[Objective Updated: Infiltrate the Core Citadel]
[Proximity Alert: Datawall Gate – 0.1km]
[System Warning: Hostility Level – MAXIMUM]
The world began to break the moment I stepped forward.
The terrain around me glitched, hard.
Skies collapsed into looping fragments.
Text flickered across the sky:
[WARNING: UNSUPPORTED ENTITY DETECTED]
[PURGING… ERROR.]
[ENTITY ID NOT FOUND.]
I walked through the collapsing interface.
Every step screamed defiance.
The Datawall Gate loomed ahead — a swirling dome of encrypted logic, dark fire, and mirrored code. Dozens of recursive locks rotated in midair, each one tethered to a separate layer of system security.
[Subsystem: Integrity Firewall]
[Access Level Required: Architect-Class Clearance]
Yeah. No.
I activated Exploit Analysis.
[Vulnerability Detected – Sequence Desync: Lock #9]
[Injection Point Available.]
Time to break the first lock.
I plunged my gauntlet into the sequence gap.
It screamed.
Not audio — not text. Code screamed.
A pulse of black lightning rippled out as Lock #9 unraveled.
[Firewall Instability Detected – Threat Level Escalation]
The wall rippled — not open, not yet.
But bleeding.
And the bleeding drew guardians.
Three of them emerged.
Towering entities of white-glass armor and no faces, only a single burning sigil: ∇
[Guardian Node Alpha – Triad Class]
[Function: System Integrity Enforcement]
[Weakness: Undefined]
I didn't wait.
Reality Recode – Activated.
Space bent. Their sigils flickered, glitching half a frame behind their bodies.
That was my opening.
I launched forward, using Stunning Backstab on the nearest one — but instead of flesh, I met frictionless light.
No pain. No feedback.
"Not physical…"
But they reacted.
The one I struck rotated midair, split into two, then remerged—now flickering erratically.
They couldn't be harmed.
But they could be destabilized.
Code Breach – Activated.
I rammed null-energy from the Gauntlet of Refusal directly into the data threads behind them.
A burst of static exploded.
One Guardian blinked out of phase.
Temporarily.
I didn't need to win.
Just outlast.
They surrounded me.
Erasure beams charged.
I activated Quickstep Invisibility, skidding into a collapsing logic trench and triggering a fallback subroutine from the old class tree.
New Skill Triggered: Recursive Echo Lv.1
→ Creates a phantom copy of your last movement path, confusing automated targets.
The beams struck my phantom.
I rolled left, flanked the second Guardian, and plunged a Glitch Knife into its exposed render point. Not to kill — to disrupt.
Its frame stuttered.
I triggered Reality Recode again.
The firewall behind me screamed and tore open for 2.3 seconds.
Just enough.
I ran through.
[Zone Transition: Core Outer Shell]
[WARNING: You are now inside Architect-Controlled Space.]
[All system protections: NULL]
[You are on your own.]
I collapsed behind a broken tower inside the Citadel's outer layer. The world here was… wrong.
A horizon of pure red code. Buildings shaped by thought, shifting with AI logic.
An artificial storm hung above—data itself unraveling and stitching back together.
[Zone Type: Mutable Environment]
[Reality Stability: 41%]
I opened my skill window.
Everything flickered.
Reality Recode was mutating. So was Exploit Analysis.
New potential branches formed.
[Class Evolution Detected – Exploiter ➝ System Fracturer (Pending)]
→ Requirements: Survive inside the Core for 3 cycles. Extract Architect Root Fragment.
I had three cycles.
Whatever that meant.
And I wasn't alone.
A voice echoed through the Citadel.
"So. You made it past the gate."
"You know me?" I said aloud.
"We know everything you were. Everything you tried to forget."
"Who's 'we'?"
"We are the Architect.
And we built this world to survive people like you."
The air shimmered.
Shapes formed in the distance — more Guardians. But different. More evolved.
And behind them, something massive stirred.
The Core was awakening.
"Good."
I stood.
"Let's break God."