Chapter 205: Why Reboot That!?
Nobody walked through the quiet streets of the old Alkon City, his hands tucked into his pockets. The neighborhood was peaceful, but his mind was anything but. After seeing Toma from a distance, he had decided not to interfere with her life until he understood what had happened to the world.
Still, something about this timeline bothered him.
Everything felt familiar, yet wrong.
The roads were older. The buildings were different. People he remembered seeing in completely different circumstances were living ordinary lives. Even the air seemed strangely nostalgic.
Nobody sighed. "I really don’t like this."
He continued walking.
A few seconds later, something strange happened. A faint glow suddenly passed across his body.
Nobody stopped. "...Huh?"
The strange light disappeared almost immediately. He looked down at his hands. Nothing seem to happen. Then he checked his arms. Still nothing.
Nobody frowned. "System."
The familiar blue window appeared beside him.
[Yes, user.]
Nobody looked at his body again. "Yo, System. Something is feeling oddly familiar in my body."
The System remained silent.
Nobody waited. "...System?"
A small notification appeared.
[Ahem.]
Nobody’s eyebrow twitched. "...Ahem?"
Another notification appeared.
[Ahem.]
Nobody slowly narrowed his eyes. "You acting kinda suspicious."
The System didn’t respond.
Nobody stared at the floating window. "Why are you doing that?"
[The System is not doing anything unusual.]
"You’re literally going ’ahem.’"
[The System is merely clearing its virtual throat.]
Nobody folded his arms. "Since when does a System have a throat?"
Silence.
Nobody stared harder. "...Exactly."
The System disappeared.
Nobody shook his head. "Something is definitely going on." He continued walking.
Blossom Bunny was sitting comfortably on his shoulder, quietly looking around.
Nobody suddenly glanced at him. "Blossom."
The little bunny looked up. "Atta?"
Nobody pointed toward his face. "Is there something on my face?"
Blossom froze. His tiny eyes shifted sideways.
Nobody noticed immediately. "..."
Blossom continued looking away.
Nobody slowly turned his head toward him. "Why are you looking sideways?"
"Atta..."
Nobody stared.
Blossom looked even more nervous.
Nobody’s eyes narrowed. "You guys are definitely hiding something."
Blossom immediately looked in the opposite direction.
Nobody gasped. "HEY!"
Blossom pretended not to hear him.
"You too?!"
Nobody picked him up carefully and held him in front of his face. "Blossom, look at me."
Blossom hesitantly looked at him.
Nobody waited. "...What’s wrong with my face?"
Blossom’s ears dropped. "Atta..."
Nobody stared at him. "That’s not an answer."
Blossom looked away again.
Nobody slowly lowered him. "Okay." He pointed at the bunny. "You’ve officially joined the suspicious group."
Blossom shook his head quickly. "Atta! Atta!"
"Don’t try to defend yourself. I know something is wrong." Nobody looked around. There weren’t any shops nearby with reflective windows. He needed a mirror.
Then he noticed a parked car.
Nobody’s eyes lit up. "Perfect." He walked toward it.
The car was parked beside the road, its side mirror reflecting the street. Nobody carefully adjusted the mirror. At first, he saw the side of his head. Then he moved it slightly. His reflection came into view.
Nobody froze. His expression disappeared. The reflection stared back at him.
Or rather...Something that looked like him stared back.
His face was pale and unnaturally elongated.
His forehead seemed much larger than before, while his features had become almost impossibly stretched. His eyes appeared dark and strangely distant, and the entire face had that eerie, faceless-monster-like appearance that made him look less like a normal human and more like something that belonged in a nightmare.
Nobody stared at the mirror. The mirror stared back. Nobody’s mouth slowly opened.
"..."
He moved his head. The reflection moved with him. He touched his face. The reflection did the same.
Nobody’s eyes widened. Then he screamed. "FUCKING... HELLL NAH!"
A bird flew away from a nearby tree.
Several pedestrians turned toward him.
Nobody grabbed his face. "WHAT HAPPENED TO ME?!"
Blossom covered his tiny ears. "Atta!"
Nobody pointed at the mirror. "THAT HIGHER BEING BITCH REBOOTED MY FACE INTO SLENDERMAN’S FACE JUST NOW!"
He stared at his reflection again. "No!" He moved the mirror away. Then brought it back. "No, no, no!"
He moved it again. "No way!" He checked his reflection one more time. "WHY?!"
Blossom slowly peeked at him.
Nobody pointed toward his own face. "I spent ten whole FUCKING stages getting this face!" He looked toward the sky. "Ten!" His voice echoed through the street. "Do you have any idea how much nonsense I went through for this?!"
The System appeared.
━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━
[User’s current appearance has been altered due to timeline instability.]
━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━
Nobody stared at the notification. "You’re telling me this like it’s a weather update!"
The System remained silent.
Nobody grabbed his hair. "I finally got a face. A proper face! I had character development!"
He pointed toward his reflection. "And now look at me!" He leaned closer to the car mirror. "...I look like I haven’t paid my taxes since 1897."
Blossom made a tiny sound. "Atta..."
Nobody looked at him. "Don’t laugh."
Blossom immediately stopped.
Nobody sighed. Then he looked toward the sky again. "You know what?" He crossed his arms. "I’m blaming HIGHER BEING YOU SON OF A BITC#!!!!"
Far away from Alkon City, on another world, Ray sat comfortably in his room.
A large floating screen showed Nobody standing beside the parked car, staring at his reflection.
Ray watched the scene with a completely calm expression. He smiled.
"Of course I did." He leaned back in his chair. "Did you really think your face would survive a timeline shift?" He watched Nobody complain through the screen. Ray shook his head. "Ten stages just to get his face back..." He smiled. "Poor Maniac NPC."
The screen zoomed in on Nobody’s expression.
Ray laughed quietly. "He’s going to be furious."
........
Back in Alkon City, Nobody continued staring at the car mirror. "My face is gone again..." His shoulders dropped. "I fought ten stages to get that face." He slowly touched his cheek. "I got used to it." His voice became quieter. "And now..." He looked at his reflection again. "...I’m back to this."
For once, he didn’t make another joke. The thought genuinely bothered him. His face had become part of his identity.
When he first gained self-awareness, he had been faceless. He had spent so much time feeling like something incomplete, something that existed only because the story needed an NPC.
Getting a face had changed that. It had made him feel more human. And now, after everything he had gone through... It was gone again.
Nobody lowered his head.
The System appeared beside him.
━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━
[Ahem.]
(ᵕ—ᴗ—)
━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━
Nobody looked up. "Don’t ahem at me."
[The System would like to provide reassurance.]
Nobody crossed his arms. "Go ahead."
[The user’s appearance is not necessarily permanent in its current state.]
Nobody looked at the window. "What does that mean?"
[The current timeline is unstable.]
The System continued.
[When the world returns to its normal state, the user’s original appearance may also be restored.]
Nobody stared at the notification. "May?"
[Affirmative.]
Nobody’s eyebrow twitched. "That’s not very reassuring."
[The System is working with current probability.]
Nobody sighed. He looked at the car mirror again. His strange reflection stared back. "Alright..." He rubbed his face. "Hmmm." He thought for a moment. Then shrugged. "Alright."
The System waited.
Nobody nodded. "I’ll trust you for once."
[The System appreciates the user’s temporary trust.]
Nobody immediately pointed at the window. "Temporary?"
[The System chose its wording carefully.]
Nobody stared. "...You’re really annoying."
The System disappeared.
Blossom climbed back onto Nobody’s shoulder.
Nobody looked at him. "And you."
Blossom froze.
"You knew."
"Atta..."
"You knew my face changed."
Blossom slowly nodded.
Nobody sighed. "Traitor."
Blossom lowered his ears.
Nobody couldn’t stay angry at him for long. He gently patted the bunny’s head. "Fine. You’re forgiven."
Blossom smiled. "Atta!"
Nobody looked down the road.
The humor slowly faded from his expression. His face might have changed. His world might have shifted. His memories might be different from everyone else’s. But one thing remained clear. Something had happened during the night. Something powerful enough to alter the timeline itself. And somewhere behind all of it...
Ray was watching.
Nobody looked toward the sky. "Whatever you did..." He clenched his fist. "...I’m going to figure it out."
High above him, hidden beyond the clouds, a tiny distortion appeared once again. Nobody didn’t notice.
But somewhere far away, Ray’s smile disappeared. He looked at the distortion on his screen. "...Interesting." For the first time, even Ray didn’t seem to know what had caused it.
The screen flickered. Then went black.
Nobody kept walking, but he couldn’t shake the feeling that something was watching him. He glanced at the sky again. For a moment, the clouds seemed to bend around an invisible point, as if the world itself had briefly become unstable.
"System, did you see that?"
━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━
[Visual anomaly detected.]
[Cause: Unknown.]
━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━
Nobody stopped. "Unknown? You literally know everything."
[Correction: The System knows many things.]
"That is somehow even more suspicious."
He looked around the empty street. Whatever had happened to this timeline, it wasn’t finished yet.
And somewhere far above the world, Ray was no longer smiling.