The leader of the cell-block thugs, a hulking man named Jax with a half-shattered Earth Core, didn't wait for an invitation. He lunged through the cell door, the sharpened rebar whistling through the damp air.
To a normal human, the move was a blur. To Reed, it felt like the world had dipped into thick syrup.
[WARNING: HOST PHYSICAL INTEGRITY AT RISK]
[ACTIVATING VOID INSTINCTS...]
Reed didn't jump back. He didn't even raise his hands to defend himself. He simply slid. It wasn't a step; it was as if the space he occupied suddenly ceased to be, and he reappeared two inches to the left. The shiv passed through the air where his heart had been a millisecond before.
"What the—?" Jax stumbled, his momentum carrying him deep into the cell. He spun around, his eyes glowing with that sickly, flickering yellow light. "Hold him down! The brat is twitchy!"
The two other thugs closed in. One swung a heavy chain, the iron links rattling like a death knell. The other reached out with hands that were beginning to skin over with a layer of rough, magical stone.
Reed felt the cold whirlpool in his chest reach a boiling point. It wasn't anger. It was a hunger. The System didn't want him to fight these men; it wanted him to remove them.
[MISSION: THE FIRST SUBTRACTION]
[INITIATING 'GRASP OF NON-EXISTENCE' (TRIAL MODE)]
[TARGET DETECTED: EARTH CORE FRAGMENT (RANK 4)]
[WOULD YOU LIKE TO ERASE THE THREAT?]
Yes, Reed thought.
As the man with the stone hands reached for Reed's throat, Reed met him halfway. He grabbed the man's wrist.
The moment their skin touched, the screaming started.
It wasn't a scream of pain—not at first. It was a scream of pure, existential horror. Where Reed's fingers touched the man's stone-coated skin, there was no impact. There was no bruise. Instead, the stone simply... vanished. Then the skin beneath it turned a translucent grey, then transparent, and then it was gone.
"My arm!" the thug shrieked, falling to his knees. "My arm is gone! I can't feel my arm!"
He wasn't bleeding. There was no wound. Where his forearm had been, there was now just a smooth, hollow space in reality. It was as if the universe had forgotten that part of him had ever existed.
Jax froze, his sharpened rebar trembling. "What did you do? What kind of freak are you? You're a Null! You don't have a Core!"
"I don't," Reed said, his voice sounding like two stones grinding together in a deep well. "I have something else."
Reed turned his gaze toward Jax. The air around Reed began to warp. The shadows from the corners of the cell weren't just stretching anymore; they were flowing into him, wrapping around his legs and arms like liquid silk.
[SUBTRACTION IN PROGRESS...]
[STOLEN ENERGY DETECTED. CONVERTING TO VOID ESSENCE.]
Reed felt a sudden surge of power. It was cold, sharp, and intoxicating. He realized then that he didn't need to eat the slop the guards provided. He could feed on the very energy his enemies used to threaten him.
The man with the chain swung wildly, his face pale with terror. Reed didn't even look at him. He just swiped his hand through the air. A wave of shimmering, violet-black distortion rippled outward. When it hit the iron chain, the metal didn't break—it dissolved into fine, black dust that vanished before it even hit the floor.
The chain-wielder fell back, staring at his empty hands. He turned and bolted, screaming for the guards, leaving Jax alone in the cell with the "Error."
Jax backed away until his spine hit the stone wall. "Stay away... I'll give you the Sector! You can have the food, the mats, everything! Just stay away from me!"
"You wanted the coin," Reed said, stepping closer. His eyes weren't just glowing purple anymore; the pupils had become tiny, infinite black holes. "But the coin belongs to the Void. And the Void is hungry."
Reed reached out and placed his palm against the stone wall right next to Jax's head.
Silence.
A perfect, circular hole three feet wide appeared in the wall. The solid stone had been erased, leaving a view into the dark hallway behind it. No rubble. No dust. Just a void.
Jax collapsed, his bladder giving way. He didn't even try to fight. He just curled into a ball, sobbing.
[MISSION COMPLETE: THE FIRST SUBTRACTION]
[REWARD GRANTED: ACTIVE SKILL - GRASP OF NON-EXISTENCE (LEVEL 1)]
[NEW STAT UNLOCKED: VOID ESSENCE: 15/100]
[RANK UP: TIER 4 (UNRANKED) -> TIER 4 (EVOLVING)]
The violet screen faded, and the oppressive weight in the room lifted. Reed's eyes returned to their normal, dark state. He felt exhausted, his muscles trembling from the sudden drain of energy, but the "hunger" in his chest was quiet for the first time in his life.
He looked down at Jax. "Leave. If I see you in this cell again, I'll erase more than just a wall."
Jax didn't need to be told twice. He scrambled up and sprinted out of the cell, tripping over his own feet as he disappeared into the darkness of the Sector 4 tunnels.
Reed sat back down on his thin mat. He was still in the Slums. He was still "trash" to the people above. But as he looked at the perfect, impossible hole in the wall, he knew one thing for certain:
The Zenith Institute hadn't brought in a student. They had brought in a predator.
Suddenly, a soft clapping sound echoed from the hallway.
Reed stiffened, his hand twitching toward the Void energy. A figure stepped into the dim light near his cell door. It wasn't a guard. It was a girl, perhaps his age, wearing the silver-and-black uniform of the Shadow Faction—the elite spies of the Academy.
"That was quite a performance, 'Error'," she said, her voice smooth and dangerous. She looked at the hole in the wall with an appreciative tilt of her head. "The Pillar said you had zero energy. It seems the Pillar is as stupid as the Instructors."
Reed narrowed his eyes. "Who are you?"
"A friend," she lied, her smile not reaching her eyes. "Or maybe just someone who likes to watch things break. My name is Nyx, and I think you and I are going to be very busy tomorrow."
She tossed a small, wrapped package through the bars. It smelled like fresh bread—real bread, not the grey mush the Slums were promised.
"Eat up, Reed Blackwell," Nyx said, stepping back into the shadows. "The Tier 1 recruits are coming down tomorrow for 'Combat Practice' with the rejects. Kaelen Voss asked for you specifically. He wants to show the school how he handles a 'glitch' in the system."
She vanished into the darkness before Reed could ask another question.
Reed looked at the bread, then at his hands. He could still feel the cold tingle of the Void. Kaelen Voss was coming. The boy with the Fire Core wanted to play.
Reed picked up the bread and took a bite.
Let him come, Reed thought. I wonder how much 'Fire' the Void can swallow.