Darkness.
It was absolute—thick, suffocating. I could feel my chest rising and falling with breath, but nothing else moved. Not a finger. Not even my eyelids. I was trapped in a silent cage of my own body.
Panic slithered into my chest like a slow leak of cold water. I tried to calm down—breathe slower, count, think rationally—but the more I tried, the more the air felt wrong. Tight. Frantic.
Am I in a coffin? Buried alive?
The thought was ridiculous—but in the pitch-bck silence, logic faltered. My lungs still worked, I could feel it—but the fear didn’t care. My thoughts kept spiraling.
Wait—no. I'm breathing. I wouldn't be breathing if I were buried. Right? Right?
But then again… what if someone did bury me? Someone could’ve dropped me in a hole and left me there, assuming I was dead.
No. No, come on—think of something else. What happened before this?
Right. The split personality. I triggered the damn system. That’s the st thing I remember.
‘System, are you there?’
> Ding!
Host, I’m here.
A breath I didn’t realize I was holding released. Even in the void, the system’s voice grounded me.
‘Nice. Now, why can’t I move my body?’
> Ding!
Host, you are unconscious. Your body is shut down and restarting. There are still 20 minutes before it fully recovers.
‘So I passed out?’
> Ding!
Correct.
‘Then… why am I awake?’
> Ding!
Host, you are now in the thought-space. You currently control thoughts.
That didn’t make much sense. What do you mean I control thoughts?
‘Wait… does that mean the other one—he’s in control of my body?’
> Ding!
Host, correct.
A new spike of unease pierced through me.
'Doesn’t that mean I can’t move my body anymore?'
> Ding!
If the other side allows you to move, you can control the body—simir to sleepwalking. However, if you move too much, he will awaken, and you will lose control.
'Shit, I don’t want that. We need to swap—I want to be the one in control again.'
> Ding!
Host, no matter how many times you switch, your mind remains divided. When you swap pces, your memories also realign. It will feel as if you never switched—because both sides are still you.
I froze.
'Are you cheating me? I thought this would be like having a second personality that takes over when I’m angry or cornered. Like a demon side. I didn’t expect it to feel like this… but when you really think about it, it makes more sense than having some fantasy inner beast.'
There was no malicious entity. Just me—split.
‘System, can you shut me down and wake me again before the body recovers?’
> Ding!
Executing host command in 3... 2... 1...
Nothing. No feeling, no sleep, not even a blink.
Then—
> Ding!
Host body is waking up in 10... 9... 8...
‘Let’s see what this guy says.’
---
Suddenly, sight returned. Light bled in through blurry vision. But I couldn’t even blink. Couldn’t move my eyes. I was watching—trapped in a vessel now steered by someone else.
And he was taking his sweet damn time.
"System, what happened? Wait—why can’t I think?"mark body control
‘Because I’m here, you sucker.’mark thought control
"Fuck! Who are you? Where are you?"body control
I stood up. Well—he stood up. I was just a passenger now.
'Fuck, stop looking around—it’s making me dizzy.' thought control
---
"What do you mean you feel dizzy? And why do you sound like me?" Body control
‘Because I am you, sucker. Try facing one direction for once. Let’s just talk properly.’ thought control
"So I’m the body and you’re the mind?" Body control
‘Exactly. Not so dumb, huh—even without your full brainpower.’ thought control
"That’s because I got some info from you."body control
‘So I’m pretty much useless then, huh?’ thought control
"What do we do next?" Body control
‘I thought of a name for myself. We can’t both be Marklester—it’d get annoying fast. Call me Crow.’ thought control name himself Crow
"Is it because of that dream?" Body control holding the same name Mark
‘No, why would you think that?’thought control wanting the name
"Stop lying. I know the truth." [Body control] getting the previous name [Mark]
‘Then don’t fucking ask. I’m Crow. End of story.’ [Thought Control] getting the name [Crow]
"Fine… I just need to rex."
I surrendered control. Crow moved my body with a strange ease—almost too fluid. Watching him flex fingers and stretch the limbs I no longer commanded made my skin crawl. Then he pulled out an axe and sliced his own palm.
And I felt nothing.
Crow: "So when someone’s in control, they’re the only one who feels the pain."
‘Yeah. And it seems as long as I'm awake and doesn’t forcefully take over, the body follows just the mind. Pain doesn't override to the other part’
He gnced at the time.
'10 PM. I need to sleep. You do the thinking—I’ll rest. Ask the system what we need.' Mark feeling body fatigue.
And then I fully gave in. My control faded and fall a sleep Crow was in the driver’s seat.
---
Crow: “Looks like if you’re asleep, I can’t think inside. I have to talk out loud. Great.”
"System, what if I want to become one again?"
> Ding!
Host must kill the other side. If you win, you must remain mentally stable enough to hold the reins of your mind. Afterward, wait for the other side to heal. Once it does, you will reunite into a single mind. If you fail, you will become unstable—emotionally votile.
"And if he wins?"
> Ding!
Same rule. But if he fails, he may develop fear, paranoia, or fall into extreme mental fragmentation. The risk of self-harm is also high.
"How long would we have to wait? And how’s this ‘fight’ even work?"
> Ding!
Timeline: unknown. Success rate: 1%. The fight will be fair—equal stats, same weapons. Only strategies and personalities will differ. Victory leads to rebirth. But all past memories will be erased.
I wanted to scream. But if I let my emotions fre, the other side might wake up.
“Fuck… even if I win, I just reset? That’s not victory—that’s erasure. You’re telling me the reward for surviving is to lose everything that made me me? And you seriously expect us to gamble our entire existence on some chicken fight in a void? What if… what if we just made a separate body? Split it—shove the other half into that one and walk away as two people?”
> Ding!
Creating a separate body requires immense resources. It is nearly the same as duplicating the host. Even if successful, the risk and outcome remain identical—1% success, full memory loss. Also, the system would be deleted. It cannot exist in divided form.
“So it’s not almost impossible—it’s entirely fucking hopeless. Even if you copied my mind and plugged it back in ter, how could I trust it? What kind of existence is that?”
---
I sat there, simmering in silence. It felt like the more I thought, the more pieces of myself surfaced—like memory fragments trying to realign.
“Looks like I’m locked like this. Maybe it’s because I’m the thinking side, but I’m starting to remember things. Like… the Swift skill. I remember now—it needs Infection to function. The zombie doesn’t have that infection ability, so he must’ve exchanged it.”
That detail mattered.
“But I have points. I don’t need to buy Infection again—I can substitute. So if
I want to recreate Swift, Fine. I’ll rebuild it myself. Piece by piece. If the system won’t help me, I’ll break the damn code.The system’s too stingy with expnations, so I have to figure it out myself.”
