Three days had passed since their battle against Sentinel V0-K.
Riku's body was still covered in wounds, yet his spirit had never been this calm.
They were resting in a hidden chamber deep within the dungeon, where a clean spring flowed gently from the stone walls. For the first time since he'd been cast away, sleep felt like a choice, not a last defense.
Kaela sat across the small campfire, watching Riku as he wrote in his black notebook.
"Always writing," she murmured.
Riku didn't reply only gave a slight nod. His hand moved steadily, jotting down the Sentinel's structural details, the timing gaps between its regeneration cycles, and the slight delays in its reaction system.
All of it was important. Maybe not now but someday.
"Were you always like this in your original world?" Kaela asked. "Quiet… focused… alone?"
Riku gave a faint smile. "Yeah. Because no one cares about a useless kid."
Kaela stared at him for a while, but said nothing. She knew that feeling all too well.
---
The next day, they followed a newly revealed path that had opened after the Sentinel's destruction.
At the far edge of the deepest chasm stood a massive black door. No hinges, no handles only a single large circular engraving at its center.
[門: Unwritten Fate]
And in the middle of that engraved circle, the small crystal they had taken from the Sentinel the Old World Code began to glow.
Riku stepped forward, raising the crystal.
The moment it touched the engraving, the black door began to tremble, groaning open inward.
"This gate… it's been sealed for hundreds of years," Kaela whispered. "The legends say whoever opens it will see the truth of the world."
Riku walked inside. "I'm not here to believe in legends. I want to know who wrote the rules of this world… and why I was called 'trash' just because the system didn't choose me."
---
What lay beyond was unexpected.
It wasn't a dungeon.
It wasn't ruins.
It was… an observatory. A floating chamber with invisible walls and a transparent floor, as if they were standing atop the sky.
And at the center of the room stood a humanoid figure with long silver hair, dressed in white robes embroidered with gold.
It had no face only a mask of light where its eyes should be.
[Unit Administrator-03]
[Remnant Device of the Previous World]
[Function: Maintains the Laws of Reality in the World of Iskarda]
"Welcome, Heir of the Protocol."
Its voice resonated like the distant roll of thunder.
Riku stepped forward slowly, every muscle tense.
"What do you mean by 'heir'?"
Administrator-03 raised a hand.
A vast illusion bloomed above them, displaying dozens of worlds connected by threads like strands of fate.
The human world. The demon world. The magic world. The technological world.
All of them linked within a single network written by the Old Administrators.
"This world is the result of an experiment by an ancient civilization. Every system, every skill… even your identity… was determined by the world's code."
Kaela stood silent.
Riku clenched his teeth. "So I'm not a person. I'm just a number. That 'Trash Class' tag… it's just an error code from the system they built?"
The Administrator nodded. "Correct. You are not a mistake you are a rejection of the system itself. That is why you were chosen by the Rewrite Protocol. You are the only one capable of rewriting the laws of this world."
Riku's hands curled into fists.
"Why? What's the point of all this?"
The Administrator raised its other hand, summoning a new panel of light before them.
Within it, they saw images of Riku's classmates from his original world the same friends who had been brought here. Now they stood as great heroes, clad in enchanted armor, sitting in palaces, praising the system that ruled them.
And among those faces, Riku saw the one that made his blood boil.
Katsuro.
The class leader. The one who had thrown Riku into the dungeon.
Now, he bore the title:
Holy Light Hero — The Scorcher of Darkness.
Riku's grip tightened around his black notebook.
"In that case," he muttered, "I'll start writing a new story. Not one about light. Not about fate. But about choice."
---
Before they left the observatory, Administrator-03 handed him something: the Remnant Kernel of the Old World a living chip capable of implanting the Rewrite Protocol into the entire world system.
Not just individuals but the very structures of magic, economy, even politics.
[Item Acquired: Kernel Rewrite System (Inactive)]
[Note: Requires 6 other Old World Codes for full activation]
Along with it came data on the locations of the remaining fragments.
One of them… was in territory now ruled by Katsuro and the other heroes.
---
As the black gate sealed shut behind them, Kaela asked quietly, "What will you do now?"
Riku's dark eyes gleamed as he stared ahead.
"Become a threat. Not to the world… but to the system that created it."