A storm hit the city at midnight—unnatural and loud, like a warning.
Jiwoon stood beneath the fractured sky, raindrops sizzling off the Mark of Judgment on his palm.
From the shadows, a voice called out.
"You've seen my father's memories, haven't you?"
Jiwoon didn't need to turn.
"Hyun Maljun."
The heir of the First Sinner stepped forward. No longer hostile—curious.
A Truce of Need
"Why follow his path?" Jiwoon asked.
"He lost."
Maljun smirked.
"He resisted. He made the system blink first. That's more than anyone ever did."
The two stood in silence.
Lightning cracked the sky above.
"They marked you. That means they fear you," Maljun said.
"But they won't just kill you. They'll change you first."
"What do you want?"
"To help you. Or at least… to see how far you can fall before you become him."
The Forbidden Archive
Maljun led Jiwoon through a secret tunnel deep beneath the old districts—an archive untouched by the Null Order.
There, among cursed relics and banned contracts, lay a file etched in bone.
[BLACK FILE: SIN ZERO]
Subject: Prototype Sin System
Result: Conscious Rejection → Evolution → Entity Creation
"Your system," Maljun whispered, "is not just code.
It's becoming alive."
Jiwoon stared at the file. His hands trembled.
"Then it's not a tool."
"No," Maljun said.
"It's a beast. And it remembers who tried to cage it."