Chapter 63: Chapter 63
Ray was lowkey shocked. His eyebrows shot straight up. "For real?"
Kevin answered chill from the other end, "Yeah bro. I didn’t think you and Karl were close like that."
Ray stayed quiet, his brain immediately flashing red. But Kevin kept going, voice shifting — slower, heavier.
"I got something I wanna tell you, Ray."
Ray just went "hm," waiting.
Kevin sighed. "I wanna apologize for always clowning on you, man."
Ray was shook. "What the hell? What’s your deal?"
Kevin let out a small laugh, but his voice sounded kinda raspy. "Ever since we talked that one time... when I was wasted. When I sobered up, I realized I picked the wrong life. Thanks for being there for me back then. Now I’m back home doing therapy. And... I gotta admit Julia’s been manipulating me this whole time. Thanks for the advice you gave me."
Ray was getting more confused by the second. "Huh?"
Kevin laughed again, this time straight-up cringe. "Sorry, that came out kinda cringe. Anyway, I gotta bounce. Thanks Ray."
*Click...*
The call ended just like that.
Ray stood in the middle of his room, phone still in hand, eyes blank as fuck. His brain was spinning. He didn’t remember giving Kevin any advice at all. Shit, he didn’t even care about Kevin. Julia was just some chick he used to face-fuck back then. What the hell was this?
Ray immediately called out to the system in his head.
’System. Is this some system effect or is this dude straight-up lying?’
The system popped up with an answer that made Ray even more lost.
[Ding!]
[Possibility that the host’s friend’s memory was unintentionally altered]
Ray was even more confused. ’Huh? What kind of skill or passive is this?’
The system answered again in the same flat tone.
[It’s because of the system core inside the host’s body. That core alters common sense and creates alternate memories. The alternate memory was probably triggered automatically because the host’s friend’s mental state was too weak.]
Ray rubbed his face hard and sat on the edge of the bed. He scratched his head until his hair was all messy.
’Memory alteration... unintentionally? So Kevin’s remembering shit that never happened?’
He replayed the conversation. Kevin said "thanks for being there for me back then" and "thanks for the advice." Ray never even roasted Kevin to his face — at worst he was just distant and sometimes sarcastic. But now Kevin was talking like they had some deep talk and Ray was his "savior" or some shit.
Ray let out a long sigh.
’So this system core... can automatically fuck with other people’s memories if they’re mentally weak? Like some kinda crazy auto-correct?’
He opened the system with his thoughts. The blue-purple screen appeared in front of his eyes. The Alter Building duration upgrade was still slowly ticking at 12%. Ray only glanced at it for a second — his head was still full of the earlier conversation.
He muttered under his breath, "This shit’s getting crazier and crazier."
Ray flopped back on the bed, hands behind his head. He stared at the cracked ceiling. Outside, faint car horns and balcony chatter drifted in. But in his head, one question kept looping:
How far could this memory alteration spread? And... were there other people out there "remembering" that he helped them when he never did jack shit?
Ray closed his eyes for a second.
"Tomorrow... I gotta dig deeper into this," he muttered.
But before that, there was one thing he couldn’t dodge.
6 PM.
Promise with Sonya.
He chuckled. "How the hell does he remember me as some good dude like that? I never gave him any advice."
The system popped up again, reminding him that Alternate Memory was influenced by the target’s emotions.
Ray couldn’t care less.
After the weird call with Kevin and the system explanation that was frying his brain, Ray just shook his head and opened his social media app without thinking. Might as well enjoy his rising clout. DMs, mentions, and comments were still flooding in. People tagging him, begging for another live, or asking about the "weird phenomenon" from yesterday.
But as he scrolled deeper, his slight smile disappeared.
The comments were changing. No longer just about the butt-grab video or Asmoldking’s stream. Now a bunch of people were actually panicking. Like, for real panicking.
"Bro I feel like the world’s broken. Glitches everywhere."
"Simulation theory hitting different now. We’re living in a game and the bugs are showing."
"Gamer here. This is like a mass server crash. NPCs bugging out, people’s memories changing."
"Some calling it a matrix bug. Y’all see the news? People suddenly remembering shit that never happened."
"Yesterday’s phenomenon was just the beginning. The world’s getting corrupted."
Ray read through some long conspiracy replies. Some said it was the end times, some blamed the government covering shit up, others said "we’re just characters in someone else’s game that’s getting patched."
Ray actually chuckled quietly. Soft, kinda cynical, but there was satisfaction in it.
"A bug in the world, huh?" he muttered. "Y’all ain’t wrong, but y’all don’t know what’s causing it."
He lay back down, one hand behind his head, phone in the other. Scrolled a bit more then closed the app. Bored. Too many people freaking out with zero info. Ray decided to just chill.
He opened his usual pirated streaming app. Wanted to watch that trending non-anime series at first, but the illegal links were impossible to find. Servers down or dead everywhere. Ended up picking an anime he never got around to watching ’cause he was too busy with work and system bullshit.
"Anime’s fine. At least it won’t make my brain hurt thinking about simulations."
Ray put in his earphones, got comfortable, and hit play. First episode started rolling. He chuckled at a few scenes, throwing in mental commentary. For the first time in days, he was actually relaxed. Not thinking about the system, Christy, Kevin, or the chaos he created.
Time flew by without him noticing.
---
Time skip — 5 PM.
Ray suddenly snapped out of it. His phone vibrated softly next to the pillow. He grabbed it on instinct and checked. Message from Sonya.
Sonya: "I’m on the way. Should be at your apartment around 6. Don’t be late."
Ray jumped up. No overthinking — straight to the bathroom, quick shower, shampooed, and stepped out with a towel around his waist. Hair still damp. He stood in front of the small mirror, sizing himself up.
Plain black hoodie. Beat-up flannel. Faded jeans. That’s literally all he had.
"No drip, no nice clothes, nothing clean-cut," he muttered, scratching his head. "Just hoodies. Fuck it... simple hoodie it is."
He threw on the cleanest plain black hoodie, black jeans, and his decent white sneakers. Left his hair messy but still kinda presentable. Checked the mirror one more time and just shrugged.
"Good enough. If she don’t like it, whatever."
Right at 6, his phone rang. Sonya’s name on the screen.
Ray answered. "Yo?"
"Ray, I’m already downstairs at your apartment building. Black SUV. Waiting inside."
"Bet, coming down now."
Ray slipped his phone in his hoodie pocket, grabbed his key, and left. Elevator dropped fast. The second he stepped outside, he saw the glossy black SUV parked out front. Driver’s window cracked open a bit.
Ray walked up. The passenger door popped open from inside.
And there she was.
Sonya. That caramel-skinned milf was all done up. Hair neatly parted to one side, subtle but classy makeup, glossy lips. Tight black dress hugging her body, showing off her waist and chest curves real nice. Her caramel skin glowed softly in the evening light. Her perfume hit him the moment he slid into the car.
Ray swallowed hard.
’Damn... I really got a sugar mommy now?’
He smirked in his head.
’Caramel mommy...’
His eyes drifted to her bare arms — smooth, tempting skin. Ray quickly looked away before she caught him.
Sonya glanced over, sweet smile lighting up. "Hop in. We’re running a little late."
Ray got in, door shutting behind him. The car felt warm and smelled good. Sonya gave him a quick once-over, then let out a soft laugh.
"Plain black hoodie. Super basic. But... it suits you. Kinda cute actually."
Ray grinned a little. "Ain’t got no nice clothes. This is the best I got."
Sonya nodded, still checking him out. "It’s cool. You’re still attractive in your own way."
The car pulled away slowly. Sonya drove one-handed, the other resting easy on the wheel. Ray sat beside her, sneaking glances at her exposed caramel skin on her chest and arms.
’This... is getting serious, ain’t it?’ he thought.
But he stayed quiet, just enjoying the view next to him while waiting for her to speak.
Ray scratched the back of his neck and muttered to himself, ’Nobody would ever guess this sexy, fine woman got some weird fetish...’
The car kept moving through the evening traffic, the air still thick with Sonya’s perfume. She glanced at him again, voice casual but curious.
"So... you really wanna be a streamer now?"
Ray shrugged, leaning back in the seat. "Ahh... yeah. I mean, I don’t got any other work right now anyway."
Sonya raised an eyebrow, genuinely surprised. "Huh? Aren’t you supposed to be getting that big programming project?"
Ray’s eyes widened. He swallowed hard, suddenly remembering the lie he told her before.
"Uh... yeah, about that—" he started, scratching the back of his neck, brain scrambling for a quick save.
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