The silence that followed the explosion was heavier than the noise.
Han Seo-Jun stood in the center of a scorched radius, his lungs burning with every breath. The neon lights of Neo-Seoul's underbelly flickered, casting long, jagged shadows across the wreckage of the Aegis Enforcers.
[SYSTEM NOTIFICATION] [DATA HARVEST COMPLETE] [CORE FRAGMENTS ACQUIRED: 3x 'Aegis Sentinel Grade'] [ANALYZING DIVINE RESIDUE...]
A surge of heat, like molten lead, raced from the small of his back up to his skull. Seo-Jun buckled, slamming a fist against a brick wall to stay upright. The brick cracked under his touch, spider-webbing outward.
"Is this... what they feel every day?" he hissed through gritted teeth.
For the "Ascended," this power was a gift from the Heavens—a clean, holy energy sanctioned by the Soul-System. For Seo-Jun, it felt like swallowing a thunderstorm. It was raw, glitchy, and tasted like static.
[WARNING: YOUR SOUL-CONTAINER IS 'RANK ZERO'] [CURRENT CAPACITY: 120%] [DANGER: OVERFLOW DETECTED. INITIATING 'GLITCH-CONVERSION' TO PREVENT SOUL-SHATTERING]
The violet light from the floating interface bled into his skin. The data fragments he had "deleted" from the Enforcers weren't just points on a screen; they were pieces of their existence. He was rewriting his own DNA with the discarded code of his enemies.
"Hey! You there!"
A spotlight cut through the rain, blinding him. From the mouth of the alley, a second squad appeared—but these weren't standard Enforcers. They wore the white-and-gold capes of the High Sanctum.
"By the Authority of the Architect," the leader shouted, drawing a heavy-caliber pulse pistol. "Identify yourself! What happened to the Sentinel Squad?"
Seo-Jun didn't look up. He was staring at his own hands. They were trembling, but not from fear. The static in his vision was clearing, replaced by a new, terrifying clarity. He could see the "threads" of the world now—the digital ley lines that held the city together.
And he could see the weakness in theirs.
"They were deleted," Seo-Jun said, his voice sounding like two stones grinding together.
"Deleted? Don't be absurd. Only a High-Tier Administrator has the permission to—"
"I didn't ask for permission."
Seo-Jun moved. To the Sanctum guards, he didn't run; he flickered. One moment he was ten meters away, the next, he was standing in the center of their formation.
[SKILL ACTIVATED: 'LATENCY STEP']
The lead guard's eyes widened. He tried to pull the trigger, but his finger wouldn't move. He looked down and saw purple digital sparks dancing across his weapon. The gun had been 'locked' by a higher-level command.
"System Error," Seo-Jun whispered into the guard's ear.
He gripped the guard's gold-plated chest piece. Instead of a physical punch, he sent a pulse of pure, corrupted data directly into the man's Soul-Core.
[SKILL: 'FORCE-QUIT' COOLDOWN: 0s (GLITCHED)] [EXECUTING...]
The guard screamed—not a human scream, but a distorted, electronic screech—before he vanished into a cloud of pixelated dust.
[LEVEL UP!] [STRENGTH: +15] [INTELLIGENCE: +15] [HIDDEN STAT 'AUTHORITY' UNLOCKED: 0.01%]
The remaining guards scrambled back, their bravado replaced by primal terror. They had fought monsters, demons, and rogue cultivators—but they had never fought a Virus.
"Call the Apostle!" one guard shrieked into his comms. "We have a Category-X threat! The System is being overwritten! I repeat, the—"
Seo-Jun snapped his fingers.
The guard's communication device exploded, taking his hand with it. Seo-Jun stepped forward, the rain vaporizing before it could touch his skin. The "Zero-Rank" loser of Neo-Seoul was gone.
"Tell your Apostle," Seo-Jun said, looking toward the highest spire of the city, where the gods lived in luxury. "The maintenance man is here. And I'm starting with the penthouse."
[NEW QUEST: 'THE ARCHITECT'S NIGHTMARE'] [OBJECTIVE: REACH THE UPPER DISTRICT] [REWARD: SOUL-RECONSTRUCTION] [FAILURE: PERMANENT DELETION]
Seo-Jun turned and walked out of the alley, leaving nothing but empty armor and the scent of burnt circuits behind. The hunt had officially begun.