The golden light faded from my vision slowly, like someone dimming a lantern inside my skull.
When I could finally see clearly again, the Guardian was kneeling.Head bowed.One arm crossed over its chest.
Waiting.
Do-hyun stared between the creature and me, eyes narrowing, expression unreadable beneath the cold tension tightening his jaw.
"Jiho."His voice was low, controlled.Too controlled."It's reacting to you. Not the system. You."
"That doesn't make sense," I whispered. "I'm just—"
"No."He cut me off sharply."There's no 'just' anymore."
His gaze flicked to my eyes—still faintly gold—and something inside him hardened.
It hurt to see it.
Before I could answer, the system's message pulsed again above us, lines of text rippling across the fractured sky.
[ADMINISTRATOR ENTITY DETECTED.][PERMISSION LEVEL: UNKNOWN.][REQUESTING DIRECTIVE.]
The Guardian didn't move.
It simply waited for my voice.
My throat tightened.
"Jiho." Do-hyun stepped closer, lowering his voice further. "Don't speak."
"I have to," I said. "If I don't give it a command—"
"We don't know what you are when you give one."
I flinched.
He noticed.
And for a brief second, the coldness in his eyes cracked—just a little.
But the world around us didn't wait.
The ground trembled again.Two of the half-rendered buildings collapsed into lines of dissolving script.The merge zone was shrinking—closing.
If the Guardian stabilized it before we escaped, we'd be trapped.
Forever.
"I need to tell it something," I said quietly. "Or the merge will solidify."
Do-hyun didn't like that.
At all.
But when the Guardian rose slowly to its feet—its face still half mine—and the system repeated its demand, he exhaled sharply.
"Fine."He stepped behind me, not beside.Not shielding me.
Watching me.
Cold.Analytical.Suspicious.
Something in my chest twisted.
I faced the Guardian.My voice trembled despite every effort to control it.
"Guardian," I said. "Cease stabilizing the merge zone."
The words resonated through the air—more like a bell than a voice.The Guardian shuddered, script flashing violently through its body.
Do-hyun tensed, ready to drag me away again.
But then—
The Guardian knelt once more.
[COMMAND ACCEPTED.][STABILIZATION HALTED.]
The merge zone flickered violently.Do-hyun grabbed my arm as the terrain beneath us split like breaking glass.
"We need to move. Now."
We ran—dodging collapsing code, leaping over dissolving chunks of world, sprinting toward the only area that looked remotely solid.
But halfway across, Do-hyun slowed.
Then stopped.
He turned to me, eyes sharp and unreadable.
"Jiho."
My breath caught.
"We need to talk about what just happened."
"Do-hyun—"
"Don't."
His voice was cold.Deeper than usual.A tone he only used when a line had been crossed.
"You didn't command it like someone guessing," he said slowly. "You spoke like you've done it before."
"I haven't," I whispered.
He studied my face for too long—searching for a lie I didn't have.
"And your eyes," he added. "That wasn't the system giving you temporary control. That was… something else."
I swallowed hard. "I don't know what it is."
"That's the problem."
The merge zone shook again.
But Do-hyun didn't take his eyes off me.
"Tell me the truth," he said. "Even if you think it's impossible. Even if you think I won't believe you."
His voice lowered—flat, emotionless.
"Who were you before this world?"
My heart dropped.
Because I didn't know.
There were memories—blurred, half-formed.Not from the novel.Not from Earth.
Somewhere else.
Somewhere wrong.
Before I could answer, the system cut in—
[WARNING.][ADMINISTRATOR ENTITY UNSTABLE.][SEALING PROTOCOL INITIATED.]
A shockwave burst through the sky.
The Guardian convulsed—screaming in a broken static version of my own voice—and then exploded into fragments of unreadable text.
Do-hyun cursed and pulled me into his arms as the shock hit us.
"Jiho—stay close."
But the system wasn't done.
Above us, a new line of text wrote itself into existence, larger than any we'd seen before.
[THE ADMINISTRATOR MUST NOT REMEMBER.]
Do-hyun's eyes widened.
"…Remember what?"
I staggered backward, clutching my head.
Because suddenly—
Behind the collapsing world—Behind the flickering sky—Behind the novel itself—
Something moved in my memory.
A door I had forgotten existed.
A voice I had once obeyed.
A place I should never have left.
The system screamed:
[ADMINISTRATOR MEMORY BLEED DETECTED.][EMERGENCY OBFUSCATION.]
And my vision burned white.