The Executioner didn't move like a creature. It moved like a corrupted video file. One moment it was fifty yards away; the next, it was standing over the mangled remains of the Vanguard tanks, its blade-arms dripping with a mixture of red blood and glowing blue "Optimized" mana.
"RE-FORM THE LINE!" Choi Sang-min screamed, his golden armor flickering as his internal System struggled to calculate the Executioner's threat level. "Park! Blast it! Now!"
Mage Park Do-hyun's face was white. He leveled his staff, three concentric magic circles manifesting in the air. "I can't lock on! The target's coordinates are shifting faster than the server can refresh! It's... it's a ghost!"
"I don't care about the math, Park! Burn it!" Sang-min roared.
A torrent of white-hot fire erupted from Park's staff, incinerating the rusted street. The explosion was deafening, sending a wave of heat back toward the porter line.
"Stay down, Kang!" Bae yelled, shoving Jinsu behind a collapsed steel girder. The old porter was trembling, his eyes fixed on the smoke. "That thing... that's not a monster. That's a Purge. The System is trying to delete this whole Sector with us in it!"
Jinsu didn't answer. His Processing [65] was already overclocked. Through the smoke, he saw what the Hunters couldn't. The Executioner hadn't dodged the fire. It had simply "un-rendered" itself for the duration of the impact and was now re-assembling directly behind Mage Park.
Too slow, Jinsu thought, his eyes narrowing. If Park dies, the party wipes, and the Executioner absorbs their mana before I can touch it. I need to anchor it.
"Bae," Jinsu said, his voice eerily calm amidst the chaos. "The Mages are going to miss again. Cover your eyes."
"What? Kang, what are you talking about—"
Jinsu didn't wait. He didn't run toward the fight; he reached into his supply pack and pulled out a standard-issue "Mana Grenade"—a cheap, low-level tool porters used to clear small debris. To a Hunter, it was a firecracker. To Jinsu, it was a Carrier Wave.
[Image: Jinsu holding a small humming device as violet static creeps over his fingers]
He flicked his wrist. The grenade tumbled through the air, looking like a clumsy, panicked throw from a scared porter.
"Look out, you idiot!" one of the A-Rank archers cursed as the grenade sailed past her head.
But Jinsu wasn't aiming for the boss. He was aiming for the Logic-Line he saw vibrating in the air—the Executioner's "Respawn Point."
"Erasure: Logic-Anchor," Jinsu whispered.
Just as the grenade reached the center of the battlefield, Jinsu snapped his fingers. A micro-burst of violet static hit the grenade. It didn't explode with fire. Instead, it imploded into a sphere of pure, silent blackness.
The Executioner, mid-teleport, was suddenly yanked out of its "De-sync" state and slammed into the pavement. Its jagged blade-arms were pinned to the ground by invisible, heavy static.
"It glitched!" Park yelled, his eyes widening. "The anomaly hit a lag-spike! Sang-min, now!"
Sang-min didn't ask questions. He saw an opening and took it. He lunged forward, his golden broadsword glowing with the light of a thousand "Optimized" blessings. "Die, you piece of trash!"
CLANG.
The S-Rank blade hit the Executioner's chest, but instead of shattering the boss, Sang-min's sword bounced back, sparks of blue mana flying everywhere.
"What?!" Sang-min gasped, his boots skidding across the rust. "My Strength is at 70! I should have cleaved that thing in two!"
From behind the girder, Jinsu watched with a cold, analytical gaze. Your Strength is 70 because the System says it is, Sang-min. But that Executioner is a 'Hardwired' entity. It has higher Priority than you. Your sword isn't allowed to cut it.
"Boss! It's recovering!" Park screamed.
The Executioner began to vibrate, its rusted blades spinning like saws. The red sky above began to bleed raw, black pixels onto the battlefield.
"Kang, we have to run," Bae whispered, grabbing Jinsu's arm. "The S-Ranks can't kill it. Look at Sang-min's face. He's terrified."
Jinsu looked. Sang-min was indeed backing away, his golden cape charred and his "100% Compliance" bar flickering for the first time. The hero was realizing he was outranked.
"You go, Bae," Jinsu said, gently unhooking the old man's hand. "I dropped a crate of high-grade mana potions back there. If they break, the explosion will kill us all. I have to secure them."
"You're a lunatic, kid! Leave the potions!"
"I'll be right back," Jinsu lied.
He slipped into the shadows of a collapsed pharmacy. The moment he was out of sight, his posture changed. The slumped shoulders vanished. The nervous stutter died. His Processing hit 70, and his eyes ignited into twin violet suns.
"Void-Step."
Jinsu vanished. He reappeared ten feet above the Executioner, directly in the "Blind Spot" of the Association drones circling the sky.
The Executioner sensed him. It looked up, its face a blank plate of rusted iron. "ANOMALY... DETECTED..." it croaked, its voice sounding like a thousand dying hard drives.
"You have something I need," Jinsu rasped, igniting The Eraser's Edge.
The Executioner swung a massive blade-arm, a strike that would have decapitated an S-Rank. Jinsu didn't dodge. He used Absolute Arrest on his own momentum, stopping mid-air so the blade passed inches below his feet.
Then, he dropped.
He drove the violet blade of static directly into the Executioner's "Logic-Core"—the beating heart of corrupted code in its chest.
"ERASURE: TOTAL OVERWRITE!"
A massive pillar of violet light erupted, drowning out the red sky. The Hunters in the street were blinded, shielded only by the thick clouds of dust.
[CRITICAL DATA CONSUMED]
[Fragment of the Second Founder Obtained]
[Nihil Engine Sync: 15.2%]
[Stability: 28.5% ➔ 45.1%]
The Executioner didn't just die. It was un-written. Every rusted blade, every drop of bleeding code, and every ounce of its A+ Rank mana was sucked into Jinsu's left palm.
A split second later, the violet light vanished. Jinsu Void-Stepped back into the shadows of the pharmacy just as the dust began to settle.
Sang-min stood in the middle of the street, panting, his sword trembling. He looked at the empty crater where the Executioner had been. There was nothing left but a small pile of white salt.
"I... I did it?" Sang-min whispered, looking at his hands. "I did it! The final strike... the System must have given me a Critical Multiplier!"
Park and the other Hunters crawled out from their cover, cheering weakly. "Boss! That was incredible! You erased it! You literally erased it!"
Sang-min stood tall, his arrogance returning in a flood. He raised his sword toward the news drones above. "FOR THE ASSOCIATION! FOR HEAVENS-GATE!"
Back in the shadows, Jinsu leaned against a wall, his chest heaving as his body finished processing the massive influx of data. He felt stronger, faster, and more "real" than he ever had before.
[LEVEL UP: 26 ➔ 30]
[New Skill Unlocked: System-Mimicry (Lv. 1)]
"Let him have the credit," Jinsu muttered, wiping a streak of violet static from his lip. "I have the core."
"Kang? Kang, is that you?" Bae's voice called out from the street.
Jinsu slumped his shoulders, put on his nervous "Porter" face, and stumbled out of the shadows, clutching a dented potion crate.
"I'm here, Bae!" Jinsu shouted, sounding out of breath. "I got the potions! Did... did the Boss kill it?"
Bae ran over, hugging Jinsu's shoulders in relief. "He did it, kid. Sang-min actually did it. I've never seen a strike like that. He turned that thing into dust."
Jinsu looked at Sang-min, who was busy posing for a drone camera.
"Yeah," Jinsu said, a dark, hidden glint in his eyes. "He's a real hero."
[End of Chapter 17]
📊 SYSTEM ARCHIVE: LOG 017
[HOST: HAN JINSU (Mask: Kang Han-eol)]
Current Level: 30 (CRITICAL MILESTONE REACHED)
Strength: 35
Agility: 38
Processing: 70 (NEW PEAK)
ERASURE: C+ ➔ B- (Can now delete A-Rank structures)
STABILITY: 45.1% (SAFE ZONE)
[NEW SKILL: SYSTEM-MIMICRY (LV. 1)]
- Effect: Can temporarily coat a physical attack in "Optimized" blue mana to mimic a standard Hunter skill. Perfect for hiding Erasure in plain sight.