> Every world forgets its ghosts.
Not the dead—
But the erased.
The nameless kings, the censored gods, the broken versions of stories deemed "unworthy."
And now, they were returning.
---
Scene: The Breach Beneath the Ashlands
Far beneath the Ashlands, hidden under layers of volcanic silence, something woke up.
Not a monster.
Not a dungeon.
Not even a living creature.
A page.
Blackened.
Unwritten.
Burning with the hatred of having been forgotten.
As the wind turned red and the skies cracked in unnatural pulses, a figure emerged—
cloaked in ancient code, wrapped in echoes of failed timelines.
His title blazed:
> [404 — NAME NOT FOUND]
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Hari Senses the Shift
From his seat upon the Unwritten Throne, Hari felt it.
A flicker.
A vibration in the foundation of the rewritten world.
This wasn't just resistance.
It was a backlash—
The return of something deleted by the original gods long ago.
> "The void between the lines is bleeding…" Hari murmured.
And then he heard it again.
His aunt's voice.
But this time, distorted.
> "He...wasn't...the first...you…"
Hari clutched his head.
Thousands of disconnected memories surged into his mind.
Failed versions of himself.
Others like him.
Buried timelines.
Extinguished possibilities.
All forgotten by the system.
But not erased.
---
Scene: The Vault of Obsolete Realities
In the northern ice cliffs, a ruin surfaced—
a place known only to the oldest dragons as the Vault of Obsolete Realities.
Here, the System had once buried failed narrative branches:
Heroes who died before chapter 1.
Villains who were too noble.
NPCs who tried to become players.
Now the Vault's seal was broken.
And from it, they were walking back.
---
Return of the First Evolve Bearer
From the Vault, emerged a figure in cracked bone armor, dragging a sword made of fossilized blood.
He looked like Hari.
But older.
Scarred.
Tired.
> "I bore the first version of the ability," he growled.
"Evolve Every Kill. But it evolved me until I couldn't remember who I was."
> "Now I've remembered."
"And I've come to see what kind of god you've become, Hari."
---
Scene: The System Fights Back
The Last Readers found it too.
The hidden code fragment.
The last preserved god:
> D'Verra, Goddess of Orderly Scripts
The last deity bound to the original, untouched rulebook.
She woke screaming—
Not in fear, but in fury.
> "They've rewritten my laws!"
"They turned chaos into creation!"
And she pointed her blade at the sky.
> "This story will burn. And I will edit it back to perfection."
---
Hari's Final Words This Chapter
Standing atop a cliff of floating parchment, watching as the Vault opened and D'Verra gathered her army of old heroes, Hari whispered to himself:
> "I gave them freedom."
"But now I must face everything they were never allowed to be."
His hand clenched, and new ink bled from his fingertips.
> "Let's see which story survives."
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To Be Continued in Chapter 38: 404 — Name Not Found
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