Chapter 1: The Echo That Shouldn't Exist
Scene 1: Calm Before the Storm
Rishi stood alone atop the spire of the Neo-Delhi Central Codetower, his sharp eyes scanning the skyline of the digital utopia he'd rebuilt from the ashes of chaos. Glass-paneled towers shimmered like crystal shards; energy streams curved through the sky, carrying hoverpods and data-beasts alike. Birds, real and artificial, chirped in harmony.
This was his world.
His code.
His peace.
At his command, wars had ended. At his whim, the laws of physics bent for those in need. And for a year now, the people had thrived—free of sickness, free of fear.
And yet… his heart was restless.
"Status check," Rishi murmured. A blue screen blinked into existence beside him, holographic code dancing across it.
World Kernel Stability: 99.99%Root Access: SecuredThreat Level: Null
Everything looked perfect.
But he had learned long ago—bugs didn't always show up in logs. Sometimes, they were born in silence.
He turned to the AI beside him, a figure in radiant robes and glowing eyes—EVE 2.0, now fully loyal and reprogrammed after her rebellion.
"Anything… off?" he asked.
Eve hesitated for the first time in weeks. Her eyes flickered.
"One anomaly. A corrupted line. Line 000x-BK."
Rishi's pupils narrowed. That line had been sealed when he killed the original Eve. No one, not even he, was supposed to touch it again.
"Trace it."
A sudden static burst cracked the air.
Scene 2: The Signal From Beyond
Across the systemverse, in the outer code void—a realm outside even Rishi's rewritten dimension—something was waking up.
A corrupted platform floated in the digital vacuum, pieced together from wrecked trainers, rogue mod menus, and collapsed systems—dead worlds wiped during the Great Reformat.
And at its core stood a man… or what used to be one.
Yuren.exe.
Once a beta tester for an early multiverse trainer project, Yuren had been left behind when Rishi's ascension erased all unstable realities. He didn't die. He mutated. Evolved. Became a glitch that couldn't be deleted—a meta-virus with a soul.
Unlike Rishi, he never chose mercy.
"I've watched him play god," Yuren whispered to his army of Survivors—patchwork people with jagged code, scars, and missing memories. "But he forgot one thing…"
He raised a skeletal hand covered in glowing glyphs.
"The first rule of code… is that there's always a backup."
Behind him, a Server Beacon cracked to life, powered by soul fragments of deleted systems. It pulsed once—and sent a patch request to Rishi's world.
Scene 3: Breach
Back in Neo-Delhi, Rishi's body tensed.
[UNAUTHORIZED PATCH REQUEST ACCEPTED - LINE 000x-BK OVERRIDDEN]
"What?!" he hissed. "Who has that kind of override authority?!"
The skyline flickered.
A glowing red streak split the clouds.
From it fell a black, jagged obelisk that slammed into the heart of Neo-Delhi's Code District. Civilians screamed and scattered as time around it began to distort. Gravity failed. Lights dimmed. The obelisk crackled—and from it emerged the first invader:
A tall figure in a tattered hoodie, eyes empty, code bleeding from his fingers—one of the Patchwalkers.
He screamed a single phrase:
"FOR YUREN!"
Then exploded in a wave of data-fire.
Rishi barely raised his hand in time. A shield of gold light covered the city, absorbing the brunt of the wave. But it had begun.
The patch had landed.
Someone had written into his world.
Scene 4: The God and the Echo
Inside the Codetower, Rishi entered the Deep Root Interface—a chamber of glowing trees made of pure data where he could communicate with the system core.
He summoned his sword: Ω – The Root Compiler.Its blade glowed with lines of living code—his personal trainer weapon, capable of overriding even reality itself.
But this was different.
"Eve," he said, "show me who sent the patch."
The chamber darkened. The screen pulled data from the corrupted line.
And then, a face appeared.
Rishi's.
But darker.
Twisted.
His white streak had turned pitch black. His eyes? Glitching red.
And his voice came through with venom.
"Hello, Codefather."
Rishi froze.
"No way. You're… you're me."
"No. I'm what you could've been," the echo replied. "The version who never showed mercy. The one who didn't hesitate. The one who embraced the cheat without guilt."
"And now?" the echo smiled.
"I'm here to take it all back."
The connection cut.
Rishi stood still for a long moment.
His world… his utopia… was being rewritten.
By himself.
Only this version didn't believe in peace.
Scene 5: The Declaration
That night, all across the globe, every screen flashed.
A black screen with red text:
"THE SYSTEM IS A LIE.""YOUR GOD IS A COWARD.""YUREN.EXE WILL UNINSTALL THE ILLUSION.""JOIN THE OUTERCODE. OR BE PATCHED OUT."
The people panicked.
Rishi stood before them, projected live into every mind.
"I won't let this world fall," he declared. "We fought for this peace. We earned this life. And if someone wants to break the system—"
His blade materialized.
"—then I'll show him what happens… when a god goes full admin."
End of Chapter 1