The Lazy Genius With 999x System

The royal seal disintegrated in a shimmer of pale gold as the last word faded from the page. Jay held the letter for a few moments longer, though it had already become blank— like the memory of a dream evaporating under daylight.

He did n't speak. Not yet.

Instead, he stared into the remnants of the flickering glyphs around the envelope, watching them glitch and burn out. His fingers tightened.

> "She knew everything."

Jay did not know if he meant Lysandra or Alicia. Probably both.

He turned away from the small chamber Echo had left him in— one of those half-real simulation rooms still clinging to some sense of structure. The window before him showed no sky. Just threads— threads of data, memory, and something older still —running like veins through the horizon.

This is not just about Null. It never was.

It is about what came before.

It is about what they sealed and why.

Jay closed his eyes, and the System responded.

> [New Directive: Fragment Source Unknown. Warning: Identity Chains Destabilized.]

[99x Limit Recalibrating… Override Accepted.]

[Queen's Lock Signature Registered.]

The message echoed faintly through his mind, but it was not jarring. It was familiar, as though he had always been meant to see this.

Jay exhaled sharply through his nose. "So… they knew. The whole time. That the world was a setup. A test. A tomb."

He looked down at his hand— the same hand that once trembled while holding back reality's collapse, the same one that had touched Alicia's shoulder when everything felt lost.

Now it pulsed with quiet energy. Not fire. Not light. Something subtler. Older.

Resolve.

You could walk away, she said.

Jay stepped back toward the center of the room, spine straightening.

> "I am tired of walking."

___

The room where Jay stood began to shimmer, its walls folding inward like a dream unraveling. The sealed letter— now blank— remained clutched in his hand, its weight far heavier than parchment. It had opened a gate, not just of memory but of purpose.

And the System had felt it.

[Signature Authorization Confirmed: Queen Lysandra Renvale]

[Dormant Layer Unlocked: "Grayscale Corridor"]

[WARNING: This space precedes System Genesis. Navigation unadvised.]

Jay stared at the text flickering before him in translucent white code. It scrolled fast, as if even the System was not fully sure how to interpret it.

"…You left this to me, didn't you?" Jay whispered to no one, his voice carrying the smallest tremor.

Behind him, a faint click echoed through the air. A seamless, circular door had appeared in the center of the stone wall— one that had not existed before.

It was not mechanical.

It pulsed like a living thing.

He approached it slowly, running his hand over its surface. Unlike most doors in the academy's fractured simulation, this one had no handle, no mechanism. Just a simple engraving at its heart:

> We hid the truth behind genius, and the burden behind silence—

Jay blinked.

He had seen this inscription before— etched inside his dream the night before the academy entrance exam. It was the same dream that ended with him staring at his own reflection, only it was not him. It was Null.

Now the message made sense.

With a quiet breath, he pressed his palm against the center. Light surged.

---

Location Shift: The Grayscale Corridor

The corridor was long. Endless. Both too narrow and too wide. The walls were made of moving static, like forgotten thoughts and broken ideologies crushed into grainy noise. No wind. No color. Only shades of gray and the sound of Jay's footsteps.

Then a whisper:

> "You should not have come alone."

Jay turned, heart suddenly pounding.

A silhouette appeared ahead. Familiar. Wrong.

It was Jay or someone wearing his face.

But this version had no warmth, no spark. His hair was the same, but his eyes glowed faintly with static white light. His coat— the very same he wore during the battle against Null— fluttered unnaturally, like underwater fabric.

> "I am not Null," the figure said before Jay could speak. "I am what was left after Null. The residue of every version of you that was overwritten by peace."

Jay narrowed his eyes. "So... a ghost?"

The figure smiled sadly. "A record. A warning. You think this letter means Lysandra trusts you. It does not. It means she is using you again. Just like before. Just like him."

Jay stepped forward. "I am not afraid of being used."

"Oh, you will be," the shadow said, voice lowering. "Because what's buried at the end of this corridor isn't power. It's origin. The truth of the 999x System and what it cost."

Suddenly the corridor cracked. The walls shrieked like metal torn apart. Flashes of other scenes burst through— fleeting images of a burned village, a crowned child, and an experiment that never should've succeeded.

Jay stood his ground, heart racing.

> "Then show me."

The shadow stepped aside, letting Jay pass.

---

Elsewhere: Alicia's Tower Fragment

Alicia paced across the shifting marble floor. The courier who had brought the sealed letter had long vanished, but Jay hadn't returned since.

"Mother… what did you give him?" she whispered.

A part of her trusted Jay with her life. Another part— the Princess part— knew better than to leave royalty unchecked. Especially her mother.

She moved to the glowing sigil still burning faintly in the stone and summoned the last echo of the letter's delivery.

> [Message Seal: House Renvale]

[Recipient: Jay Arkwell]

[Priority Level: Exiled Archive Access]

Her eyes widened. "You gave him access to that?"

She clenched her fists, biting back the urge to contact Jay immediately.

> "If you're dragging him into what we buried… then I'll be right behind him."

---

Observer's Log — Entry 106

> Integration Point Reached: Exiled Archive Door Unsealed

Subject Jay-Arkwell has engaged with Identity Echo No.3

Subject Alicia-Renvale: Independent pursuit initiated

> System Deviation: +4.6%

Observer Protocol: Delay commentary, switch to passive monitoring

> "We are beyond guidance now. The corridor has opened. And what lies at its end… even I cannot recall."