The neon-lit rain fell in acidic sheets over the sprawl of Neo-Kyoto, a city where steel towers pierced smog-choked skies and holographic advertisements blared into the perpetual twilight. In a cramped capsule apartment stacked like a coffin in the city's underbelly, Leon Ryker stared at the flickering lines of code on his transparent data-slate. His eyes, underscored by the fatigue of a 20-hour work cycle, burned with a stubborn focus. The characters scrolled—a mix of corporate security protocols and something else, something older and infinitely more complex that he'd stumbled upon while data-scavenging in the city's forgotten digital archives.
"Just another splice… almost there." His fingers, calloused from a lifetime of manual keyboard work despite the era of neural interfaces, danced across the slate. He was a Code-Mender, a digital janitor patching the decaying software infrastructure of the mammoth Zaibatsu corps. It was a thankless, low-cred job, but it gave him access to layers of the Global Net most citizens never saw. And in those shadows, Leon hunted for ghosts—traces of the Old World, before the corporations shattered nations and the Great Silence erased history.
The fragment he worked on now was different. It wasn't just code; it was a pattern, a sequence that resonated with a strange, almost rhythmic logic. It felt less like a program and more like… a chant. A formula. As he isolated the final sequence, a warning, archaic and plain-text, flashed on his screen:
ANOMALY DETECTED. CELESTIAL ADMINISTRATION PROTOCOL #7 INITIATED. MANA-SYNTAX INTERFACE CORRUPTED. DO NOT PROCEED.
"Celestial Administration? Mana?" Leon muttered, wiping a trickle of sweat from his temple. Corporate propaganda talked about "energy harmonization" and "spiritual alignment," but it was just psychobabble to keep the masses docile. This was different. This felt like a root-level command, something buried in the world's operating system.
He hesitated for only a second. Curiosity, the one luxury his miserable existence afforded, won. He executed the splice.
The world did not explode. The power did not go out. For three heartbeats, nothing happened.
Then, the air in his tiny room crystallized.
Every particle of dust, every mote of light, seemed to freeze in place. A soundless vibration passed through the floor, the walls, through Leon's very bones. His data-slate shattered, not from impact, but from within, its molecular structure disintegrating into glittering silica sand. Before he could gasp, a voice spoke. It was not in his ears, but directly into his consciousness, genderless, vast, and cold as the void between stars.
System Initialization Detected. Host Genome Compatible. Soul Resonance: Low-Grade Latent.
Error. Error. Catastrophic Protocol Failure Detected. The Celestial Dao System has encountered a critical fault during the Great Integration. Legacy System 'Yggdrasil' and Modern Protocol 'Ark' have collided. Reality Parameters Compromised.
Leon clutched his head, a spike of agony driving between his eyes. Visions flashed—a gargantuan, golden tree whose branches held galaxies, cracking apart. A sleek, silver ark of infinite length shattering against an invisible barrier. Symbols, runes, and stark digital glyphs swarmed his mind.
Emergency Measures Engaged. Hybrid System Forced Installation.
Welcome, User, to the [Shatterpoint System].
You are the 1/1 Administrator.
The World has undergone a Mandatory [Paradigm Shift].
Mana, Qi, Cosmic Energy—all are now accessible, quantifiable, and unstable. The laws of physics are now… negotiable.
The pressure vanished. Leon slumped to the floor, panting. The air was normal again, but the world outside his window was not.
The neon signs had changed. Interspersed with the ads for synth-noodles and virtual bliss were shimmering, alien characters that somehow conveyed concepts like "Local Mana Density" and "Qi Contamination Zone." The sky, usually a dull orange, was now streaked with auroras of impossible colors—violet, emerald, gold—pulsing in time with a slow, deep heartbeat he could feel in his teeth.
And then the screaming started.
It began as a distant wail, then multiplied, rising into a chorus of terror from the streets below. Leon stumbled to his window, his body feeling strangely light, his senses preternaturally sharp. He could see individual raindrops hanging in the air, could hear the frantic patter of a rat three corridors away.
On the street, chaos reigned. A delivery drone, a cheap octocopter model, sputtered and fell, but instead of crashing, it melted and reformed mid-air into a screeching, metallic bat-like creature that began attacking a crowded mag-lev bus. A glowing, translucent moss was spreading up the ferro-concrete walls, dissolving them into soft, loamy earth. People were… changing. Some collapsed, skin glowing with internal fractures of light. Others roared, muscles swelling unnaturally, eyes burning with raw power or madness.
A translucent blue screen, crisp and solid, materialized before Leon's eyes, unaffected by the rain on the window.
---
[Shatterpoint System Initialized]
User:Leon Ryker
Designation:System Administrator (Provisional, Locked)
Current Reality Stability:42% (Fragmented)
Available Energies:[Mana] [Ambient Qi] [Stellar Plasma] [Karmic Flux] [ERROR: Entropy]
Primary Objective:Stabilize Local Reality Matrix (100m Radius). Prevent Entropic Cascade.
Warning:System conflict has spawned [Anomalies], [Aberrations], and [Legacy Cultivators]. Survival is not guaranteed.
---
"This… this isn't happening," Leon whispered, but the data was there, clear as day. He focused on the [System Administrator] line. A sub-menu unfolded.
[Administrator Privileges]
· Diagnostic Sight (Active): See the underlying code of reality. Cooldown: None. Cost: Minimal Mental Strain.
· Authority: Command (Locked): Issue system-level commands. Requires [Reality Stability] > 70%.
· Authority: Edit (Locked): Minor alteration of local reality parameters. Requires [Administrator Rank 2].
· Log Access (Limited): Review system events.
He blinked. When he opened his eyes, the world was overlaid with a faint, grid-like lattice of light. Where the metallic bat-creature flew, he saw pulsing red error messages: [Aberration: Corrupted Tech-Sprite. Classification: F-3. Data Core: Corrupt. Suggested Action: Purging]. The glowing moss read: [Anomaly: Verdant Dissolution Mold. Effect: Matter Transmutation (Artificial -> Organic). Stability Drain: Low].
This was power. A terrifying, overwhelming power to see the truth of things. But the "Provisional, Locked" status glared at him. He was a janitor given the keys to a broken universe, with no clue how to fix it.
A thunderous crash echoed from the hallway, followed by the rending of metal. Something heavy was tearing through the capsule units. Leon's heart hammered against his ribs. He had no weapons, no combat skills—just the ability to see how broken everything was.
He activated Diagnostic Sight and looked at his own body. A simplified status appeared.
Leon Ryker
Physique:Mortal-Grade (Frail)
Cultivation:None
Affinities:Unawakened
Soul Integrity:89% (Minor Strain from System Integration)
Notable Anomaly:Integrated [Shatterpoint System Core].
System Suggestion:Immediate [Energy Absorption] recommended. Detectable [Ambient Qi] and [Stray Mana] nodes present in vicinity.
The door to his unit groaned. Not from the handle, but from the center, as four razor-sharp talons punched through the reinforced polymer, slicing it apart like paper. In the fragmented doorway stood a nightmare. It had the basic shape of a human security drone—the cheap kind used by building management—but its chassis was overgrown with crystalline spikes that pulsed with a sickly purple light. One of its optical sensors was gone, replaced by a writhing cluster of fleshy, glowing tendrils. Its status burned in Leon's sight: [Aberration: Drone-Cadaver Amalgam. Classification: F-5. Threat: Low-Medium. Core Instability: High].
It let out a grinding, hydraulic shriek and lunged.
Pure instinct took over. Leon dove sideways, his body moving faster than it ever had. The creature's talons shredded his sleeping pad, releasing a cloud of inert insulation foam. He scrambled behind his small cooking unit, mind racing. He couldn't fight this thing. But the system said… Energy Absorption.
His Diagnostic Sight flared, highlighting points in the room. A crackling, white energy near his shattered data-slate ([Stray Mana: Data-Death Resonance]). A slow, greenish flow seeping from a crack in the wall where the mold was outside ([Ambient Qi: Verdant]). And a violent, swirling vortex of purple and black energy inside the Aberration itself ([Corrupted Mana-Core]).
The creature tore the cooking unit away with terrifying strength, sending it crashing against the wall. Leon had nowhere left to go. The Aberration raised its talons for a final strike.
Absorb. How?! He thought desperately at the nearest node, the white energy by his slate. He reached out a hand, not physically, but with his will, a frantic, grasping instinct.
[Command Recognized: Basic Energy Draw.]
The white energy streaked across the room and into his palm. It was cold and sharp, like swallowing static electricity. A new notification flashed.
[+0.3 Units of Stray Mana.]
Initiating Automatic Physique Purification…
A fire erupted in Leon's veins. It was excruciating, a scouring pain that felt like his blood had been replaced with liquid sandpaper. He screamed, collapsing as the Aberration swung. The talons whistled over his head, tearing a gash in the wall. But as the pain receded, it left behind a shocking clarity. He felt stronger. Lighter. The fog of perpetual exhaustion was gone. His status updated: Physique: Mortal-Grade (Average).
The Aberration, confused by its missed strike, recalibrated. The writhing tendril-eye fixed on him. But Leon was already moving. He rolled, snatching a length of duralloy pipe that had fallen from a ruptured conduit. He didn't know how to fight, but he could see. With Diagnostic Sight, the creature's core—that swirling vortex of corrupted energy—glowed like a beacon in its chest cavity, visible through a crack in its crystalline armor.
It charged again, a clumsy, powerful lunge. Leon didn't try to block. He sidestepped, the movement smoother now, and with every ounce of his newly-granted strength, he drove the pipe like a spear into the crack, aiming for the core.
The pipe struck home. There was a sound of shattering glass and a wet pop. The purple light in the creature's chest flared violently, then imploded.
Aberration Destroyed.
Energy Source Detected: Unstable Corrupted Mana-Core. Danger of Cascade Detonation.
Options: 1) Purge (Waste). 2) Attempt Salvage via Administrator Privilege (Risk: High).
The corpse of the drone began to shudder, the purple light fracturing. It was going to blow. Leon had seconds. He reached out with his will again, not to draw the energy in, but to command it. He visualized the system's grid around the core, and issued a silent, desperate order: STABILIZE. CONTAIN.
A pale gold light, faint but undeniable, shimmered from his own chest and lanced out, encasing the volatile core in a web of light. The shuddering stopped. The corrupt purple energy condensed, shedding black flakes of entropy, until it resolved into a small, amethyst-like crystal that fell to the floor with a click.
[Administrator Authority Acknowledged. Forced Stabilization Successful.]
Acquired: [Mana Shard (Low-Grade, Tainted)]. Use: Crafting, Energy Source, Trade.
Local Reality Stability Increased by 0.1%.
Congratulations. You have survived the First Integration Shock. The Tutorial is complete.
Leon stood amidst the wreckage of his life, breathing heavily, the crystal cool in his hand. The pipe dropped from his numb fingers. The screams outside were now mingled with strange sounds—roars of beasts that shouldn't exist, clashes of energy, and somewhere, far above, the unmistakable thunder of corporate security gunships.
He looked at the status screen. The Provisional, Locked tag on his Administrator title had changed. It now read: Provisional, Unlocked (Stage 1).
He was no longer Leon Ryker, the invisible Code-Mender. He was the unwilling janitor of a shattered reality. The corporations would be scrambling to control this new power. The strong would prey on the weak. And somewhere out there, in the fractures of this broken system, things older and hungrier than drones were waking up.
He had a system nobody else seemed to have. A system that saw the breaks in the world. And in a broken world, the one who sees the cracks… decides where to apply the pressure.
Leon pocketed the mana shard, his eyes hardening as he looked out at the neon-drenched chaos. The first chapter of his old life was over. The first page of the new one was written in blood and error codes.
He had a lot of work to do.