Silence stretched across the void.
Fragments of meteors drifted through space, their surfaces washed in violet light. Nothing moved. Nothing breathed. Time itself seemed to have stalled, the universe frozen in a single, endless moment.
And within a place no human should have survived, a black-haired girl floated among the stones.
Then everything changed.
A vast halo flared into existence before her. At its center opened a diamond-shaped rift, like the pupil of a god, radiating prismatic light formed entirely from Frequency. It felt like an eye. Watching. Judging.
Another girl stepped out of that light.
Long black hair shimmered with starlight. A white dress flowed around her as if gravity had forgotten its hold. Crimson eyes opened slowly, calm and distant, and behind her two golden rings revolved in silence. She looked less like a person and more like something divine that had wandered into the wrong world.
Light gathered in her palm.
She pressed it gently against the black-haired girl's chest.
Pity softened her gaze.
A mark appeared on the girl's hand, a dark sigil like a healed scar.
"You must begin your journey again."
The next instant, she shoved her forward.
The girl fell.
She plunged into unseen tides, swallowed by a roaring current beneath which lay a world built entirely of Frequency.
Solaris-3.
"First instance, time, objective complete. Transfer to second instance, space, for retrieval. End of process… hm?"
She had already turned to leave when something unexpected happened.
A figure materialized out of thin air.
Her eyes widened. "Eh? Why is there… another one? A different version?"
A brief pause.
"…Whatever. Might as well send him too."
She repeated the motion.
Another push.
The boy vanished into the same surging tide, tumbling toward Solaris-3.
...
"Ugh, cough—!"
Water flooded his lungs.
Changge's thoughts were a blur, his body reacting before his mind could catch up. He thrashed, arms cutting through resistance, forcing himself upward. Moments later he broke the surface, gasping, air burning in his chest.
He blinked.
And froze.
Above him, the world hung upside down.
Mountains, forests, cities, all suspended in the sky like reflections in a shattered mirror. For a heartbeat, he wondered if he was dreaming.
Then the truth settled in.
The world wasn't inverted.
He was.
The sea beneath him defied gravity, rising into the heavens, becoming the sky itself. An ocean that served as firmament. Impossible. Beautiful. Unreal.
A new problem followed close behind.
How am I supposed to get down from here?
He couldn't fly. He was painfully human. Floating in the Etheric Sea with an entire world looming overhead felt like a very bad setup for a very painful fall.
Before panic could take root, a blue butterfly fluttered into view.
Its wings glowed softly as it hovered in front of him, impossibly calm this high above the world. A gentle female voice flowed from it, warm and reassuring.
"Don't worry. I'm here. I'll send you both to land that hasn't yet run aground. Target confirmed. Initiating… transfer."
"…'Both'?" Changge frowned. "There's someone else?"
This presence felt nothing like the goddess who ruled time. This one carried the authority of space itself.
The butterfly settled on his shoulder and released a burst of blinding light.
Before he could ask who else she meant, the Etheric Sea vanished.
...
Huanglong. Jinzhou. Somewhere within the Gorges of Spirits.
Dizziness slammed into him.
It felt like drowning followed immediately by a roller coaster ride, his stomach still somewhere far behind his body. Through the haze, voices drifted in, close. Concerned.
"…Symptoms consistent with drowning. That's strange. How does someone drown on dry land? No visible injuries. Breathing and heartbeat are stable."
"He should wake up soon, right? But why would they collapse out here? And… don't they look alike?"
"Yeah… they really do. Oh, wait—he's waking up!"
Changge's eyes snapped open.
The first thing he saw was a girl with long black hair leaning over him. His head rested against something soft and warm. Thighs, wrapped in black stockings.
"Ah! Yangyang, mine woke up too!"
He turned his head slightly.
Another girl stood nearby, red hair braided neatly, energy radiating from her in sharp contrast to the gentle calm of the one supporting him.
"Who are you?" they asked together.
Changge pushed himself upright, rubbing his temple. His thoughts lagged behind reality, still trying to catch up. Despite that, an odd sense of familiarity tugged at him.
I've seen them before. Somewhere. A game?
"I'm Yangyang. This is Chixia. You're outside Jinzhou City, under Huanglong's jurisdiction. This place is called the Gorges of Spirits."
"…The Gorges of Spirits? Jinzhou? Huanglong?" He shook his head. "None of that rings a bell."
"What country even has places like that?" he muttered. "Where did I end up?"
"Well, at least you're both okay," Chixia said quickly. "This area is dangerous. Tacet Discords show up around here."
"Tacet Discords?" Changge echoed.
"…Yeah?" another voice said at the same time.
He blinked.
The dizziness had faded. His body felt fine. And that was exactly why something felt very wrong.
From the beginning, Yangyang and Chixia had kept saying "you both." When he spoke just now, the sound hadn't come from a single direction.
People had one mouth.
Not two.
Slowly, deliberately, Changge turned his head ninety degrees.
"—!"
A black-haired girl with golden eyes stared back at him in equal shock.
Same face. Same expression. Even the way their brows lifted in disbelief matched perfectly.
Yangyang blinked.
Chixia stared, then laughed nervously. "Yangyang… they really do look exactly alike."
"Not just their faces," Yangyang murmured. "Their expressions too. Even how they speak."
To the two girls, it had been obvious from the start. Same jet-black hair. Same catlike golden eyes. Even their presence felt identical.
If not for the difference in gender, they might as well have been reflections pulled from the same mirror.
Twins, Chixia decided instantly. They have to be.
Then both strangers moved at once.
"Who are you?" they demanded, voices overlapping.
They sprang apart, distance opening between them in a heartbeat. Black scars flared on their right hands, and from those marks, identical Swords slid into existence as if summoned by thought alone.
Left hands steadied the sheaths. Right hands drew the blades three inches free.
Bodies lowered. Weight shifted forward.
Ready.
The precision was eerie. Even the tension in their jaws matched.
Yangyang and Chixia froze.
"W-wait," Chixia said. "That was fast. I didn't even see you draw."
"Um," Yangyang added carefully, "aren't you two… twins?"
"…Twins?" they repeated.
The girl faltered first.
She pressed a hand to her forehead, confusion tightening her features. Something was missing. No, everything was missing.
"I… don't remember anything," she said slowly. "Not why I'm here. Not even my name."
Yangyang inhaled sharply. "You lost your memories? Completely?"
She nodded.
"Baizhi never mentioned side effects like that…"
Changge stood there, stunned.
Unlike her, his memories were intact. Too intact.
Hold on. Today was a day off. Finished homework. Logged in to clear stamina in Wuthering Waves…
His breath caught.
Wuthering Waves.
He looked up sharply at Yangyang, at Chixia, then at the black-haired girl who looked exactly like him.
Cold realization hit, followed by a rush of heat.
I didn't just end up somewhere strange. I crossed over.
Into Wuthering Waves.
And not just anywhere.
I'm the Rover.
No. More precisely, the Male Rover.
Because the Female Rover was standing right in front of him.
The reason she'd felt so familiar finally made sense.
Changge exhaled slowly, forcing his racing heart to calm.
Excitement bubbled up, tangled with anxiety and disbelief. Waking up inside a game he loved felt unreal, like the kind of fantasy you laughed off as impossible.
His gaze dropped to the blade in his hand.
Originite: Type II.
The dark metal reflected his face, golden eyes burning brighter as his grip tightened.
This wasn't a dream.
"…Then," he murmured, lifting his head, "guess we're really here."
His eyes met hers.
She was already looking at him.
And just like that, the journey of two Rovers began, carried forward by the rising Wuthering Waves.
Changge shook his head, a wry smile tugging at his lips. "I didn't lose my memories, but I don't actually know much about who you or I are either. The truth is… the answers just aren't there yet." He lowered his voice to a near whisper. "Not yet, anyway."
The Female Rover's expression dimmed with disappointment, but he continued before the silence could settle.
"As for our relationship, that's complicated. What I can say is this, it's something special. More than family. More than friends. Even more than lovers." He paused, searching her face. "From a certain angle, I'm you. And you're me. I think you've already felt that much."
He held out his hand.
She hesitated, only for a moment, then reached out and took it.
The instant their fingers met, something clicked into place.
It wasn't familiarity. It went far deeper than that.
Their body heat aligned. Breathing fell into the same rhythm. Even their heartbeats synchronized, steady and sure, as if they had always belonged to the same body. The sense of Resonance between them defied words, a connection far beyond simple understanding.
The only difference between them was gender.
Everything else felt shared.
"I feel it too," she said quietly, nodding. "That Resonance between us."
The last traces of wariness drained from her face. In truth, the moment they'd drawn their Swords, both had already realized how impossible it felt to see the other as an enemy. Every instinct screamed that raising a blade against one another would be a fundamental mistake.
So they trusted that instinct.
Yangyang and Chixia both let out the breaths they'd been holding.
"You don't look like locals from Huanglong," Yangyang said after a moment. "More like travelers without a home. Since your memories are incomplete, why not come back to Jinzhou City with us? You might find clues about who you are. And…"
She raised a hand, eyes closing as she focused. The black vertical mark on her forehead shimmered faintly.
"The wind is warning me. The Etheric Sea is converging toward this area. A Tacet Field may form soon. We shouldn't stay."
"The Etheric Sea?" the Female Rover asked, tilting her head. "And a Tacet Field?"
Changge glanced upward. "Pretty much what it sounds like. An ocean that covers the sky. That's where we fell from." His thoughts drifted briefly to the blue butterfly from before. The Shorekeeper. Without her, neither of them would have survived the descent.
He offered a silent thank-you to wherever she was.
"As for the Tacet Field," he added, "I think we'll see one soon enough."
"That doesn't sound promising."
"Let's move first," Yangyang said. "And… Rover, until you remember your original name, is it alright if we call you that?"
"That's fine," she replied after a brief nod.
The name didn't feel wrong. If anything, it fit. With her memories gone, she really was drifting, like a small boat lost at sea.
Yet strangely, she wasn't afraid.
Her gaze slid toward Changge walking beside her.
Maybe that was why.
Because someone just like her was here.
Because she wasn't alone.
They left the valley together, following the winding path out. Along the way, Yangyang and Chixia explained the basics they needed to survive.
"Even if your identities are unclear," Chixia said, grinning, "there's one thing I'm one hundred percent sure about. You're both Resonators!"
"Resonators?" Changge echoed.
"She's right," Yangyang said. "You both have Tacet Marks on the backs of your hands, and you're carrying Pangu Terminals. Those two together are unmistakable proof."
Chixia pointed at the black patterns on Changge's and the Female Rover's hands, then at her own waist and Yangyang's forehead.
"Every Resonator has one of these."
Yangyang gestured to the gourd-shaped device hanging behind them, then lifted her own. "Each Resonator has a unique ability. Mine lets me sense information through wind, and I can manipulate it to some extent."
Chixia swung her twin guns up with a laugh. "Mine's simpler. I absorb heat and fire it back out as bullets. Pew pew pew!"
Her blunt honesty made her nature obvious. Open, direct, and far too trusting for her own good.
And because of that, neither Changge nor the Female Rover felt like betraying that trust.
"So Resonators are basically people with superpowers," Changge said. "That's… pretty cool."
"What's my Resonance, I wonder," the Female Rover murmured, staring at the Tacet Mark on her hand.
She couldn't remember her abilities at all. Changge felt the same itch of anticipation, eager to test what a Rover could really do.