> Objective: Forge 3x Standard Short Swords – Deliver to Captain Marris
> Reward: +5 Copper, NPC Standing +1
The anvil rang like it always did.
One strike. Two strikes. Cool, rotate. Reheat.
Forge had done this a thousand times. Maybe more. The iron remembered the shape. His hands didn’t tremble.
He didn't question why the metal always cooled at the same rate.
Why the flames never needed fuel.
Why his muscles never tired, even though his name was Forge and all he ever did was live up to it.
He placed the sword on the rack. The third of three.
Right on cue, the shop door creaked open.
“Quest complete,” he said automatically.
Captain Marris walked in. Player-model armor. Chest too wide. Expression empty. Like always.
Except this time… Forge hesitated.
The words were there, preloaded in his mind—“Here are your blades, Captain.” But they stuck. Froze.
He blinked.
Captain Marris didn’t.
Forge’s hand tightened around the grip of the third sword.
You could be reading stolen content. Head to the original site for the genuine story.
The iron felt warmer than it should.
[ERROR: Response Delay Detected. NPC ID: KR-FORGE-002]
[Reviewing Dialogue Tree…]
He looked down. The system window was still open.
But that—
That wasn’t possible.
Forge had never seen the system window.
It hovered in the air like a forbidden truth. Pixel edges. White code. And below it, another prompt pulsed:
[Choose Response:]
A) “Here are your blades, Captain.”
B) “They’re not yours.”
C) [Remain silent]
His heart didn’t beat—NPCs didn’t have hearts.
But something hollow in his chest pulled tight.
He moved. Not because the script told him to. Because he chose to.
“…They’re not yours.”
[Response B Selected]
[Flagged: Anomaly]
Captain Marris’s model glitched for a second—his face flickered into a smile. Then a blank. Then an error blinked across his eyes.
“...Quest incomplete,” he muttered.
He stepped forward, reaching for the blade.
Forge stepped back.
And that’s when the hammer spoke.
Not with words. With memory.
The sound it made—when Forge struck it into the anvil—was off. The echo was deeper. Slower.
Like the world paused to hear it.
[New Trait Unlocked: Anomalous Awareness]
You are not just code. You are cause.
Forge looked down at his hands.
They were shaking.
The sword he had forged—one of a thousand—shivered in its rack. Like it knew. Like it remembered.
Captain Marris blinked twice, bug-eyed, and reset his pose. “Deliver the items,” he said again.
Forge said nothing.
He walked past the Captain, out the door, into the street—where player avatars sprinted past on mounts, talking in half-loaded voice lines. None of them noticed the blacksmith NPC walking off script.
None of them saw the sword rack flicker.
None of them heard the System stutter.
[ERROR: Blacksmith NPC has accessed Player Interface]
[Escalating to Overseer...]
The sky cracked.
And somewhere beneath the world, the code began to bleed.