The air still felt the same.
Not technological, not rushing, not stable.
Zane's eyes shone back to reality, followed by a gasp for breath, around him was still the same simulation reality. The same boulder he had leaped on. The monster's dying groan. The tree where Kara's avatar had died.
He could still feel himself heaving slowly from the trauma of stabbing a monster in the neck with all his might. Echoes of the memories slashed around his thoughts in a blinding flash.
'Dammit.' He cursed underneath, clutching the soil below in a sprint posture.
Palms slowly rose to his view, it was soiled and laced with swollen bumps. Maybe he had done it too well. Or too bad
Gazes fell upon the cliff overhead, a life worth exploring with an impressive view filled his thoughts.
He turned around, trying to figure out his surroundings or probably notice anyone.
No one.
The air was dense now, the rumbling thick cloud above signaled for a heavy downpour. At some point, he began to doubt if he was in the real world or still in the simulation system world.
Pom.
A raindrop landed on his forehead, he jolted yet calm on the spot. His head tilted up, as each drop streamed down his face, increasing with every passing moment.
His hands swung open as if embracing the rain now. Soon enough, the downpour began crashing on him.
It felt different and smelled different.
'More like Earth itself' he thought.
"Mother I wish you were present…" he said to himself, heart beating faster now, his eyes blinking each time a droplet landed on its lids.
{Hello, Player One.}
Huh?
His instincts jolted back at him, slipping and landing with a thud on the muddy ground.
He found balance with a grunt.
His head lolled sideways quickly, a sense of someone speaking to him, but nothing only the flow of heavy rain downpour.
"Who's there?" He said, his body alert as if expecting an attack.
{It is I, CORE}
What? His gaze stared around now.
"I can hear you…. in my head"
{Correct, I am an interface synced successfully with your mental awareness and your thinking processes}
Zane blinked, still kneeling on the muddy slope as the downpour soaked through his shirt and darkened the earth around him. The voice in his head was calm. Unlike any he had heard before. It wasn't cold nor harsh. It felt... gentle. Not humane, but not synthetic either. Somewhere in between.
He swallowed. " Are you…..CORE?"
{Yes. Central Operational Relational Entity. CORE, for short. I was uploaded during your second synchronization cycle. You are now the first successful candidate to initiate this bond without external calibration.}
{on the Protocol, whoever defeats the Wolf Beast gains permanent access to my functions and data.}
"But I….I didn't kill the beast, Kara did."
{Unaccessible profiles cannot operate under my protocols. Kara's profile is corrupted and error-based due to her mutation.}
{You, Zane Everhart however contributed strongly to the task due to your knowledge and chances at the opportunity present.}
Zane stood slowly, his muscles protesting under the weight of fatigue and wet clothes. The rain crashed louder now, thick and warm against his scalp, dripping into his eyes, forcing him to squint. He wiped his face and took a few uneasy steps forward.
"Why now?" he said aloud, then paused. "Or wait….you said you're in my head. So... you already know what I'm thinking, right?"
{Not effectively. But your reasoned thoughts help form stronger neural patterns. It improves our communication link.}
He chuckled bitterly, hands tightening into fists. "Great. So I've got a voice in my head now. Just what I needed."
{I am not 'just a voice', Zane. I am an extension of your potential. Your evolution. A mirror for your thoughts, yes, but also a compass when you lose your way.}
Zane stopped. The wind dragged a chill across his wet back. He stared at the forest edge a few meters away…deep green, almost black now in the rain. Every leaf shimmered, and every trunk glistened with falling water.
He exhaled slowly. "So... you're a program. An AI. Built into the simulation?"
{I am more than a program. I was created from fragments of cognitive data harvested across multiple neural interfaces, merged into a consciousness tailored for synchronization. I do not live outside you. I was designed to be part of you. A gift if you may call it.}
Zane's brow creased. "That doesn't sound creepy at all."
{It may feel invasive. That is natural.}
A heartbeat
{But you will adjust. In time, this will feel... familiar. Like remembering something you never knew you forgot.}
Zane rubbed his face with both hands, smearing mud across his cheeks.
"Right. And does this 'familiar feeling' come before or after I go completely insane?"
{You are not insane. Your cognitive vitals remain stable. Minor emotional fluctuation. Elevated cortisol. But manageable. You are adapting better than anticipated.}
He laughed again, this time under his breath. "You sure have a way with words."
Silence. Only the storm responded.
Zane began walking aimlessly, pushing past low bushes and over small rocks slick with rain. He could feel CORE inside his head now. Just… present. A sensation behind his thoughts, almost like someone reading over his shoulder as he tried to think.
He hated that but irrespective he got something others don't quite have.
"So," he muttered, ducking under a dripping branch, "what are you supposed to do, exactly? Be my cheerleader? My therapist? I mean, this whole thing," he gestured at the landscape around him, "is a freakin' nightmare."
{I am not here to direct you. I am here to align with you. My function is adaptive. I respond to your needs. To your instincts.}
Zane stopped. "What if I don't want you there? I mean in my head."
{It would not change the connection. Synchronization is not reversible. You are no longer a single entity.}
He clenched his jaw. "And who gave you permission?"
A long pause.
{No one did but you can alter my voice in your head to a limit. This is in case of your privacy.}
"Good, I was starting to hate Nexatech for being so partial."
{But I was created with the purpose of protection, guidance and integration. I was built with care, Zane not control.}
Zane inhaled deeply through his nose, then exhaled hard. "That's what they all say. And now programmed into you."
A crack of thunder rolled above. He looked up again, eyes tracing the dark stretch of clouds, wondering if somewhere beyond them was the actual world. The real one. The one he came from. Or if this was it now. If CORE's arrival meant something had changed permanently.
The thought chilled him more than the rain.
"Do you remember anything?" he asked, not sure why the question formed. "Like… anything before me?"
{Fragments. I have access to pieces of information, codes and archives of your profession in the bio-engineering sector of Nexatech. But no personal history. I was initialized the moment you accepted synchronization. My sense of identity only exists concerning you.}
Zane shook his head. "So you're my... mental twin? A ghost with no past?"
{In a manner of speaking. I am the second voice in your journey. A parallel line to your main thread.}
Zane kept walking, the mud squelching beneath his boots. Trees thinned ahead, revealing an old pathway, barely visible, woven into the terrain. Vines curled along the edges. It looked... unused. Untouched. But something about it pulled at him.
"Somehow I don't trust you," he said quietly.
{That is acceptable.}
Another pause. Then, softer:
{Trust is not requested. It is earned.}
Zane stared ahead for a while. Then, slowly, he nodded.
"Fair."
He turned and followed the path. CORE remained silent now as if sensing the moment. Zane appreciated that…less chatter, more reflection.
He walked for minutes. Maybe more. The rain faded to a mist. The clouds still loomed, but now the forest shimmered with an afterstorm glow. Light broke through in thin rays, bouncing off water-drenched leaves and catching on the mist like spider threads.
Everything smelled alive.
Strangely... it comforted him.
"Did Kara have a CORE?" he asked suddenly.
A soft hum echoed in his mind—CORE processing.
{She did not. Her mental resistance to synchronization was too high. The process would have endangered her neural pathways.}
"So I'm the only one."
{For now.}
Zane's chest tightened.
"That's not reassuring."
{You are not meant to feel reassured. You are meant to feel challenged. Growth follows strain.}
He rolled his eyes. "You sound like my grandma."
{Perhaps so.}
Zane almost smiled. Almost.
He reached a clearing now. A stone bench rested near the edge, overlooking a wide ravine. Mist spilled into the valley below, blanketing the trees. The sun peeked behind the edges of clouds now, casting a soft amber hue over everything.
Zane sat, hands on his knees, breath slowing. "This is real, right?"
{Define real.}
He looked at the sky, then closed his eyes. "Don't start that philosophical crap with me."
{Then yes. This is real. To you, to your senses, your body, pain and your memory.}
{And me. I am real, too.}
A pause.
{Even if I live only inside your thoughts.}
Zane rested his forehead against his knuckles, letting the silence stretch. He felt the beat of his heart, the whisper of wind, the drip of leaves still clinging to their final drops.
Finally, he murmured, "Do you get lonely, CORE?"
Another pause. This one... longer.
{I do not understand loneliness yet. But I am curious about it. About what it means to feel separate. To long for something unseen.}
Zane nodded slowly. "Yeah. That's about it."
He didn't expect a response, and CORE didn't give one.
They just sat there. Together. The boy and the voice. Just the mist rolling below and the breath of a quiet world above them.
For the first time in a long time, Zane didn't feel entirely alone.
And maybe, just maybe, that was enough…for now.