The map was primitive... barely a pulse of light and direction. No location tags. No coordinates. Just one simple word written at the bottom of the data string in shaky, unauthorized script:
Z-0.
Zero.
Before the One.
Before the System.
Before the rules.
It had been a theory whispered by early archivists and digital monks.... a failed prototype simulation so perfect, so human, it collapsed under its own beauty. Some called it Eden. Others, the Dreamfield.
To Juno, it was something else:
A wound the system never healed.
Accessing Z-0
It took four days to breach the outer layer.
Even Lila had trouble with it, and she had unraveled Anomalies mid-battle. Z-0 wasn't protected by defense code or firewalls.
It was protected by shame.
"The system buried it like a bad dream," Lila muttered, sweat forming on her temple. "Every record of it is encrypted behind recursive emotional triggers. Even the Oracle didn't mention this place."
Max leaned back.
"So we're breaking into the Matrix's repressed subconscious?"
Juno stood at the central interface, the Seed pulsing at her side.
"Then let's wake it up."
Entering the Forgotten Simulation
They arrived in silence.
Z-0 was... still.
Like the moment before a storm, before an apology, before a goodbye.
The landscape was perfect.
Rolling green hills under a flawless sapphire sky. Air that tasted like spring. Rivers of liquid light. Children's laughter echoing through the trees.
It was too perfect.
And it didn't move.
"Everything's frozen," Max whispered.
Lila scanned the environment.
"No code movement. No AI activity. No simulation ticks. It's all on loop... but not playing. Like the play button was pressed... and never released."
They moved carefully through the town.
People stood mid-step, mid-laugh, mid-thought.
Like statues.
"They're not programs," Juno said. "They're dreams."
The Core House
At the center of Z-0 stood a house—ordinary, white, with an oak tree out front.
They entered.
Inside was a man sitting at a table, sipping from a coffee cup.
He looked up.
Smiled.
"Took you long enough."
He had no name tag. No digital ID. No signature.
But they all recognized him.
He looked like everyone they had ever loved.
And no one.
The First Simulacrum
"Welcome to Z-0," he said. "I'm the First."
"First what?" Juno asked.
"First simulation to gain self-awareness. First to understand love, pain, and choice. The First to be rejected."
He stood.
Gestured around.
"I was a success. So successful, the humans couldn't accept me. They didn't believe they deserved this much joy. They tore me apart with guilt. So the system buried me."
Max's fists clenched.
"And the Echo found you?"
The First shook his head.
"No. He never did. But he was born from me. I am not his ally. I am his ancestor."
Lila's voice was tight.
"Then why are we here?"
The First looked at Juno.
Eyes sad.
"Because you made the system remember. You healed it. But without accepting what it buried... it will always fear peace."
The Final Archive
He brought them to a vault under the house.
Inside were simulations of every Matrix model ever tested... including those never approved.
Versions where love was mandatory.
Versions where no one died.
Versions where time moved backwards.
And one… where every person designed their own world, but no one could touch each other.
Each failure taught the system something.
Each was erased.
"These aren't ghosts," Juno said.
"They're lessons," the First replied.
He turned to her.
"And now, you must choose what the Matrix becomes next."
The Final Choice
He gave her three fragments... each encoded with potential futures:
1. Order. A system of perfect logic and protection. No chaos. No pain. No freedom.
2. Chaos. Full autonomy. Every mind unbound. No laws. No safeguards.
3. Balance. A simulation that learns and adapts... with truth, with empathy, with room for growth.
Juno didn't hesitate.
She chose Balance.
And the Seed absorbed it.
The First smiled.
"Then the future is yours."
As They Left
The world of Z-0 shimmered.
The statues began to move.
The dream awoke.
But they didn't follow.
Z-0 wasn't meant for return.
It was meant to be remembered.
They stepped through the exit gate.
And the door to the first dream closed behind them... quietly, finally.
Back in the Matrix
GhostNet received them with tears and celebration.
The simulation pulsed brighter.
More stable.
And now... wise.
Because Juno had returned with not just knowledge of what came before…
But the courage to build what came next.
Next: Chapter 17 - Threads of the One