Darkness wasn't silent.It screamed.
Not in sound, but in pressure — like a storm held just under the skin. My breath caught. My lungs weren't mine. My pulse wasn't mine. The moment I opened my eyes, I knew I was somewhere I shouldn't be.
Stone ceiling. Flickering torchlight. Blood.My own hands — pale, trembling, clawing at the ground.The smell of iron and rot filled my nose.And then came the voice.
[System Error Detected]Identity Conflict: Entity ZERO does not match local code.Syncing anomalous consciousness... Patch initiated.
I blinked. Pain spiked behind my eyes — like something ancient and mechanical was scraping itself into my brain. A thousand lines of code, numbers, and unreadable glyphs scrolled across my vision.
I was in a world I recognized.
But I wasn't supposed to be here.
Memory hit me like a punch.
I'd read this story before. A long-running dark fantasy webnovel. Twisted plot. Broken heroes. An unstoppable "System" that governed the rules of the world — levels, skills, quests, stats. A grim reality where death was permanent and gods watched like streamers from behind a firewall.
I knew this dungeon.
I knew this exact scene.
A minor villain dies here. Useless, arrogant.He's gutted by the hero in Chapter 3.
Except... he was supposed to be the villain.And now I'm in his body.
My thoughts were ice and chaos.I was Zero. But this body wasn't mine.It moved when I willed it — but it twitched like a puppet whose strings had just been sewn back in.
There was shouting down the corridor.Steel clashing. Someone screamed.
My heart thudded like it wanted out of my chest.I checked my surroundings. A corpse — half-burnt. A half-destroyed stone altar. A blackened blade lying next to a sigil of the "System".
[New Objective: Survive.]Time Remaining: 00:03:46
I didn't stop to think.I grabbed the blade, even as pain split my palm open.Blood dripped onto the sigil. It hissed.
[Error: Unauthorized interaction. Glitch detected. Loading Emergency Path...]
Everything changed.
For half a second, I saw behind the curtain.The air cracked — like broken glass refracting colors I wasn't meant to see.
Time slowed.No — it stalled.
Text flooded my vision again.
[Patch Note 0.0 – Applied]• Conscious Entity: ZERO recognized• Access Level: Unregistered – Breach in Progress• Skill Gained: "Threadwalker – LVL ???"• Trait Acquired: "Narrative Paradox"• Glitch Status: STABLE
Welcome, Zero.Change the script.
My pulse steadied.
I could feel it now — something humming under my skin. Not magic. Not code. Something worse. A glitch. A fracture in the System that let me see just enough of the world's machinery to pull a few threads loose.
Footsteps.Too fast. Coming.
I turned. Door. Broken hinges. No time. I limped down the corridor, heart hammering, as light from torches flickered wildly across the stone.
Then I saw him.
The Hero.
Not some glowing savior.He was taller than I remembered. Bloody. Radiating that sickening "Chosen One" aura — the type that made people bow and vomit in equal measure.Sword drawn. Eyes locked on me.
He didn't hesitate.
I barely deflected his strike. Sparks burst. My wrist nearly snapped. My body wasn't strong — not yet. He kicked me hard into the wall.
"You again," he said. "I thought I already killed you."
Memories not mine surged. This man — this scripted protagonist — he had killed the villain before. My predecessor. And now, seeing him again, I felt the weight of death that had already happened once.
But this time was different.
[Threadwalker Activated.]Branching narrative initiated.
Reality shimmered — a flicker in the light.I saw two paths. Both impossible.
One: try to kill him and die.Two: surrender and die.
There was no victory path.So I chose a third option:
Corrupt the script.
I smiled.
It hurt — my lip cracked from the dried blood — but I smiled anyway.
"You missed a line," I whispered.
His blade wavered for a split second. Confused.
I lunged forward. Not with strength — with intent. With the blade still in my hand, I stabbed the torch beside us. Fire spilled across the oil-damp floor.
The corridor lit up in flame.
He cursed, backed away.
[System Alert: Scene Divergence Detected.]
I turned and ran.Behind me, stone collapsed from the explosion. I didn't look back.
I made it out alive.I shouldn't have.
According to the story I remembered...That scene was supposed to end with my death.
But the story was already cracking.
"Change the script," the System had said.And I would.
✦
By the time I reached the surface, night had fallen.The world smelled different — sharper, crueler. The sky was painted in dying stars. Somewhere far above, I could feel them: the gods. Watching. Judging. Confused.
They noticed the glitch.
I collapsed against a tree. My body was shaking.I opened the System interface with a thought — and saw it.
A panel I wasn't supposed to access.
[STATUS — Zero]
Race: Human(?)Class: UndefinedTitle: [Anomaly]Traits: "Narrative Paradox", "Threadwalker", "Unstable Glitch"
Alignment: NullThreat Level: Incalculable
Observers: [REDACTED]
Notes:"He is not supposed to be here.""Contain or eliminate.""We are watching."
I stared at the words for a long time.My hands stopped shaking.
I wasn't a hero.I wasn't a villain.I was a variable.
A glitch in a perfect system.A mistake the gods hadn't planned.
And for the first time…That made me free.
[New Objective Created:]Subvert the System. Rewrite the World.
I clenched my fist, and something deep within me pulsed — not magic, not code — something new.
I looked to the sky.
"You made the rules," I whispered."Now watch me break them."