Ji-Hoon didn't wait for the ripple to finish forming.
The moment the data horizon fractured—another ghost sector trying to form without permission—he was already in motion. A pulse of static raced across the sky like a dying heartbeat, and then the world behind him collapsed.
["Sector instability at 94%. Recommend extraction."]
"No," he muttered. "This one's different."
The fragments weren't just breaking—they were reassembling. But not like Edenfall's usual glitches. This was structured. A forced kill-reboot. The terrain twisted into something brutal and sharp, slabs of obsidian-colored code rising like jagged teeth from the ground.
Ji-Hoon landed between two of them.
The tower behind him was gone—reset to a shell of runtime echoes. Whatever he had pulled from the root directory wasn't passive anymore.
It had triggered something old.
["Warning: A level-zero failsafe is initiating. Subroutine class—Killcode Protocol. This wasn't meant to run unless a Creator went rogue."]
Ji-Hoon's breath misted again—not from cold. From pressure. Something above this place was folding in.
A command that didn't care about preservation.
Something meant to delete the entire chain of causality if needed.
At the center of the killzone, a figure began to take shape.
Not an Admin.
Not a construct.
A reflection.
Of him.
Same build. Same gear. Even the same expression.
But its eyes flickered crimson-red like corrupted logs.
✦ Skill: System Trace – Reflected
["It copied your signature. It's a killclone—hyper-adaptive rollback of your exact code."]
The echo moved first. No startup lag. No hesitation. Ji-Hoon was thrown sideways, tumbling across panels of broken interface and command-line static.
He rolled, boots skidding, and rebounded with a retaliatory burst of False Echo. The illusion split left—
But the killclone didn't take the bait. It ignored the false Ji-Hoon and came for the real one.
✦ Skill: Overwrite Strike – Activated
Ji-Hoon's coat sparked as a line of red code carved across the edge, tearing fabric and rewriting the physics of his dodge. He grunted, forced to redirect mid-air and twist into a hard landing.
This thing didn't just mimic his skills—it predicted them.
["It's pulling your past combat logs. Everything you've ever done, it's seen. And now it's adapting."]
"How do I beat it?"
["By becoming something you haven't been yet."]
His hands flickered with residual data. His breath steadied. He narrowed his eyes.
Then dropped his stance entirely.
The killclone paused.
✦ System Conflict: Error – Unknown Protocol
["You're running non-combat behavior. It doesn't have a response mapped. Ji-Hoon, now—recode something."]
He didn't hesitate.
✦ Injecting Disrupt Code…
✦ Target: Reflex Loop
✦ New Output: Phantom Delay – 0.3s combat lag
A micro-glitch. A stutter in its perfect reaction.
That was enough.
Ji-Hoon drove forward, shifting low. His hand caught the clone's arm, and he injected the second code.
✦ Overwrite Authorization – Reversal Key: Creator Fragment
✦ Applying…
The clone spasmed—its crimson eyes burning out into white static. Ji-Hoon twisted, yanking the code thread from its spine.
["Killcode disengaged. Sector lockdown lifting."]
The world shook as the last commands burned out of existence. The corrupted terrain fragmented, scattering like broken permissions across the void.
Ji-Hoon stood alone in the silence.
But only for a second.
A new window opened.
[INTERNAL SYSTEM NOTICE]
[Legacy Access Expansion: Tier 2 Unlocked]
[NEW SKILL ACQUIRED: Recode Phantom]
✦ Description: Enables temporary rewriting of local combat physics for up to 5 seconds. Effects vary based on mental focus and surrounding data architecture.
["Welcome to Tier 2, Ji-Hoon. You just rewrote a kill protocol. And the system noticed."]