The air didn't just feel heavy.
It felt… watched.
Kai tilted his head slightly, eyes scanning the empty space above him. Not the sky—the layer behind it. The gridlines were still there, faint but present, like a UI element set to low opacity.
"Administrator Trace, huh…" he murmured. "So I'm officially a bug now."
Byte flickered beside him, unusually quiet for once."…Not a bug," he said slowly. "More like… a virus they can't quarantine yet."
Kai smirked. "Nice. Always wanted to be impactful."
The woman didn't smile.
She stepped closer, her heels making no sound against the cracked pavement.
"You shouldn't be joking," she said. "Traces don't just watch. They isolate. They analyze. Then they—"
She stopped.
Her eyes shifted slightly, focusing on something Kai couldn't see.
"…Too late."
SYSTEM INTERRUPTION
> Process Injected> Zone Lock Initiated> External Authority Detected
The world froze.
Not like before.
This time, it was absolute.
The wind stopped mid-motion. A falling drop of water hung in the air like glass. Even the flickering neon signs locked into a single frame.
Only three things could move:
Kai.Byte.The woman.
Kai exhaled slowly."Okay… that's new."
Byte's voice dropped to a whisper."…This isn't part of the normal system. This is admin-level execution."
A line tore through the air.
Not physically—but visually.
Like someone dragged a cursor across reality and cut it open.
From that tear, something stepped out.
It wasn't human.
But it wore a human shape.
Tall. Featureless. Wrapped in a cloak made of shifting code fragments. Its "face" was a blank surface where symbols constantly rewrote themselves—error messages, commands, fragments of languages long forgotten.
ENTITY DETECTED
Name: [REDACTED]Type: Administrator ProxyLevel: ???Status: Absolute Authority
Kai raised an eyebrow.
"…Yeah, that's not fair."
The Proxy didn't respond immediately.
It simply looked at him.
And then—
SYSTEM VERDICT
Unauthorized Class Detected
Violation Code: EXISTENCE_ERROR
Action: Deletion
Kai blinked.
"…Wow. Straight to delete? No warning, no tutorial, nothing?"
Byte floated backward."Yeah no this is bad this is very bad—run, hack, do something—preferably not die—"
The Proxy raised one hand.
Reality obeyed.
Kai's body locked.
Not paralyzed.
Overwritten.
STATUS EFFECT: ROOT_ACCESS DENIED
You cannot move.
"…Oh, that's cheating," Kai muttered, struggling against nothing.
The Proxy stepped forward.
Each step didn't move it closer—it simply repositioned its existence.
Like coordinates being updated.
The woman moved.
Fast.
Faster than Kai expected.
She stepped between him and the Proxy, her hand slicing through the air. Symbols ignited around her fingers, forming a rotating array of glowing runes.
"Permission override," she said calmly."Temporary authority request—granted."
SYSTEM RESPONSE
User: Nora Kane
Authority Level: High-Order Player
Access Granted
Kai blinked.
"Nora… Kane," he repeated. "So you do have a name."
She didn't look back.
"Now is not the time."
The Proxy tilted its head.
For the first time—
it reacted.
"Interference detected," it said. Its voice wasn't sound—it was output. Cold. Final."Secondary anomaly identified."
Two targets now.
Byte groaned."Great, now we're a group project."
Nora's runes expanded, forming a barrier between them and the Proxy.
"Listen carefully," she said, voice sharp. "You can't beat this. You can't fight it. You can't even touch it."
Kai frowned."…Then what do I do?"
A pause.
Then she said:
"Break the process."
Kai's eyes lit up.
"…Oh."
The world shifted again.
Kai activated Debug Vision instinctively.
This time, the Proxy didn't appear as a creature.
It appeared as a function.
Process: Admin_Deletion.exe
Target: Kai Venn
Execution State: Running
Priority: Absolute
Interrupt: Disabled
Kai inhaled slowly.
"Okay… okay…"
His mind raced.
"If it's a process… it has execution flow. If it has execution flow…"
Byte leaned in.
"…it has weak points."
The Proxy raised its hand again.
The barrier shattered instantly.
Nora staggered back, blood flickering briefly at the corner of her lips—before resetting, like the damage hadn't fully applied yet.
"NOW!" she shouted.
Kai moved.
Not physically.
Mentally.
He reached into the code.
Not the Proxy itself.
But the process behind it.
Lines of execution streamed past him.
Commands. Conditions. Loops.
And then—
he saw it.
if (target.exists == true) {
execute_deletion();
}
Kai grinned.
"…Seriously?"
The Proxy stepped forward—
hand inches from Kai's face—
And Kai edited the line.
if (target.exists == false) {
execute_deletion();
}
For a split second—
nothing happened.
Then—
CRITICAL ERROR
Condition Failed
Execution Halted
The Proxy froze.
Its entire body glitched violently, symbols breaking apart and reforming in chaotic loops.
"Impossible…" it output.
Kai exhaled sharply, dropping to one knee.
"…No," he said, breathing hard. "Just… bad coding."
The world snapped back.
Time resumed.
The frozen drop of water fell. The wind rushed past. The neon lights flickered again.
And the tear in reality—
closed.
The Proxy was gone.
Silence.
Byte slowly floated down.
"…You just logic-bombed an Administrator."
Kai gave a weak thumbs-up.
"Beginner's luck."
Nora stared at him.
Not surprised.
Not impressed.
Something else.
Something deeper.
"…You didn't just break the process," she said quietly.
"You changed a fundamental condition."
Kai shrugged.
"Yeah?"
She stepped closer.
Eyes sharp.
Voice low.
"That's not hacking anymore."
A pause.
Then—
"That's rewriting the rules."
Kai smiled.
Tired.
Excited.
Terrified.
"…Good."
Far beyond the visible layers of reality—
in a place where even the System didn't fully render—
something awakened.
A voice, identical to Kai's, echoed through the void:
"...So, you've reached this point already."
A pause.
Then—
"Let's see how long you survive… me."