Server Node 0 was no longer just a hiding place.
It had become a battlefield.
The Ghost Network pulsed through the ancient facility like a living heartbeat, silver light flowing through cables and terminals that had been silent for years. Maps of the world flickered on broken screens — cities, forests, underground bunkers, old data hubs — all layered with faint, shifting probabilities.
Kai stood in the center of it all, staring at a holographic projection of the globe.
"The System is everywhere," he said quietly. "But it doesn't see everything."
Seraphine leaned against a console. "Blind spots. Ghost zones. Forgotten nodes. That's where the resistance will be."
Maya watched the map, overwhelmed.
"All this… just because I don't have a fate?"
Kai turned to her.
"Because you broke the rule that everyone has to be predictable."
The Ghost Network flickered.
[SYSTEM ACTIVITY DETECTED][ARCHITECT SEARCHING FOR GHOST NODES]
Seraphine cursed.
"It's hunting us through the old network."
Kai smiled faintly.
"Then let's hunt it back."
He placed his hand on the console again.
"Show me where it's weakest."
Silver light shifted.
[ARCHITECT CORE RELAY LOCATED]
A glowing red point appeared on the map.
Deep underground.
Hidden beneath a city that no longer existed.
"That's not the Architect itself," Seraphine said. "It's where it routes control."
Kai nodded.
"If we can hit that… we blind God."
Maya swallowed.
"Then we go there."
And the war truly began.
The silver hologram zoomed in on the glowing red point.
An underground city.
Collapsed.
Buried.
Forgotten.
[LOCATION: EIDOLON VAULT]
Seraphine's eyes narrowed. "That place was erased years ago. Not by monsters. By the System."
Kai felt a chill.
"Because it hid something it didn't want anyone to find."
The Ghost Network confirmed it.
[ARCHITECT CORE RELAY][SIGNIFICANCE: CRITICAL]
Maya took a slow breath.
"So if we destroy it…"
"Every Enforcer. Every Hunter. Every System command will lag," Kai said. "It won't shut God down… but it will make it blind."
Seraphine smiled grimly. "And a blind god bleeds."
Outside Server Node 0, the world was in flames.
Players hunted Maya.Guilds fought each other.Cities collapsed as unstable skills misfired.
The System was losing control.
Which meant it was about to become violent.
[WORLD EVENT UPDATE][HUNT OF THE UNWRITTEN – STAGE 2]
Kai watched the update.
"They're escalating."
Seraphine grabbed her blade. "Then so do we."
Maya looked at Kai.
"Are you scared?"
Kai smiled faintly.
"Terrified."
"But for the first time…"
"I feel like the world actually belongs to us."
They left Server Node 0 through tunnels that hadn't been used in decades, guided by the Ghost Network's silver glow. The deeper they traveled, the more the world above them felt like a different universe.
A universe ruled by fear.
A universe hunting one girl.
A universe trying to erase one anomaly.
Maya walked between Kai and Seraphine, her shoulders squared.
"I won't run anymore," she said quietly. "If they're going to hunt me… then let them come."
Kai met her eyes.
"You're not bait. You're the reason we're doing this."
The Ghost Network flickered.
[ARCHITECT CORE RELAY: DISTANCE CLOSING]
Far above them, the System was shifting its forces.
New Hunters were being created.
New Reapers.
New rules.
But for the first time…
The resistance had a plan.
They weren't just surviving anymore.
They were attacking.
And deep beneath a dead city, in a vault built to hide from gods…
The first true war against the System was about to begin.