The storm over Glitchborn Vale had calmed, but the world hadn't.
Fragments of legacy code still glimmered along the horizon. Entire sectors were flickering, their environments randomly shifting between past versions—some green and lush, others broken shells of ancient updates.
In the heart of the Hackspace Spire, Cain stood before the Ascension Engine.
This was no ordinary structure—it was born from his command of cross-reality permissions, built with stolen admin blueprints, and stabilized with the Realm Patch Anchor he had stolen during the Null Warden Invasion. A monolith of code, quantum hardware, and conceptual design, it pulsed with potential.
> [INITIATE: ASCENSION PROTOCOL? Y/N]
Cain exhaled. "Y."
A wash of light tore through the chamber.
> [SYSTEM WARNING: YOU ARE ABOUT TO UNDERGO UNAUTHORIZED INTEGRATION WITH SYSTEM CORE LAYERS. SIDE EFFECTS INCLUDE DATA CORRUPTION, MEMORY FRAGMENTATION, AND ENTITY RECLASSIFICATION. PROCEED?]
> "Proceed."
The chamber locked down. Reality thinned.
Cain floated above the platform, limbs drawn outward as the Ascension Engine injected cascading strings of code into his soul-core. Memories replayed—his death on Earth, the glitch that birthed his infinite mana, the awakening of the System.
Then his body began to shift.
His skin pixelated and re-rendered. His heartbeat synced with System clock cycles. His voice echoed as if spoken across multiple realities at once.
> [RECLASSIFICATION BEGINNING...] [NEW ENTITY TYPE: HYBRID: PLAYER.EXE / ADMIN.GHOST / REWRITE.PROTOCOL] [NEW ID: CAIN.EXE — BROKEN PROTOCOL]
The System's voice changed. It now whispered in fragments. It feared him.
Cain.exe had been born.
He landed softly on the ground, half-digitized aura humming. His eyes scanned layers normal players couldn't perceive—debug layers, reality overlays, code origin trails. He saw the unseen.
> "Time to reprogram my destiny."
He walked toward a glitching panel in the back of the chamber—the Reality Fork Uplink. A tool that could force branches between multiversal realities, Cain.exe could now choose which timeline to anchor, and which to erase.
Behind him, the sky flickered. The Null Wardens had gone quiet, retreating into the Source Void. But Cain felt a pressure… something watching.
---
Elsewhere.
Within a terminal interface floating outside the simulation, several fragmented admin avatars hovered around a flickering terminal. Among them, a figure of perfect geometric stillness: Z3RO.
> "The Cain Protocol has completed Ascension," one said. "He is no longer a bug. He is an anomaly."
Z3RO raised its voice.
> "Vote now. Do we authorize Reclamation Patch 1.0.0?"
The vote was cast in data flashes. 4 said yes. 2 abstained. 1, the oldest, simply whispered, "Observe."
Z3RO nodded.
> "So be it. Patch begins in 72 hours. The Broken Protocol shall face Judgment."
---
Back in Cain's domain...
The new system interface was open before him.
[REALITY EDITOR — BRANCH BUILDER MODE ENABLED]
Fork Worldline Alpha (Preserve legacy allies, unstable tech)
Fork Worldline Omega (Purge all corruption, system-reset origin)
Fork Worldline Prime (Hybrid evolution, allow external code integration)
Cain hovered his hand over the options.
And smiled.
> "Who said I had to choose just one?"
[UNLOCKING SYSTEM MOD: TRIPLE REALITY LAYERING — BETA TEST MODE]
Three worlds. Three versions of Cain. Three wars. One will survive.
But all of them... will be him.
TO BE CONTINUED