Time remaining: 47:12:33
Tama didn't sleep that night.
How could he? After seeing his own face—another version of himself—standing beside Risa, who now looked like a lifeless doll. Empty. Expressionless.
"Let's see who she chooses when the time comes."
Those words still echoed in his head, more painful than a death threat. Because they weren't just a warning. They were a challenge. A rivalry. A moral game where the only real stake was identity.
"Dark Tama," Ray said grimly as they regrouped the next morning in the underground hideout. "That's what we call him. He's been active for over a year. We thought he was just a prototype. Turns out… they perfected him."
"And now he's a weapon," Nira added.
Tama sat silently at the table, fists clenched, breathing heavy.
"So I'm what, then? Just raw material?" he muttered.
Ray looked him straight in the eye. "You're not the copy. You're the original. But they want to prove their creation can surpass you. Morality, empathy, trauma—they see all that as weakness. So they built another. Free of burden."
Tama looked up. "Then why did he look so calm? Almost… pleased?"
"Because he has no guilt," Nira replied quickly. "He knows everything you know, but he never lived through what you felt."
---
That morning, Ray took Tama into another room—smaller, lined with maps, connection charts, and files. On the wall were dozens of photos connected by red threads: names of participants, last known locations, and… numbers.
"This isn't just about you," Ray said. "They're running hundreds of games in parallel. All of them built around trauma. People like you are recruited, tested, observed—for research. For war. For control."
Tama studied a large board labeled:
"Project: Reflection Protocol – Phase III"
"Phase three?" he asked quietly.
Ray nodded. "The first two phases failed. The subjects were either too unstable, or unable to beat the digital clone. But you… and him… you're perfect."
Tama took a deep breath. "So do I have to kill him?"
Nira, who had just entered carrying a tablet, shot him a sharp look. "Not have to. But he'll try to kill you first."
---
Later that afternoon – 42 hours before the endgame.
Tama sat alone in the training room. Steel walls, machine hum, flickering monitors above his head. Nira had left him with a single message:
"If he's your reflection, you'll need to break the mirror."
And then the screen lit up on its own.
LEVEL SIX: MEMORY COLLISION
(Two minds. One memory. Claim your truth.)
Suddenly, he saw himself. Again.
Dark Tama sat on the other side of the screen, staring forward, unblinking.
"Do you remember this place?" the automated voice said.
The screen showed a blurry image: a psychiatric hospital room. A metal bed. A boy drawing on the wall in blood.
"Is that me?" Tama whispered.
Dark Tama smiled faintly. "No. That's us. But I remember it more clearly."
"Memory alignment required. Choose one."
(a) You were the victim.
(b) You were the cause.
(c) You were never there.
Tama felt sick. He knew that place. The hospital he was taken to a week after the library fire, allegedly for "observation." But his memory of it was foggy.
Dark Tama looked at him with sharp contempt. "You want to be the victim. But we know the truth, don't we?"
Tama closed his eyes. He remembered now.
He locked the storage room door and dragged a stack of papers in front of it. Then he lit the match.
The fire started with him.
"No…" he whispered. "It was an accident…"
Dark Tama grinned. "It was a decision."
Tama, shaking, selected option (b): You were the cause.
The screen displayed a single line:
Truth accepted. Your reflection grows stronger.
---
36:27:05 remaining.
After that session, Tama couldn't sleep. He sat in the dark corner of the base, listening to recovered recordings of his old therapy sessions—leaked footage Ray had found, secretly taken by the system. He watched himself as a ten-year-old—afraid, confused, trying to convince the world that he was okay.
But he wasn't.
A doctor in one clip had said:
"He sees another version of himself in the mirror. It speaks to him. And tells him what to do."
And now, that reflection was alive.
"How do I beat him?" Tama asked Ray the next morning.
"Make him choose," Ray replied.
---
32 hours remaining – Hidden Level begins.
The system suddenly sent new coordinates: a house on the city outskirts, abandoned for two years.
Inside, only a chair and an old television.
Tama sat.
The screen lit up.
"Final Pre-Test. Witness the origin."
A video started playing.
Dr. Surya Adrian, in a lab.
"Subject TY-D. Personality clone achieved. Initial reaction aggressive but focused. Memory upload successful. Mirror protocol stable."
In the background, someone identical to Tama sat calmly, hands bound. He stared at the camera with a blank expression.
"Do you know who you are?" Dr. Surya asked.
"I'm the real one," he replied. "He's just the weak layer."
The screen went dark.
---
28:02:00 – Countdown to Final Level.
Tama returned to the base.
Nira greeted him coldly: "They've taken Ray."
Tama froze.
Nira showed him the footage: Ray, dragged away by two masked figures.
"He wants a duel. One-on-one. No weapons. Only choices," she said.
Tama looked up at the corner camera.
"I accept."
---
The Final Level begins in 24 hours.
Two versions. One choice. And Risa will be the judge.
---
Location: Control Chamber – Sector Z7
Time remaining: 24:00:00
The chamber was silent except for the faint whirring of ventilation fans.
Tama stood inside a circular glass room, like an arena without blood. In the center, a single black chair. A large curved screen wrapped the interior, pulsating with red static. No guards. No doors. Only watchers from elsewhere—people who never showed their faces.
He wasn't alone.
Dark Tama entered from the opposite side.
He looked identical, but sharper somehow—his steps more calculated, his expression more composed. His presence sucked the air from the room.
They stared at each other.
Two copies. One origin.
Only one of them would leave.
"You look tired," Dark Tama said.
Tama didn't respond.
"Still carrying guilt? Still dreaming of fire?"
"Still hiding behind empty philosophy?" Tama shot back. "You think being numb makes you strong?"
Dark Tama smirked. "It makes me effective."
The screen flashed:
Final Trial: THE JUDGMENT.
(The Subject must choose. The Mirror must respond. The Witness must decide.)
From above, a platform descended slowly.
Risa.
Tied to a steel chair. Her eyes open—but empty. Controlled, perhaps sedated. Her gaze drifted between them.
"She's the key," said Dark Tama. "Her choice determines who leaves."
Tama's chest tightened. "She doesn't deserve this."
"She was always the weakness in you," the clone said. "So they made her the deciding factor. Poetic."
Then the rules appeared on the screen:
---
Two Tamas. One question.
Each must whisper a single truth into Risa's ear.
Risa will choose the one she believes.
The other will be erased.
---
Tama froze. This wasn't a physical duel. It was a test of truth.
But how do you win when your opponent knows everything you know?
"How do we know she's not drugged?" Tama asked the room, though he knew they were listening.
No reply.
Dark Tama stepped forward first. He leaned toward Risa's ear.
Whispered something.
Risa blinked.
Then Tama approached. Heart pounding. Knees trembling. His breath shook as he leaned close.
He said only one thing.
A memory.
One so buried even he had almost forgotten it.
"You were six. We ran from a storm. I covered you with a blanket in the attic. You called me your superhero."
A tear slid down Risa's cheek.
Tama stepped back.
The screen went dark.
Then—
Risa raised one finger.
And pointed at him.
The original.
Tama.
Dark Tama didn't move. He simply looked up at the ceiling.
"They won't accept this," he said calmly.
Then his body flickered—glitched.
And began to dissolve.
Not blood. Not screams. Just pixels unraveling.
Tama watched his own face fade into nothingness.
Final Result: Subject TY-Original – VALID.
Reflection Deletion Confirmed. Witness Released.
The glass wall slid open.
Risa collapsed forward. Tama rushed to catch her.
She was conscious now.
"T-Tama… it was you…" she whispered.
"I'm here," he said, voice cracking. "I'm not leaving you again."
---
Three hours later – Exit Chamber.
Ray was there, bruised but alive, freed by the system after the test.
Nira handed Tama a clean coat. "You beat their best. You exposed the flaw."
"What flaw?"
She pointed to her temple.
"Emotion. Connection. It's not weakness. It's unpredictability. They can't code that."
Tama didn't reply. He held Risa close, her head resting on his shoulder.
He was tired.
But awake.
Finally awake.
Ray walked beside him as they reached the exit.
"They'll come back," Ray warned. "This isn't over."
"I know," Tama said.
"But next time," he added, "I'll be ready."
---
(To be continued...)