Whispers chased Luna down the hallway like ghosts.
"Did she hack it?"
"No way. The system's airtight."
"Who even is she?"
She kept her head down, gripping her tablet tighter. Ten Love Points. From nowhere. And worse—Leejun had lost them. The top-ranked student in the entire academy.
She didn't know how or why. Only that her name was now on every student's radar—and not in a good way.
---
Rooftop.
Leejun scrolled through the system logs, eyes narrowed.
> LP Loss: 10
Affected: Han Leejun
Source: Chae Luna
Causality: Unknown. Error Code: 001-G.
"Error Code G?" he murmured. "Ghost code?"
He glanced up at the sky, wind ruffling his collar.
"She's not a glitch. She's something else."
---
Cafeteria.
Luna picked at her lunch, untouched. The screen above the dining hall flickered with live LP rankings. She was still at #9,451—but her name glowed faintly, pulsing like a heartbeat.
She wasn't supposed to be visible at all.
"Mind if I sit?" said a voice.
She looked up. A boy with soft brown eyes and a crooked smile stood there, tray in hand.
"Kwon Sori," he said. "Ranked #128. And currently, the only one willing to risk social death by talking to you."
Luna blinked. "Thanks?"
"Don't mention it. Literally. Please don't mention it."
She almost smiled.
---
Later, in the LP Lab.
A hidden chamber beneath the academy hummed with crystalline energy. Administrators gathered around a glowing hologram of Luna's profile.
"She's triggering untraceable shifts," one said. "Even the resonance scanners can't decode it."
The Headmaster, cloaked in shadow, spoke quietly.
"Observe. Do not interfere. If she's truly the First Drop, the system will shift."
---
Dorm Room.
That night, Luna stared at her ceiling, thoughts tangled.
I didn't do anything. Why is the system reacting to me?
Her tablet buzzed.
> New Message from: Unknown
Do you want to know the truth?
She hesitated.
Typed back:
> Who are you?
A pause.
Then:
> Meet me at the East Garden. Midnight.
Come alone.
Luna's heart pounded.
Somehow, she knew—
This was only the beginning.