The Science Block was a fortress of glass and steel, looming in the dark like a monolith.
"Inside!" Bhy Khay shouted, kicking the emergency exit door open.
Elara stumbled in after him, gasping for air. The red beam from the sky smashed into the roof of the building, illuminating the corridors with a pulsating, bloody light.
[BOUNTY TIMER: 45:00]
[HUNTERS IN RANGE: 12]
"Twelve people are chasing us," Elara checked her mini-map. "And they're all higher level than the first group. That beam is a magnet for every psychopath on campus."
"Let them come," Bhy Khay said, dragging a heavy vending machine in front of the door to barricade it. "We aren't hiding anymore. We're digging in."
He turned and sprinted down the hallway, past the chemistry labs and lecture halls, straight to the Main Server Room at the end of the wing.
"Why here?" Elara asked, following him. "There are no exits! It's a dead end!"
"Because," Bhy Khay stopped at the heavy security door, "this is where the university's backup generators and fiber-optic cables meet. It's the brain of the building."
He placed his hand on the keypad.
[SKILL: SOVEREIGN ACCESS]
[TARGET: ELECTRONIC LOCK (Grade 2)]
[ACTION: OVERRIDE]
CLICK.
The heavy door hissed open.
Inside, the room was freezing. Rows of black server racks hummed with blue LEDs. Thick cables snaked along the floor like technological vines. The air conditioner was blasting at full power to keep the machines cool.
"Perfect," Bhy Khay walked to the center of the room. He pulled the golden Guild Token from his inventory.
"Elara, guard the door. Do not let anyone in for 180 seconds."
"Three minutes?" Elara gripped her staff, her knuckles white. "Bhy Khay, there are twelve of them! I can't hold them off alone!"
"You won't be alone," Bhy Khay said. He looked at the floor—a raised metal grate with cables running underneath. "I'm going to change the environment. You just need to buy me time to rewrite the code."
He slammed the Guild Token onto the central server rack.
BOOM.
A shockwave of gold energy rippled through the room.
[SYSTEM ALERT: GUILD CREATION INITIATED.]
[LOCATION: SCIENCE BLOCK SERVER ROOM.]
[REQUIREMENT: DEFEND THE CORE FOR 03:00.]
[WARNING: SIGNAL AMPLIFIED. ALL ENEMIES ALERTED.]
The red beam in the sky vanished, replaced by a massive GOLD BEAM shooting out of the server room.
"You just made us a bigger target!" Elara screamed.
"It's not a target," Bhy Khay ripped a panel off the wall, exposing thick copper wires. "It's a trap."
BANG!
The barricade down the hall exploded.
"THEY'RE IN HERE!" a voice roared. "I SEE THE GOLD LIGHT! GET THE TOKEN!"
Footsteps thundered down the corridor. Heavy boots. Metal weapons dragging on concrete.
"Here they come," Elara whispered. She stepped into the doorway, raising her staff. Her fear was gone, replaced by a cold, desperate focus.
She was the Ice Queen. And this was her castle.
"[Frost Barrier]!"
She slammed her staff down. A wall of jagged ice erupted across the doorway, sealing the entrance just as the first axe hit the frame.
CRACK.
"Break it down!" the voices shouted from the other side. "Fire Mages! Melt it!"
Elara gritted her teeth, channeling her mana to repair the cracks appearing in the ice. "Bhy Khay! They have fire users! I can't hold this forever!"
"Two minutes!" Bhy Khay shouted from behind the servers.
He wasn't looking at the door. He was looking at the exposed high-voltage cables. He stripped the insulation with his dagger.
[OBJECT: 400V POWER CABLE]
[STATE: ACTIVE]
[MODIFICATION: REROUTE TO FLOOR GRATING]
Sparks flew as he twisted the wires together.
"Bhy Khay!" Elara screamed. The ice wall was glowing orange. A fireball smashed through the center, shattering her defense.
"GO!"
Three students burst into the room. They weren't just jocks; they were organized. Two Warriors in front with makeshift shields, and a Fire Mage in the back.
"Jackpot!" the Mage grinned, aiming his wand at Bhy Khay. "Die, Admin!"
"Elara, jump on the server rack!" Bhy Khay commanded.
"What?"
"JUMP!"
Elara didn't question him. She scrambled up onto the black metal cabinet, pulling her legs up.
Bhy Khay jumped onto the opposing rack.
The three invaders stood on the metal floor grating, confused.
"Cowards!" the lead Warrior laughed. "Nowhere to run!"
Bhy Khay looked down at them from atop the server. His eyes were glowing so bright they illuminated the dark room.
[ADMIN ACCESS: SERVER ROOM COOLING SYSTEM]
[ACTION: PURGE WATER + ACTIVATE GRID]
HISSSSSS.
The overhead fire sprinklers exploded—not with water, but with the liquid coolant from the AC units. It drenched the three students instantly.
"What is this stuff?" the Mage sputtered, wiping slime from his eyes.
"Conductive fluid," Bhy Khay said calmly.
He threw the exposed copper wire onto the wet metal floor.
ZAP.
[CRITICAL HIT.]
The room turned blinding white.
Four hundred volts of electricity surged through the wet metal floor grating. The three students didn't even have time to scream. Their bodies seized up, muscles contracting violently as the electricity fried their nervous systems.
The Fire Mage's wand exploded in his hand. The Warriors dropped their shields, convulsion taking over.
[DAMAGE: 500/SEC (Electrical)]
[STATUS: PARALYZED]
The lights in the room flickered and died, leaving only the blue glow of the servers and the smell of ozone.
The three invaders collapsed, unconscious and smoking.
"They... are they dead?" Elara whispered, staring down from her perch on the server rack.
"No," Bhy Khay checked the logs. "Just rebooted. They'll be out for an hour."
[TIMER: 00:00]
[DEFENSE SUCCESSFUL.]
The Golden Beam retracted. The humming sound deepened.
The server room expanded. The walls seemed to ripple and stretch. The concrete floor turned into polished black marble. The server racks transformed into obsidian pillars etched with glowing blue runes.
[GUILD ESTABLISHED.]
[TERRITORY CLAIMED: SCIENCE BLOCK (Floor 1).]
[GUILD MASTER: BHY KHAY.]
[VICE MASTER: ELARA VANCE.]
"Name your Guild," the System voice echoed in the room.
Bhy Khay hopped down from the server rack. The floor was dry now; the System had reset the environment.
He looked at Elara. She was still shivering, adrenaline crashing.
"You name it," Bhy Khay said.
Elara looked at him, surprised. "Me? But... you did everything. You built the trap. You killed the boss."
"And you held the door," Bhy Khay said. "A King needs a Queen who can hold the gates. Name it."
Elara looked at the dark, sleek room. It felt cold, hidden, and dangerous. It felt like the only safe place in a world on fire.
"[ECLIPSE]," she whispered. "Because we operate in the shadow to control the light."
Bhy Khay smiled. It was a real smile this time.
"[ECLIPSE] confirmed."
[GUILD: ECLIPSE (Level 1)]
[MEMBERS: 2/10]
[BUFF: +10% INTELLIGENCE inside Territory.]
[BUFF: SHADOW CLOAK (Members are harder to detect at night).]
"We have a base," Bhy Khay said, leaning against the central pillar. "Now, we have 48 hours before the first Regional Raid starts."
"Regional Raid?" Elara asked, stepping down.
"Yes. The System doesn't like passive players," Bhy Khay tapped the console. "In two days, every monster in the city is going to attack the strongest Guilds. We just put a crown on our heads."
He pulled up a new screen—a leaderboard.
[RANKING:]
[1. ECLIPSE (Lvl 1)]
[2. IRON FIST (Lvl 1) - Leader: Viktor]
"Viktor made a Guild?" Elara gasped.
"He found a token too," Bhy Khay narrowed his eyes. "And he's recruiting the entire football team. We have quality... but he has quantity."
Bhy Khay turned to Elara.
"We need to recruit. But we don't need soldiers."
He pointed to the screen.
"We need Glitches. We need the weirdos. The hackers. The ones the System broke."