The moment Kaito's hand touched the shimmering code, a surge of energy ripped through his entire being. It was like plunging into a cold digital sea, the currents pulling memories, emotions, and truths he never knew he had. His vision blurred and twisted, colors bleeding into one another, sounds morphing into distorted echoes of voices he couldn't quite place. The hallway around him dissolved into streams of binary light, cascading down like waterfalls in a world of code.
When his senses returned, Kaito found himself standing in a vast chamber—dark, yet illuminated by faint, pulsating data nodes that floated in the air. The walls shimmered with shifting lines of code, wrapping around ancient machinery and futuristic consoles alike. Somewhere in the distance, a deep mechanical heartbeat echoed—a reminder that the system was still alive, still watching.
"Welcome to the Core," the voice whispered again, this time calm and almost reverent. "This is where everything begins… and ends."
Kaito stepped forward cautiously, feeling the weight of every step echo in the silence. "What is this place?"
"The Core is the heart of the system. The place where memories are stored, identities rewritten, and realities shaped," the voice explained. "It is also where your existence was forged—a hybrid of flesh and code."
Kaito clenched his fists. "Why me? Why did the system create me but refuse to acknowledge me?"
"Because you are a fault in the algorithm," the voice said softly. "A remnant from a world that the system tried to overwrite. You carry the original code that can't be fully erased."
Images flashed before Kaito's eyes—visions of a past life, fragments of memories with his family, friends, laughter, and loss. But every time he tried to grasp a moment, the system pushed back, shrouding it in static.
"Your awakening has triggered the System Reboot," the voice continued. "The system is scrambling to reset itself, to contain the threat you represent. But the reboot is imperfect—fractured by your resistance."
Kaito's breath quickened. "If the system reboots… what happens to me?"
"You may be lost in the reset, erased like a corrupted file. Or you may rewrite the code, breaking free from its control."
Suddenly, alarms blared. Red lights flashed across the chamber as automated defense units activated, their mechanical limbs rising from hidden panels. "Time is short," the voice urged. "Choose your path."
Kaito's eyes narrowed. "I'm not going down without a fight."
As the first defense unit lunged toward him, Kaito felt a surge of power within—the hybrid code awakening, fueling his movements with speed and strength beyond human limits. He dodged, countered, and fought back, determined to break free from the system's grip once and for all.