Chapter 83: Patterns That Shouldn’t Exist
Location: Eastern Wing – Reconstructed Library, Fractured Simulation Core
Jay stared blankly at the rows of books that shouldn’t have existed.
The library was intact— far too intact.
Most of the simulation had crumbled or glitched beyond recognition, yet here, amidst flickering anomalies and suspended motes of unreal light, the Eastern Wing stood polished and pristine, its marble tiles uncracked and its golden chandeliers glowing warmly.
His fingers brushed a bookshelf, half-expecting his hand to phase through it. Instead, it met solid wood. Cold, real, and old.
"This is wrong," Jay muttered.
The words echoed around him. He hated when echoes replied before he could finish thinking.
Books lined the walls, thousands of them. But when he pulled one off the shelf, the title blurred in his vision. It refused to settle into any readable language, flickering between glyphs and systemscript.
[SYSTEM ERROR: UNAUTHORIZED ACCESS TO RESTRICTED NEXUS KNOWLEDGE]
"Yeah, I figured," Jay mumbled, sliding it back.
He moved deeper into the room, weaving between narrow aisles and overgrown ivy sprouting from the cracks in reality. Occasionally, a shard of blue code glitched into visibility like shattered glass, frozen mid-fall.
And then he heard footsteps. Light. Hesitant.