Chapter 3: System Initialisation
The rapier plunged, a cold, sharp agony blossoming in my chest. My lungs seized, unable to draw breath. The world tilted, colors blurring into a chaotic mess. Darkness, thick and suffocating, began to creep in from the edges of my vision. This was it. The end. Just as the novel foretold.
But then, the blue screen, previously glitching and stuck at zero, exploded into blinding, stable clarity. The high-pitched whine that had plagued my ears vanished, replaced by a clear, resonant chime.
My vision, despite the encroaching darkness, snapped into sharp focus on the translucent display hovering before me. It wasn’t just a simple percentage counter anymore. It was... an interface.
A bold, stark title appeared at the top:
━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━
NARRATIVE OVERRIDE ENGINE
━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━
My mind, even as my body screamed in protest, tried to process the words. Narrative Override Engine? What in the world was that? It sounded like something out of a meta-fiction story, not a generic fantasy novel.
Then, more text scrolled down, each line appearing with a crisp, digital precision:
[ WARNING: UNAUTHORIZED USER DETECTED ]
[ Host: Kai Lorne
Identity: [Extra / Background Character]