The emergency shelter on the 45th floor was a stark contrast to the chaos raging below. Its reinforced walls hummed with a low, steady energy, filtering out the cacophony of the collapsing Tower. Officer Kang, after several frustrated attempts, finally managed to establish a crackling connection with Tower Command. His voice, usually gruff and authoritative, was now laced with urgency as he relayed their situation.
"—Officer Kang, 45th floor emergency shelter. We have a confirmed Floor Collapse on multiple lower sectors. Requesting immediate extraction for one civilian and myself. Repeat, immediate extraction."
Han-sol sat on a cold metal bench, listening to the one-sided conversation, his mind still reeling. The [ERROR SOURCE: PRIMARY CORE - CORRUPTED] notification pulsed faintly in his System, a constant, nagging presence. It was like a siren song, drawing him deeper into the Tower's mysteries. He could feel its pull, a strange resonance with his newly evolved skill.
"Negative, Officer Kang," a tinny voice responded from the comms unit. "All extraction teams are currently engaged in critical rescue operations on floors 50 and above. Lower sectors are being designated for containment. Repeat, containment. No personnel are to re-enter compromised zones."
Officer Kang slammed his fist against the wall. "Containment? What about the civilians? What about us?"
"Orders are clear, Officer. Maintain shelter until further notice. Reinforcements will be deployed once the situation stabilizes. Over and out." The comms went dead, leaving a chilling silence in its wake.
Officer Kang turned to Han-sol, his face a mask of grim resignation. "They're abandoning the lower half of the Tower. Containment means they're going to seal it off. We're trapped."
Han-sol's gaze drifted to the faint blue network of glitches that still permeated his vision. The [PRIMARY CORE - CORRUPTED] error was now accompanied by a new, more detailed prompt:
[PRIMARY CORE: CORRUPTION LEVEL - 17%]
[IMPACT: SYSTEM INSTABILITY, DIMENSIONAL RIFTS, MANA SPIKES]
[RECOMMENDED ACTION: REPAIR/REBOOT]
Repair/Reboot. The words echoed in his mind. It wasn't just about escaping; it was about fixing the very heart of the problem. His skill, Error Rewrite, felt less like a random mutation and more like a tool specifically designed for this crisis. He was a debugger, and the Tower was a program crashing spectacularly.
"We can't just wait here," Han-sol said, his voice quiet but firm. "The corruption is spreading. If the Primary Core fails completely, the entire Tower… the entire city could be affected." He didn't know how he knew this, but the information felt instinctively true, a direct feed from the glitched System itself.
Officer Kang scoffed. "What are you talking about, kid? The Primary Core is a myth. A legend. No one's ever seen it, let alone touched it. It's buried deep within the Tower's foundations, protected by layers of ancient System defences."
"But I can see it," Han-sol insisted, pointing vaguely downwards. "My skill… it shows me the errors. And the biggest error, the source of all this, is the Primary Core. It's corrupted. It needs to be repaired."
Officer Kang stared at him, a mixture of disbelief and a flicker of desperate hope in his eyes. He had just witnessed Han-sol perform an impossible feat, rewriting reality to save their lives. Perhaps this scrawny F-Rank porter wasn't as useless as he seemed. "And how do you propose we get to this 'Primary Core'?" he asked, his tone still skeptical, but with a hint of curiosity.
Han-sol closed his eyes, focusing on the blue network. He traced the lines of corruption, the pathways of instability. His System responded, highlighting a series of interconnected errors, a path leading downwards, deeper into the collapsing Tower.
[PATH TO PRIMARY CORE: DETECTED]
[OBSTACLES: MULTIPLE STRUCTURAL FAILURES, HOSTILE ENTITIES, SYSTEMIC DEFENSES]
[REWRITE POTENTIAL: HIGH]
"There's a way," Han-sol said, opening his eyes. "It's dangerous. Very dangerous. But it's there. My skill… it can show me how to navigate the glitches, how to bypass the defences." He looked at Officer Kang, a newfound determination hardening his gaze. "We can't wait for extraction. We have to go down. We have to fix it."
Officer Kang hesitated. His duty was to protect civilians, to follow orders. But the orders were to wait for containment, to be abandoned. And he had just seen firsthand what Han-sol was capable of. The kid was an F-Rank, a porter, but he had done something no other Awakened could. He had rewritten reality.
"Alright, kid," Officer Kang finally said, a heavy sigh escaping his lips. He re-holstered his pistol, then drew a heavy-duty combat knife. "Lead the way. But one wrong move, and I'm taking us back to this shelter. Understood?"
Han-sol nodded, a surge of adrenaline mixing with the lingering exhaustion. He was no hero. He was just a porter who could see errors. But now, those errors were leading him on a path he never imagined. The path to the Primary Core, the heart of the Glitched Tower. His journey as a debugger had truly begun. He took a deep breath, the metallic tang of the collapsing Tower filling his lungs, and stepped out of the shelter, following the faint blue glow of the glitches into the deepening darkness. The real descent was about to begin. The world was a broken program, and he was the only one who could patch it. The weight of that realization settled on his shoulders, heavier than any porter's pack he had ever carried. But this time, he carried it with a purpose.