Leo's face didn't bleed when the blade pierced it. It cracked like a cheap window under a hammer. Glowing silver shards sprayed into the dark air of the Level 1 forest.
"Run, Kai!"
Leo roared. His voice sounded like stones grinding together in a blender. He threw his body forward, shielding me with a broken shield. I couldn't move my legs. My glass skin reflected the jagged trees and the moonlight. I was a Mirror, the lowest-tier avatar in this hell.
"Look at that,"
A voice chuckled from the shadows. A man stepped into the clearing, spinning a black rapier.
"The veteran is breaking himself for a piece of glass."
He wore the black cloak of the Grind Guild. His name tag hovered in the air: Judge. The air around his blade seemed to ripple and disappear.
"Don't touch him!"
Leo lunged. His body flickered like a dying lightbulb. The Luminous—the glow of his soul—was fading fast. In this world, there are no HP bars. There is only the light of your avatar. If the light goes out, your brain in the real world fries.
"Leo, stop! You'll shatter!"
I screamed. But I had no mouth to scream with. The sound vibrated from my chest, hollow and metallic. Judge moved like a blur of ink against the night. He didn't use a normal sword skill. He whispered a single command to the system.
[Vacuum Severance].
The air itself screamed in agony. A line of nothingness sliced through the forest. Leo's right arm simply vanished into a cloud of silver dust. No blood. No bone. Just the sound of a dream breaking. Leo fell to his knees, his shield clattering into the dirt. His remaining eye, a dim blue spark, looked back at me.
"Smile, Kai,"
He whispered. The cracks were spreading across his chest now.
"If you don't... my whole life was just a tragedy."
His body exploded. It wasn't a death; it was a total demolition. Thousands of crystalline fragments rained down like frozen tears. A system notification hissed across my vision:
[Player 'Leo' has been Deleted.]
[Calculating Memory Release...]
"What a waste of good data,"
Judge said. He walked toward me, his boots crushing Leo's shards.
"He was high quality. You? You're just a smudge on the floor."
The golden dust began to dissolve into the stagnant air. Leo's life. His memories. His unfinished business. It was all being erased by the game's cleanup routine. No. Not like this.
My core throbbed with a hunger I didn't understand. I reached out with fingers made of transparent glass. I touched a floating shard that used to be Leo's heart. A spark jumped from the crystal to my hand. My entire body began to vibrate at a violent frequency.
[Warning: Foreign Data Detected.]
[Species 'Mirror' detected. Initializing Memory Salvage...]
A bolt of white lightning struck my mind. The forest vanished. The darkness vanished. I wasn't in the game anymore. I saw a small, white room filled with the smell of chemicals. A young girl lay in a hospital bed, her hair gone. She held a worn picture book of the ocean.
"When I get better, Leo... can we go to the sea?"
A young man, Leo, gripped her hand until his knuckles turned white.
"I promise, Sakura. Just one more month in the tower."
The memory was warm. It tasted like salt and hope. Then came the cold. The pain of the rapier. The absolute terror of leaving her alone in that bed.
"Gah!"
I fell, clutching my head as my glass surface warped. The "virtual mass" of Leo's life was pouring into me. My internal organs—gears of light—began to grind and smoke.
[Skill Inherited: Lion's Roar Slash (Rank: A)]
[Warning: Integrity at 98%. Permanent Damage Detected.]
"What are you doing, little mirror?"
Judge asked. He stopped ten feet away, his eyes narrowing with curiosity.
"You're vibrating. Are you about to shatter too?"
I stood up slowly, my joints screaming like rusted hinges. I felt heavy. It was as if I were carrying a mountain on my back. But inside the hollow space of my chest, a golden fire was burning.
"I... I am not empty anymore,"
I rasped. The voice was mine, but it carried the weight of a dead man. I reached down and gripped Leo's broken sword from the dirt. The blade was chipped, its life almost gone. But as I touched it, golden aura surged from my mirror arm. It coated the steel in a brilliant, roaring light.
Judge's manic grin finally vanished.
"That's... that's his skill. That shouldn't be possible."
He raised his rapier, his aura turning into a black vortex. I didn't think about the controls. I didn't plan the move. I felt Leo's heavy hand over mine on the hilt. I felt his broad shoulders behind me, pushing me forward.
[Resonance Active].
[Synapse Synchronization: 100%].
"Lion's... Roar..."
I lunged. The ground shattered into a crater beneath my feet. The speed was so great that my glass skin began to peel back.
"SLASH!"
A golden lion made of light and memories tore through the darkness. It let out a sound that wasn't a roar—it was a sob of defiance. Judge barely managed to raise his black rapier in time. The impact sent a physical shockwave through the entire forest. Trees were uprooted. The very air turned gold.
Judge flew backward like a broken doll. He crashed through three thick oaks before stopping. His black cloak was shredded, revealing a body of dark smoke. I gasped, my vision blurring as a sharp crack echoed through me. A deep, jagged red line appeared right across my chest. It was a wound that wouldn't heal.
[Integrity: 95%. Damage to Core Detected.]
[Life Expectancy Updated: 1,200 hours.]
I looked at my hand. It was shaking, the glass clouded with grey. The golden light was gone, leaving only the smell of ozone. In the distance, Judge stood up, wiping silver dust from his face. He wasn't dead. He wasn't even badly hurt. But his face was twisted into a mask of terrifying joy.
"Beautiful,"
He whispered, his eyes locked onto my chest.
"That crack... it's the most exquisite thing I've ever seen."
He didn't raise his sword again. He just watched me.
"Grow, little mirror. Fill yourself with more death."
He laughed, a high, thin sound that chilled my core.
"I'll be waiting to shatter you when you're perfect."
With a flick of his wrist, he vanished into the shadows. I was alone in the silent, ruined forest. I looked at the spot where Leo had been destroyed. There was nothing left but a handful of dull, grey pebbles. I reached into my mind, trying to find that hospital room again. I wanted to see the girl. I wanted to feel the salt air. But the memory was changing, turning cold and sharp.
"KAI! WHY DIDN'T YOU SAVE ME?!"
The voice exploded inside my skull like a grenade. It wasn't my voice. It was Leo's. It wasn't a warm memory anymore. It was a ghost. And it was screaming inside my head, loud enough to break the glass. The silver shards on the ground began to pulse in time with the scream.