The Deep Web was not a place of silence. It was a roar of white noise—the sound of a billion deleted voices screaming into a void that didn't care to listen.
Han Seo-Jun trudged through the black sludge of the lower layers, his boots leaving glowing purple footprints in the oily data. On his shoulder, the pixelated fairy, Glitch, clutched his collar with tiny, trembling hands.
"The physics are changing again," she squeaked. "If you think about your heart beating, it might stop. Don't think about your body! Only think about the goal!"
[LOCATION: THE DEEP WEB (LAYER 99)] [REALITY COHERENCE: 40%] [WARNING: YOUR HITBOX IS DEFORMING]
Seo-Jun looked down at his hand. His fingers were stretching and snapping like rubber bands, struggling to maintain their shape in a zone that didn't recognize "human" as a valid asset.
"There," Seo-Jun grunted, pointing his blade.
Emerging from the black fog was a fortress of impossible geometry. It was a castle built from frozen pillars of blue light and iron-bound books the size of skyscrapers. This was the Archive—the final resting place of every world the Architect had "formatted" to make room for his game.
[ZONE ENTERED: THE CASTLE OF DEAD FILES]
Standing at the gates was a figure draped in rusted gold armor. He had no face, only a hollow helmet filled with a flickering blue flame. He held a sword that looked like a crack in a mirror.
[IDENTIFYING...] [NAME: SUBJECT 001 - THE FALLEN HERO (ECHO)] [LEVEL: ???]
"Stop," the Echo spoke. The voice sounded like two grinding tectonic plates. "You carry the scent of the Sovereign. You carry the mark of the Virus. I followed the rules. I played the game. And he deleted me anyway. Why should I let a parasite like you enter the Archive?"
Seo-Jun didn't slow down. He gripped the Void-Threader, the black blade humming with a low, violent frequency.
"Because I'm not playing his game," Seo-Jun said, his eyes glowing with violet static. "You were a hero. A hero can be defeated. I'm a bug. You can't kill a bug until you find every line of code."
The Echo lunged. It didn't move like the monsters in the void; it moved with the perfected, optimized grace of a Level 100 Champion. The golden sword slammed into Seo-Jun's blade, the shockwave shattering the marble bridge beneath them.
[HP: -20%] [CRITICAL IMPACT DETECTED]
Seo-Jun skidded back, his boots smoking. "Fast. But you're still running on the Architect's logic."
Seo-Jun closed his eyes. He stopped trying to fight the Echo's strength. Instead, he reached out with his mind and touched the "Tags" attached to the Echo's armor.
[SKILL ACTIVATED: 'REWRITE HISTORY']
"You're a recording," Seo-Jun whispered. "And recordings can be edited."
The violet markings on Seo-Jun's arm flowed onto the Echo like spilled ink. The golden armor began to turn black. The blue flame in the helmet turned a deep, poisonous purple.
[CONVERTING 'HERO' DATA TO 'REBEL' DATA...] [SUCCESS]
The Echo froze. It looked at its hands, its sword now a twin for Seo-Jun's blade. The hollow helmet radiated the same terrifying static as the Null-Sovereign.
"I... I can see it now," the Echo said, its voice no longer a grind, but a roar. "The Architect didn't delete me because I was weak. He deleted me because I was the template. You... you are the realization."
The Echo knelt. The massive doors of the Castle groaned open, revealing a Great Hall filled with a massive sphere of shifting blue light—the World-Core (Backup).
"Go," the Echo commanded. "The Architect's Conscience is coming. I will hold the gate."
Seo-Jun sprinted into the hall. At the center, a colossal entity made of a billion eyes and golden wings descended from the ceiling.
[BOSS DETECTED: THE DIVINE ARBITER (FRAGMENT)] [LEVEL: 100]
"THOU ART AN ILLEGAL PROCESS," the Arbiter boomed, its voice flattening the pillars.
Seo-Jun didn't flinch. He jumped into the air, the Void-Threader trailing a ribbon of darkness.
"Blue Screen!" Seo-Jun roared, slamming his palm into the Arbiter's central eye.
[CRITICAL HIT!] [DAMAGE: 99,999,999 (MAX)]
The Arbiter shrieked as its golden form began to pixelate and tear. Seo-Jun didn't stop. He drove his blade into the World-Core, funneling the Arbiter's dying energy directly into the backup server.
[INITIATING SYSTEM RE-INSTALLATION] [ESTIMATED TIME TO COMPLETION: 5 SECONDS]
The Castle began to dissolve. The black ink of the Deep Web was being replaced by a blinding, holy white.
"See you on the other side, Architect," Seo-Jun whispered as the world around him turned into pure code.
[5... 4... 3... 2... 1...] [WELCOME BACK TO REALITY, SUBJECT 000.]