Pressing Reset Novels & Stories

"It’s the **'Factory-Reset'**." "Vivian, don't!" I screamed, lunging for her. "Goodbye, Delta," she whispered. She pressed the button.

"I'm going to do a factory reset." "You can do that?" "Usually you just hold down buttons in a different combination. It might work and it might not." The power and volume down button didn't work. She held the power and volume up button, but still no change. Lumen held all three down. The screen flashed then went off. Her heart leapt in her chest. "Was that good? Or bad?" Buzz asked. "Very, very good." She glanced over her shoulder. Someone would be coming to check on them soon or bring breakfast.

Throughout my time outside, I scrutinized every single corner of the pen, and realized that half of the barrel could turn. Once it turned fully, a green light blinked on the plunger, and a tiny screen appeared on the body. The screen showed the words ‘input command’. Then I just said whatever came to mind. “Subdue men in Country K army uniform. Location: warehouse at Flaming hills, and old vintage library. That’s all I said,” I conclude. Zeath huffs a smile. “I can’t believe I underestimated you. So, basically, resetting the pen means flushing the blood of the previous commander out of it.”

"Give me another option, Pim! You’re the genius here!" "The gala," Pim said, her eyes wild. "We have to go to the gala. It’s the only place with an independent server bridge that isn't connected to Mother’s primary grid. If we can get the Aegis unit to sync with the public network, we can force a system-wide reset. We turn the city's infrastructure against the central hub." "That’s a suicide mission," Chalida said, but her tone was shifting from panic to calculation. "If we hit the reset while the entire city is watching, we break her control over everything. We ruin her live at the gala."

​"Julian, no! That’s the purge command!" ​"Then we start over!" he screamed, his face inches from mine. "I don't care who I was, Clara! I only care about who I am with you!" ​He took the device from me, his fingers dancing across the keys with a speed that made my head spin. He didn't hesitate. He bypassed the safety locks and triggered the "Total Reset." ​The effect was instantaneous. A blinding, violet shockwave erupted from the device, expanding through the cabin like a bubble of pure energy. The Observers screamed, their high-tech tactical gear shorting out, their weapons dropping to the floor as their guidance systems fried.

“She’s turning everyone who ate that bread into data!” June’s mother, Sarah, grabbed her hand. Her skin felt warm, but her face was ghostly pale. “The vault, June! The one under the basement—I told you about it. There’s a ‘Hard Reset’ button inside. If you get there, you can kill the signal before the virus hits the city.” “But Mom, you’re too weak,” June said, her voice shaking. The cold in her arm crept to her elbow. Her left hand was going numb; her fingers moved stiffly, like they belonged to a machine.

"Excuse me?" "The procedure worked," I said, my voice steady, cutting through the heavy air of the room. "In this past Reset, The muscle memory... it’s back. I’m moving better, I’m thinking faster. I want to continue. I want to do whatever the next step is so I never have to lose myself again. No more 'Resets' every year. Let's finish this, Doctor." Before Clue could answer, Clayton stepped forward. He reached out, taking my hand in both of his. His palms were warm, but he was trembling.

"Carrie, this is my only wish. Please don't refuse me again." … Caroline finally agreed to fund my research project. I threw myself completely into the experiments, but the pain my body was in constantly slowed me down. When it became so unbearable that I broke out in cold sweats and could barely breathe, I asked the system whether it could alleviate my suffering. For once, the system didn't sound so cold and mechanical. There was even a hint of pity in its voice. "Host, all things follow the law of cause and effect. I've recorded every hardship you've suffered in this world. That way, once you return to the real world, your health will be restored. You're essentially cashing in your future

"The frame is frozen. Move." Lina jammed the USB into the terminal. The monitor flared, washing her face in a ghostly blue glow. "What’s the window on the server reset?" Lina asked. Her pulse was a frantic hammer against her ribs. "3:15 AM sharp," Noah said. "When the bank server resets, the verification logic goes blind for ten seconds. It’s 3:14 and forty-five seconds. You’ve got fifteen ticks to hit the gap." "Count it." "Ten," Noah started, his voice tightening. "Five. Three... two... one. Rip it."

The thud-thud-thud of the suppressed rounds against the obsidian sounded like the drums of a funeral march. "You can't sever it, Dante!" Julian’s voice echoed through the dark, sounding closer than it should. "The bond is biological! It’s in the marrow!" "Then I'll bleed it out!" Dante yelled back. He grabbed a shard of glass from the shattered mirrors and sliced it across his own palm, then pressed it into Ivy’s hand. "Ivy, listen to me. The 'Reset' is tied to the Archive in your head. If we can't delete the data, we have to scramble the signal. We have to make the 'Sync' so chaotic they can't use it as a fuse."