Lia stared at her phone screen, breath quickening.
She saw him—
The man who had jumped from the pedestrian bridge.
But now, she was seeing the world through his eyes.
City lights stretched and warped in his vision, dim and indifferent, as if there was no place in this city he could call his own. In the background, his raspy voice crackled, speaking to someone over the phone:
"…They said if I don't hand it over… my family will be next."
"I don't have a choice."
"Replay... I know you're watching. Then watch closely."
The camera jolted. He stuffed the phone into his pocket and slowly climbed over the railing.
Snap—
Replay paused automatically.
Lia inhaled sharply, her emotions nearly overturning. This system… it could switch perspectives? This wasn't just a tool for journalism—it was something that could invade reality itself.
Forcing herself to stay calm, she was about to tap "Continue Playback" when her phone abruptly exited the Replay interface and returned to the home screen. As if nothing had ever happened.
At that moment, a message from Marcus popped up:
"Hey? Lia? You okay?"
She had almost forgotten they were still on the call. Quickly, she replied:
"You said… there was no reported incident, right?"
"Yeah, nothing from the police. Are you sure you didn't imagine it?"
She didn't answer.
This wasn't a misunderstanding.
It had been erased.
She realized now: Replay didn't just record reality—it could rewrite it.
That man's suicide had happened, she'd seen it, filmed it—yet the entire event had been scrubbed from the world.
No one remembered.
Except her.
She tried to process it all, but questions kept rising like floodwater:
Who were the they the man mentioned?
What is Replay?
And why did it show up on her phone?
She recalled a small detail from the previous night—
Right when her streaming app updated, her phone had briefly blacked out. After that, a hidden folder named "Replay" had quietly appeared in her storage. She had never opened it—until now, when everything changed.
Opening the folder, she found two files:
2025-05-30_2213_REPLAY.brk
Error_log_SYS-701.recover
She tapped the first file.
A message appeared in stark, emotionless text:
⚠️ Insufficient system permissions. Replay functionality temporarily locked.
To access the next playback, please await a new "Live Trigger Event."
"Live… trigger event…"
Lia whispered aloud, and a memory struck her: the man's dying words—
"Replay… I know you're watching."
Suddenly, everything clicked.
Replay didn't activate because she was a journalist.
Not because she tapped something.
It activated because someone was watching.
She remembered the flood of viewers in her livestream—the sudden spike in numbers. In that moment, the truth had been seen, and thus recorded.
The core of Replay wasn't the phone.
It wasn't the app.
It was the audience.
Only reality that had been witnessed could leave behind a trace.
Replay couldn't rewind the world itself—but it could preserve the parts of reality that had been observed.
She wasn't reporting the news.
She was editing reality.
Lia sat motionless on the edge of her bed, overwhelmed.
Then, a new notification popped up on her phone:
New Event Triggered
Live ID: #005481
Title: Missing Child Reportedly Spotted at Madison Square
Her heart pounded.
The map showed the location—just a few blocks from her apartment.
The Replay system was summoning her again.
She hesitated for a moment.
Then she grabbed her backpack, packed the stabilizer, and took a deep breath.
This time,
she wouldn't just be a recorder.
She was going to uncover the truth—no matter the cost.
---
Chapter 2 Mini Skit
Lia (phone pops up the Replay screen):"What's this new feature?"
Replay Assistant (whispering):"Shhh... I'm Replay's secret little helper. I don't like being the center of attention."
Lia (curious):"You're shy?"
Replay Assistant (covering its face):"I don't like being watched... but I'm here to help you find the truth!"
Lia (laughing):"You're kinda cute actually."
Replay Assistant:"Hmph, remember to keep your eyes on me!"