Chapter 2: The First Loot
The silence that followed the disappearance of my plasma pillar was louder than any explosion. The street was scorched black in a perfect circle around me. The alien creatures, the ones that hadn't been vaporized, hissed and skittered back into the shadows, their primitive instincts recognizing a superior predator.
Jake just stared, his mouth agape. The flames around his fists had guttered out into faint smoke. The text above his head, **[Jake Fury - Player #087 - S-Rank: Inferno Lord]**, seemed to flicker, as if unsure of itself.
I lowered my hand, the phantom heat of ultimate power still singing in my blood. The **[True Pyrokinesis]** skill wasn't just a tool; it was a part of me now. I could feel the energy of every fire in the city—the burning cars, the smoldering ruins, the pathetic little campfires of the other Players. They were all mine to command.
"W-what are you?" Jake stammered, taking a step back. The fear in his eyes was a more satisfying reward than any system notification.
"I'm the guy you shoved aside," I said, my voice still humming with power. "Remember? The F-Rank cannon fodder."
I took a step forward. He flinched.
My admin interface was still open, a beautiful, complex HUD of green text overlaying my vision. I focused on Jake. A new sub-menu appeared.
**// PLAYER: #087 - JAKE FURY //**
**// STATUS: TERRIFIED. //**
**// ACTIVE SKILLS: PYROKINESIS (S-Rank). //**
**// INVENTORY: 3x HEALTH POTION (MINOR), 500x SYSTEM CREDITS. //**
**// COMMANDS AVAILABLE: [VIEW], [COPY], [DELETE], [REVOKE LICENSE?] //**
A cold, calculating part of my mind, the hacker part, lit up. *[REVOKE LICENSE?]*. I could strip him of his power entirely. Reduce him back to the arrogant jock he was an hour ago. The temptation was immense.
But that would be too easy. And it would draw the wrong kind of attention. No, subtlety was key.
Instead, I selected his inventory. `[500x SYSTEM CREDITS]`. I didn't even know what they were for, but they were his. That was reason enough.
`[COMMAND: TRANSFER TO ADMIN INVENTORY? Y/N]`
**Y.**
A soft chime sounded in my mind. Jake, oblivious, was still backing away. "Stay away from me, you freak!"
**// SYSTEM CREDITS: 500. //**
Perfect.
I turned my back on him. It was the ultimate dismissal. He was no longer a threat; he was a resource. I heard him scramble away, his footsteps echoing in the sudden quiet.
My admin screen flashed with another alert.
**// LOOT STREAM INBOUND: //**
**// PLAYER: #034 - BRANDON MILLER. //**
**// SKILL: [TOUGHENED HIDE] - RARE GRADE. //**
**// DELIVERY IN: 10... //**
Brandon, the Fortress Guardian. He must have just tanked a big hit to unlock it. Well, not anymore. I rerouted the stream with a thought. The knowledge of the skill—a way to consciously reinforce one's skin and muscle—flooded into me. It wasn't flashy, but it was durable. A good foundation.
**// SKILL ACQUIRED: [ADAMANTINE GUARD - LEGENDARY GRADE]. //**
Another legendary upgrade. The System Administrator version was always superior.
I was about to search for more loot streams when a desperate cry cut through the air. "Help! Someone!"
It came from a collapsed bookstore across the street. I moved, my new **[Flame Walker Boots]** making me unnaturally sure-footed on the rubble. Peering through the broken window, I saw a hulking, chitin-covered beast cornering a small group of civilians. And standing between them was Sarah Chen, the Cryomancer.
Her face was pale, her hands trembling as she threw shards of ice at the monster. They barely chipped its carapace. Her mana bar, visible to my admin view, was flashing red. Empty. The monster lunged.
Without thinking, I acted. Not with a world-ending pillar of fire, but with precision. I pointed a single finger, and a needle-thin beam of white-hot plasma shot across the street. It didn't explode. It simply pierced straight through the monster's head, leaving a neat, smoldering hole. The creature crumpled, dead before it hit the ground.
Sarah spun around, her eyes wide with shock and confusion. She saw me standing in the street, smoke curling from my fingertip.
"Liam?" she breathed. Her eyes darted to the text above my head. **[Liam Cross - SYSTEM ERROR - ???]**. "What... what does that mean? How did you...?"
Before I could answer, a new window, bordered in flashing red, forced its way to the front of my admin interface. It wasn't a loot stream or a player log.
**// [URGENT SYSTEM ALERT] //**
**// ANOMALY DETECTED IN TUTORIAL ZONE. //**
**// UNAUTHORIZED DATA ACCESS. //**
**// ILLEGAL SKILL ACQUISITION. //**
**// DEPLOYING COUNTERMEASURE: [SYSTEM SENTINEL - TYPE: PURGER]. //**
**// ETA: 02:59... 02:58... //**
A cold dread that had nothing to do with Sarah's ice magic trickled down my spine. I had tripped an alarm. The System wasn't just a passive program; it had an immune system.
And it was sending a white blood cell to delete me.
"Liam, what's wrong?" Sarah asked, seeing the look on my face.
The countdown ticked down in my vision. 02:45... 02:44...
I looked at Sarah, then at the grateful civilians behind her. I had just become a target. But I had also just gotten a taste of what it meant to be truly powerful.
A grim smile touched my lips. This wasn't a setback. It was the next level.
"It means the game just changed," I said, my voice low. "The System has a bug. And it's sent its antivirus to quarantine me."
Her hand flew to her mouth. "A System Sentinel? Those are supposed to be for world-level threats! What did you do?"
"I stopped being a background character." The countdown hit 02:30. "It's coming. You should get these people to safety."
"What are you going to do?" she asked, a new kind of fear in her eyes—not for herself, but for me.
I opened my admin menu, my fingers flying through the options. I navigated to the **[SKILL DATABASE]** and filtered for `Player_056`—Sarah's ID. I saw her skill: **[Cryomancy - A-Rank]**.
I didn't copy it. Instead, I selected it and hit `[UPGRADE?]`.
A surge of power flowed from me, through the system, and into her. She gasped as her staff flared with a brilliant, crystalline light, the ice shifting from a pale blue to a deep, cosmic sapphire.
**// PLAYER #056 SKILL UPGRADED: [CRYOMANCY] -> [ABSOLUTE ZERO DOMAIN - S-RANK]. //**
"Wha— What did you just do?" she stammered, staring at her hands as newfound power coursed through her.
"I'm investing," I said, turning away as the Sentinel's ETA hit 02:00. "I'm not just going to steal from the System. I'm going to break it. And to do that, I can't just be a solo player."
I looked back at her, my green admin text glowing ominously.
"Tell the others. Tell Jake. The real enemy isn't the aliens. It's the System. And I'm the only one on our side."
With that, I leaped onto a collapsed wall, my eyes scanning the horizon. I had two minutes. Two minutes to prepare for a fight against the System itself.
It was time to see what my new admin privileges could really do.
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**AUTHOR'S NOTE:**
The stakes are raised! The System has sent a Purger after Liam! What will he do? How will he fight it? The next chapter is already in the works! Your support fuels these updates! **Please leave a comment and vote with your Power Stones!** Let me know what skill you think Liam should steal or hack next