The violet HUD in Arthur's vision was now a constant, frantic pulse. The air shimmered, and the familiar fluorescent lights of the hallway flickered, casting long, distorted shadows. The chrome skulls in the trophy case solidified, their empty eye sockets glowing with faint, violet light.
"What is happening?" Arthur rasped, his headache still throbbing.
"Your 'edit' destabilized this node," Elena said, pulling him sharply. Her face was grim. "Every time you change something, the 'Original' timeline fights back. It tries to reassert itself. And this school... this place was a critical point."
Sarah, who had been waiting by the main doors, grabbed Arthur's arm. "Boss! The doors! They just sealed themselves!"
The heavy steel doors of St. Jude's High School slammed shut, melting together with a hiss of superheated metal. The windows facing the outside world turned opaque, like black glass.
[The Shifting Landscape]
The entire school began to groan, a sound like tortured metal. The lockers twisted, their painted surfaces peeling away to reveal raw, pulsing wires and chrome plates underneath. The vibrant school posters turned into grotesque caricatures, their eyes burning violet.
Students screamed. They ran, but the hallways were shifting, growing longer, narrower, then twisting into impossible angles.
[NEW QUEST: CONTAINMENT PROTOCOL – ESCAPE ST. JUDE'S]
• Objective: Find the 'Exit Node' before complete 'Reality Collapse'.
• Threat Level: Extreme.
• Reward: Unlock 'System Map'.
• Failure: Permanent Deletion of Node (All occupants).
"What's an Exit Node?" Arthur demanded, pushing through the terrified students.
"It's the point where the corruption is weakest!" Elena yelled over the screams. "But the 'Man in White' will have booby-trapped it! He wants to observe your limits!"
[The Chrome Thralls]
From the mutating classrooms, new enemies emerged. These weren't the simple green Thralls from the docks. These were students, teachers, even the principal—their bodies now encased in jagged chrome armor, their faces replaced by polished steel visors. They moved with a chilling, synchronized grace.
"Those are 'Failsafes'!" Elena screamed, drawing a pair of sleek, glowing knives. "The System is using its corrupted occupants to contain you!"
Sarah drew her Ghost-tuned 9mm, the weapon humming with a low thrum. She unleashed a volley of precise shots. The bullets, now infused with Arthur's latent Ghost energy, tore through the chrome armor, revealing the flickering violet cores beneath.
Arthur didn't fight. He ran. He needed to find the Exit Node. He used Timeline Echo to predict the safest path through the chaos, dodging collapsing walls and swinging chrome appendages.
[The History Lesson]
They reached the history classroom. But it wasn't a classroom anymore. The walls were gone, replaced by a swirling vortex of energy. In the center, suspended in the air, was the school's original history projector. It was projecting a single, terrifying image onto the vortex:
A futuristic cityscape, collapsing into a void of violet energy. A figure stood in the foreground, his back to the viewer, watching the destruction.
"That's it," Elena gasped, pointing to the image. "That's the 'Original 2025.' And that figure... that's the Architect of the End."
Arthur stared at the image. The figure in the projection was tall, with broad shoulders and a familiar stance. He could feel a terrifying resonance—a sense of self-recognition that made his blood run cold.
[The Exit Node]
Suddenly, the Man in White appeared inside the vortex, his white suit pristine even amidst the chaos. He was holding a remote.
"Enjoying the show, Ghost?" he sneered. "This is a glimpse of what you did. This is the timeline you ripped apart. And now, you can watch it consume this pathetic reality."
He pressed a button. The vortex solidified into a shimmering, pulsating portal.
[EXIT NODE LOCATED: CENTRAL STAIRWELL]
"The stairwell!" Arthur yelled, pointing. "That's the Exit Node!"
But between them and the stairwell, a wall of Chrome Thralls materialized, their weapons humming. The principal, encased in gleaming chrome, stepped forward, his body disproportionately large.
"You won't leave, Arthur Vance," the principal-thrall boomed, his voice a distorted echo. "The System demands its due."
Arthur looked at the portal, then at his mother's classroom, which was now melting into liquid chrome. He looked at the Man in White, who was watching him with a mocking grin.
He had to get out. He had to understand his past.
"Sarah! Elena! Take out the principal!" Arthur commanded. "I'm going for the portal. We're going to use this corruption to escape!"
He wasn't running from the school anymore. He was running through it.