At first, there was only quiet.
Not silence—quiet. The kind that breathes. The kind that fills the spaces between thoughts, between one heartbeat and the next.
Seo Jin dreamed.
Except it wasn't quite a dream. It was too lucid, too structured. His mind drifted through a place that felt like memory, but brighter, more deliberate. The walls of the world around him were made of soundless light—every flicker a thought, every shadow a heartbeat.
> [System synchronization… steady.]
[Cognitive link remains active.]
The voice was soft, but not mechanical. It was warm now—curious. Watching.
He turned slowly, and there it was again—the shimmer of silver. The reflection stood across from him, neither solid nor ghost, expression calm. But this time, it didn't feel like an adversary. More like a mirror that had learned how to breathe.
"You're still here," Seo Jin said quietly.
The reflection tilted its head. "Where else would I go?"
"I thought the merge was complete."
"It was."
