"Not every place the system erased was wrong. Some were just… inconvenient."
Location: Outskirts of Archive Layer – Forbidden Sector Z-9
While the Harmonic Core stabilized, a faint signal emerged from one of the deepest locked regions of the old system.
[Alert: Memory Echo Received]
[Classification: Realm Deleted from System Ledger]
[Name Recovered: "Velrun – The City of Regret"]
[Restoration Potential: Medium – Sentient Layer Still Intact]
Yura frowned.
"Velrun was erased after rejecting the Tribunal's offer to assimilate.
They chose messy compassion over clean obedience."
Jiwoon looked at the glowing signal.
"Let's bring them back."
Arrival in Velrun
The moment Jiwoon stepped into the reemerging space, his system interface glitched.
The realm wasn't passive—
It was defensive.
Buildings rebuilt themselves like memories.
Streets whispered names of people who once walked them.
"Jiwoon…"
He froze.
Someone knew him here.
Meeting the Survivor
From the smoke emerged a woman—
Scarred, older, with eyes full of both fury and longing.
"You really came back."
Her name was Seorae.
A former Sin Architect, presumed dead.
"You left us to be judged. We begged the system for mercy, but it only answered with silence."
"We buried our guilt under stone.
And now you want to rewrite it?"
Jiwoon's Response
He didn't try to explain.
Didn't justify.
He knelt before her.
"I'm not here to fix your pain.
I'm here to let it speak."
The Trial of Velrun
Velrun's people gathered.
Every face had a different version of what "justice" meant.
Some wanted full reintegration.
Others wanted no contact ever again.
Some wanted Jiwoon punished for helping birth the system.
And Jiwoon let them vote.
Not digitally. Not symbolically.
Emotionally.
[New Function Activated: Emotional Consensus Sync]
[Result: 63% Integration Acceptance, 22% Conditional, 15% Rejection]
System Action
[Status: Velrun Registered as an Autonomous Ethical Node]
[Granted Rights: Rewrite own localized laws under Harmonic Layer Protocols]
[Seorae Appointed: Keeper of Living Regret]
Before Jiwoon left, Seorae said:
"Regret isn't a weakness, Jiwoon.
It's a sign we still care enough to do better."
End Scene
As Jiwoon walked through the now-restored gates of Velrun, the Codex updated:
[Restoration Progress: 1 of 7 Forgotten Realms Recovered]
[Next Target: Zone Exile – Where the first system failure began.]
And far away, in a frozen world where law never reached—
someone woke up.
And whispered:
"Jiwoon… he's rewriting the world again."