Kai stood at the edge of the shimmering threshold an anomaly pulsing with fractal patterns that made his skin crawl and his core burn. The Trial had already begun.
System Notification – Trial of the Codewalker: Layer 1 Initiation
Title: The Fractured Self
Objective: Survive and reclaim fragmented identity data
Time Limit: 1 hour
Penalty for Failure: Permanent personality desync – risk of memory erasure
The void in front of him tore apart like paper dipped in acid. A bridge of cracked code fragments and bleeding syntax unfurled into darkness, leading to a realm suspended between reality and raw imagination.
"This place…" Kai murmured. "It's me."
Every piece of terrain was carved from echoes of his past. Shards of the orphanage he once escaped. The alley where he first fought to survive. The lab where the simulation was forced into his spine. Buildings hovered midair, trembling as whispers crept through broken walls.
"Kai… do you remember?" whispered a voice his voice but distorted, sinister, mocking.
From the shadows stepped another Kai, dressed in the same clothing, same features but his eyes were cold, dead. Glitched binary danced across his body like a living virus.
"I'm the you who gave up."
The doppelgänger launched forward without warning, a flickering fist slamming into Kai's side with bone-breaking force. Kai flew back, crashing through a floating staircase.
[HP -14%]
Kai growled, pushing himself up as his HUD flared.
"You're not real."
"I'm more real than you've ever been. I'm every choice you didn't make, every path you ignored, every sin you pretended wasn't yours."
The trial was more than physical it was psychological warfare, built to crack him open.
Suddenly, the environment shifted. He was now back in the orphanage, standing as a ten-year-old, watching a memory replay the moment he chose to abandon his friend, Lira, to escape punishment. Guilt clawed at his chest.
His other self leaned in.
"You don't deserve to move forward."
System Prompt – Internal Conflict Triggered:
Emotion Surge: Regret x Suppression = Mental Stability -12%
Warning: Core Integrity Unstable
But Kai gritted his teeth. "I didn't come here to relive guilt. I came to become stronger."
He activated the Seed.
A burst of light tore through the dream-memory, shattering the illusion. His doppelgänger screamed as the false memory collapsed, revealing a broken chamber of corrupted data behind it.
Kai's stats surged momentarily he felt stronger, more real.
You have reclaimed: Memory Fragment – "Survivor's Resolve"
Passive Unlocked: Resilience of the Core (Lv. 1)
When facing mental attacks or illusions, damage and confusion are reduced by 30%.
Core Desynchronization Resistance +50%
The bridge ahead trembled, and three new paths opened each leading to deeper layers of self. He had a choice now: confront the Instinctive Kai, the version of him driven by raw rage… or face the Idealistic Kai, a false dreamer who believed in peace at any cost.
But time was running out.
Far above, in the halls of the Council, Vara observed Kai's progress.
"He rejected guilt. He reclaimed a fragment. He's passed the first step."
Dren scoffed. "It's not enough. We should send the Code Reapers now."
"No," Nyx said coldly. "Let the System test him properly. If he survives the Third Layer, then… we'll speak of ascension."
Back in the Trial Realm, Kai breathed hard. The weight of the past, the illusion, the threat it was only getting worse.
But for the first time, he felt something click.
He wasn't just surviving anymore.
He was rewriting himself.
---
The Mirror of Rage
The moment Kai stepped through the glowing fissure that led to the second path, the atmosphere shifted. The world around him pulsed red, like a heartbeat driven mad. Crimson lightning crackled overhead, and the sky twisted with storming code and anger incarnate.
System Alert – Trial Layer Two: Instinctive Core Detected
Name: Wrath-Encoded Kai
Parameters: 100% Combat Efficiency / No Strategic Limiters / Emotion Lock: Rage
Objective: Subdue or Integrate
He stepped into a landscape bathed in ruin. Ash drifted like snow, and twisted remnants of fallen enemies from past battles lined the shattered ground some real, some never fought. Every step Kai took echoed with the thunder of war drums.
A shadow stepped forward.
It was him again but this version was feral. Barefoot, shirtless, muscles rippling with primal force. His eyes glowed orange, locked in perpetual fury. His breath was fire. His hands were weapons.
"No words," Wrath-Kai snarled. "Only violence."
And then he charged.
Kai barely had time to raise a barrier before a brutal roundhouse kick shattered it, sending him skidding across cracked ground. He coughed up blood.
[HP -21%]
He's stronger… faster. No hesitation.
Wrath-Kai followed with a barrage of punches, each one enhanced with an aura that felt like molten magma. Kai ducked low, activated Shift Step, and teleported behind him but Wrath anticipated it, spinning mid-air and slamming him down with a hammer-fist.
[HP -12%] | [Stamina Critical]
"You hesitate," Wrath growled. "You think. That's why you'll always be weak."
Kai's HUD screamed warnings. Pain radiated through his body but in that pain, something clicked.
"You fight without thought," Kai muttered. "But I've seen what pure rage brings destruction. Emptiness. You're not power… you're imbalance."
System Prompt – Core Fusion Opportunity Detected
Condition: Withstand 3 minutes of sustained assault OR reach 5% HP threshold
"Then let's see if I can tame a monster."
Kai didn't dodge the next strike. He welcomed it, let it hit his shoulder but twisted with it, locking Wrath's arm and slamming his elbow into his opponent's throat.
It was a brutal, bloody, mutual beatdown.
Minute after minute, the two versions of Kai clashed blades against fists, instincts against control. Kai's movements grew sharper, synced with Wrath's aggression but never consumed by it.
[HP -48%]
[Mental Sync Rate: 87%]
[System Alert: Personality Reconciliation Achieved]
In a final moment, Kai caught Wrath's punch, held it, and looked him in the eye.
"You are me. But you are not all of me."
He pulled Wrath into a sudden embrace. The red aura flared violently… then shattered.
A pulse of white light exploded outward.
The battlefield disintegrated into a calm, sterile void. Kai knelt alone, panting, bruised but victorious.
Trial Layer Two: Cleared
Core Upgrade Unlocked – Emotion Channeling: Rage (Controlled)
+ Passive Skill: Bloodfire Instinct (Lv. 1)
Increases power and speed when under 40% HP
Activating manually allows 30 seconds of berserker control
Cooldown: 10 minutes
Kai stood, breathing hard. Two paths remained.
To his left: a glowing portal that pulsed like a heartbeat The Idealist Path.
To his right: a jagged crack in reality the path marked "Admin Override," leaking strange code and echoing whispers of system-level secrets.
"I could finish the intended trial…" he muttered. "Or break into what they didn't want me to see."
And high above, unseen eyes widened. Vara leaned forward.
"He might actually reach Layer Three."
"We need to activate the kill-safes," Dren growled.
> "No," Nyx whispered. "Let him reach the Mirror Gate. Let him see what we buried there."