The stairs creaked beneath my feet, groaning with ancient
secrets the sect had tried to bury.
It felt like they were holding their breath, as if the walls
were afraid I might learn too much.
But I wasn't afraid.
Not anymore.
The Red Archives were a tomb—both for knowledge and the
souls who sought it.
Few ventured this deep.
Even fewer returned.
The truth had a price.
And the system had long ago set up this place to ensure that
price would never be paid.
---
[SYSTEM: WARNING — AREA FLAGGED AS DANGER ZONE]
[ERROR. NO ACCESS TO THIS ZONE GRANTED.]
I smiled bitterly.
Danger? That was all they had left to keep me out.
But I had no use for access permissions anymore. Not when I
could rewrite the boundaries themselves.
---
[REWRITE SCRIPT: ACCESS RED ARCHIVES]
[ERROR. REQUEST DENIED. SYSTEM AUTO-CORRECTION INITIATED.]
It wasn't enough. Not yet.
I focused.
The glyphs on my skin began to glow, flickering like a
faulty signal.
[SCRIPT: INPUT RECOGNIZED]
[REWRITE COMPLETE: ACCESS GRANTED]
[SYSTEM LOG: ENTRY AUTHORIZED UNDER EXCEPTIONAL CONDITIONS.]
---
A low hum filled the air as the doors creaked open,
revealing the inner sanctum.
Rows upon rows of blackened shelves, holding scrolls, jade
slips, and sealed books that had been forgotten by everyone except the system.
But the system had forgotten me.
---
I stepped inside, the air thick with stale energy. It was as
if time itself had grown weary of this place.
Every object in this room had been sealed away for one
reason—because it didn't fit their perfect story.
I walked through the aisles, fingers brushing over the edges
of the scrolls, feeling their latent energy pulse beneath the surface.
This wasn't about cultivation anymore.
This was about the truth. The system had hidden it here,
knowing that one day someone would come to expose the lie.
---
I didn't need to read everything.
I could already feel it—the subtle contradictions beneath
the surface. The code was fractured here, like the pieces of a shattered
mirror.
---
Then, I found it.
The memory log.
---
The leather-bound book looked mundane, but I could feel the
weight of it.
The ink was different—made of something more than just paper
and ink. Blood, maybe? It wasn't from any standard crafting method I'd ever
encountered.
[LOG: "RESEARCH SUBJECT X-227"]
[NOTE: Proceed with caution. Known side effects: memory
loss, identity erosion.]
[CATEGORY: Forbidden Cultivation—Final Experiment.]
I opened it.
---
The first page was blank.
The second one, too.
And the third.
---
Then, the fourth:
The subject was chosen for their inability to adapt to
the system. A prime candidate for the soul-sealing ritual.
I froze.
A memory flooded me—of my failed attempt in the Sacred
Formation.
---
A failed candidate.
---
I slammed the book shut.
No.
I wasn't some failed experiment, erased for being
inconvenient. I was something more—and now I could see it.
---
[SYSTEM: WARNING — UNAUTHORIZED LOG DETECTED]
[ADMINISTRATOR INTERVENTION INITIATED.]
---
I wasn't done.
---
I took a deep breath and focused on the logic in the book.
My fingertips grazed the edges of the page as I began to
rewrite it. Not just read it.
I was rewriting history.
---
[SCRIPT: "REWRITE LOG"]
[ADMIN APPROVAL: NULL]
The text blurred, changed, as I twisted the words around
until the original purpose was buried beneath a new interpretation.
This book wasn't about failure. It was about uncovering the
hidden truth that had been erased from the world.
---
The final experiment was conducted after Subject X-227
experienced a destabilizing event. Their mind rejected the system's programming
and began accessing the world outside of its constraints. This… glitch… is
currently being analyzed for use in future subjects.
---
I exhaled slowly, letting the information sink in.
---
There was more.
So much more.
But just as I was about to dive deeper, I felt it—the
pressure.
Someone was here.
Not the Seeker. Something worse.
---
I didn't move.
Not yet.
They were close.
Very close.
---
> Activate Protocol A—Eliminate Unauthorized Entity.
---
I felt the temperature of the room drop.
The walls shifted. Familiar. But not right.
I was no longer alone.
---
The doors slammed shut with a sudden force, and from the
corner of my eye, I saw shadows moving. Not natural. Not human.
[SYSTEM: WARNING — PROTOCOL ACTIVATED]
[ADMIN APPROVAL: NULL]
[ENTITY IDENTIFIED: INTRUDER]
---
A shape loomed in the doorway. Its form flickered like a
broken television screen, then solidified into a figure shrouded in black
robes, eyes gleaming with malice.
A ghost in the system.
But this one wasn't glitching.
This one was designed to stop me.
---
"You shouldn't have come here," it whispered, its voice
a hollow echo.
"And you certainly shouldn't have rewritten the logs."
---
I stood.
"I've only just started," I said.
---
The intruder took a step forward.
Each movement left static ripples across the air, like the
world itself was struggling to process its existence.
It wasn't flesh.
It wasn't spirit.
It was something in between.
A system enforcer.
An execution thread.
An automated countermeasure for anomalies like me.
---
"Your existence is unsanctioned," it said. "Return to null.
Or be… overwritten."
Its voice was like listening to corrupted data—each word
layered with echo, distortion, and code.
I didn't answer.
Instead, I watched.
Analyzed.
Behind its hooded mask, its body flickered—only
half-anchored to reality. That was its flaw.
It wasn't made to fight outside the system.
And I no longer played by its rules.
---
[WARNING: THREAD COLLISION DETECTED]
[SYSTEM: INITIATE AUTO-PURGE IN 30 SECONDS]
[EXECUTION PRIORITY: CLASS NULL / CAEL VIRON]
---
"You really think I'm afraid of a countdown?" I asked
quietly, stepping backward into the deeper shadows of the archives.
The enforcer surged forward, leaving a burning trail of
corrupted glyphs in its wake.
---
I grabbed a nearby jade slip, one not meant for combat, but
for defense — an array mapping slip, designed to stabilize formation integrity.
I didn't use it the way it was meant to be used.
> [REWRITE: SLIP FUNCTION → NULL SPACE REDIRECT]
The jade burned in my hand, then cracked, then shattered—
—and the space between me and the enforcer collapsed like a
folding dimension.
A vacuum of logic. A redirected rule.
The thing flinched, its momentum breaking. It staggered
mid-leap, data streaming from its limbs like blood.
[ERROR: MOVEMENT THREAD INTERRUPTED]
[SYSTEM INTEGRITY: 67%]
[RECALIBRATING TARGET TRAJECTORY...]
---
That was all I needed.
I turned and ran.
Not out of fear.
But strategy.
This wasn't the final battle. Not yet.
I still needed answers—needed to finish what I'd started
before this thing summoned backup.
And when I turned to the final row of shelves—there it was.
A sealed scroll, black as ink, pulsing faintly with
something ancient. Older than the system itself.
No labels. No signature.
Only a single glyph.
Origin.
---
I reached for it just as the room behind me convulsed,
reality warping from the enforcer's recovery.
I didn't hesitate.
---
[ARCHIVE EXFILTRATION ROUTE LOCATED]
[USER ESCAPE LOGIC: REWRITE ENABLED]
---
I grabbed the scroll and plunged into the hidden exit
tunnel, glyphs on my skin burning with activation.
The door sealed behind me, cutting off the enforcer's
corrupted screech.
---
But I knew it wasn't over.
Not by a long shot.
The system had finally noticed me.
And it had started sending its worst.
---
And now?
I was carrying a scroll that wasn't just forbidden…
It was never meant to exist.