That night was quiet.
A quiet that wasn't empty, but the kind that makes you feel like something is watching from the shadows.My room was only lit by the dim glow of the monitor.
The sound of my old computer's fan spinning like the dying breath of a machine on its last legs.
I sat hunched, staring at a desktop cluttered with old files, apps I hadn't opened in months
I didn't know why I was still alive.
Or if my life could even be called a life anymore.
Thirty-eight years old. No stable job. No family who'd bother to answer my calls. The only things that remained were this broken-down PC… and a loneliness that gnawed into my bones. But that night, something changed. Among the usual icons I saw every day, a new one appeared.
veilbreak.sys
Not a regular file.
Not something I remember downloading.
And strangely… the file was moving.
Its icon — a symbol like a burning eye — blinked slowly.
Not like loading.
But like… breathing.
My heartbeat slowed.
Something was wrong.
I tried to right-click it.
No menu appeared.
I hovered the cursor over the icon, and suddenly, my entire desktop glitched.
Like a broken TV. The screen flickered. The colors glitched — red, black, grey and for a split second, I saw something…
My own face. But inverted. Smiling.
I took a deep breath.
My hands were cold. The pressure was strange, like the air in the room had turned heavy.
I moved the cursor again.
This time, the file changed.
Its name now blinked:
I_CAN_SEE_YOU.sys
"What… is this?"
I muttered.
Suddenly, all the desktop icons vanished.
Only one file remained.
Open_The_Veil.exe
No way to close it. Alt+F4 didn't work.
Task Manager? Failed to open.
My mouse was locked — only able to move toward the file.
And I… clicked it.
The screen went black.
But not normal black.
This was the kind of black that made me feel like I was no longer in my room.
No fan sounds.
No outside noise.
No sense of time.
Just me.
And that dark screen.
Long.
Still.
Unmoving.
Then, a whisper.
Not from the speakers.
But inside my head.
"You shouldn't be here… yet."
And then, a message followed:
[Soul Signature Detected: Abnormal]
[Memory Threshold: Broken]
[Initiating Forced Transfer Protocol…]
[WARNING: No Return Point Available]
My computer pulsed with light.
Not glowing, but pulsing like a bleeding heart.
The walls of my room began to shift rippling, as if reality itself was melting. Light poured from the screen… not shining, but pulling me in.
I tried to run, but my legs wouldn't move. My hands were dragged down by shadows rising from the floor. The screen was no longer a screen — it was an open eye, sucking everything in.
"Help… someone…"
I tried to scream, but no voice came out.
And at the final moment before everything went dark.
I saw my reflection in the screen…
It wasn't the usual me. It was me, smiling madly, eyes pitch black, and lips whispering:
"Welcome home."
[System Log: User Disconnected from Source Reality]
[Uploading into ETHEREON NETWORK…]
[Host Body: Rebuilding…]
[Soul Sync: 0.3%]
[Error Detected: Identity Not Stable]
[Override Protocol: REBIRTH MODE ACTIVATED]
The world was dark. But I didn't fall.
I floated, suspended in a void that felt like it was breathing.
And in that void… I felt myself begin to unravel.
Name. Voice. Face. Everything…
gone.
[To Be Continued – Chapter 1: The Me That Isn't Me]