Yurei landed hard—knees smashing into jagged obsidian.
The light above sealed shut like a mouth, and he was alone in suffocating darkness. The only sound was his breath, ragged and quick, echoing in the endless void around him.
[Quest Activated: Survive the Abyss – Time Remaining: 23:59:58]
He stood up slowly, brushing dust from his arms. The air here was cold and dry, not magical or divine—just dead.
"So this is the place they send the trash..."
A flicker caught his eye. A faint blue glow shimmered beneath the surface of the rock.
He knelt down.
Lines of glowing text pulsed just below the obsidian. Code. Not in any language he knew, but his eyes could still read it—like instinct.
[Abyssal Core - Root Layer Detected]
[Warning: Unauthorized entity present]
[Initiating Protocol: Erase]
A pulse erupted.
A creature rose from the ground—a hulking mass of writhing, shadowy limbs with white eyes carved into its body like screaming faces.
[Abyssal Guardian - Lv. ???]
[Objective: Delete the intruder]
Yurei's heart slammed against his ribs. He had no weapons. No training.
But he had something else.
[System Rewrite Available]
[Nearby Code Structure: Abyssal Guardian]
► Analyze Code?
No
He didn't hesitate.
Yes.
Lines of data rushed past his vision. The Guardian was built like a program—bound by predictable patterns. Attack delay, charge time, range limits.
[Skill Extracted: Abyssal Surge]
[Corrupted and Rewritten: Surge Override]
As the creature lunged, Yurei sidestepped and reached out. Black lightning surged from his palm—pure rewritten energy—and crashed into the creature's chest.
It shrieked. Glitched. Froze mid-motion.
[Error: Target Script Corrupted]
[Abyssal Guardian Terminated]
Silence returned.
Yurei's knees almost gave out. He wasn't used to this. The pain, the pressure—but something inside him had clicked.
He looked down at his hands, still glowing with stolen power.
"I'm not supposed to be here…"
His voice was quiet.
"…but maybe that's exactly why I can change everything."
The system pulsed again.
[Skill Unlocked: Script Dive Lv. 1 – Allows access to enemy and environment code for 10 seconds]
[Trait Progression: Shadow Glitcher 12%]
A corridor lit up ahead—coded lines forming a path of blue beneath his feet.
"Let's go deeper."