The world was not supposed to be made of code. It was supposed to be made of "Qi," "Divine Grace," and the "Will of the Heavens."
At least, that's what the tutors of House Valerius had beaten into Kaelen since he was old enough to hold a wooden training sword. In the Great Empire of Valerius, your rank was your soul. If you were born with a high mana-affinity, you were a god in waiting. If you were born a "mortal",a Rankless zero, you were a biological error.
Kaelen was the ultimate error. The second son of a High Duke, born into a lineage of S-Rank titans, with the mana capacity of a f*cking tea kettle.
"Exile is a mercy, Kaelen," his father's voice had echoed in the marble halls just three days ago. The man hadn't even looked at him. "To stay here is to stain the family crest. Go to the Northern Wastes. Perhaps the cold will find a use for you that I could not."
But the "Family" hadn't stopped at exile. They wanted the error deleted.
***
[SYSTEM_BOOT: 100%]
[LOCATION: SECTOR 177 – THE TRASH PARTITION]
[COORDINATES: NORTHERN WASTES RAVINE]
Arthur, no, Kaelen now, opened his eyes. The memory of the cement truck slamming into his car back on Earth was still vibrating in his phantom nerves, but the cold of this new world was sharper.
He was at the bottom of a jagged canyon known to the locals as Sector 177. It was a dumping ground for the world's "unstable data." Failed experiments from the Vulkos forges, mutated beasts from Verdia, and the literal trash of the Gethrod continent were all cast into this frozen rift.
Kaelen lay in the snow, his breath coming out in ragged, silver plumes. His body felt like a broken motherboard. He had fallen from the cliff—snagged by a root, mocked by mercenaries, and finally dropped into the dark.
"F*ck!" he wheezed. The word felt right. It was the only thing that fit the situation.
He tried to stand, and a sharp, digital ping echoed in his skull.
[WARNING: T-ENERGY AT 2.1%]
[BIOLOGICAL_INTEGRITY: 34%]
[SUGGESTION: ACQUIRE_DATA_PACKETS_IMMEDIATELY]
"I hear you" Kaelen grumbled.
He looked at his hands. Through his right eye, he saw skin and bone. Through his left, the "Admin Eye", he saw a wireframe mesh. The world was flickering. The rocks weren't just stones; they were static assets with low-resolution textures. The snow wasn't just frozen water; it was a particle effect with a "Lethal Cold" debuff attached to its metadata.
He needed to eat. He needed power. He needed to be more than a "Null" rank.
Kaelen began to crawl. Every movement was a symphony of agony. Squelch. Crunch. Snap.
His healing ribs ground against each other, the 5x regeneration patch he'd burnt his energy on earlier still knitting his insides together with itchy, electric heat.
He rounded a jagged pillar of frost-covered granite and stopped.
There.
[ENTITY_DETECTION]
Type: Wirefang Hound (E-Rank / Corrupted)
Status: Hungry / Aggressive
Mana_Core: Unstable (High Yield)
The beast was a nightmare of biological and mechanical rot. It looked like a wolf, but its skin was missing in patches, revealing pulsing, copper-colored wires instead of muscles. Its jaw was a jagged mess of rusted iron teeth that let out a rhythmic hiss-click, hiss-click as it breathed steam into the freezing air.
It was eating the remains of a Bone Rat, its head buried in the carcass. Rip. Tear. Gulp.
Kaelen's stomach lurched. He was a programmer from the suburbs. He had never seen a dog die, let alone a mutant cyborg wolf eating its dinner. But the "Arthur" part of his brain—the part that survived Miller's corporate hell—kicked in.
It's just a bug, he told himself, his fingers clawing into the frozen dirt. It's just a corrupt process. Terminate it.
He didn't have a sword. He didn't have Qi. He had a stone.
He picked up a heavy, triangular shard of obsidian-glass. It was sharp enough to cut, but he didn't have the strength to drive it through that metal-reinforced hide.
"System," Kaelen whispered. "Highlight... highlight hitbox."
[EXECUTING: [HIGHLIGHT_CRITICAL_HITBOX]]
[T-ENERGY: 2.1% -> 1.5%]
Suddenly, the Hound glowed with a neon blue outline. In the center of its throat, right where the flesh met a rusted neck-bolt, a small red square pulsed.
[VULNERABILITY: EXPOSED_KERNEL_ACCESS_POINT]
Kaelen crept forward.
Crunch!
The Hound's ears twitched. It turned, a string of bloody sinew hanging from its iron teeth. It let out a low, mechanical growl.
VRRRRRRRR.
"Come on, you f*cking glitch," Kaelen hissed.
The Hound lunged.
It was a blur of gray fur and rusted metal. Kaelen didn't have the "Rank" to dodge. He didn't have the "Agility" stats. But he could see the Framerate. To his Admin Eye, the Hound wasn't moving in a smooth arc; it was moving in discrete "frames."
Frame 1: Lunge.
Frame 2: Mid-air.
Frame 3: Jaws open.
Kaelen threw himself to the side, but he was too slow. The beast's iron claws raked across his shoulder. SHREEEEK. The sound of claws on bone was sickening.
"AGH! ... SHIT!"
Kaelen tumbled into the snow, his blood spraying across the white drift in a pixelated red splatter. The Hound landed, skidding on the ice, and turned for a second pass.
I'm going to die. I'm going to die in a hole because I'm a goddamn mortal.
[STAMINA: 4/100]
[WARNING: SHUTDOWN_IMMINENT]
No. Arthur's stubbornness flared. I didn't survive a cement truck to get eaten by a toaster-dog.
As the Hound leaped again, Kaelen didn't dodge. He leaned into the strike. As the beast's weight slammed into him, pinning him to the frozen ground, Kaelen shoved his left hand into the creature's open maw, letting the iron teeth crunch through his forearm, to hold it in place.
CRUNCH-SNAP!
Kaelen screamed, the sound echoing off the canyon walls. But his right hand was free. He gripped the obsidian shard and slammed it upward, aiming for that pulsing red square on the beast's throat.
THUD!
The shard hit the neck-bolt. The Hound thrashed, its mechanical growl turning into a high-pitched electronic whine.
SCREEEEEEECH! "DIE! YOU! PIECE! OF! JUNK!"
Kaelen twisted the shard, digging it deeper into the "Kernel Access Point." He felt a jolt of raw energy, unfiltered mana, shoot through the shard and into his arm.
The Hound gave one final, violent shudder. Its eyes, glowing with a dim orange light, flickered and went black.
[TARGET_TERMINATED]
[DATA_HARVESTING_INITIATED...]
Kaelen slumped back, his arm still lodged in the beast's throat, his blood mixing with the creature's black, oily fluids. He was shaking. He was sobbing. He was covered in the filth of a world that hated him.
But then, the text appeared.
[T-ENERGY_RESTORED: +18%]
[USER_LEVEL_STABILIZING...]
[NEW_COMMAND_UNLOCKED: [SET_FRICTION]]
Kaelen looked up at the grey, uncaring sky of Sector 177. A wet, bloody laugh escaped his lips.
"How's that... for team synergy... you motherf*ckers?"