The air was colder now.
Kael stood beneath the shattered skeleton of what might've been a comms tower. Giant metal ribs clawed toward the glitched-out sky, flickering like a paused video frame. Dust shifted under his boots. The wind here moved in slow pulses, like it forgot how time worked.
[STATUS: ECHO STABILIZED – 53%]
A translucent system screen hovered near his shoulder. It pulsed every few seconds with a soft, broken tone—like it didn't quite know what it was doing.
Kael stared at it.
"So… you're my only friend here?" he asked.
No response.
Figures.
His stomach growled. No food. No water. His throat was already dry from breathing the metal-tasting air. Whatever body he'd been reincarnated into—it wasn't built for this world.
He climbed a slope of bent iron and shattered stone, peering west.
There it was. Scartide Outpost.
A small ridge of towers. Grey walls. A perimeter field flickering blue every ten seconds. Maybe thirty buildings in all. It looked abandoned from this distance—but somehow, it wasn't fully dead. A faint hum buzzed over the hills, just beneath the glitch-static of the air.
Kael started walking.
His system pinged.
[NEW ZONE DETECTED: SCARTIDE OUTSKIRTS]
[ECHO POINTS GAINED: +2]
"About time," he muttered.
The system's interface shifted slightly. New sections opened. Skills. Loadouts. But most were greyed out. Unavailable.
[ACTIVE SKILL: GLITCH STEP (Lv. 1)]
[ECHO POINTS: 2/1000]
[CLASS SLOT: EMPTY]
[ASPECT: THREAD ECHO – LEVEL 0.5]
Kael tapped on one of the greyed-out lines.
[SKILL LOCKED – REQUIREMENTS NOT MET]
[NOTE: SYSTEM LOADOUT IS INCOMPLETE. USER IS CONSIDERED AN UNAUTHORIZED EXISTENCE.]
He frowned. "Then why are you helping me at all?"
[ASSISTANCE LEVEL: 7%]
[REASON: CANNOT DELETE WHAT IS NOT RECORDED.]
Kael laughed quietly.
He liked that answer.
By the time he reached the outpost, the light had shifted. Not darker. Just… bent. Like the sun wasn't above them, but caught between two frames.
He moved low, crouched near a rusted barricade. The perimeter field hummed louder now. He saw the emitter nodes—four tall pylons arranged in a diamond. Ancient tech. Some pieces still blinked.
[RELIC-GRADE SYSTEM FIELD DETECTED]
[POSSIBLE ENERGY SOURCE: CORE FRAGMENT]
Kael tapped his wristband. The interface zoomed on the nearest node.
Something pulsed inside it. A small cube. Rotating slowly, glitching every half-spin. He recognized it instinctively.
"System Core Fragment," he muttered. "That's how I stabilize."
[CORRECT.]
Finally.
A goal.
He took a slow step forward—only for the ground beneath him to blink.
Literally blink.
It vanished for a millisecond, then reappeared. Kael dropped to one knee, heart pounding.
[WARNING: REALITY THINNING IN THIS ZONE]
Across the field, a sound rippled through the air.
Footsteps. Not human.
Something heavy. Mechanical.
Kael slid behind a broken drone carcass and peeked through the cracked hull.
A patrol unit.
Not a beast. A humanoid frame. Rusted, but functional. Wires like veins, long arms ending in blade-like extensions—not swords, but vibrational cutters. Military model. Face blank. Red visor.
[SCANNING: ENTITY – SYSTEM DOLL: LV. 5]
[ALERT: HIGH THREAT. USER LEVEL: NULL]
Kael stayed low.
The Doll passed by.
For now.
His eyes darted to the emitter again.
There had to be a way to reach it without fighting.
"System," he whispered, "can I interact with that core fragment?"
[YES – IF USER IS WITHIN THREE METERS]
[ACTIVATION REQUIRES: THREAD CONNECTION]
Thread Connection…
Kael focused.
He slowed his breathing. Let his heartbeat settle. Then—
There.
Tiny strands of light shimmered around the pylon.
Barely visible. Floating threads.
He reached for one.
[THREAD ECHO: THREAD INTERFACE INITIATED]
A pulse ran through his arm.
Kael's eyes widened as the world tilted. Suddenly he could see more than just the thread.
He could feel the systems running through the pylon. The flow of energy. The errors. The loops. He reached out—
And connected.
[CORE FRAGMENT LINKED]
[ECHO POINTS GAINED: +8]
[REALITY STABILIZATION +10%]
[NEW FUNCTION: SKILL SLOT UNLOCKED]
A rush of heat poured through his body.
Not pain.
Just… clarity.
He could feel his steps syncing better. His movement less laggy. His glitching reduced.
[USER LEVEL: 1 – ECHO WALKER]
Kael grinned.
His first level-up.
Suddenly, behind him—metal scraped stone.
He turned.
The System Doll stood there.
Dead still. Then—
It moved.
Fast.
Kael Glitch-Stepped, flickering to the right. The Doll's blade-arm slammed into the ground where he'd been, cutting stone like paper.
"Not good," Kael hissed.
He couldn't outrun it forever.
He needed control.
"System," he gasped, "give me another skill! Anything—defensive!"
[PROCESSING… MATCH FOUND.]
[INSTALLING: PHASE FRAME (Lv. 1)]
[COST: 5 Echo Points]
[ACCEPT?]
"Yes!"
[PHASE FRAME ACTIVATED]
The moment the Doll struck again, Kael's body split—his afterimage cracked and shattered like glass.
He was behind it now.
The Doll stumbled.
Kael sprinted to the core, grabbed the base of the pylon, and ripped the fragment out.
[CORE FRAGMENT ACQUIRED]
[ENERGY SPIKE DETECTED – LOCAL FIELD COLLAPSING]
The perimeter shield flickered wildly, then dropped.
Noise screamed into the sky.
The Doll turned toward him—but Kael didn't wait.
He Glitch-Stepped away, then Phase-Framed again, creating distance.
[WARNING: MULTIPLE SIGNALS DETECTED]
[SCARTIDE IS NOT ABANDONED.]
He dropped behind a tilted data wall and collapsed.
Breathing hard.
The core fragment pulsed in his hand—warm. Alive.
It had stabilized part of his system. He could feel the difference now. The glitching was still there, but muted. His vision no longer tore sideways. His movement—tighter, smoother.
He opened his system panel.
[ECHO POINTS: 15/1000]
[LEVEL: 1]
[SKILLS: GLITCH STEP (Lv. 1), PHASE FRAME (Lv. 1)]
[CLASS: ECHO WALKER – UNLOCKED]
[THREAD RANK: 1 – BASIC CONNECTIONS ENABLED]
The interface had changed, too.
Still broken. Still cracked. But more stable.
And something new glowed at the bottom of the screen.
[FACTION DETECTED – THE SYSTEM ARCHITECTS]
[NOTE: THIS WORLD IS NOT EMPTY. YOU ARE BEING HUNTED.]
Kael leaned back against the cold steel.
For the first time since he woke up, he didn't feel like he was dying.
He still didn't understand everything. The world. The system. Himself.
But something was clear.
He wasn't just in Aetheros.
He was part of something bigger.
And if this system wanted to erase him…
He'd break its rules first.