Signal Lost

The Virtual World — Welcome World · Glitch 001

At first, it seemed like nothing more than an error.

A tremor in the air. A distant sound, like a muffled voice behind a wall.

Then the sky fractured.

A luminous rift opened before LYRIA, streaked with thousands of violet fragments. Beyond the barrier stood a girl with light-colored hair.

She didn't look like an enemy.

She looked frightened.

The girl raised a hand, as though trying to reach her.

LYRIA did the same.

For an instant, their fingertips seemed almost to touch through the light.

Then something changed.

The girl's figure began to dissolve into tiny digital fragments.

LYRIA reached out, trying in vain to hold on to her.

“Wait!”

But the girl was already gone.

Silence returned all at once.

A tiny violet crystal hovered above LYRIA's palm, pulsing with light.

She watched it without moving.

She didn't know who the girl was.

She didn't know where she had come from.

And most of all, she didn't know why, for a single moment, she had felt as though someone had been searching for her specifically.

Signal lost.