You never forget your own name.
Until the System decides you don't need it anymore.
---
We didn't get a warning this time.
No flashing glyphs. No burning sigils. No mission alert.
We were dragged.
Mid-conversation—Harper's voice froze. Adrian turned to say something and vanished mid-word. And I was yanked backward like the air itself had grabbed me by the throat.
Everything shattered.
---
I landed in complete silence.
Not just quiet. Silence. So thick it felt like pressure in my skull. Like the world forgot how sound worked.
A hallway stretched ahead of me. Infinite. Lined with broken doors—none had handles. Every few feet, a name was scratched into the wood.
But they were incomplete.
> EL_S M_TH
K__I T__R
D_V__ R__S
Like someone had tried to write them… then forgot how to finish.
I looked down.
My name was written on the floor in chalk.
Just five letters:
K _ _ _ _
Three letters were missing.
> "You're forgetting yourself," the System whispered.
Then the lights flickered.
And I wasn't alone anymore.
---
He stood at the end of the hall.
Tall.
Draped in what looked like hospital gowns and priest robes stitched together. His face was a mass of skin, folded inward—no eyes, no nose, just teeth. Hundreds of them, growing where a mouth shouldn't be.
He carried a sack.
And it screamed.
I didn't move.
He took one step forward.
The sack twitched. Something inside thrashed. Scraped. Wept.
> [SYSTEM ALERT – ENTITY IDENTIFIED]
Name: THE COLLECTOR
Type: Identity Reaper / System-Born
Purpose: To claim forgotten names and store them as lost souls
Threat Level: Moderate → Unknown
Combat: Unadvised without Memory Stability above 50%
---
I turned to run.
But the hall shifted. Walls closed like jaws. The air bent inward. The chalk under my feet turned to black ash.
And the System whispered again.
> "He only collects what you surrender."
Then the Collector spoke.
No mouth moved. The voice just existed.
> "You don't need your name. It only reminds you of who you failed to be."
He opened the sack.
Inside were dozens of screaming mouths, attached to nothing but fog and hair and broken hands.
And one of them...
Had my voice.
---
> TRIAL BEGINS – RETAIN OR RELEASE NAME
You may surrender your name for system favor (+Sin Power)
Or you may defend it and suffer the consequence of truth
You cannot leave until the decision is made.
---
"Come on," the Collector hissed. "Let it go. You've done worse than you remember. It would be a mercy to forget."
I fell to my knees.
My thoughts split. A second heartbeat pounded in my ears.
Was I a monster?
Did I deserve my name?
---
Then someone screamed in the distance.
"Kai! Don't forget it!"
Adrian's voice.
He was out there. Somewhere past the shifting walls.
Then Harper's voice followed:
> "If you lose your name, the system names you itself. You won't be Kai anymore. You'll be it's."
The Collector stepped forward, faster now.
"Let it go."
"Let it go."
"LET IT GO."
---
I stood.
Blood poured from my nose.
I clenched my jaw.
And I said my name—out loud.
> "KAI."
The Collector shrieked. Smoke bled from the cracks in his face. The sack burst open—screaming echoes erupted into the hall and vanished like dying stars.
He reached for me.
I shoved the chalk in his chest.
> "You don't get to write my story."
The chalk ignited—blinding light split the hallway, burning the names back onto the doors. The walls shook. The System itself howled in digital rage.
The Collector collapsed.
His sack dissolved into ash.
And I could hear my voice—just my voice—again.
---
[TRIAL COMPLETE]
Name Integrity: STABILIZED
System Resistance: +3
Memory Recall Capacity: Expanded
Unlocked: Combat Sigil – "Namebound Strike"
New Enemy Logged: The Collector (Reforming)
---
I woke up in the chapel.
Harper was kneeling beside me, shaking my shoulders. Adrian had blood on his shirt—nose bleeding like mine.
"You were almost gone," Harper muttered. "The whole room started forgetting who you were. Even we did."
Adrian looked shaken. "You said your name just in time. The system was trying to write over you."
I sat up.
And for the first time since entering this hell, I felt sure of something.
I still knew who I was.
But the System wouldn't stop until I forgot again.