The pain faded, but the world around him had already changed.
No longer the frozen room.
He was standing in a white corridor, sterile, silent. Fluorescent lights buzzed overhead. Glass walls revealed rows of high-tech labs, each filled with test chambers, pods, and holographic data streams.
And across every surface—the insignia:TIMELOOP RESEARCH DIVISION – UNAUTHORIZED BRANCH
"Where… is this?"
Except… he remembered this place.
Not from the game.But from his own past.
A voice echoed from the hallway.
"Subject 88's synchronization ratio is rising. This one's different. Time affinity is off the charts.""Scrap the others. This is the one we send into the Rift."
His breath caught. He was Subject 88.A human test subject—modified, experimented on, injected with illegal time-manipulation algorithms.
He turned a corner.
Through the glass, he saw himself.
Floating in a chamber.Eyes closed.Tubes in his spine.Brain connected to a pulsing black cube labeled:
"Rift Seed – Prototype A"
Someone else was watching from the shadows.A tall man in a lab coat, face hidden behind a golden mask shaped like a laughing deity.
"He won't remember. Not at first. But he'll be entertaining to watch."
The vision shattered.
He gasped—eyes snapping open—back in the crystal chamber.The girl—Beta 00—was now staring at him.
Not blinking.Not breathing.Just staring.
"You remember it, don't you?" she whispered, her voice not from her mouth but echoing directly in his head.
He stepped closer. "Who… are you?"
"I was the first one they sent in. The failed seed.You are the second. But you're not like the others."
"Others?"
Her eyes dimmed. "They didn't survive the Rift. You did. That's why he watches you."
He felt a chill. "You mean the masked man?"
Beta 00 smiled faintly. "He calls himself a god. But he's just another player."
Suddenly, alarms blared. The chamber shook.
[System Override Detected.][Entity Beta 00 is breaking protocol.]
Beta 00's voice grew faint. "He's found us. You have to leave… before he rewinds you."
The cables around her began pulling taut—tightening like snakes.
[Auto-purge sequence initiated.]
"No—wait—" he rushed forward.
She placed a glowing hand on his chest. "Take it. A piece of me."
Light surged through him. A new message blinked.
[Skill Acquired: Echo of the Forgotten – Temporarily store one memory or action across time resets.]
Then, she was gone.
Everything went dark.The chamber collapsed into data dust.He stood alone—cold, shaking—but not empty.
Something had changed.
[Level Up! You are now Level 3][Time Freeze (3 seconds): Cooldown reduced by 1 second.][New Trait Unlocked: Memory Resistance – Slightly immune to system-induced memory loss.]
He turned away from the ruins of the chamber, gaze hardening.
"I'm not just a player.Not just a test subject.And I'm done being watched."
The game had rules.He would learn them.And then… break them.