Chapter 67: The Reconstructed Academy
Jay’s POV
"So... you’re telling me we’re back at the academy," I said, staring at the oddly familiar—but fundamentally wrong—school grounds.
"Kind of," Alicia answered, frowning at a floating system shard rotating slowly in her palm. "It’s like the system reassembled everything from corrupted memory files and leftover code fragments. We’re inside a restored instance, not the original reality."
"Cool," I said, stuffing my hands into my pockets. "So basically... we’re in fanfiction of our own lives?"
"No," Rei muttered beside me, scanning the floating classrooms and pixelated leaves. "It’s worse. This is a patchwork of every possible version of the academy. Every decision, every failure, every loop. Blended."
[Reality Thread: Reconstructed Academy v3.0]
[Stability Rating: 67%]
[Warning: Presence of Outside Observer still detected.]
The system notifications were more polite than usual. Maybe because it wasn’t in control anymore.
A bell rang somewhere—soft and distorted. Students with blank eyes walked like NPCs stuck in idle mode. Glitches twitched along their outlines, resetting their facial expressions every few seconds.
"Most of these people aren’t real," Alicia said, sadness slipping into her voice.
"Does that include us?" I asked, only half joking.