The Man who Forget to Die

Chapter 13: The World We Buried

The city wasn't built of metal.

It was built of decay.

Frozen time. Collapsed code. Glass towers stuck mid-collapse. Cars caught mid-crash. Even the sky was paused—flickering between afternoon and dusk.

Zero stepped into it with a chill crawling across his back.

"This is where it began," Flame said softly. "Project Tantalus."

Zero turned.

"You remember this?"

"No," Flame said. "But my body does."

The signs were still there.

SECTOR: TANTALUS // PRIMARY SIMULATION NEXUS

ACCESS: RESTRICTED // CLASS BLACK ONLY

WARNING: CORE GUILT SIGNATURE ACTIVE

"Guilt…?" Zero murmured.

They moved through shattered classrooms, medical wings full of broken tanks, and servers long since burned out.

Along one wall, names:

Subject 01: TERMINATED

Subject 04: DELETED

Subject 09: REMOVED

Subject 13: UNSTABLE

Subject 00: ELEVATED – "ANCHOR"

Zero's eyes landed on Subject 00.

It was his number.

But next to it, etched faintly:

"Preserved by Order of Lin."

They found the chamber in the center of the city: a glass cylinder covered in red warning seals.

Inside floated a memory crystal, blackened at its core.

[FRAGMENT: FIRST DEATH]

[ACCESS LOCKED: Requires Dual Key Imprint]

Zero looked at Flame.

"This is it."

Flame nodded.

"This is what the System was built to protect. Or hide."

Zero placed his hand on one side.

Flame did the same.

The lock clicked.

The crystal pulsed—

And a wave of memory slammed into them both.

A lab. Rain outside. Screams in the hallway.

A boy stood in front of a girl—Lin, young, alive.

She was bleeding.

He was holding a wire.

He had caused it.

"No—" Zero whispered. "That's not me—"

But it was.

Another version.

Maybe the original.

Maybe not.

All he knew was: he killed her.

By accident. Or by fear.

It didn't matter.

She died in his arms.

And he begged the scientists for one thing:

"Let me try again."

That was the first loop.

And it never stopped.

Because no matter what version of him survived, the guilt was burned into the code.

Flame fell to his knees.

"So it was us."

"No," Zero whispered.

"It was me."

The crystal shattered.

The sky cracked with it.

Across the simulation, recursion collapsed.

Time began to move again.

But it wasn't healing.

It was dying.

The city started to sink into darkness.

A voice rang out—not the System's.

Lin's.

Faint, but real.

"This isn't your punishment.

It's your permission.

To let go."

Flame reached out.

The ground fell beneath him.

And he vanished into the core.

Only Zero remained—alone, again.

But now, he knew the truth:

The recursion wasn't meant to save the world.

It was meant to protect him from remembering who he really was.

[ARC 2 COMPLETE: The Broken Archive]

[NEW ARC UNLOCKED: Arc 3 – Exit Condition]

[NEXT OBJECTIVE: Rebuild the Timeline or Let It Burn]

To be continued…