[Current Stack: 1 Mythic Chest, 6 Fragments, 2,700 Tokens, 1 Hydro-Core, 1 Mermaid's Tear.] [Multiplier: 1.25%] [Vault Pressure: 15%.]
The Colosseum was in ruins. The massive tidal wave from Yuto's uppercut had completely drained the arena, leaving the Gilded Kraken's shattered, dissolved body draped over the destroyed VIP balcony.
Senator Cassius, covered in rubble and missing half his iridescent scales, stared down at the arena floor in pure, unadulterated horror.
"You... you broke the Depreciation Aura," Cassius stammered, his voice magically amplified but trembling. "That's impossible. The System dictates that all wealth must circulate! You can't just... hold it!"
"Watch me," Yuto said, shaking the water from his hair. He looked up at the Senator, the 15% pressure in his Vault making his voice echo with a deep, gravitational hum.
Isabella slowly stood up, her twin blades trembling in her hands. Ayase and Kurenai regrouped behind Yuto, sensing the shift in the atmosphere. The water was gone, but the air felt impossibly heavy.
"Kill him!" Cassius shrieked to his surviving Mer-Guards. "If the Central Floor Registers see his localized wealth, they'll—!"
Cassius didn't get to finish his sentence.
The sky above Floor 14—a beautiful, magically projected blue sky with fluffy white clouds—suddenly glitched. A massive, ear-splitting sound of dial-up static echoed across the ocean. The blue sky shattered like glass, revealing a terrifying, endless grid of glowing red numbers descending into a dark void.
[CRITICAL ERROR: INFLATIONARY ANOMALY DETECTED IN SECTOR 14.] [Initiating Server Audit. Freezing Local Instances...]
The world stopped.
The cascading waterfalls froze mid-air. A Mer-Guard leaping toward Yuto froze perfectly still. Isabella's eyes widened, but her body locked completely in place. Ayase and Kurenai became perfectly motionless statues.
"What's happening?" Shion whispered. Because she was a Mythic-Tier glitch born from Yuto's paradox, she wasn't completely frozen, but she was struggling to move, floating sluggishly near Yuto's shoulder. "Master... the System is pausing the floor. I've only heard myths about this. The Administrators are intervening."
From the red grid in the sky, a single figure descended.
He didn't have wings, and he didn't use magic. He simply walked down an invisible staircase made of pure, raw data. He wore a crisp, immaculate grey business suit, but he had no face—where his head should be, there was only a glowing, rotating golden halo shaped like an eye.
"Host Yuto Kurosawa," the faceless entity spoke. Its voice didn't make a sound; it simply printed the words directly into Yuto's brain. "I am an Auditor of the Zenith Bank. The creators of the Babel System. You are in violation of the Universal Terms of Service."
Yuto didn't freeze. The agonizing, astronomical weight of his unspent stats anchored him to reality. He looked up at the Auditor, his dark eyes devoid of fear.
"I didn't agree to your Terms of Service," Yuto said coldly.
"Irrelevant," the Auditor replied. "The Babel Tower is not a game, nor is it a proving ground. It is an economic engine. We lend stats to mortals. Mortals spend stats to survive. We harvest the kinetic energy of their struggle to power the Higher Realms. But you... you are hoarding the principal. You are creating a localized black hole in our economy."
The Auditor raised a pale, gloved hand.
"Your account is being foreclosed. We are repossessing your Vault."