System: Sins of the Dead

I don't know how long I've been here.

Time doesn't work right in this place.

The subway tunnel was gone. I stood now in a long corridor made entirely of mirrors, each one reaching from floor to ceiling. They stretched endlessly in both directions. No doors. No system prompts.

Just me.

And all the reflections that weren't.

---

In the first mirror, I looked younger.

Sixteen maybe. Smiling. Bright eyes.

But when I stepped closer, he frowned.

And mouthed the words:

> "You should've saved her."

---

In the second mirror, I looked older.

Covered in black armor. Eyes hollow.

System glyphs burned across my arms.

> "You will become me," he whispered.

---

In the third, I wasn't there at all.

Just Harper.

Bleeding. Screaming.

"Kai, wake up. It's lying to you."

---

> [SYSTEM INTEGRITY – 38%]

Path Status: NULL

Sin Level: Unstable

Warning: Identity Fracture Imminent

---

My thoughts weren't mine anymore.

Flashes of lives I never lived.

Places I never saw.

People I never loved—

But felt like I did.

Each mirror took something.

A memory. A name. A truth.

And replaced it with doubt.

I stumbled past the fourth, fifth, sixth…

And then the seventh mirror cracked.

Not shattered.

It cracked from the inside.

And the version of me inside it…

Spoke.

---

"You're weak."

His voice was mine—but clearer.

Sharper. Like steel in the dark.

"You keep choosing pain. Redemption. Humanity."

He smiled.

"But you've seen what it gets you."

I backed away.

He stepped forward. From inside the glass.

"I'm what you become if you stop pretending."

"You let them die. You let guilt rot. And now you wear it like armor."

> "You want to survive this world? Then stop being a man. Be a weapon."

---

I clenched my fists.

"You're not me."

He grinned.

"But I will be."

---

Suddenly, the mirror melted.

Like oil on fire.

And he stepped through.

The other Kai—the Corrupted One.

> [BOSS ENCOUNTER – SYSTEM ERROR SHADE: "FALSE SELF"]

Difficulty: Class B

Objective: Overcome or Be Absorbed

Warning: Defeat results in identity overwrite.

---

He moved fast.

One second across the room.

I barely dodged his blade—a weapon made of guilt, a twisted reflection of Harper's sword fused with my own memories. Every time it missed, it whispered my regrets out loud.

> "You let Isaac suffer."

"You forgot your sister."

"You almost became the Butcher."

---

My back hit the final mirror.

Cracked.

Flickering.

And inside that mirror—I saw something different.

Not a reflection.

A memory.

Me and Emily.

She was painting. I was beside her.

I wasn't perfect. I was quiet. Scared.

But I was there.

> "Being here… is enough," she had whispered.

---

I drove my fist into the mirror.

Glass exploded outward—not inward.

And I reached in—

Pulled out the paintbrush she used.

Light poured from it. Warm. Human.

I turned.

The False Self charged.

I struck once—

Straight through the chest.

Not with power.

With truth.

He gasped.

And dissolved into fragments of black data.

---

> [TRIAL COMPLETE – SELF RECLAMATION]

Kai's Identity Stabilized. Sin Level: 0.6 → 0.5

Gained Memory: "The Afternoon with Emily"

Unlocked Trait: Anchor of the Real – Resistance to Identity Overwrite +20%

New Ability: "Mirror Break – Reveal the Truth Hidden in Lies"

---

The mirrors vanished.

And I stood again in the original subway.

Only now… someone stood at the far end.

A child.

Gray skin. No eyes. Barefoot.

The girl from the Black-Class Door.

She pointed.

And behind her, two shapes lay motionless.

> Harper. Adrian.

I ran.

But the world shattered—again.

And I woke up in a place that smelled like iron and rot.

A sign overhead read:

> Layer 3 – The Meat Cathedral