Kei awoke with a gasp.
He was back—or at least somewhere closer to reality. The purple sky was gone, replaced by the dull gray ceiling of a control room filled with blinking lights and soft humming.
But something had changed.
His heartbeat echoed louder than before. His eyes flickered with a faint cyan hue.
The fragment of Neuromancer… it was in him now.
> 25% integrated.
He stood up, shaky but alert. The room was unfamiliar—neither a cell nor a battlefield. Consoles, wires, and screens floated midair in anti-gravity. It felt like the nerve center of a forgotten realm.
As he walked forward, data screens blinked awake, one by one.
> [Subject: K-E-I]
[Status: Fractured Memory Stream Detected.]
[Initiating Recall Simulation...]
Suddenly, the world warped again—and he found himself in a simulation of his own past.
Except it didn't feel like his.
There were flashes:
A boy crying in a white facility.
Scientists debating behind thick glass.
A girl—laughing, holding Kei's hand.
She called him something... but the audio was distorted.
> "Kai..."
Or was it... "Kale..."?
No— "K—"
The memory glitched.
"ENOUGH!" Kei shouted.
The scene broke apart like glass shards, falling into nothingness.
His breathing was ragged, his fingers twitching.
Then, a voice echoed behind him.
> "The memories you see are real. Just not yours alone."
Kei spun.
A hologram flickered to life. It was him—but again, not quite. Same face. Different aura.
> "You're catching up," the version said. "But you're still three steps behind the truth."
Kei growled. "Who are you?!"
The hologram tilted its head.
> "I'm the piece of you that kept the secret... the part that chose to forget."
"And now... I'm unlocking it."
Suddenly, pain struck his head—violent, shattering.
Dozens of voices screamed. Timelines overlapped. Memories he never lived flooded in like a tidal wave.
He collapsed.
And just before going unconscious, a whisper slithered into his ear.
> "Find the girl. She remembers your name... the real one."