The Liquidator General did not look like a corporate drone or a god of light.
She looked like a void shaped into the silhouette of a woman.
Her white dress was not made of fabric but of the blank space between written words.
She stood at the center of the rift with the black leather-bound book in her hand.
The book titled "The End of Ren" was no longer smoking.
It was glowing with a cold and absolute finality.
The continental-sized ship behind her began to hum.
It didn't fire a beam or a thought.
It began to emit a high-frequency vibration that made the atoms of the city struggle to stay together.
The neon signs of Lumina Noir didn't flicker.
They simply turned into grey ash and fell to the ground.
The blue flowers of the Wastes withered in a single heartbeat.
[SYSTEM MESSAGE]
Scenario: Total Studio Liquidation.
Status: Assets are being de-rendered.
Warning: Reality Integrity is under 5%.
Ren stood on the balcony of the Blue Rose with his hand on his chest.
The S Rank Core was pulsing with the 10,000,000 credits he had just received.
But as he looked at the sky, he realized the "Shop" was gone.
The Archivist Prime had been the interface for the market.
With the Archivists dissolved by the truth, Ren was the richest man in a world that was being deleted from the ledger.
Anya stood beside him with her silver light nearly transparent.
She looked at the grey ash falling from the sky.
"Ren, the credits... they aren't working," she whispered.
"The shield is gone. The audience is still there, but they're just watching us burn."
Ren looked at the Liquidator General.
He didn't feel fear.
He felt the cold and sharp logic of the Architect returning to his mind.
"Strategy 116," Ren said.
His voice was a steady and sharp line against the roar of the de-rendering world.
"If the Studio is burning, you don't stay in the building."
"You move the production to the Mainstream."
Ren looked at Elara, who was frantically clutching her device.
"Elara, the credits... don't spend them on shields or weapons!"
"Spend them on a Broadcast Relay to the sectors outside the Library!"
Elara stared at him with wide and bloodshot eyes.
"The sectors outside? Ren, those are the 'Unwritten Territories'! There are no rules there!"
"Exactly," Ren said.
"The Liquidator General is only here because this sector is 'Internal Property'."
"If we move the data of five million people to an unowned sector, she has no jurisdiction."
[SOVEREIGN COMMAND: THE GREAT MIGRATION]
Cost: 10,000,000 Credits.
Status: Initiating Packet Transfer.
Ren reached into the air and grabbed the "Year 0" documentary that was still playing in the sky.
He didn't stop the broadcast.
He attached the souls of every person on Earth to the video file.
He was turning the entire population of the planet into Metadata.
"What are you doing?!" the Liquidator General roared.
Her white dress flared with a violent and absolute violet light.
She raised the "End of Ren" book and began to tear the pages.
"You cannot escape the audit! You are a discarded draft!"
As she tore a page, a massive section of the city vanished.
A thousand people simply ceased to be.
Their cries were cut short as they were erased from the narrative.
"Anya, Gage, get everyone to the Spire!" Ren commanded.
"The Spire is the only antenna strong enough to handle the upload!"
Anya grabbed Ren's arm.
"And you? You're the one holding the connection!"
"I'll be the last one through the wire," Ren said.
He looked at the sky where the grey void was closing in.
"Go. Now!"
Anya and Gage blurred into motion, herding the survivors toward the crystalline tower.
Silas stood in the shadows of the balcony and looked at Ren.
He didn't follow the others.
He walked toward Ren and offered him a small and silver key.
"The Author left this in the office," Silas said.
"It's the key to the Parent Directory."
"He didn't want the Liquidators to find it."
Ren took the key and felt a surge of ancient and raw data.
It wasn't a key to a door.
It was a key to the Physical Server of the universe.
[SYSTEM MESSAGE]
Legendary Item Acquired: The Root Key.
Ability: Access to the Source Code of Reality.
"Why give this to me, Silas?" Ren asked.
"Because I'm a polished lie, Ren," Silas said with a sad smile.
"And a lie can't survive in the unwritten territories."
"But a truth... a truth can become a new law."
Silas walked to the edge of the balcony and looked at the approaching void.
"I'll buy you the thirty seconds you need."
Silas didn't use a sword.
He unleashed his entire being into a single and final explosion of golden light.
He wasn't fighting the Liquidator General.
He was Overloading the engagement.
He was giving the audience a climax so bright that the Liquidator couldn't erase it without crashing the entire stream.
"Silas!" Ren shouted.
The golden explosion filled the sky.
The grey void paused.
The Liquidator General was forced to shield her eyes as the "Interest" of the galaxy hit 200%.
[DONATION: 50,000,000 CREDITS]
[USER: THE SUBSCRIBERS]
[MESSAGE: 'DON'T LET THE STORY END!']
Ren didn't waste the second.
He jammed the Root Key into his S Rank Core.
His silver skin turned into a blinding and absolute gold.
He reached out and touched the crystalline spire with both hands.
[SYSTEM MESSAGE]
Upload Status: 99%.
Final Subject: 004 (Ren).
Ren felt his body being pulled apart into millions of golden pixels.
He saw the Liquidator General screaming in the distance as her ship began to melt from the sheer engagement of the audience.
He saw Anya and Gage reaching out for him from inside the beam.
But then, a hand made of cold and black ink grabbed Ren's ankle.
Ren looked down.
It was the "Original Ren" the one who had been merged into him.
He wasn't dead.
He was a virus that had survived the process.
And he was smiling.
"If we go to the unwritten territories," the Original Ren whispered, "I'm the one who's going to be the Author."
The golden beam struck the moon.
The Earth vanished.
The Lunar Apex exploded.
The Unwritten Territories – Year Unknown
Ren opened his eyes.
He wasn't in a tank.
He wasn't in a city.
He was standing in the middle of a vast and glowing forest where the trees were made of light and the sky was a deep and vibrant orange.
There were no systems.
There were no ranks.
There were no notifications.
He felt the weight of the Root Key in his hand.
He looked at his side and saw Anya, Gage, and the others lying in the grass.
They were alive.
But they were different.
Their clothes were no longer uniforms; they were made of the same glowing light as the trees.
Ren looked at his own reflection in a nearby stream.
His eyes were grey.
But his shadow... his shadow had golden eyes.
And his shadow was holding a silver needle.
"Welcome to the New World, brother," the shadow whispered.
Suddenly, a massive creature that looked like a dragon made of stars descended from the orange sky.
It didn't attack.
It landed in front of Ren and bowed its head.
"The Throne of the Unwritten is vacant," the dragon said.
"Choose your first Law, Sovereign."