The System notification glowed on Dae-hyun's screen.
"Verification Layer."
Barely twelve hours had passed since the incident in Yongsan, and the System was already patching the crack he had exploited.
He was in his tiny goshiwon, a study cell used as a temporary home. On the wall, a cheap screen broadcast a 24/7 hunter news channel.
The presenter, a girl with an excessively angelic smile, spoke with an emotion that felt unnatural.
"…an incredibly fast response from our System engineers. This new verification layer will ensure that the ranking reflects pure merit, eliminating any distortion of public perception. Transparency is key!"
Dae-hyun turned off the television. "Transparency" was his enemy. His only power lay in the shadows of data and in the fractures between what is perceived and what is real.
If the System began cross-referencing every social metric with primary biometric data—heart rate in combat, neuromotor precision, anomalous energy output—his small adjustments would become useless. Worse still: they would leave a digital trail, obvious discrepancies.
He needed to escalate. His current access to "Minor Data Streams" was not enough. He had to reach a more severe level of error, a deeper command. And for that, he needed to be where the System was under stress, where its protocols failed in a more spectacular way.
He opened the corrupted application. In the raw green terminal, he typed a command he had discovered by trial and error:
QUERY: SCHEDULED_ERROR_ZONES (NEXT 6 HRS, SEVERITY >= MODERATE)
The list appeared short. Almost all the entries belonged to classes D and E, already stabilized, under minimal System activity. But one entry stood out:
ERROR ZONE #512.
LOCATION: MAPO BRIDGE MAINTENANCE TUNNEL (SUBTERRANEAN).
CLASSIFICATION: CLASS C (VOLATILE).
STATUS: DIAGNOSTIC_SCAN_INCONCLUSIVE. DATA_ANOMALY_DETECTED.
ASSIGNED TEAM: SQUAD "STRIX" (AVERAGE RANK: C+). STREAM: RESTRICTED (TIER 2+ USERS ONLY).
Class C. Volatile. Inconclusive diagnostics. That sounded like real System stress. Surely a place where protocols might be at their limit. And the restricted stream meant fewer public eyes, but also a richer and rawer data feed for the System. The perfect buffet for a data parasite like Dae-hyun.
The problem was access. A maintenance tunnel under Mapo Bridge. Highly guarded. His 1000-second override on a secondary reader wouldn't be enough. He needed a more permanent clearance or a way to be invisible even to the biometric sensors that would now, surely, be scanning.
His gaze fell on the corrupted interface menu. There was an option he hadn't tried, marked with multiple warnings:
[TOOL: DIAGNOSTIC_GHOST_PROTOCOL]
[FUNCTION: GENERATES A TEMPORARY, NON-VERIFIED USER PROFILE ON LOCAL NETWORK NODES.]
[DURATION: VARIABLE (DEPENDS ON NETWORK CONGESTION).]
[RISK: PROFILE MAY BE FLAGGED BY DEEP_SCAN. HIGH PROBABILITY OF TRACE.]
It bordered on madness. It would create a ghost user profile inside the Zone's local network. Not a Rank 0, but a non-user, a blank space endowed with temporary credentials.
If it worked, he could move through the area without raising suspicion, seen only as a systems technician, invisible to official records.
If it failed, it would trigger a "data intruder" alert that would mark his exact position.
That was the next logical step. To retreat meant throwing the phone into the Han River and accepting the trash life the world had already assigned him. To move forward meant pushing his anomaly to the limit.
He dressed in dark, generic clothes, the kind of invisible uniform worn by telecommunications workers. Then he executed the protocol.
RUNNING DIAGNOSTIC_GHOST_PROTOCOL…
HIJACKING LOCAL NODE: MAPO_SECTOR_SECURITY_GRID… SUCCESS.
INJECTING GHOST PROFILE: "TECH_MAINT_ALPHA-7".
CREDENTIALS GENERATED. LIFETIME: ~45 MINUTES.
WARNING: PROFILE LACKS BIOMETRIC ANCHORS. WILL COLLAPSE UPON DEEP SCAN.
Forty-five minutes. An eternity that, strangely, felt like an instant.
The trip to the maintenance tunnel was wrapped in adrenaline. The perimeter far exceeded Yongsan's. Mid-rank soldiers, automatic scanning turrets, surveillance drones, low-intensity lasers throughout the area.
Dae-hyun approached a staff access terminal, holding his phone as if it were an authorization reader. His heart insisted on leaping out of his chest. He activated the ghost protocol override.
The terminal screen displayed: "TECH_MAINT_ALPHA-7 – ACCESS GRANTED FOR DIAGNOSTIC ROUNDS. BIOMETRIC WAIVER IN EFFECT (ZONE HAZARD)."
The lack of biometric data warning had turned into an advantage. The System assumed he was exempt due to the Zone's danger.
The heavy doors slid open. He stepped into the tunnel's cold gloom.
Inside, the place showed few differences from the Yongsan error zone. The atmosphere turned sinister, while the lights followed an irregular rhythm, producing irritating stroboscopic flashes.
The sounds—the drip of water, the hum of generators—repeated constantly, too fast. The air smelled like burnt circuits.
In the distance, he saw Squad "Strix's" tactical lights. Truly professional, moving in tight formation, facing something that moved too fast: ghostly silhouettes that seemed to pixelate in and out of reality.
Dae-hyun crawled behind a pile of abandoned toolboxes and opened his interface. Here, the connection was direct. Data streams poured down.
[STREAM CAPTURED: SQUAD_STRIX_VITALS – BIOMETRICS_ERRATIC]
[STREAM CAPTURED: ANOMALY_CORE_SIGNATURE – FREQUENCY_MODULATING_RAPIDLY]
[STREAM CAPTURED: SYSTEM_INTEGRITY_REPORT – MULTIPLE_CORRUPTED_PACKETS]
The last one was the target. The System integrity report. He opened it. A list of failures appeared: error codes in data collection, contradictory sensor readings, brief lapses in threat processing.
The System showed confusion in this zone. The classification of "Class C (Volatile)" functioned only as an estimate.
Deep down, it was struggling to understand what stood before it.
Amid that confusion, Dae-hyun saw his opportunity. A command in the stream appeared highlighted in red, accessible only because the local permission system was busy with more severe errors:
[COMMAND AVAILABLE: REQUEST_DIAGNOSTIC_OVERRIDE (ANOMALY_CORE)]
[PURPOSE: FORCE A HARD RESET ON ANOMALY DATA COLLECTION.]
[REQUIRES: LOCAL ADMIN PRIVILEGES (GHOST PROFILE QUALIFIES).]
He had to force a reset. If he did, the System would stop analyzing the anomaly for a moment and restart its scanning protocols. But that would be like blinding a boxer temporarily.
The effect on the Zone and on Squad "Strix" would be unpredictable.
Though it could also be his ticket. During that reset, data security protocols would relax. He could try to steal something. Maybe not a weapon, but a fragment of high-level diagnostic code. The key to the next level of access.
He thought. It felt like minutes had passed, but it was only seconds.
He saw a member of "Strix" thrown against the wall by those invisible beings, his armor emitting a metallic screech.
Dae-hyun took a deep breath, trying to maintain a calm posture. He executed the System command.
REQUESTING DIAGNOSTIC_OVERRIDE…
LOCAL ADMIN PRIVILEGES CONFIRMED (GHOST_PROFILE: TECH_MAINT_ALPHA-7).
WARNING: THIS ACTION WILL DISRUPT ACTIVE CONTAINMENT. PROCEED?
YES
The instant he accepted, everything stopped inside the error zone.
The stroboscopic flicker of the lights froze into a flat gray tone.
The sounds of battle cut off, replaced by an absolute silence that felt oppressive. The members of "Strix" remained motionless, like statues.
Even the anomaly itself—a central mass of twisted visual data lines—seemed to contract until it stood still.
On his interface, a new stream appeared, titled "CORE_DUMP_RAW." The moment had arrived. Dae-hyun began a frantic download, dragging fragments of diagnostic code, error calibration protocols, anything that looked complex and fundamental.
The download bar progressed slowly.
15%… 30%…
On his interface screen, a new System message, directed to all profiles on the local network, including his ghost:
[SYSTEM ALERT: DIAGNOSTIC OVERRIDE DETECTED. ORIGIN: TECH_MAINT_ALPHA-7. PROFILE LACKS CENTRAL REGISTRY. FLAGGING AS DATA INTRUSION.]
[INITIATING DEEP SCAN IN 10… 9…]
Shit! The main System had noticed the discrepancy. His ghost profile was seconds away from collapsing and exposing him.
65%… 80%…
Dae-hyun looked around. The freeze was beginning to fade. The lights grew irritating again. A member of "Strix" blinked, disoriented.
95%…
[DEEP SCAN INITIATED.]
[PROFILE: TECH_MAINT_ALPHA-7 – NOT FOUND IN REGISTRY.]
[CLASSIFYING AS: UNAUTHORIZED DATA ENTITY.]
[ISSUING PURGE COMMAND.]
100%. Download complete.
Dae-hyun reacted immediately and plunged deeper into the tunnel, losing himself in the darkness as the scan swept his last known position.
He slipped through a ventilation opening, where the hum of the previous area finally faded away.
He curled up inside the dark duct, gasping. His phone was hot. The corrupted interface now displayed a newly unlocked menu:
[ACCESS LEVEL UPDATED: [CORRUPTED/UNLISTED] → [DIAGNOSTIC LEAK/QUARANTINED]]
[NEW PRIVILEGES: [VIEW ERROR LOGS (SYSTEM-WIDE)], [EDIT LOW-LEVEL ENVIRONMENTAL PARAMETERS (UNSTABLE)]]
[WARNING: USER SIGNATURE NOW FLAGGED FOR "POTENTIAL DATA PARASITISM". FUTURE INTRUSIONS WILL TRIGGER AGGRESSIVE COUNTERMEASURES.]
He had ascended to a higher level thanks to that fragment stolen from the System.
Although the ascent had brought consequences, what had once been listed as a data error was now considered a recognized anomaly.
Outside, inside the tunnel, everything turned into chaos.
The anomaly, destabilized after the forced reset, erupted under unpredictable behavior. Strix managed to contain it, though most of them ended up seriously injured.
The restricted stream cut off abruptly.
Hours later, the headline on the news was unsettling:
"SUCCESSFUL CONTAINMENT IN MAPO TUNNEL, BUT SYSTEM REPORTS 'GHOST DATA INTRUSION.' AUTHORITIES INVESTIGATE POSSIBLE SABOTAGE."
The world ignored his name, but the System recognized him. It had even given him his own category.
Dae-hyun, hidden in his goshiwon, finished assembling a new and dangerous set of digital tools. He knew that the next time he flipped a switch, the System would not limit itself to changing small things.
———
FUN FACT:
A goshiwon (고시원) is a very popular and inexpensive type of accommodation in South Korea…