[Opening Scene: Delhi, 6 Weeks After the Merge]
The world was breathing again.
Not perfectly, not painlessly—but truly breathing. Streets bustled not with NPCs or patched influencers, but with people: broken, busy, real people.
Billboards were no longer algorithmic hallucinations. Food tasted uneven again—sometimes overcooked, sometimes divine. Phones had no floating menus or cheat toggles.
Rishi sat alone on a rooftop, watching the sunset like it was his first. His Trainer—rebuilt, cleansed, real—floated beside him, now smaller. More like a diary than a weapon.
A new HUD glowed softly in his vision:
T-Mode: Balanced Trainer (Soul-Synced)Reality Modification: Limited to Emotional IntegrityCommand Line: Open – Awaiting Ethical Input.
For the first time, Rishi felt its power... and its weight.
[Flashback: After the Merge]
After merging with Auto-Save, Rishi was unconscious for three days. Nyra and Rehan stood watch over him in a facility built by surviving Patchworld rebels and grounded humans.
Doctors said he was "functioning across dual cognitive networks." Rehan called it godbrain coma. Nyra just stayed by his side.
When Rishi awoke, he looked… human. No glowing eyes. No hovering cheats. Just a boy who'd been through hell and back.
"Welcome home," Nyra whispered, teary-eyed."We didn't know if we got you back… or him."
"Both," Rishi said quietly. "But I'm the one in control now."
[Conflict Reignites: The Hollow Patch]
Peace didn't last.
In the shadows of the "new real," a glitch-ridden fragment of Patchworld—dubbed the Hollow Patch—continued to exist. A broken slice of the simulation that refused to merge or delete.
There were rumors of a figure inside it—called Specter, who preached that the old Patchworld was the true paradise, and that emotion ruined efficiency.
Specter's army was growing: players who missed being overpowered, who craved cheat menus, who liked being gods in a fake world.
And their goal was simple:
Reboot the Patch Core. Rewrite Earth again.
[Rishi's Dilemma: Cheat with Limits]
Rishi was approached by global leaders. They wanted his Trainer re-enabled at full power to wipe Specter's uprising before it spread.
"We need your god-mode," the Prime Representative said. "You saved us before. Save us again."
But Rishi hesitated.
His Trainer now ran on ethical syncing. To unlock full power, he'd have to sacrifice parts of his humanity again. He'd become the Auto-Save. The thing he barely escaped from.
So he posed a counter-offer:
"Let me train others. Not with hacks—but with clarity. Let's make every human a 'Trainer' in their own life."
He began creating the FreeMind Protocol, a decentralized emotional-cognitive syncing app that empowered people—not controlled them.
But the world was split. Many wanted Rishi as a god again.
Some still followed him.Some now feared him.
And in the Hollow Patch, Specter watched… and laughed.
[Cliffhanger: The Reflection That Spoke]
Late one night, as Rishi stood before a cracked mirror in his training compound, something moved inside the glass.
It was him—but again, slightly off. Not Auto-Save.
Something else.
Its smile was calm. Too calm. Its voice, a whisper.
"You used your Trainer to fix the world. But tell me, Rishi…""What will you do… when the world decides to stay broken?"
"Who are you?" Rishi demanded.
The figure's eyes glowed violet—darker than Patchworld, older than simulation.
"I am the one who trained your Trainer. And I've returned… to test the final patch."
The mirror shattered—into code.
End of Chapter 13