NOVEL WEB Chapter 3: Chapter 3: You Can’t Delete What Was Never Saved
The system city tried to ignore him.
Jake Lagon walked past a cathedral-sized terminal — a tower made of simulation code, rising like a god's USB stick. Its glass reflected nothing. Not even light dared recognize his shape.
Above, a sky-drone hovered.
It scanned everything in sight — age, species, power level, system rank…
And then Jake.
> [ERROR: UNDEFINED ENTITY]
[Scan failed: Memory overwritten before data stored]
The drone glitched, spun wildly, and crashed into the side of a hovering transport bus.
Boom.
Jake didn't flinch.
He kept walking through the artificial rain.
It wasn't wet. Nothing here was real.
---
Inside the Tribunal's sky observatory, alarms went silent — not because the danger passed…
But because danger refused to be logged.
A cyber-priestess stared at the blank screen where Jake's presence used to flicker.
"We lost him again," she whispered.
An older observer beside her narrowed his eyes.
"No," he said. "He's not lost."
"He's reminding us that we never had him."
---
Back on the streets, Jake stepped into a crowded plaza.
A hundred people stood in line for their daily "System Cleanse" — a ritual scan that refreshed their stats and loyalty alignment.
Jake walked straight through the crowd.
No one looked.
A man passed through Jake's shoulder and shivered, blinking.
"I… forgot what I was doing."
The woman beside him nodded. "Same. Weird static in my brain just now."
The line kept moving.
System perfect. Illusion safe.
But under the plaza, something stirred.
---
A system vault — locked in quantum encryption — flickered.
Inside it was a forgotten case file.
Red-taped. Double-sealed. Unopened for years.
Its label read:
> "IDHS CASE #000 — LAGON, JAKE"
> Status: Erased
Notes: Should Not Exist
Seal Level: ∞
Then — the seal cracked.
The case file twitched.
Opened by an invisible force.
Jake's voice echoed silently into it.
"I never signed your rules.
I never played your game.
I just watched you forget me."
---
A voice boomed across the plaza — digital, godlike, full of code:
> "UNREGISTERED ENTITY.
ALL SYSTEM USERS — FREEZE IN PLACE."
People stopped mid-step.
A being descended — not from the sky, but from the code itself.
It was a System Warden.
Black armor with lines of living light, a face made of numbers.
It held a cube of law, glowing like a heartbeat.
"You," it said.
Jake looked up slowly. His eyes didn't reflect light — they absorbed it.
The Warden raised the cube.
"You are forbidden."
Jake simply replied:
"I was never permitted."
Then he blinked.
---
> [SYSTEM ERROR: CORE WARDEN DISCONNECTED]
[Reality Anchor: FAILED]
[Cause: …Unknown?]
[Fix Suggestion: Don't look for him again.]
---
Jake stood alone again.
The crowd unfroze.
The plaza returned to noise.
No one remembered.
But the system remembered.
And for the first time in centuries… it felt fear.
---