The SUVs didn't just drive into the Maâmora forest; they submerged into it. The "Ghost Path" was a narrow vein of amber light cutting through a canopy of cork oaks that looked like frozen explosions of black data. Here, the laws of the Global System were silent. There were no levels, no HUD alerts—only the rhythmic thumping of the tires against the ancient, unmapped soil.
Jin sat in the passenger seat, his breath coming in shallow gasps. He looked down at his hands. The orange veins of the Atlas had been swallowed by a thick, obsidian-like fluid that moved beneath his skin.
[CRITICAL ERROR: SOURCE CORRUPTION][MANA TYPE: UNKNOWN/VOID]
"Jin, your pulse is dropping," Mi-na said, her holographic form flickering with a static grey tint. "The Ghost Path is a 'Non-Existent Sector.' By entering it, you are effectively deleting your own existence to bypass The Eraser. The system is starting to treat your soul as trash-data."
"I can feel it," Jin whispered, his voice sounding like two stones grinding together. "It's not just mana. it's... memories. I'm losing the feeling of the sun on my face. I'm becoming a script."
Suddenly, the lead SUV screeched to a halt. In the middle of the misty track stood a group of entities that didn't belong to the Association or the Architects. They were The Forgotten—NPCs from a deleted Moroccan expansion pack, their clothes and faces half-rendered, their eyes glowing with a hungry, desperate white light.
"They smell your corruption, Jin," Zora said, stepping out of the car with her staff ignited. "In this place, you aren't a hero. You're the most expensive meal they've seen in decades."
Jin tried to stand, but the black mana in his veins felt like liquid lead. He realized that to survive Maâmora, he couldn't fight like a player anymore. He had to fight like a ghost. He closed his eyes and let the black void take over his vision, reaching for the "Delete" command within his own heart.
As the first of The Forgotten lunges at the car, Jin's eyes snap open, completely devoid of color, and the entire forest behind him begins to unravel into a sea of black ink.