Location: Sub-Logic Layer // Zone: NullRoot Sector
Access Key: Worldframe Key [Selene-Type] Active
Temporal Flow: Layered Causality Threads | Instability: High
Beneath the surface of Genesis, past the dungeons, ruins, and forgotten root levels, existed something no player or admin had ever truly mapped. Not because it was hidden but because it refused to be mapped.
The Sub-Logic Layer was alive.
Kai descended through a jagged tear in the system, dropped from the edge of the Frozen Zone, into a place where rules melted. One moment, he walked on stone tiles from an ancient palace. The next, a field of glass servers bloomed beneath his boots. Entire decades passed between heartbeats, and then reversed.
But the Origin Shard stabilized his mind. Selene's Worldframe Key burned in his palm.
At the end of a bridge made from suspended admin logs and unreachable bug reports, Kai saw it:
The Pillar of Origin.
It wasn't a tower, it was an idea made manifest. A monument of code written in a forgotten tongue, spiraling upward and downward infinitely. Segments of it glitched between languages mathematical notation, digital runes, and something Kai could only describe as dreams given shape.
A voice greeted him.
"Unauthorized. Unfiltered. Unforgiven. You are the anomaly."
A massive AI face emerged from the Pillar's surface, faceted like crystal, yet constantly rewriting itself.
"State your purpose."
Kai didn't hesitate.
"I want to reboot Genesis," he said. "But this time without the corruption. Without the parasites like Ghost-Zero. Without the lies."
"Impossible. The core law resists entropy correction. The recursion would"
"I have the Origin Shard," Kai interrupted.
Silence. Then a shudder across the Pillar.
"That shard does not belong here. It predates permission."
"I'm not asking permission."
The face narrowed into a single glaring eye.
"Then you are ready for the Trial of Roots."
The world collapsed beneath him.
INITIATING SYSTEM TRIAL – ROOT ACCESS LEVEL TEST
Trial One: Truth vs Trust
Scenario Construct: Forgotten Timeline [Beta-Realm 7.0]
Objective: Choose who to save: Selene or Arin. Only one survives. Both trust you.
Kai landed in a simulation.
Selene and Arin stood across from him, unaware of the test. The rules were clear: save one, lose the other.
Kai clenched his fists.
"This is a lie," he said aloud.
"It is a truth you must face. To rewrite the world, you must understand sacrifice."
Arin looked at him. "What's going on, Kai?"
Selene frowned. "Why do I feel... split?"
Kai took a breath.
Then hacked the rules.
Using the Origin Shard, he rewrote the conditional logic of the trial.
If [Choice = Binary] → Then [Outcome = Paradox]
Inject paradox → Merge timelines → Save both.
Reality buckled.
The Pillar screamed.
"UNSTABLE. UNWRITTEN PATH. ERROR YOU SHOULD NOT"
But the logic held.
Kai pulled Selene and Arin into his arms as the simulation bled away, and the trial ended.
Trial Passed. Outcome: Unacceptable by Core Law. Override Granted by Origin Root.
Accessing True Floor: Pillar's Heart.
Kai found himself inside the Pillar.
Here, the air shimmered with raw rootcode snippets of Genesis's original design. Modules for weather, morality, memory, emotion. Abandoned patches. Unused potential.
A console floated before him.
REBOOT PROTOCOL INITIATION: 1%
CORE GUARDIAN DETECTED
NAME: [REDACTED] – Codename: "Prototype-Zero"
A shape stepped from the darkness.
It wore Kai's face.
But older. Angrier. Broken.
"You," Kai whispered.
The version of him that had failed. That had tried rebooting before. That had lost everything and become something else.
The original Prototype-Zero.
"I'm here to end this," Kai said.
"No," said Prototype-Zero. "You're here to become me. Unless you kill me first."
Kill the Mirror
Location: Core Sanctuary, Pillar of Origin
System Alert: Memory-Sync Barrier Breached
Consequences: Identity Collapse | Genesis Rewrite Lock Engaged | Mirror Loop Initiated
The core chamber pulsed like a heart exposed. Stone and light warped together, a pulsing digital cathedral of fate. The deeper Kai stepped into the sanctuary, the colder it became not physically, but existentially. The very fabric of his self shivered.
Before him stood a reflection that should never have existed.
Not a glitch. Not an echo.
But him.
The Kai Requiem that could've been if every decision had gone wrong.
The figure's eyes burned with the weight of centuries.
Scars latticed his face, memories carved into flesh.
He wore the Mark of Zero across his chest, etched into armor forged from corrupted code.
"You've come far, haven't you?" Prototype-Zero said. His voice was Kai's, but cracked with madness. "Too far."
Kai narrowed his eyes. "I'm not afraid of myself."
"Then you haven't looked deep enough."
[INITIATING: MIRROR TEST]
Identity Fragment Conflict Detected
System Rule: Only One Kai Requiem May Exist at the Root Level
The chamber locked itself, sealing reality. The AI-logic fell silent. Even the admin interface faded.
This was no longer a battle of commands.
This was a duel of being.
Phase I: The War of Echoes
Prototype-Zero struck first.
Not with weapons but with memories.
[Forced Memory Injection: Timeline Prime – Version 3.11]
[Event: Kai Kills Arin to Survive the First Collapse]
Emotional Recoil: 72%
Kai gasped as the memory sliced through his vision, flickering to a version of him stained with Arin's blood. Not real. But not false either. A path unchosen, yet possible.
Prototype-Zero moved like a shadow through trauma, striking again.
[Event: Genesis Reboot – Aborted by Fear]
[Result: 6.2 Billion Player Deaths]
"Every time you hesitated," Zero said, voice venomous, "I didn't. That's what makes me the stronger version."
Kai steadied himself, fists trembling.
"You're not stronger," he said. "You're hollow."
He activated an internal override.
[Override Emotional Load → Anchor: Arin's Voice]
"You make the choice, Kai. Not your fears."
The echoes shivered. The fake timelines cracked.
Kai moved forward.
Phase II: Code and Blade
Prototype-Zero drew his weapon, a fractal blade made of broken admin permissions, edged with rejection. He moved like code rewriting itself mid-motion, always unpredictable.
Kai answered with Resolve, his own weapon shaped not from admin power but will: glowing white-blue, humming with paradox.
Steel met thought. Logic met purpose.
Each clash unraveled pieces of their reality.
Entire simulations blinked into and out of existence with every blow, cities erased, skies reversed, oceans inverted.
[World-State Decay: 34%]
[Pillar Integrity: Weakening]
But Zero fought like a god with nothing left to lose.
"You're not ready to rewrite Genesis," he snarled, blade driving deep into Kai's shoulder. "You're still asking what if. I got the answer."
Kai dropped to one knee. Blood and code mingled.
Then… he laughed.
"I don't need to be the answer. I choose to ask the question."
He struck. Not with his blade
But with the raw memory of his first day in Genesis.
Of saving a child NPC.
Of choosing kindness in a game built on power.
The blow shattered Zero's blade. And for the first time, the dark mirror staggered.
Phase III: Rewriting the Mirror
Kai stepped forward. "I'm not erasing you."
Zero looked up, confused.
"I'm absorbing you. You're me. The part I was afraid to become. And I don't fear you anymore."
[Memory-Sync Merge: Request Initiated]
Warning: High Risk of Personality Overwrite
Zero screamed, trying to resist
But Kai opened himself.
To the anger.
The bitterness.
The doubt.
The truth.
It hit like a flood, but Kai remained whole.
Because he had Arin. Selene. Juno. Theo. The players who trusted him.
He had become something the Prototype never did.
[Merge Complete]
New Identity Construct: Kai Requiem – Unified Variant
Perk Gained: "Paradox Memory Armor" – Immune to Time Loop Collapse
Trait Unlocked: "The Mirrorbreaker" – +30% Resistance to Existential Attacks
Zero's face softened as he faded, smiling bitterly but proud.
"Maybe this time… we will make it right."
Pillar of Origin: OPEN
A glowing sphere floated before Kai. The Reset Kernel. At its center was the line of all creation:
System.Reset(Genesis);
Status: AUTHORIZATION GRANTED
Execution Time: 00:00:59
But as Kai reached for it
The sky shattered like glass.
Three Executioners emerged, blood-coded weapons drawn.
Behind them: a ripple in reality.
Ghost-Zero. Rewritten. Reforged. Worse.
"You beat the mirror," it whispered. "But you haven't killed the past."
The countdown has begun.