Unregistered Profile
The System notification on Dae-hyun's screen suddenly changed, transforming the letters into crimson digital marks.
[SYSTEM WARNING (GLOBAL BROADCAST): AN UNAUTHORIZED DATA ENTITY ("VIRUS") HAS BEEN DETECTED INTERACTING WITH SYSTEM CORES DURING HIGH-SEVERITY EVENTS. ALL USERS AND GUILDS ARE URGED TO REPORT ANY DATA ANOMALIES IN REAL TIME. INFORMATION REWARD: UP TO 500M WON, SPONSORED BY THE "CHEONHA" GUILD.]
The Cheonha guild. One of Korea's Big Three. In short, it was a media corporation with solid foundations of recognized hunters.
Its leader, Baek Yoonho, known as "White Tiger," represented a legend: an S-rank hunter who constantly appeared in commercials, showing his determined, authoritarian presence.
Dae-hyun turned off his phone and rubbed his eyes. The outside world continued noisy in the distance. On his small screen, however, he had obtained an invaluable tool:
View Error Logs (System-Wide).
Anyone would think they were just simple records of technical failures.
But in reality they were the System's intimate diary, showing where reality shifted. And, most crucially, they revealed the estimated internal composition of each Error Zone before teams entered.
ERROR ZONE #589 (NOT ACTIVATED). LOCATION: ANCIENT SEWERS, JONGNO DISTRICT.
PREDICTED CLASSIFICATION: CLASS C+ (Unstable). INFERRED INTERNAL COMPOSITION:
ENVIRONMENT: SUBTERRANEAN, CORRODED (RESIDUAL MANA FOG).
PRIMARY ENTITIES (70% PROB): "SHADOWLURKERS" (SHADOW TYPE, LEVELS 15–20). CAPABILITIES: AMBUSH, PARTIAL PHASE.
ELITE ENTITIES (25% PROB): "CORRUPTED SEWAGE OOZE" (BEAST/AQUATIC TYPE, LEVEL ~30). CAPABILITIES: TOXICITY, REGENERATION.
ENVIRONMENTAL ANOMALY (5% PROB): "WHISPERING PIPES" (MENTAL EFFECT, CONFUSION).
ESTIMATED REWARDS (PER GUILD): GRADE 3 MANA CRYSTALS, DARK IRON EQUIPMENT FRAGMENTS.
Exactly like manhwa portals: dungeons full of complex ecosystems, where monsters with defined levels and types lived, and valuable rewards awaited.
The System analyzed them, classified them, and assigned them. The difference was in the language. At times, it made it clear that this was not a fantasy.
Dae-hyun could see the weaknesses.
"Shadowlurkers: vulnerable to luminous energy attacks (frequency 550–600 nm)." "Corrupted Sewage Ooze: core exposed after severe blunt attack."
His new ability, Edit Low-Level Environmental Parameters, maybe—just maybe—could tilt the balance slightly.
A simple strategy: enter, observe, and withdraw without being discovered.
Zone #589 would be cleared in a few hours by a mixed team: the mid-sized guild Fang and a group of popular independent streamers, Team Valkyrie, led by the idol-hunter Lee Yuna, known as "Spark" for her aesthetically perfect lightning.
The ideal event: high visibility, guilds involved, and a composition he understood very well.
With his residual ghost profile—now incredibly risky—he infiltrated the pre-entry area, mixed in among the technical support staff. The streamers' cameras were already active.
MAIN STREAM: [OFFICIAL_HUNTER_KOREA] – 1.4M VIEWERS. SECONDARY STREAM: [SPARK_YUNA_LIVE] – 900K VIEWERS. GUILD STREAM: [FANG_GUILD_OFFICIAL] – 350K VIEWERS.
The comments on his smartphone scrolled at a frantic pace. He had opened a secondary window.
[오늘도 연아 언니 폭발각!] (Today again, Yuna unnie is about to explode!) [팡 길드 새로온 C랭커 누구냐? 멋있네] (Who's the new C-Ranker in Fang guild? He looks cool.) [C+ 던전에 발키리 팀이랑 가네? 파밍 각이야] (Going to a C+ dungeon with Team Valkyrie? Easy farming.) [쉐도우러커 개빡침 ㅋㅋ 지난번에 우리 파티 와이프 죽일뻔] (Shadowlurkers are a pain in the ass lol. Last time they almost killed our squad's support.)
Dae-hyun adjusted his headphones, listening to the official feed while watching the error logs.
The portal to the Error Zone was a geometric distortion at the sewer entrance, as if space had been poorly rendered: broken textures and sounds typical of a system failure.
Fang's leader, Park Dohyun—B-rank, one-handed sword—gave the signal. The two teams, eight hunters total, crossed the threshold. The broadcast switched to body cams and autonomous drones.
The interior looked like a corrupted digital underworld: ancient stone tunnels overlaid with glitch effects, walls alternating between modern brick and ancestral rock, and puddles reflecting the hunters' silhouettes.
The Residual Mana Fog permeated everything, tinting the environment an eerie green.
—Forward in formation. Valkyrie, cover the rear. Sensors detect multiple shadow signatures —ordered Park Dohyun.
From the technical support tent, Dae-hyun opened his corrupted interface. He found the environmental stream of Zone #589.
Parameter located: Ambient_Light_Frequency. Current value: 200 nm. Low ultraviolet light, almost invisible. Ideal for shadow creatures.
With a tap, he forced an error in the environmental rendering engine and raised it to 550 nm.
EDITING PARAMETER… SUCCESS. WARNING: CHANGE TEMPORARY. WILL REVERT UPON SYSTEM SELF-CORRECTION (EST: 120 SECONDS).
Inside the Zone, the greenish fog suddenly lit up, taking on a faint golden hue, like a dying sun filtering underground.
The comments exploded.
[야! 갑자기 밝아졌다!] (Hey! It suddenly got bright!) [이거 버그 아니냐? 시스템 알림 뜨네] (Isn't this a bug? A system notification popped up.) [쉐도우러커들이 움찔했어! 효과 있네!] (The Shadowlurkers flinched! It works!)
The black, elongated silhouettes crawling across ceilings and walls shrieked and scattered, temporarily blinded. Partial Phase failed under the altered light.
—Now! Crush them! —shouted Lee Yuna.
Her spear vibrated with effervescence, creating golden currents around her.
—Divine lightning!—she uttered.
The lightning bolts, distorted by the humidity, disintegrated the disoriented shadows.
On Dae-hyun's screen:
[SHADOWLURKER (LVL 18) ELIMINATED. CONTRIBUTION: SPARK (65%), FANG_VANGUARD (35%).]
It had worked. The raid advanced to a wider sediment chamber. There waited the Corrupted Sewage Ooze.
A massive, imposing monster, a gigantic slime with a green core pulsing at its center.
The battle turned gelatinous. The creature regenerated, and its toxicity drained the tanks without pause.
On Spark's stream, Lee Yuna was panting; her impeccable makeup was covered in sweat.
[아 진짜 오즈 개쌔다 ㅠㅠ] (The Ooze is insanely strong…) [시스템이 재구성 예측하고 있네. 오즈 코어 약점 표시됐다!] (The system is predicting a reconfiguration. The Ooze's core weakness is marked!)
Dae-hyun saw the error log. Colony_Sync_Rate: 98 %. He reduced it to 70 %.
EDITING PARAMETER… SUCCESS. WARNING: ENVIRONMENTAL EDIT DETECTED. TRACE BACK INITIATED.
The Ooze convulsed. Its body lost cohesion, causing the core to beat erratically.
—To the core! —roared Park Dohyun.
The attacks struck the Ooze, scattering a gelatinous rain in multiple directions.
[CORRUPTED SEWAGE OOZE (LVL 31) ELIMINATED.]
The warning appeared immediately:
[TRACE BACK 85% COMPLETE. EVACUATE IMMEDIATELY.]
Dae-hyun froze one last variable: Reward_Drop_Table_RNG_Seed.
0.5 %.
[RARE ITEM DROPPED: CORRUPTED CLEANSER GAUNTLETS (BOUND TO: PARK DOHYUN).]
The chat went insane. Dae-hyun shut down his equipment, blended in among technicians and journalists, and exited the perimeter.
Under the moon of Seoul, he ran.
He had done more than manipulate perceptions. He had twisted probabilities. If the guilds were looking for him, he needed more than hacks. He needed the System to recognize him. Because being a parasite wasn't that convenient.