The moment the old man's heart monitor screamed its final, flat note, Kai felt it. A greasy, invasive force—the Anomaly Realm's punishment for breaking Rule #1—tried to worm its way into his very soul. It was a direct debuff injection, cold and vile.
But his SSS-tier Talent, The Rulebreaker, flared to life. Like premium antivirus software nuking a pop-up scam, it didn't just block the Corruption; it vaporized it on contact.
So, Rule #1 is legit, Kai noted with the detached interest of a QA tester. Anyone else would've been slapped with a permanent Corruption debuff. This Talent is pay-to-win levels of broken.
This immunity didn't just give him options; it changed the entire game. Other Players had to tiptoe through the rules like a minefield. He could just sprint through, tanking the explosions with his face.
And Effect #2 of his Talent—the Dread Point farm—was just as busted.
Kai immediately equipped his new Title. A surge of raw power flooded his tiny, seven-year-old frame. He flicked open his stat screen, the interface materializing in his vision.
[Player: Kai Locke]
[Talent: The Rulebreaker (SSS)]
[Strength: 7]
[Agility: 2]
[Endurance: 3]
[Charisma: 10]
The UI was clean. No bloatware. Average adult male stats are 5 across the board. My seven-year-old body is literal trash-tier in everything but Charisma. That part tracked; kids were basically high-Charisma, low-everything-else builds designed to leech resources for survival.
But a single Title had already jacked his Strength past the adult baseline. He was already at gym-bro levels. And Titles had no equip limit. He could stack these things to the goddamn moon.
Immunity to Corruption is great, he thought, but it won't stop an Anomaly from turning me into a meat pretzel.
More Titles meant more stats. More stats meant he could eventually face-tank whatever eldritch horror this place threw at him. The path to that power, however, was paved with the negative emotions of said horrors. High risk, high reward.
The old man had been the tutorial boss—barely one HP left, a glorified loot piñata. But this hospital definitely had real Anomalies lurking. Raid bosses, he was nowhere near geared enough to handle.
"This Title skill, though," Kai muttered, rereading the description with a greedy glint in his eye. "[Rage Mode]: All stats +10 for one hour."
That's not just cracked, that's game-breaking. With that active, he'd have better physicals than any Player alive. Even that William guy, the supposed top-tier Player who'd cleared two instances, wouldn't have numbers like that.
Federation intel suggested clearing an instance-granted attribute rewards. First clear: 5 points. Second clear: 10 points. But even with those bonuses, they were grinding. He was hacking.
No matter how strong they got, two rule violations meant instant death via Corruption. A hard-coded permadeath mechanic. Unless you were Kai.
SSS-tier isn't just a talent, it's the admin console.
His theorycrafting session concluded, Kai refocused. The old man's death conveniently invalidated Rules #3 and #4. Dead NPCs don't have sleep states, which meant the rules about leaving or staying based on their consciousness were now null and void.
Time to go. He needed to find a target to proc his Rage Mode skill. Exploring with a +10 stat boost was infinitely safer.
Before leaving, Kai pocketed the phone he'd used for the selfie. Standard looting procedure. He frisked the corpse, but found nothing—no wallet, no keys, just a worn photo tucked into the shirt pocket.
He glanced at it. A picture of the old man with his grandson.
"Oh, look," he said, his voice dripping with sarcastic disappointment. "The quest item. It was on him the whole time. What a stunning example of innovative game design."
He tossed the photo onto the bed without a second thought and strode toward the door.
The second he stepped into the sterile, buzzing hallway, he saw him. A man in a security guard's uniform, his patrol slow and unnervingly deliberate. He didn't walk like a human; he glided, his feet making no sound on the linoleum.
The stream chat, watching through Kai's eyes, exploded.
[> Oh shit, it's the security guard from Rule #8!]
[> The one the Director's note said to FEAR? This is bad.]
[> WHY IS HE WALKING TOWARD HIM?! ABORT! ABORT!]
[> Did he break a rule? Wait, yeah, he straight-up murdered the patient.]
[> Can confirm Rule #1 is real. A Union player tried to ignore the old man, got corrupted, and then the patient itself attacked him.]
[> But Kai isn't corrupted. How? What's his Talent?!]
[> Kid's lasted longer than I thought. Props.]
[> He's the first Player to even leave the starting room. Maybe the chaos strat is the play?]
[> Is he going to try and fight him? Bruh.]
[> COPIUM levels are critical! Evacuate the chat!]
[> Wait. Hold on. What... what in the absolute FUCK is he doing?!]
Kai didn't hesitate. He marched straight up to the security guard, craning his neck to look up at the man's impassive, waxy face. Then, he pointed a trembling finger back at the ward he'd just left.
"Mister," Kai began, his voice cracking with a perfectly engineered sob. "My… my grandpa… he died in there."
On command, fat tears welled up and streamed down his cheeks. His entire small body began to shake with what looked like genuine, soul-crushing trauma. It was a performance so flawless, so utterly convincing, it would have put seasoned method actors to shame.
Anomalies in these realms usually have simple aggro logic, Kai reasoned, his mind a cold, calculating machine behind the tear-streaked mask. You break a rule they enforce, or you attack first. I did technically murder the old man. If this guard's patrol route includes 'patient wellness checks,' I could be flagged as hostile.
Rule #8 was crystal clear: Never provoke the security guard. Kai wasn't about to test what "messing with" entailed. He might be immune to Corruption, but he was pretty sure he wasn't immune to having his head twisted off like a bottle cap.
The best defense was a good offense. Control the narrative. De-aggro the mob.
This guard was clearly a high-level entity, the kind you're meant to stealth around until the endgame. The old man was a starter mob with 1 HP. This guy was a world boss.
Kai's sudden, gut-wrenching emotional breakdown sent the stream chat into a state of pure cognitive dissonance.
[> WHAT IS THIS 5D CHESS MOVE?!]
[> IS HE SNITCHING ON HIMSELF?!]
[> THE CROCODILE TEARS ARE SO REAL! I'D BELIEVE HIM!]
[> If I hadn't just watched him ice the old man, I would be ready to adopt this kid.]
[> This kid is either a 200 IQ genius or a complete psychopath. Or both. Probably both.]
[> Give this kid an Oscar. Right now. What timeline are we in?]
[> But what's the angle? He's creating an alibi... with the monster?!]
[> This is genuinely terrifying. Imagine this kid in the real world. You'd never see him coming.]
[> I'm scared for the Anomalies now. Not even kidding.]
[> Holy shit... this might actually work. This kid might actually clear this.]