The Lottery Wheel.
An entire core function of the System, just sitting in a black market stall like a prize at a country fair. It was a piece of my own soul, a part of my power, being dangled as a trinket.
Seraphina's objective was clear: acquire the fragment. Her 'Architect' master would want to reclaim its lost property. If she got her hands on it, her own System would become more complete, her power would surge, and my disadvantage would become insurmountable.
I, on the other hand, had a different objective. The information from the 'Watcher' was a burning brand in my mind. Create a paradox.
The paradox recipe was terrifyingly simple. The System's core logic was based on causality and ownership. An item or skill belonged to a user. A quest reward was transferred from the system to the user. What the 'Watcher' proposed was a way to break that logic.
I had to force the System to award a prize to someone who wasn't the designated winner, using a mechanism that fundamentally belonged to me. I had to make my System, my own fragmented core, gift one of its own lost pieces to a third party, and do so through a quest I initiated.
It was a conceptual knot, a logic bomb. According to the 'Watcher', forcing this paradox would trigger 'The Glitch', a system-wide reboot of a single, random core function, upgrading it to a state that was no longer under the Architect's control. It was a way to jailbreak my own soul.
This was the ultimate gamble. It could give me an edge over my creator, or it could blow up in my face spectacularly.
There was no choice. I had to do it.
My first problem: I was under effective house arrest. My second problem: the black market was a treacherous, hidden place. My third problem: Seraphina was already on the move.
I opened the data-siphon feed. I could see her moving on my map, a violet dot heading towards the capital's underbelly. She was being cautious, using stealth, but she was moving.
I needed a proxy. An agent. Someone I could control, who could move freely, and who was desperate enough to obey my insane instructions.
My mind immediately landed on the perfect candidate.
I went back down to the Black Cells.
Lin Feng was still a mess, but the hollow look in his eyes had been replaced by a sullen, simmering hatred. His system was back online, a gift from his tormentor, and the taste of power had returned.
"Change of plans," I said, opening the cell door. "You're getting out of here. For real this time."
He looked up, his expression a mask of pure suspicion. "What trick is this?"
"No trick," I said, tossing him a dark, hooded cloak. "A new mission. There is a man in the city's black market. They call him the Gacha-Master. He runs a game of chance. You are going to go there, and you are going to play his game."
I threw a heavy pouch of gold onto the floor. "Here is your stake."
"Why?" he snarled. "Why would I do anything for you?"
"Because if you don't," I said, my voice soft and cold, "I will turn your system off again. Permanently. You will be a cripple for the rest of your short, miserable life. But if you do this for me, if you succeed… I will consider wiping the slate clean. No more torture. No more imprisonment. You will be free to pursue your destiny with the Jade Scepter sect. This is your one and only chance to earn your freedom."
It was a lie, of course. But it was the lie he needed to hear. The hope of freedom, combined with the threat of ultimate powerlessness, was a potent motivator.
"What am I playing for?" he asked, his voice tight.
"He is offering a grand prize," I said. "They call it the 'Wheel of Fate'. An artifact. You will play until you have won it. And when you have it in your hands, you will bring it back to me. Do not try to run. Do not try to keep it. I will know. And I will switch you off. Understood?"
He gave a sullen, hateful nod.
"Good," I said. I unlocked his chains. "Now go. Use the sewer tunnels. Don't be seen."
I watched as my rival, my half-brother, my unwilling puppet, slipped out into the darkness on a mission for his greatest enemy. It was a move of beautiful, chaotic insanity.
Now, for my part. I couldn't be there physically, but I could watch.
I returned to my chambers and activated a new system function I had never touched before. The Group System.
[GROUP SYSTEM]
[Objective: Form sects/teams, share quests and chat.]
[Current Groups: 0]
[Option: Create New Group]
I created a new group. I named it 'The Unseen'. I was the only member. Then, I used a sub-function.
[Option: 'Phantom Observer'] - Cost: 100 SP per hour.
Description: Allows the Group Leader to create a non-corporeal observer drone, linked to the senses of a designated 'target'. The target will be unaware of the observation.
"Designate target: Lin Feng," I commanded.
...100 SP DEDUCTED. PHANTOM OBSERVER DEPLOYED.
My perspective shifted. I was no longer in my room. I was a floating, invisible point of consciousness, hovering just behind Lin Feng's shoulder as he navigated the stinking, labyrinthine sewer tunnels beneath the capital. I could see what he saw, hear what he heard.
I watched as he found the entrance to the black market, a hidden door behind a waterfall of filth. I watched him enter a bustling, torchlit cavern filled with rogues, assassins, and cultivators of every stripe.
And I saw the stall. It was run by a bizarre, multi-limbed creature in a garish robe—the Gacha-Master. On a velvet cushion behind him, humming with a faint, otherworldly energy that made my own system vibrate in sympathy, was the Lottery Wheel. It looked like a small, intricate astrolabe made of silver and a strange, shimmering crystal. The fragment.
I saw Seraphina, too. She was at the edge of the crowd, cloaked and hooded, observing, waiting for her own moment to act.
This was the stage. All the players were in position.
Now, to trigger the paradox. I opened my own Quest Board.
[Option: Create Custom Quest]
[Quest Type: Group Quest]
[Group: 'The Unseen']
[Designate Recipient: Lin Feng]
I paused. This was the critical moment. I was about to use my system to issue a quest to my rival, a quest whose reward was a part of my own system's fragmented self.
[Quest Title: The Wheel of Fortune]
[Objective: Win the 'Wheel of Fate' artifact from the Gacha-Master.]
[Reward: Your Freedom.]
I did not list an item or SP reward. The reward was conceptual. It was a promise. But the system had to process it. It had to create a reward package to be delivered upon completion.
I hit 'Confirm'.
The system in my mind stuttered. For a full second, the interface froze, a cascade of error runes flashing across the screen so quickly I couldn't read them. It was trying to process the impossible, paradoxical command. My system giving a quest to an outsider, to win a piece of itself, for a non-quantifiable reward.
Then, the quest appeared in my log. And through my Phantom Observer, I saw a new quest notification flash in Lin Feng's own, blood-red interface. He had received it. The trap was set.
Lin Feng, following my orders, stepped up to the Gacha-Master's stall. The game was simple. A set of three enchanted dice. Roll a triple six, and you win the grand prize. The odds were astronomical.
He began to play, and he began to lose. His pouch of gold dwindled. He was focused, desperate, his protagonist's luck apparently having deserted him.
From the shadows, Seraphina watched, a patient predator. She was likely waiting for him to fail, so she could step in and acquire the wheel through other means—bribery, or force.
Lin Feng was down to his last few coins. He gritted his teeth, his hatred for me warring with his desperate need for freedom. He threw the dice one last time.
Click. Clack. Rattle.
Six.
Six.
...Six.
An audible gasp went through the crowd. Lin Feng stared, his own eyes wide with disbelief. He had done it. Against all odds, he had won.
The Gacha-Master, looking thoroughly displeased, handed over the Lottery Wheel fragment.
Lin Feng held the artifact in his hands. And the moment he did, the quest completed.
My system didn't just stutter this time. It screamed.
A wave of pure, conceptual agony ripped through my consciousness. It was the feeling of a god being forced to violate its own, most fundamental laws.
[!!! PARADOX DETECTED !!!]
[HOST SYSTEM (NEXUS CODEX) HAS AWARDED A REWARD ('FREEDOM') TO A NON-AFFILIATED USER (LIN FENG) FOR THE ACQUISITION OF A CORE SYSTEM FRAGMENT ('LOTTERY WHEEL').]
[CAUSALITY LOOP ERROR! OWNERSHIP PROTOCOL VIOLATION! REWARD DISTRIBUTION FAILURE!]
[LOGIC BOMB DETONATED.]
[INITIATING 'THE GLITCH' PROTOCOL. FORCED REBOOT OF A RANDOM CORE FUNCTION IS NOW UNDERWAY.]
[SELECTED FUNCTION FOR REBOOT AND UNBOUND UPGRADE: THE QUEST BOARD.]
The familiar blue quest board in my mind dissolved into a chaotic static. Then, it reformed, no longer a simple list, but a shimmering, three-dimensional star chart. It was no longer a board of quests given to me.
It was a map of destiny itself. And it now gave me the ability to view, and even interfere with, the Main Quests of other System users in my vicinity.
I could see Seraphina's quest log. I could see Lin Feng's.
And as I reeled from this incredible, paradigm-shifting upgrade, a final, horrifying twist emerged from the chaos.
The Lottery Wheel fragment in Lin Feng's hands suddenly flared with a brilliant, blinding light. It had been won, its ownership transferred, and now it was activating. But it wasn't binding to Lin Feng. The paradox had broken its affiliation protocols. It was now a wild, untethered piece of cosmic power.
It shot out of Lin Feng's hands and into the air. And then, it split into three pieces.
One piece shot towards me, phasing through the palace walls and merging with my own system.
One piece shot towards Seraphina, who caught it with a look of stunned triumph.
And the third piece, to everyone's utter shock, shot directly into the chest of a trembling, wide-eyed figure who had been hiding in the back of the crowd, a person who should not have been there.
My sister. Lyra Ravencrest.