Game World – Dream Land Fantasy
Location: Ruins of the Fourth Pillar
A cold wind howled across the desecrated ruins, sweeping ash and fog into a swirl of gray nothingness. Phantom Reaper stood at the edge of a shattered courtyard, where ancient obelisks lay cracked and glowing with unstable runes.
This place wasn't on the map.
In fact, it shouldn't have even loaded.
He had arrived here not through a quest or dungeon crawl—but through an unstable portal that tore open after absorbing the 4th Pillar's memory fragment.
[You have entered: Forbidden Zone - Root of the Glitch]
Warning: You are trespassing into a world fragment not approved by system protocols. Consequences unknown.
Zihad, behind the mask of Phantom Reaper, narrowed his eyes. The game was communicating with him again—but this time, the message felt more like a warning from the code itself.
He stepped forward.
The world twitched.
The stone beneath his feet pulsed, the texture bugging for a split second—becoming wireframes, then flickering back to ancient stone.
And then… the enemies came.
From the fog, dark silhouettes emerged. Not monsters. Not demons.
Copies of him.
Exact copies.
Clad in Phantom Reaper's armor, bearing his weapons and skillsets—but their eyes glowed a dull red, and their movement was jarring, as if dragged through time.
[Corrupted Ghost: Shadow of Code - Lvl ???]
Level Unknown? Zihad gritted his teeth.
They rushed him without warning.
The first one slashed low, and he met it with a parry—only to feel a heavy resistance as sparks flew. The shadow hissed like static, its blade ringing unnaturally against his.
Zihad backflipped, drew his spectral scythe, and activated [Shadow Chain: Split Execution].
Three chains burst from the shadows and wrapped around two enemies, yanking them back. He dashed forward, spinning the scythe in a brutal arc—severing one of the copies clean in half.
It vanished in a burst of corrupted particles.
The others hissed louder, voices merging into one:
"You were not meant to exist."
Zihad clenched his jaw. "Tell me something I don't know."
One lunged from the side. He ducked, triggered [Soulshift], and appeared behind it—only to find it waiting for him. The copy mimicked his move.
They learned.
A real-time adaptive AI?
He engaged them in rapid combat, blending Reaper and Necromancer skills to overwhelm their copy patterns. After a grueling five-minute fight, the final one shattered into code.
[Boss Defeated: Echo of the Reaper]
You have reclaimed lost data of your class origin.
New Lore Unlocked: "The First Executioner."
The world around him froze.
A cinematic triggered.
[Lore Fragment: The First Executioner]
Before Dream Land was born, the system tested one class line—a hybrid so powerful it had to be erased.
The Phantom Reaper was not meant to be a class.
It was an experiment. A mistake. A remnant of the First Dev's curiosity.
But the code resisted deletion.
The class became a ghost in the system.
Whoever bonds with it… is marked.
Zihad stepped back, chest heaving.
This wasn't just lore.
This was a message from the system.
And maybe… from himself?
Real World – Zihad's Computer Lab
Zihad logged out just long enough to start running diagnostics on the game server. The weird part?
The location he just visited didn't exist in the code.
At least not where it should be.
There was a hidden directory. One that didn't follow standard paths. Buried in the depths of the storage backend, labeled with a single word:
ROOTDEV
He clicked it.
A folder opened. Inside: thousands of lines of code. AI parameters, forgotten item assets, ancient test environments…
And a video file.
He hesitated—then opened it.
It was a recording.
A much younger version of himself—maybe 13 years old—staring directly into the camera.
"Note to future me," the recording began. "If you're watching this, it means the system evolved beyond the failsafes. You found the Root."
Zihad's heart pounded.
"I don't know how far the game has developed without me. But if you've seen the glitches, the echoes, the forbidden zones—it means the sentience protocols activated. Which means… it's starting to become real."
The boy on the screen paused, then leaned in.
"You have to make a choice. Either delete it all… or guide it. Because now, it's alive."
The screen flickered.
Zihad stared at his reflection.
"…I forgot I left this in here," he whispered.
Game World – Guild Notification
[Guild Message: The Shattered Moon has declared war on 8 major guilds in Region-3.]
High-level raids are incoming. All PvP-safe zones are lifted.
Zihad's inbox lit up.
Players were reacting to the chaos. Rumors of secret classes, bugged zones, and impossible power spikes had started flooding the forums. His actions, hidden though they were, had rippled across the game's balance.
Real World – News Channel (7:00 p.m. Broadcast)
"Reports of psychological dependency and strange dreams tied to Dream Land Fantasy have reached over 17 countries."
"Several governments are considering regulations on full-dive systems."
"Meanwhile, fan communities have declared Phantom Reaper as the first unofficial myth-tier player."
Zihad turned the TV off.
He looked at Zidan.
"You okay, bro?" Zidan asked.
Zihad gave a faint smile. "Yeah. I think I finally understand what's happening."
Zidan tilted his head. "What do you mean?"
Zihad leaned back in his chair.
"This game isn't just a game anymore."
"It's waking up."
End of Chapter 22