The monitor flickered.
Once.
Then again.
Arlan frowned.
His character froze mid-swing. One blade hung in the air, stuck like time had stopped.
The blue particles around it should have burst into light.
Instead, they broke apart.
Not into sparks.
Into squares.
Small. Jagged. Like corrupted pixels.
"What…?"
The monsters around him stopped too.
One of them hung mid-lunge.
No animation. No sound.
Just frozen.
Arlan glanced at the corner of the screen.
Ping: 939 ms
He exhaled.
"…again?"
He leaned back slightly, rubbing his neck.
But this felt wrong.
Lag didn't look like this.
The ground under his character started to split.
Not crack.
Split.
Lines tore across the terrain, like something underneath was forcing its way out.
Then the sky followed.
It didn't glitch.
It broke.
Fragments shifted out of place, overlapping, then pulling apart again like a broken model losing shape.
Some parts just disappeared.
Gone.
Leaving empty gaps behind.
Dark. Hollow.
Arlan didn't move.
His fingers hovered above the keyboard.
Something heavy settled in his chest.
"…what is this?"
—
Jakarta, May 23, 2033
21:45 WIB
The rain had stopped.
The air was still damp, clinging to everything. Water dripped from rooftops into the narrow alley below, forming a quiet rhythm.
Upstairs, inside a modest house, a faint glow lit a small room.
Three by four meters.
Not much.
But enough.
A wooden desk stood against the wall, cluttered with cables, old hardware, and scattered notes. A few programming books leaned to one side.
In front of it sat Arlan.
Early twenties.
Messy black hair.
Thin glasses reflecting blue light.
Dark circles under his eyes that hadn't faded in days.
His fingers moved fast.
Click.
Click.
Click.
On the screen was another world.
Void Plains stretched wide under a dim purple sky filled with cracks of light.
The ground looked dead. Black crystal formations scattered across it like remnants of something long gone.
A high-level zone.
Not for beginners.
At the center stood his character.
AzureBound.
Dual blades drawn.
Both glowing faint blue.
Sword Magician.
Dozens of shadow-type monsters surrounded him.
Most of their HP bars were nearly empty.
Arlan narrowed his eyes.
"Almost…"
His fingers sped up.
The sequence flowed without thinking.
AzureBound dashed forward.
The left blade cut first, wide and clean.
The right blade followed instantly.
Magic gathered.
Compressed.
Ready to burst.
Final skill.
If it landed, everything would drop at once.
Perfect chain.
Then the screen flickered again.
Movement snapped.
Paused.
Then jittered.
The glow around the blades didn't fade.
It broke.
Shattered into tiny squares.
Like the world couldn't render itself anymore.
Arlan leaned forward.
"What the hell…?"
The monsters froze again.
One twisted unnaturally, its model stretching where it shouldn't.
Another blinked in and out.
Unstable.
Wrong.
Arlan turned toward the router in the corner of his desk.
The indicator light was supposed to be green.
Blinking.
Normal.
Now it was red.
Not just red.
Deep.
Heavy.
And it didn't blink randomly.
It pulsed.
Slow.
Steady.
Like a heartbeat.
Arlan stared at it.
A chill crept up his spine.
"…why does that look alive?"
Then a sharp ringing sound cut through everything.
EEEEEEEEEEEE
Arlan flinched.
He pulled off his headset.
The sound didn't stop.
It got clearer.
Closer.
His expression changed.
Because now he knew.
It wasn't coming from outside.
It was inside his head.
"What is that…?"
He pressed his palm against his temple.
The room changed.
Not visually.
But something was off.
The faint smell from the kitchen was gone.
Replaced with something else.
Damp soil.
Rust.
Cold metal.
His heartbeat sped up.
Too fast.
He pushed himself up from the chair.
Or tried to.
His body felt heavy.
Like something was pressing him down.
Hard.
His legs trembled.
Arlan looked down.
Then froze.
Small lights drifted around his arm.
At first just a few.
Then more.
They didn't scatter.
They gathered.
Slowly pulling together, snapping into place.
"…no."
The light thickened.
Took shape.
Layer by layer.
Metal.
Thin plates formed over his skin.
Locking in place.
Fusing.
Not worn.
Integrated.
Arlan reached out with his other hand and touched it.
Cold.
Solid.
Real.
"…this isn't possible."
More pieces formed.
Across his arm.
His shoulder.
His chest.
Rough armor.
Basic.
Unpolished.
Exactly like beginner gear.
Not something he equipped.
Something forced onto him.
He slowly lifted his head.
His eyes returned to the monitor.
The game was gone.
No Void Plains.
No monsters.
No AzureBound.
Only text.
White.
Cold.
CONNECTION LOST
REALITY LINK ERROR
Arlan swallowed.
His throat felt dry.
"…this isn't a bug…"
Another line appeared.
REWRITING
The screen flickered again.
Then a new line appeared.
HOST DETECTED
His stomach tightened.
"Host…?"
A sharp crack echoed behind him.
Arlan turned.
The wall was splitting.
Not crumbling.
Opening.
Light seeped through thin fractures, spreading like veins.
The cracks moved.
Crawled across the walls.
Down to the floor.
Across the desk.
Everything.
The room didn't feel solid anymore.
It felt thin.
Like it had never been meant to last.
Crack.
Crack.
The sound grew louder.
Closer.
Arlan stepped back.
The floor beneath him gave way.
It shattered like glass.
Everything dropped.
Not his body.
Something deeper.
Like his awareness was being pulled out of place.
Light twisted.
Darkness folded in.
Fragments of the room broke apart around him like files being erased piece by piece.
And in the void, a voice.
Cold.
Flat.
Mechanical.
ERROR
REALITY OVERWRITE PROTOCOL ACTIVATED
Arlan's vision blurred.
Fading.
But the voice continued.
ANOMALY DETECTED
Silence followed.
A brief pause.
Like something was thinking.
Then another line.
HOST CLASSIFICATION
Nothing happened for a moment.
Then.
STATUS UNKNOWN ENTITY
Everything went black.
No light.
No sound.
No space.
Arlan didn't know what was happening.
He didn't know if he was alive.
Or if that even mattered anymore.
But somewhere, far beyond human reach, something had recorded him.
Not as a player.
Not as a human.
Something else.
Something that shouldn't exist.
An anomaly.
From that moment, reality began to change.