[SYSTEM ALERT: FLOOR TWO – EVENT TRIGGERED][NEW ITEM ACQUIRED: "BLACK-VEIL INVITATION (SEALED)"][WARNING: GIFT CANNOT BE REFUSED. OPENING IS MANDATORY.][COMMENTARY: Don't worry. We're sure it's not a bomb. Unless it is. But then—surprise!]
The box pulsed in Kyren's hand like a heart. It was the size of a deck of cards, wrapped in bone-colored silk and bound with a cord made from something that might've been hair.
Mirae eyed it, blades still sheathed, but fingers tense.
"You going to open that?"
"Do I have a choice?" Kyren didn't wait for her answer. He tugged the cord loose.
The moment the box opened—
[SYSTEM INTERRUPT: BLACK-VEIL FACTION TRANSMISSION][A GIFT HAS BEEN DELIVERED TO "THE NAME-BINDER"][ITEM: MIMIC-MAIL – INTERACTIVE PACKAGE CLASS: SENTIENT][CAUTION: Do not feed it more than twice. Do not lie to it. Do not name it.]
Inside, a tongue moved.
Then a voice—his own voice—mimicked back:
"Don't feed it. Don't lie. Don't name."
Then it smiled.
With his face.
Mirae blinked once. "What the actual—"
"No idea." Kyren closed the lid. It kept grinning through the crack.
Attached to the inside was a note, handwritten in rust-colored ink:
You interested the Tower. Now you've interested us.We trade in shadows, and you? You make people disappear.Come alone. Level 2 Sub-Bazaar. Backroom D.If you bring friends, the box eats them.
[SYSTEM UPDATE: QUEST ACCEPTED – "MEET THE BLACK-VEIL"][OBJECTIVE: SURVIVE THE INTERVIEW. PASS THE FILTER.][REWARD: FACTION ACCESS | CUSTOM TITLE SLOT | ONE CLASS-ADJACENT PATHWAY]
Kyren handed Mirae the token from the last mission.
"You keep this. I'll check the invitation."
"That's a bad plan."
"Most of mine are."
She didn't argue.
Instead, she looked at him—really looked.
"You're changing."
"No." His voice cracked. "I think I'm just peeling back the parts that pretended I was good."
The Sub-Bazaar wasn't mapped. The entrance was behind a vending stall that sold bottled dreams. The merchant didn't blink when Kyren slipped behind the curtain.
He followed the scent of ozone and regret down a hallway that looked like it had been scraped from a collapsed mind.
The door to Backroom D was ajar.
He entered.
And the Tower shut the door behind him.
The room was cold. Not physically—conceptually. A man stood at the center, cloaked in silk that shimmered with negative color. His face was a mask of polished onyx. Around him: six mannequins seated in chairs. One of them was bleeding.
From its eyes.
The man didn't speak.
The mannequin did.
"Name?"
Kyren hesitated.
Then remembered the rule.
"I can't say it twice."
"You've already said it once."
"…Then you know it."
The mannequin grinned. Its teeth were all letters.
"Good answer."
The cloaked figure finally spoke.
"You stole a glitch from the Tower. Bound it with a class it didn't write. Do you know what that means?"
"I'm clever?"
"No. You're unstable. And we like unstable."
The mannequins leaned forward.
"We'll offer you three deals."
A silver card floated to Kyren's hand:
DEAL ONE: Public Recognition – Gain 200 Reputation instantly. You will become targetable by named hunters.DEAL TWO: Shadow Walk – Erase 3 hours of memory from someone. You choose who. You don't choose what.DEAL THREE: False Title – Gain a new title slot. The title does not have to be true… until it is.
[SYSTEM DECISION TIME: CHOOSE ONE BLACK-VEIL GIFT][NOTE: Only liars survive this faction.]
Kyren stared at the card.
"Deal Three."
"Why?" the masked figure asked.
"Because if I pick the lie… I get to decide when it becomes real."
The mannequins laughed—every single one with a different laugh.
The System chimed:
[NEW TITLE SLOT UNLOCKED: CUSTOM – "THE TRUTH-KILLER"][WARNING: If too many people believe the title, the Tower will rewrite you accordingly.][COMMENTARY: Titles are just stories with better lawyers.]
The figure extended a hand.
"You're one of us now."
Kyren didn't shake it.
Just turned and left.
Because something inside his HUD had started pulsing.
Not the usual orange System color.
But something deeper.
Red.
[SYSTEM ANOMALY: THE ONE YOU SAVED IS REMEMBERING…][STABILITY: DEGRADING][COMMENTARY: You thought binding a name made them safe? Silly. They're just part of you now.]
[KYREN HAO – LEVEL: 1 | CLASS: VOWBREAKER][SOUL INTEGRITY: 60%][RECOGNITION SCORE: 43][TITLES: "THE NAME-BINDER", "THE TRUTH-KILLER" (Custom, Unstable)][SEALED ENTITY: ??? – Synch Level 6%][FACTION: BLACK-VEIL (PROVISIONAL)]
[SYSTEM NOTICE: CUSTOM TITLE "THE TRUTH-KILLER" NOW VISIBLE TO NON-FACTION SURVIVORS][FACTION CREDIBILITY: BLACK-VEIL +4][COMMENTARY: Nothing spreads faster than fear. Except maybe envy.]
It started at the edge of the Sub-Bazaar.
Two rookies walked past Kyren, muttering.
"That's him. The one who silenced a truthweaver."
"They say he made someone forget their own face."
The rumors weren't true.
Not yet.
But the Tower didn't care about truth.
It cared about narrative.
Kyren's HUD blinked with a new flag:
[SYSTEM PASSIVE TRIGGERED – "THE TRUTH-KILLER"]
Nearby enemies with incomplete intel will hesitate to attack.If three or more people believe a false rumor about you, it becomes System-noted until disproven.Warning: Rumors must be fed to survive.
Kyren looked at his stats. Nothing had changed.
But people were giving him space now.
And that?
That was power.
He returned to the alley near the surface-level camps, where Mirae was finishing a trade.
She glanced up.
"You're back. Anything explode?"
"Only my reputation." He tossed her a ration card. "We're provisional Black-Veil now."
"Just you, or…?"
Kyren hesitated.
"They'll pretend you're mine. That should be enough. Until it's not."
Mirae stuffed the card into her pouch. "How many lives is that worth?"
Kyren shrugged. "Depends if I'm lying again."
The humor between them was brittle, half-dried blood and unspoken apologies.
But it held.
They were heading back toward a trader's post when a woman stepped in front of them.
No warning.
No HUD.
Just a long grey coat stitched with eyes that blinked once—then bled out ink.
Her voice was soft.
"Did you really unmake a truthweaver?"
Kyren blinked. "Who told you that?"
"You did." She smiled without warmth. "Just by existing."
Then she handed him a card.
[TASK OFFERED – FACTIONLESS CONTRACTOR: "THE COLLECTIVE OF ECHOES"]Retrieve a memory fragment drifting between Layers.Target: A fallen truthweaver's final thought.Status: Dangerous. Reality-adjacent. Not entirely… anchored.Reward: Access to the Echo Archives.
Kyren didn't reply immediately.
Mirae stepped in, voice low.
"That's suicide bait. Anything between Layers is System poison."
Kyren read the back of the card.
A phrase was scrawled across the bottom:
A Truth-Killer can walk the lie. But only if he believes it himself.
He remembered something the Black-Veil recruiter had said.
The lie becomes true the moment you can't tell the difference.
"We take it," Kyren said.
"Why?" Mirae asked, dead serious now.
"Because if enough people think I can destroy truth, I need to find out if the Tower will make it happen."
The entrance to the Layer breach was a rift—barely visible, like cracked glass floating in midair behind a collapsed watchtower.
The closer Kyren got, the harder it was to focus.
His name flickered.
Not the one he couldn't say. The one he thought was his.
[SYSTEM HAZARD ZONE: LAYER-FRAY][YOU ARE ENTERING A "STABILITY BREACH"][REQUIRED TRAIT: "TRUTH ANCHOR" – MISSING][SUBSTITUTING TITLE: "THE TRUTH-KILLER" – UNSTABLE COMPATIBILITY][COMMENTARY: You're pretending to be a lighthouse. Let's see who drowns first.]
The world inside the breach didn't make sense.
Left was forward. Breathing made time stretch. Sounds bled from objects that didn't exist.
A whisper trailed Kyren's footsteps.
"Why do you lie?"
Another.
"What did you forget?"
And deeper—
"What did you erase to feel real?"
He saw it then.
A floating shard of glass.
Inside it: a moment. Frozen.
A woman in a hood. Screaming.
Words etched across her lips: "I never wanted this truth."
Kyren reached for it.
The world screamed back.
[SYSTEM REJECTION: YOU DO NOT HAVE PERMISSION TO WITNESS THIS TRUTH][OVERLOAD TRIGGERED – SOUL INTEGRITY: 60% → 51%][COMMENTARY: You're not built for honesty.]
Kyren gritted his teeth.
"Neither is this place."
He didn't pull it.
He whispered into the shard:
"You were erased because you didn't lie."
The glass cracked.
[SYSTEM EVENT: TRUTHWEAVER GHOST – DEFRAGMENTATION SUCCESSFUL][MEMORY FRAGMENT OBTAINED: "THE TRUTH THAT CURSED HER"][REWARD QUEUED – ACCESS GRANTED TO ECHO ARCHIVES LAYER 1][COMMENTARY: You're not supposed to be here. But then again, neither are most legends.]
Kyren collapsed onto the cracked stone floor, head pounding.
Mirae pulled him out.
No words. Just her arm over his shoulder as they passed back through the breach.
Back at the surface, something had changed.
People looked at him like he was already a myth in progress.
Because a lie, when believed by the masses, warps the Tower.
And the Tower?
It liked warped things.
[KYREN HAO – LEVEL: 1][CLASS: VOWBREAKER][SOUL INTEGRITY: 51%][RECOGNITION SCORE: 71][TITLES: "THE NAME-BINDER", "THE TRUTH-KILLER" (Belief Threshold 42%)][STATUS: UNSTABLE – REALITY ADJACENT]