The sound of an S-Rank Hunter weeping is not loud. It is a hollow, gasping sound—the sound of a man who has just realized his entire religion is a slaughterhouse.
Choi Sang-min, the invincible Vanguard of the Heavens-Gate Guild, remained on his knees. His golden armor was dull, his massive frame shivering uncontrollably as he stared at the red, rusted text hovering above his own head: [HARVEST READINESS: 104%].
"Erase it," Sang-min choked out, grabbing Jinsu's boots with trembling, bloody hands. "Please. You're the zero. You can delete the code. Take my mana. Take it all! Just don't let them eat me!"
Park Do-hyun and Yoon-ah watched in paralyzed horror as their god begged a porter for his life.
Jinsu didn't move. He looked down at the weeping giant, his eyes burning with the cold, violet static of the Nihil Engine. Operating at Processing [75], Jinsu didn't see a tragic hero. He saw an asset.
"If I erase your mana, Sang-min, the Association will notice," Jinsu said, his voice dropping the stuttering porter act entirely. It was smooth, mechanical, and absolute. "The First Pillar's Compliance Auditors will swarm this building. They will realize the 'meat' is missing. And then they will format this entire city block to hide the error."
"Then what do we do?!" Park screamed from the corner, his healing magic completely deactivated. "We're livestock! We're marked for death!"
"You do what livestock always does," Jinsu replied coldly. "You graze. But from now on, you answer to a different butcher."
Jinsu raised his hand. The matte-black hilt of the Eraser's Edge dissolved into pure, crackling violet data that wrapped around his fingertips. He pressed his hand directly against Sang-min's forehead.
"Processing: Administrative Override."
Sang-min screamed as the violet static surged into his skull. It didn't burn his flesh; it burned his System Window. The golden interface fractured, rewriting itself in real-time.
[WARNING: UNAUTHORIZED USER ACCESS]
[INSTALLING: MALWARE 'ZERO-TETHER']
[COMPLIANCE REDIRECTED: 0.00%]
Jinsu pulled his hand back. Sang-min gasped, collapsing against the marble floor.
"Look at your window," Jinsu commanded.
Sang-min forced his eyes open. The red 'Livestock' warning was gone. In its place was a standard, golden S-Rank interface, but in the bottom right corner, a tiny, undetectable violet hourglass slowly spun.
"I didn't save you. I quarantined you," Jinsu said, addressing the three broken hunters. "To the Founders, you still look like perfectly marbled meat. But if any of you try to speak the word 'Harvest,' or if you try to report me to the Association... that violet code will delete your heart from the inside out."
Yoon-ah sobbed, nodding frantically.
"What is our cover?" Park asked, his voice dead.
"An Abyssal Arbiter spawned in the C-Rank gate," Jinsu dictated, his mind already formulating the global lie. "It wiped your strike team. Before it could kill you, a rogue anomaly—an Unregistered Void Hunter—intervened, killed the Arbiter, and vanished. The porter, Kang Han-eol, was vaporized in the crossfire."
"Kang Han-eol is dead," Sang-min repeated numbly, staring blankly at the floor.
"Kang Han-eol never existed," Jinsu corrected.
He turned his back on the S-Ranks and walked out of the Archive. He didn't look back. They were no longer heroes; they were his firewall.
The transition from the oppressive dark of the Archive to the neon-drenched streets of the upper city was jarring.
Jinsu walked through the rain, pulling the hood of a stolen trench coat over his head. High above, the massive holographic displays of the Heavens-Gate Association(The "Platform" (The entire world-ruling government/system)) illuminated the night sky.
A booming, synthesized voice echoed through the city squares, accompanied by triumphant, orchestral music.
"Citizens of the Optimized Earth! Rejoice! We are only days away from the Global Ascension Gala! Let us give thanks to the Nine Pillars who hold our sky!"
Jinsu stopped in an alleyway, watching the towering holograms flash across the skyscrapers.
The screen shifted, showing a stern, god-like man in a pristine white uniform.
"Praise to the First Pillar, Kang Seung-ho, the World's Anchor! Through his logistics, no citizen starves!"
The image morphed again, this time showing a beautiful, aristocratic woman adorned in golden jewelry, smiling warmly at a crowd of cheering low-rank hunters.
"Praise to the Ninth Pillar, Aris Thorne, the Golden Merchant! Through her grace, the Ascension Gala will be a feast for the ages!"
Jinsu stared at the smiling face of the Ninth Pillar. The citizens around him cheered, completely oblivious. They thought she was a philanthropist. Jinsu knew she was the one fattening the calves.
Suddenly, a sharp, piercing migraine spiked through Jinsu's skull. He stumbled, catching himself against a brick wall. He coughed, spitting a glob of dark blood onto the wet pavement.
[SYSTEM LOG: NIHIL ENGINE]
[VOID SATURATION: 22%]
[WARNING: EXCESSIVE DATA CONSUMPTION DETECTED.]
Jinsu wiped his mouth. He frowned. He looked at the blood on his hand, then licked his lips.
There was no metallic tang. There was no salt. There was nothing.
[NOTICE: To accommodate rising Void Saturation, non-essential sensory data has been deleted. Left-hemisphere taste receptors: OFFLINE.]
Jinsu swallowed hard. The price of editing an S-Rank's code was immediate. The more he used the Void, the less human he became. If he hit 100%, he wouldn't even remember why he was fighting. He was on a clock.
He pulled the First Chairman's Diary from his coat. The silver pages fluttered in the wind. He found the entry he had decrypted earlier—a backdoor exploit the First Chairman had left behind before he was assassinated.
It was an orphaned identification code. A ghost in the machine.
Jinsu closed his eyes, tapping into the local System network broadcasting from the holograms above. He didn't ask for permission. He forced his way in.
"Processing: Registration Rewrite."
[ACCESSING HEAVENS-GATE DATABASE...]
[INSERTING NEW USER ID]
Name: 'V'
Class: Void Hunter (Specialist)
Rank: Unmeasured (Pending Black-Market Evaluation)
MCAP: Negative Polarity (Error)
[REGISTRATION COMPLETE. WELCOME TO THE SYSTEM, USER 'V'.]
Jinsu opened his eyes. The violet static faded, leaving his gaze cold and dark. He was no longer a rounding error. He was a registered virus.
He looked back up at the hologram of the Ninth Pillar, Aris Thorne, advertising the upcoming Gala. She was hosting the top 100 hunters in the city to "celebrate" their mana capacity.
"A feast for the ages," Jinsu whispered to the empty alley. He stepped out of the shadows, heading toward the underground sectors. "Let's see how much you can eat before your server crashes."