The city was alive.
No — it was programmed to seem alive.
Artificial wind. Artificial news. Artificial emotions painted across smiling faces.
People walked with perfect timing. Cars flew with zero error. Ads whispered system promises in ten languages.
But no one noticed the man walking down the center of the street.
Jake Lagon.
No ID. No trace. No shadow in surveillance.
Just black boots, a silent hoodie, and eyes that didn't reflect anything.
He passed right through a scanner wall. No alarm. No registration.
The scanners sensed him — and then immediately chose to forget.
They always did.
---
Inside a tech mall, dozens of citizens swarmed a glowing booth.
> [NEW UPDATE: SYSTEM CLASS EVOLUTION AVAILABLE]
🔓 Unlock: Elemental Enhancement, Divinity Fragments, Code Shift!
A young man shouted in excitement.
"I'm getting Lightning Core! My rank's about to double!"
Jake paused. Watched.
The kid shoved his hand into the system cube.
For a second, lightning crackled around his wrist.
Then it stopped.
And the cube shattered into static.
Screams followed.
People looked around, panicked.
But Jake was already walking away.
The system booth rebooted.
No one remembered why it broke.
---
Somewhere above, in a transparent skybox, two Tribunal Observers leaned over a data table.
"He's here again," said the first.
"But we can't lock him."
The second frowned. "He's not in the loop. He's not even under the loop."
They stared at a red dot blinking across the map.
Then the dot vanished.
System Error: Location anomaly. Subject does not match known physics.
---
Jake walked through a glass door that didn't open.
It simply let him pass.
A security android turned its head, scanned him, and spoke:
> "You are… not… assigned… here…"
It raised its weapon.
But before it could fire — its arm detached and hit the floor.
Jake didn't move. Didn't even look at it.
The android froze.
> SYSTEM FAIL.
Causality Conflict Detected.
Rewriting memory…
Complete.
It walked away, forgetting the encounter.
---
Jake sat down on a bench. Quiet.
Children ran past him. Parents followed.
Not one of them saw him.
He reached into his hoodie and pulled out… a name tag.
Old. Burned. Half-erased.
It read: LAGØN — System Code Engineer (Class B)
He stared at it for a moment.
Then he dropped it.
The wind didn't blow it away.
The world refused to touch it.
---
Jake stood again. He whispered to the empty air:
"Keep watching. Keep updating.
I'm still here."
The sky flickered — a single line of static broke across the clouds.
Something above was listening.
Something afraid.
---