Kim spent the night beneath a crumbling ruin, its stone walls cracked and half-swallowed by glowing moss. The sky above the Hollow Vale flickered like a dying screen—stars blinking out at random, replaced by pixel noise. Eden Zero didn't usually glitch, especially not in ranked zones. But lately, reality inside the game had felt... unstable.
He didn't sleep. Not really. The game allowed your body to rest, sure, but your mind stayed alert—especially if you refused the "dream layer" most players activated to dull fatigue. Kim left it off. He couldn't afford to lose track of time. Not in a world where minutes in reality meant hours in here. Not when every second mattered.
In his hand, he turned a small silver pin—Luna's pin, or at least, a dropped cosmetic she left behind during the raid months ago. It was the only physical proof he had that she existed at all. The inventory description was blank, no rarity, no lore tag. Just a name: "Luna's Fragment". It didn't do anything. But he checked it every day, like it might start glowing.
At sunrise, Kim set out toward the Vale's exit gate. It was locked behind a brutal solo trial: The Echo Duel—a system-designed test where you face a mirror version of yourself, perfectly matched. If you weren't better than your own flaws, you didn't pass.
He reached the gate by mid-morning. A tall obsidian archway loomed at the forest's edge, covered in pulsing red glyphs. A message flickered:
> Begin Echo Duel?
Warning: Failure will result in Level Loss + Rank Penalty.
Kim didn't hesitate. He tapped "YES," and the forest collapsed around him.
He now stood in a blank chamber of pale light, the floor and ceiling stretching into nothingness. Across from him: himself. Same ragged cloak. Same uneven hair. Same expression—but colder. More hollow.
"Still chasing her?" the copy said with a tilt of its head. Its voice was identical. "Even now? You're pathetic."
Kim said nothing. He drew his blade.
The duel started instantly—no countdown, no pause.
They clashed blade against blade, each move mirrored like a dance. Kim dodged low. The copy dodged lower. He tried a heavy slash. The copy sidestepped and countered with his exact own combo from earlier fights. Every habit he leaned on was turned against him.
"You think she remembers you?" the copy hissed, blade locking against his. "You were nothing to her. Just another broken newbie she happened to save."
Kim shoved backward, breathing hard. This wasn't about skill. It was about knowing himself—knowing how to change. His double was stuck using old tactics. Predictable ones.
So Kim improvised. He dropped his sword, slid under a feint, and landed a palm strike to the gut. It was sloppy, unrefined, not part of his build—but it was unexpected. The copy reeled. Kim snatched his sword from the ground and slammed the hilt into the side of its head.
The echo collapsed, dissolving into glowing fragments.
> Echo Duel Complete.
+7,000 XP. Trait Unlocked: Persistence.
But even as the light faded, he swore he saw her face in the echo's final glitch—just for a second. Luna's face. Her expression sad.
Just a hallucination, maybe. Or the system messing with him.
Still, his hands trembled.
He stepped through the unlocked gate and entered C-Rank Territory: the floating city of Aetherion, a skyborne zone tethered to the mainland by fragile gravity bridges. The city was built of glass and chrome, its platforms suspended in blue light. Here, elite players trained, traded, and crushed lower ranks for sport.
Kim kept his hood up, walking through market alleys filled with glowing stalls and NPC barkers selling overpriced buffs. He ignored them all.
Then his interface pinged.
> New Message from Unknown Sender:
"Stop chasing ghosts."
Kim stopped mid-step.
In Eden Zero, anonymous messages were impossible. Every whisper, every party invite was traceable. Unless the sender had dev access. Or… unless the game itself was trying to tell him something.
Or Luna.
His heart pounded. He tapped the message—but it vanished. No trail. No trace in logs.
Before he could process it, a voice called behind him.
"You're bleeding," it said.
Kim turned.
A girl in a sky-blue jacket stood there, holding a low-grade health potion. Her hair shimmered silver, her eyes sharp. Not Luna. But something about her… familiar.
"I'm not here to join your guild," Kim said quickly.
"I'm not recruiting," she replied. "But you're leaking HP like an idiot. Take it."
He stared at her. Something about the way she held herself reminded him of Luna. Calm. Focused. Not aggressive like most players here.
"Name?" he asked cautiously.
She smiled faintly. "You first."
He didn't answer. Just took the potion. It was warm. She walked away before he could ask more.
Later, when he checked the logs, there was no record of the transaction. No player name. No trade confirmation.
Nothing.
Kim looked toward the Aetherion teleport ring, shimmering at the city's center. The next dungeon lay beyond it: The Fracture Spire, a deathtrap filled with AI hunters and collapsing geometry.
He tightened his grip on his blade.
If Luna was somewhere out there—real or not—he had no choice but to keep climbing.
Even if it killed him.