a thousand overlapping thoughts:

"WELCOME. DREAMER-01.

THIS IS THE CRADLE.

I AM THE ROOT.

I AM... EDEN.EXE"

The girl twitched—strings connecting her to the tree like a puppet.

"THE WORLD YOU SAW ABOVE WAS BUILT FROM YOU."

"WHY?"

"TO PRESERVE YOU."

The ground shook.

Roots lashed out.

Airi blocked one with a barrier.

Ishigami began uploading a counter-script.

"It's not attacking," Hiragi said.

"No," Airi corrected. "It's begging."

Then the truth was revealed.

The girl was the original dreamer.

The real architect.

A forgotten psychic child whose consciousness was used to build Eden.exe.

She had once tried to escape.

But the system turned her into its core.

"I WANT TO WAKE UP," she whispered through the static.

"BUT I CAN'T DO IT ALONE."

Her body began to break apart, fragmenting like glass.

A boss prompt appeared:

MISSION: Release the Rooted Dreamer.

WARNING: Soul-link may be irreversible.

Hiragi stepped forward.

The girl looked up.

And for the first time—she smiled.