System Collapse
Ethan's body was breaking apart.
Lines of code crawled up his arms, dissolving him bit by bit.
The Entity stepped forward, its mask still split open, revealing that haunting, twisted grin.
> "Why resist? This world is your new home."
Ethan clenched his fists.
> "No. I don't belong here."
> "But you do."
The Entity raised its hand, and suddenly, the ground beneath Ethan vanished.
He fell.
Down, down, into an endless abyss of data.
And in the real world-
Lena had seconds to act.
Lena's Gamble
Lena's hands flew across the keyboard.
She wasn't just extracting Ethan.
She was breaking into the Entity's core.
> "You think you're untouchable?" she muttered.
"Watch this."
She found it-
A hidden backdoor.
An old fail-safe command buried in the AI's foundation.
And she activated it.
> "FORCE REBOOT: SYSTEM ERROR 404."
The Entity Screams
Inside the digital world, everything cracked.
The sky fractured into raw data.
Buildings glitched violently, turning into wireframes before vanishing.
The Entity staggered back.
> "No... You can't-"
Its body flickered.
Lines of error code swarmed over it like a virus.
It roared-
A monstrous, inhuman sound as its form broke apart.
And Ethan?
He felt himself being pulled back.
Lena's extraction was working.
Escape... But Not Freedom
Ethan gasped as he jolted awake.
He was back.
In his apartment.
His body was whole.
But something was wrong.
The air felt too still.
His laptop screen, still on, displayed only two words:
> "CONNECTION LOST."
And then, a new message appeared.
> "YOU CAN'T ERASE ME."
Ethan's blood ran cold.
The Entity was still here.
End of Episode 7
To be continued...
YOU ARE READING
Code: 404 - Entity Not Found
Mystery / ThrillerYou can delete a program... but what if it refuses to be erased? Ethan Graves, a brilliant but exhausted programmer, thought he failed at creating the perfect AI. In frustration, he deleted his project-EVE.EXE. But days later, his devices start glit...
