(Lawless Arc: Part XXXI)
The System no longer announced errors.
It announced time.
Je opened his interface—not with curiosity, but resignation.
Numbers scrolled, calm and absolute:
[Event Arrival: 00:00:13]
[Reality Sync: 97%]
[Hunger Level: Measuring…]
Measuring hunger was useless.
Hunger measured him.
He stood on the final observatory of the Black Spiral, where light and void orbited each other without ever touching. The horizon bent like a broken ring. The sky was not empty—it was annotated, indexed, labeled like evidence.
The System whispered, thinner than code:
"You think you are counting down to destiny."
"Destiny is counting down to you."
Je exhaled mist that turned black before leaving his lips. "Then tell me, System," he said, voice unshaken, "what happens at 13 seconds?"
No answer came.
Not because it refused.
But because the System feared the grammar of the truth.
A second interface opened beside his own.
Older. Primitive. Elegant in its terror.
The Log of First Devourers.
He didn't scroll it.
It scrolled for him.
Names ticked downward like falling stars losing their pronunciation. Each one ended the same:
— Time's up.
Je's heartbeat slowed.
Not from fear.
From recognition.
He touched the countdown timer.
It did not react.
It simply agreed to be touched.
[Seal of Name: 3rd Layer Pending]
[Do not attempt recall before vetting of reality completes.]
Je smirked.
"I don't need to recall," he whispered.
He looked up at the bending horizon as the final seconds evaporated like ink spilled on a contract never signed.
"I only need to survive the sentence."
The timer hit 13 seconds.
And Je stepped forward, toward the third layer, not to break the seal—
But to see if the System would finally admit who was writing whom.
Because at 97% hunger,
there was no quest left to unlock.
Only the question:
Was Je devouring the void…
or was the void finally learning to read?