The safe room was an old pre-System server closet. Four meters by four. Flickering LED strips cast a sickly blue light. The air tasted of dust and burnt insulation.

  Lara sat on the floor in the corner. Her back against the server rack. Her phase blade lay across her knees. She wasn't cleaning it. She was just holding it. Her thumbs traced the same spot on the hilt. A small scratch in the polymer. Over and over.

  The smell of solvent still clung to her. Sharp. Chemical.

  Marcus stood by the door. His shield leaned against the wall. He checked his sidearm. Ejected the magazine. Counted the rounds. Twelve. Reinserted. Ejected. Counted. Twelve.

  Eli sat at the lone terminal. The screen was dead. He stared at his reflection in the dark glass. His hands were flat on the desk. They didn't shake. They were perfectly still. Unnaturally still.

  The Rival leaned in the opposite corner. His eyes were closed. His breathing was slow. Measured. But the muscle in his jaw twitched. A tiny, rhythmic pulse.

  I stood in the center of the room. The cold in my chest was a solid block. My breath fogged in the chilled air. I watched the twin timers.

  [SELECTION WINDOW: 16:18:07]

  [CONVERSION INITIATION: 00:38:12]

  Thirty-eight minutes.

  Lara looked up. Her eyes met mine. They were clear. No tears. No anger. Just acceptance. "Where is the Replicator now?"

  Eli stirred. He didn't turn from the dead screen. "Sector Gamma-Seven. The old data farms. It's... incubating. Making the first copies."

  "How long until it spreads?"

  "Two hours. Maybe less."

  She nodded. Her thumbs stopped tracing the scratch. "Then we should move soon."

  Marcus stopped counting rounds. "We have a plan for engagement?"

  "The conversion happens on site," I said. "The purity degrades with distance. We have to be within five hundred meters of the target."

  Lara stood. She sheathed her blade. The click echoed in the small room. "Then let's not waste time."

  She walked to the door. Marcus moved aside. She paused, her hand on the frame. She didn't look back. "Eli. Coordinates."

  Eli stood. The motion was stiff. He powered his scanner. The blue light made him blink. "I'll plot the route."

  The Rival opened his eyes. "You're taking this well."

  Lara turned her head just enough to see him. "I'm a soldier. I've been taking orders since I was sixteen. This is just the last one."

  "It's not an order. It's a deletion."

  "It's a tactical necessity." Her voice was flat. "I read the numbers. One life for millions. It's not complicated."

  Support creative writers by reading their stories on Royal Road, not stolen versions.

  "It should be," the Rival said.

  She didn't answer. She walked out into the corridor.

  We followed.

  The transit to Sector Gamma-Seven was a stolen maintenance crawler. It moved slowly through narrow utility tunnels. The only light came from the crawler's single headlamp. It cut a shaky beam through the dark.

  Lara sat up front with Eli. He navigated. She watched the tunnel walls slide by. Her reflection ghosted in the windshield. Her expression was unreadable.

  Marcus drove. His hands were tight on the controls. His knuckles were white.

  The Rival and I sat in the back. The bench seat vibrated. The noise of the engine was a low, grinding roar.

  [CONVERSION INITIATION: 00:22:41]

  Twenty-two minutes.

  The Rival spoke, his voice low under the engine noise. "There was a Variable once. Before you. He refused the sacrifice."

  I looked at him. "What happened?"

  "The System deleted him. Not just killed him. Erased him from causality. Scoured his existence from every timeline, every record, every memory. Even the System's own logs are corrupted where he was."

  "How do you know about him?"

  "I found fragments. In deep loops. Glitches in the code. His designation was Variable Zero. His code name... Mayavi."

  The word hung in the vibrating air.

  "Why tell me this now?" I asked.

  "Because you're at the same crossroads. The System gives you a choice, but it's not a choice. It's a test. Sacrifice someone else, or be sacrificed yourself. Mayavi tried to find a third option. He failed."

  "And you think I'll fail."

  "I think the System is older and crueler than you can imagine. It has done this before. It will do it again. You are not the first weapon it has forged. You are just the latest."

  The crawler hit a rough patch. The lights flickered. For a fraction of a second, my vision glitched. Gold text flashed, corrupted and broken.

  [ERROR: HISTORY FILE CORRUPTED]

  [REF: VARIABLE_MAYAVI]

  [STATUS: PURGED FROM CAUSAL LAYER]

  [OVERRIDE...]

  [/SYSTEM]

  Then it was gone.

  The Rival saw my expression. "You saw it?"

  "A glitch."

  "That's all that's left of him. Glitches."

  The crawler began to slow. The tunnel opened into a vast, dark chamber. The headlamps swept across endless rows of dead server racks. A data farm. Silent. Abandoned.

  Eli pointed. "There. Central processing spire. The Replicator is in the core."

  In the distance, a tall structure glowed with a sickly green light. Pulsing. Like a heartbeat.

  Marcus stopped the crawler. We disembarked. The air was cold. The smell of ozone was strong. The green light cast long, twisting shadows.

  Lara walked a few steps ahead. She stopped and turned to face us. Her face was half in shadow, half in green light. "This is close enough."

  The timers in my vision updated.

  [CONVERSION INITIATION: 00:05:00]

  [OPTIMAL RANGE ACHIEVED]

  [ASSET STABILITY: 100%]

  [/SYSTEM]

  Five minutes.

  Eli looked sick. Marcus stared at the ground. The Rival watched Lara, his expression unreadable.

  Lara unclipped her phase blade. She held it out to Marcus. "Here. You might need this."

  He took it. His hand trembled. He opened his mouth to speak. No words came out.

  She turned to Eli. "The scanner. Keep it running. You'll need to track the copies."

  He nodded, his throat working.

  She looked at the Rival. "Try not to die in the next loop."

  He gave a slow, shallow nod.

  Finally, she looked at me. "Do it clean. One shot."

  I couldn't speak. The cold in my chest was spreading to my throat. I nodded.

  She walked to a clear spot in the center of the chamber floor. She stood straight. Her hands at her sides. She took a deep breath. Let it out. A plume of fog in the cold air.

  The System interface activated. A complex series of rings and lines appeared around her. Gold light. Clinical. Precise.

  [CONVERSION PROTOCOL INITIALIZED]

  [TARGET: ASSET LARA]

  [PROCESS: CONSCIOUSNESS UPLOAD AND MATRIX ALIGNMENT]

  [ESTIMATED DURATION: 00:01:30]

  [OUTCOME: PERMANENT TARGETING SUBROUTINE]

  [WARNING: IRREVERSIBLE]

  [/SYSTEM]

  The rings began to rotate. A low hum filled the air. The green light from the spire pulsed faster. As if sensing what was coming.

  Lara didn't flinch. She looked straight at me. Her expression was calm. Resolved.

  The hum grew louder. The rings spun faster. Gold light washed over her.

  The System prompt flashed, dominant in my vision.

  [CONFIRMATION REQUIRED]

  [EXECUTE CONVERSION?]

  [YES / NO]

  My hand rose. A holographic interface appeared before me. Two buttons glowed in the air. YES. NO.

  My finger moved toward YES.

  Lara’s eyes stayed on mine. She gave a single, slight nod.

  My finger touched the button.

  ? Featured Story ?

  by Dagrun

  Velmira is the [Sacrifice], and had been raised to perform her holy duties. Blood is required to bless the land, and it could only be from the blood of the holiest━a preordained girl of the most sacred nature, willing to provide another eighteen years of prosperity with her offering of life.

  But everything she’d been told was a lie. On the morning of her eighteenth birthday, she discovers a more sinister truth. The gods she’d been raised to love and adore had been killing her to save their own hides.

  What were they to do when she ran away to save what they stole from her?

  What to expect

  - Skill based system

  - Weak to Strong MC

  - Book 1 Completed (totals 55 chapters)

  Don't miss out on this incredible story!