The sewer trembled with silence. Reven leaned against the damp stone wall, blood still trickling down his arms, the faint glow of system text burning into the back of his eyes.
> [Mission 001: Completed]
[Timer Terminated]
[Pain Sync Cooling: 6% → 4%]
[NIHILOS SYNC LEVEL: 13%]
He felt it—not just a system notification—but a shift. A ripple in the game itself. Like something enormous had turned its eye toward him.
And it blinked.
---
Far above, beyond the game's interface—somewhere deep in the admin layer of the VRMMO servers—a black alert sounded.
> [ALERT: Unknown Protocol Breach Detected]
[Violation Location: Instance #934. Sewer Grid: Abandoned Halloween Event Zone]
[Player ID: Reven (Unclassified)]
Inside a sterile white interface, a figure in an admin cloak stared at the logs.
> "Unauthorized skill... override? And no class assigned?"
Another one leaned forward, glasses glinting behind shimmering code.
> "Wasn't this game built to prevent that kind of override?"
> "No system class, no lineage, no access key... and he accessed a dead sector's glitch fragment. That's impossible."
> "It's not a glitch. It's Nihilos."
Silence.
> "...Initiate player tracking. Flag him. If he syncs past 25%, we purge him."
---
Back in the sewer, Reven was breathing like he'd outrun a god.
Every part of his body pulsed with heat—his stat window jittered as if the numbers weren't sure what they were anymore.
> [Strength: 6.2]
[Agility: 4.4]
[Endurance: 5.7]
[Resistance: 3.1]
[Luck: 3.6]
[Class: None]
[System Status: Unstable]
> "I'm stronger... but I still don't have a class."
He opened the class selection panel again.
> [Choose Your Class]
He tried typing in random names:
> "Blade Monk" – Rejected.
"Shadow Breaker" – Rejected.
"Data Slayer" – Rejected.
The system pulsed with a strange hum, then blinked.
> [Recommendation: None Available]
[Reason: Subject does not meet criteria.]
> "Then what am I?"
Just then, the sewer walls flickered for a moment—reality stuttering.
Something was coming.
---
Back in the upper city, a PvP guild office lit up. The leader of "Crimson Pact" stared at the death log.
> "GoldLord was killed?"
His assistant nodded, face pale.
> "Solo'd... by a level 6. No name. No ID."
> "No ID?"
> "He's not even listed in the player logs. But the death report... it says the system gave him 'Data Rupture'?"
The leader leaned forward.
> "...Get everyone online. I want that kid's head. And if the system's protecting him—"
He smiled darkly.
> "—then we make it bleed too."
---
Reven didn't know any of that yet.
All he knew was that something was tracking him. Not just players. Not just NPCs. Something else.
The moment he stepped back into the upper city, he felt it.
Eyes.
Menus glitched as he passed. One NPC vendor blinked twice—confused—then looked away as if Reven wasn't meant to exist.
He tried buying a potion.
The merchant's dialogue box flashed:
> [Transaction Error: Item not found]
> "The system... is rejecting me?"
But that wasn't true.
The system wasn't rejecting him.
It was testing him.
And somewhere... deep inside the code...
It was waking up.
---
To be continued...