> "The System was created to guide a chosen one. But what happens when the chosen one cheats back?"
— The Blank One, entering forbidden code
---
[Location: Alt Seoul – Shadowfall Timeline]
The city was split in two.
To the west: normalcy frozen in a stasis bubble, its citizens trapped mid-motion like paused dreams.
To the east: a blackened hellscape, towers inverted, roads writhing, and the sky bleeding algorithmic code.
This was Shadowfall.
A domain not ruled by magic, but by corrupted System Law.
---
[00:01 – Entry Phase]
BOOM!
A cannonball made entirely of red noses and clown makeup exploded over the skyline. Buggy screamed as he was launched headfirst into a corrupted gate wall.
Buggy (mid-air):
> "THIS IS NOT INFILTRATION, THIS IS VIOLATION!"
Kazuma (invisible via Stealth Scroll):
> "Infiltration is violation, if done right."
Deadpool (riding Saitama's back like a surfboard):
> "Yeeeee-haw! I call this the Bald Missile Express!"
Saitama (bored):
> "I just wanted ramen."
---
[00:03 – Combat Zone: Gate Spire Cluster]
The corrupted Monarch Champion—a man once known as Baek Tae-jin—stood atop a living dungeon tower. His body was cloaked in obsidian chains coded with reality-breaking runes. His eyes glowed system-blue, flickering like corrupted loading screens.
> "You are nothing. I've rewritten the rules. I AM THE SYSTEM!"
Artoria (walking through flames):
> "Then consider this… a software purge."
She leapt forward with Excalibur True Will, cleaving through the air like she was slicing bad code from existence.
Esdeath (flanking with a frozen hurricane):
> "Let's see how well you overwrite when your blood crystallizes."
---
[00:05 – Strategic Support Zone: Rooftops of Grid Sector 4]
Fury stood beside Batman, scanning the battlefield via conjured HUDs and analog holoprojectors.
Fury:
> "He's adapting faster than projected. We need to bait out his kernel exposure."
Batman (placing cryptic black grenades):
> "Then we strike the emotional logic gate. His origin loop. The moment the System chose him."
Fury (narrowing one eye):
> "How do we find it?"
Batman:
> "We don't. We force it."
He pressed a detonator. In the distance, a coded building collapsed into the shape of a hospital, the memory of Tae-jin's origin point.
---
[00:06 – Rearline]
Rimuru morphed into a massive serpent and swallowed a dungeon spire whole.
Tsunade (activating chakra-enhanced fists):
> "Try not to eat the quest reward."
Rimuru:
> "It was glowing red! I thought it was spicy loot!"
A horde of shadow beasts emerged—each one wearing a half-fused Gate Core.
Tsunade:
> "Yeah, no. We're scrubbing this infection clean."
She punched the ground, releasing a chakra rupture zone that liquefied the essence beneath it.
---
[00:07 – The Chaos Pair]
Deadpool danced around a teleporting system knight, firing rubber bullets filled with meta jokes.
Knight:
> "ERROR: Unexpected fourth-wall breach."
Deadpool (singing):
> "I'm in your code, stealing your scenes~"
Saitama (punching through another spire):
> "So... when do I hit the big one?"
MC's voice through the link:
> "Soon. Be ready."
Saitama:
> "Finally."
---
[00:08 – System Core Infiltration: Digital Liminal Space]
Inside the code realm, reality was data.
MC stepped through mirror-glitch corridors, seeing reflections of what could have been:
A version of himself joining Rias's peerage.
A version where he failed to stop an Outer God and became its herald.
A world where he never awoke the Essence of Blank.
But the core pulled him onward.
Until he found it.
A floating obsidian console.
[System Anchor: Corrupted. Threat Level: Omega+]
And behind it: the true Monarch—or rather, the System's corrupted ghost.
A wireframe model in MC's own shape, wearing a crown of blinking red commands.
> "You… are the flaw. The anomaly."
MC (smiling):
> "No. I'm the debug function you never coded."
---
[Final Phase – Collapse of Shadowfall]
Outside, the Champion began cracking—Artoria and Esdeath had pushed him to collapse. His armor failed. Excalibur pierced the sky.
MC, inside the logic core, whispered:
> "Hollow Doctrine… Final Phase: Root Rewrite."
His entire being unfolded.
Talent Points burned. Coins dissolved.
Blank Essence surged.
He did not overwrite the System.
He rebooted it. From scratch.
The corrupted code shrieked, trying to escape.
Too late.
Saitama punched downward.
The entire corrupted gate imploded.
---
[Mission Complete]
+8 Talent Points
+4000 Coins
Major Reward:
System Fragment – True Monarch Core (Bound to Host)
Skill Unlocked: "World Anchor" (Lv.1)
(Grants temporary control over narrative terrain within corrupted zones. Bends battlefield logic to the user's design.)
---
[Post-Battle Debrief – Rooftop, Alt-Seoul]
The team gathered under a rebuilt moon. No one said much for a while.
Buggy (somehow in one piece):
> "So… I was the hero, right?"
Everyone (in sync):
> "No."
Deadpool:
> "I mean, technically I distracted a knight with a joke about yaoi tags, so I contributed."
Batman:
> "The war's changing. They're not sending fragments anymore. That Champion was a full vessel."
Fury:
> "Which means the Outer Gods are preparing to cross over."
Artoria:
> "Then we must strike preemptively. Before they breach our own worlds."
MC (watching the stars shift):
> "Agreed. We won today. But now… we prepare to erase a god."
---