The Wastes stretched endlessly before me.

  A jagged landscape of obsidian spires, crumbling ruins, and molten rivers. The sky overhead was a swirling void—black and red, shifting like a living wound.

  No stars. No sun. No System notifications.

  Just me.

  And whatever else

  My body ached from the fight, but I couldn’t stop. The moment I did, something worsetesting ground.failures

  I was one of them now.

  But unlike the creatures that roamed here, I still had my mind. My Defiance

  I needed answers.

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  I pressed forward, my steps careful. The ground wasn’t stable—nothingdrag me under.

  Every step was a risk.

  The ruins in the distance looked like my best bet. Structures meant civilization

  As I moved, a distant sound cut through the silence.

  Chime. Chime. Chime.

  I froze.

  That sound. It was faint, barely more than an echo carried by the wind. But it was impossible.

  A System notification.

  But that couldn’t be right. The System had erased me.

  I turned toward the sound, scanning the landscape. My pulse quickened. There—half-buried in the distance—was something glowing.

  Not just any glow. Blue.

  The unmistakable hue of System interfaces.

  I broke into a run.

  The terrain blurred past me as I closed the distance. The glow became clearer—a shattered obelisk of dark stone, its surface cracked, flickering

  [ERROR: DATA CORRUPTED]

  [ACCESS RESTRICTED]

  [UNKNOWN ENTITY DETECTED]

  A pulse of energy rippled from the obelisk, sending a static hum through the air.

  This thing—whatever it waswhy I was exiled.

  I stepped forward and reached out—

  The moment my fingers brushed the surface, a shockwave erupted.

  A tidal wave of information flooded my mind. Glimpses of something older than the System itself.

  ? A war.

  ? A figure wreathed in shadows, defying the laws of creation.

  ? The System breaking.

  The visions ended

  The obelisk flickered one last time before it collapsed into dust.

  I clenched my fists. That wasn’t just a fragment of the System. It was a message.

  And if the System had gone this far to erase me…

  Then it was hiding something it didn’t want me to find.