We stood back in the Nexus, the soft, fluffy clouds of Nebulis fading away behind us. I took a deep breath, feeling refreshed and calm. The Gem of Slumber felt light and peaceful in my hand, and I carefully placed it into my bag, joining the other treasures we had collected so far.
"That was exactly what we needed," Aiko said, stretching her arms wide and letting out a happy sigh. "My mind feels so clear now. No more nightmares."
"Right?" I grinned, adjusting my camera. "Dreams are powerful. But now... it's time to get back to action, don't you think?"
Hana meowed loudly in agreement, jumping onto my shoulder and looking out at the infinite sea of doors.
We had seen so many worlds already. Ice, Storm, Forest, Ocean, Music, Mirrors, Fire, Machines, Dreams... each one was unique, each one taught me something new. But as I looked at the doors now, something felt different.
The Nexus usually felt vast and empty, just us floating in starlight. But today... I could feel a connection. A strong, vibrant energy coming from outside. From the screen.
"Minna-san," I said, looking into the lens. "We are getting stronger every day. But I realized something... none of this would be possible without you guys watching. You give us strength."
[ilikecatslol6767]: OF COURSE!!! WE ARE ALWAYS WITH U KING 🐐❤️
[womanizer796901]: WE ARE THE REAL POWER HOUSE LMAO 💪💪
[sigmafalcon]: LETS GOOOO NEXT WORLD!!!
I laughed, but my eyes were already drawn to a new door that had appeared. It wasn't like the others.
This door was made of something that looked like... static and light. It was shimmering, like a television screen turned on. The frame was made of chrome and glass, and it hummed with a digital frequency. It felt... familiar. Like the internet.
"What is that?" Aiko frowned, walking closer. "It looks... digital. Like it's connected to our world directly."
"I don't know," I said, my heart beating fast with excitement. "But it's calling me. Let's go."
[Stream is Live]
"Hello everyone! Welcome back! Today, we have a very special door. It looks like it comes from... right where you are!"
I reached out and pushed the digital door open.
The moment we stepped through, the scenery changed into something incredible.
We weren't standing in a forest or a city. We were standing on a floating pathway made of glowing pixels and code. The sky was a vibrant cyan blue, filled with floating icons, numbers, and symbols. Everything around us looked like a massive, beautiful video game or a virtual reality world.
"Whoa..." I breathed out, looking at my hands. They even had a slight outline glow, like a character model. "Minna-san... look! We are inside the internet! Or a cyberspace!"
[ilikecatslol6767]: OMFG IT LOOKS SO COOL??? THE GRAPHICS ARE INSANE??? 🎮🕹️
[womanizer796901]: CYBER WORLD ARC!!! HACKING AND STUFF??? 🖥️✨
"This realm is called Data Realm, the World of Information," I read the description flowing into my mind. "It says here that this place stores all the knowledge, stories, and connections from every world. It is the network that links everything together."
"That's so cool!" Aiko said, touching a floating string of code that floated by. It spelled out words in a language she understood instantly.
We started walking along the path of light. It was beautiful. Floating islands made of hard-drive towers, rivers made of flowing data streams, and bridges made of fiber optic cables that glowed like rainbow lights.
But as we walked deeper into the system, the scenery started to glitch.
The beautiful colors turned into static noise. The smooth pathways became broken and jagged. The cheerful music turned into distorted buzzing and lagging sounds.
Glitch. Glitch. Stutter.
"Warning..." a robotic voice echoed everywhere. 'Intrusion detected. Virus detected.'
"Something is wrong here," I said, gripping the Primordial Emblem. "The system is infected."
Suddenly, the ground in front of us shattered. And from the void below, a massive figure rose up.
It was a giant monster made of corrupted data. It looked like a mix between a spider and a computer virus, with thousands of legs made of cables and wires. Its body was made of dark purple and black blocks, and its eyes were glowing red error messages.
[ERROR] [ERROR] [SYSTEM FAILURE]
[ilikecatslol6767]: OH SHIT THAT BOSS LOOKS TERRIFYING??? IT'S SO BIG??? 😱😱
[womanizer796901]: VIRUS BOSS!!! DELETE IT RIZU!!! 🗑️💥
"I am... the Glitch," the monster roared, its voice cutting in and out like a bad connection. "I am... the error. I will... break... everything..."
"Attack!" I shouted.
The battle began.
The Glitch didn't fight fair. It manipulated the environment. It made the floor disappear, it created clones of itself made of shadow data, and it fired beams of corrupted code that turned everything it touched into static.
"Aiko, watch out!" I yelled, creating a shield of wind to block a wave of viruses.
"I'm trying!" Aiko fired her weapons, but the bullets just passed through the Glitch or got absorbed. "It's not solid! It's just data! We can't hit it!"
She was right. Every time I hit it with fire or lightning, it just broke apart into thousands of small cubes and then reformed instantly. It was immortal. It kept regenerating faster than we could damage it.
"This is impossible!" I panted, sweating heavily. "It just keeps coming back!"
The Glitch laughed, a horrible screeching sound. 'You... cannot... delete... me...'
It grew even larger, towering over us. It raised a massive hand made of cables, ready to crush us completely.
[ilikecatslol6767]: NOOOO WATCH OUT!!! 😭😭😭
[womanizer796901]: USE ALL THE GEMS!!! USE EVERYTHING!!! 🛡️💎
I tried to summon all my power. I combined fire, water, earth, wind, music, truth... everything! I created a massive beam of pure white light and threw it at the boss.
BOOM!
The explosion was huge, covering the entire screen. But when the smoke cleared... the Glitch was still there. It was damaged, yes, but it was already repairing itself pixel by pixel.
'Not... enough...' it growled, stepping closer.
My energy was running low. My legs were shaking. Aiko was also exhausted, leaning on her weapon.
"We can't beat it..." I whispered, fear starting to creep in. "It's too big. It's part of the system itself."
[Chat is moving frantically]
[ilikecatslol6767]: NO DONT GIVE UP!!! PLEASE!!! 🙏🙏🙏
[womanizer796901]: WE ARE HERE WITH U!!!
[sigmafalcon]: WE LOVE U RIZU!!!
I looked at the camera. I saw the messages. Millions of people cheering for us, sending love and support.
And then... I saw one specific comment that stood out. It was glowing bright gold, different from the others.
[ilikecatslol6767]: RIZU!!! LOOK!!! THE DOOR!!! WE CAN CONNECT!!! 🚪😺
"Huh?" I looked around.
Suddenly, right next to me, a small window popped open. Like a video call window.
And inside that window... I saw them.
It was ilikecatslol6767.
But not just a username. A real person.
It was a girl around my age, with short brown hair and bright, excited eyes. She was sitting in her room, wearing headphones, and she was smiling and waving at me directly through the screen.
"Hi Rizu!" her voice came through clearly, not through the internet, but as if she was standing right next to me. "I told you I'd help you someday!"
"Wh-What?!" I stared in shock. "You... you are real? You came inside?"
"Yeah!" she laughed, and suddenly the small window expanded. She stepped out of the screen and landed on the data path right next to me!
She was here! In the world!
[womanizer796901]: OMFG SHE ACTUALLY JOINED??? NO WAY??? 😱😱😱
[sigmafalcon]: SHE IS REAL!!! SHE IS REAL!!! 🚧🚧
Aiko's jaw dropped. "Who is she?!"
"She's... she's one of us!" I grinned, feeling a surge of energy just seeing her. "This is ilikecatslol6767! She's been with us since the beginning!"
"Call me Neko!" she said, striking a cool pose. She was wearing a cute outfit that materialized around her—cat ears headband, a hoodie, and shorts. "And I brought backup!"
"Backup?"
Suddenly, more windows popped open. Hundreds of them. Thousands of them.
[womanizer796901]: LETS GOOOOO IM HERE TOO!!! 🗣️🔥
[goonercouncil]: WE ARE ALL COMING IN!!! 💪💪
The chat wasn't just text anymore. It turned into pure energy. Golden, sparkling energy that flowed from the screen into the realm, filling the air with light.
"The viewers..." I realized what was happening. "Their support... their love... it's actual power!"
"The Glitch feeds on negativity and chaos!" Neko shouted over the noise, grabbing my hand. "But it can't handle pure positivity! It can't handle us being together!"
The Glitch roared, angry that we were ignoring it. 'DELETE... YOU... ALL...'
It charged at us, massive and terrifying.
"NOT TODAY!" I shouted, feeling power surging through me like never before. "Neko! Aiko! Everyone! Let's do this together!"
Neko smiled, and she glowed with a bright pink light. "Right! Special Move: LIKE AND SUBSCRIBE BEAM!!!"
She pointed her hands at the boss, and a massive wave of hearts, thumbs up, and fire emblems shot out!
[❤️❤️❤️ FIRE FIRE FIRE ❤️❤️❤️]
Aiko joined in, firing her weapons charged with blue energy.
And I... I opened my arms wide and accepted all the energy coming from the chat.
Millions of likes.
Millions of views.
Millions of friends.
"THIS IS OUR POWER!" I roared, gathering everything into a single point. "THE POWER OF CONNECTION!"
The Primordial Emblem on my chest exploded with light, merging with the energy of the viewers. My appearance changed. I was surrounded by an armor made of pure light and data, looking like a god of the internet.
"FINAL ATTACK!"
I raised my sword, which was now as big as a skyscraper, made of pure white code and love.
[COMMENT ATTACK: OVERWHELMING SUPPORT!!!]
I swung the sword down.
NOOOOOO! the Glitch screamed, trying to block it. But it was useless.
The wave of power hit it, and instead of destroying it violently, it purified it. The dark purple virus turned into bright green and blue healthy data. The errors were fixed. The glitches were smoothed out.
The massive monster shrank down and turned into a harmless little program, a cute floating icon that bowed respectfully before disappearing.
SYSTEM RESTORED.
SECURITY COMPLETE.
The entire Data Realm lit up. The sky turned beautiful blue again. The pathways were repaired. Everything was shiny and perfect.
I panted heavily, my power fading back to normal, but I felt amazing.
I turned around. Neko was standing there, smiling happily, dusting off her clothes. Aiko was walking over, looking amazed.
"You..." I looked at Neko. "You were amazing. How did you do that?"
"Hehe," Neko scratched her cheek blushing. "I just believed. And since this is the world of stories and data... believing hard enough makes it real, right?"
"Right!" I laughed, and I couldn't help it—I pulled her into a big hug. "Thank you! Seriously! We would have lost without you!"
[ilikecatslol6767]: AHHHHH THEY HUGGED!!! MY HEART IS MELTING 😭😭🙏
[womanizer796901]: BEST CROSSOVER EVER LMAO 🤣🤣
Neko pulled away, looking around the beautiful realm. "Wow... it's so pretty here. I can't believe I actually got to step inside the stream."
From the center of the realm, the Core floated down. It was a crystal made of pure connection light.
'The Gem of Network,' the voice echoed. 'With this, you shall never be alone. You can call upon your friends, no matter how far away they are.'
I took the gem. It felt warm and connected.
"Well," Neko said, looking at the door that was opening back to the Nexus. "I guess I have to go back now. My mom is calling me for dinner."
"Already?" I pouted playfully. "Stay longer!"
"I can't," she laughed, walking towards the exit. "But don't worry! I'll always be there! Watching! Cheering! Commenting!"
She waved at the camera and at us.
"See you soon, Rizu! Don't give up without me!"
"I won't!" I waved back. "Thank you, Neko! Thank you everyone!"
She stepped through the portal and vanished, returning to her own world. The chat turned back into normal text, but the feeling remained.
We stood back in the Nexus. The digital door closed.
"That..." Aiko said, shaking her head in disbelief. "That was insane. They actually came here."
"Yeah," I smiled, holding the Gem of Network tightly. "We are never alone. As long as they are watching, we are infinite."
I looked at the camera.
"Minna-san... thank you. You are not just viewers. You are part of the team. You are part of this journey."
"Let's keep going together! There is still so much more to see!"