The silence that followed the shelf's collapse was more deafening than the crash itself. Kaelen stood paralyzed, his chest burning with every ragged breath, the scent of centuries-old dust choking him. Before his eyes, two realities fought for supremacy: the physical sight of shattered books and splintered wood, and the spectral-green text overlay declaring his temporary victory.
Entity: Codex Guardian (Unit 734) Status: Temporarily Incapacitated (Estimated reboot time: 179 seconds).
One hundred and eighty seconds. Three minutes. The time it took him to catalog a simple pamphlet. Now, it was the time he had to rewrite the rest of his life.
The euphoria of survival evaporated, replaced by the icy panic of logic. He was an anomaly. A bug in the system. And the system had antibodies. The creature under the rubble was just one. How many more were there in this library, this city, this world?
His gaze locked onto the notification from the Codex, which still floated before him like a divine and dangerous promise.
[system.kernel] Reward: Granting 'Edit' Access Level (Restricted).
Edit. The word sent a jolt through his archivist's mind. He was no longer just an observer. He could alter. He could correct. He could… delete.
[Estimated reboot time: 152 seconds].
There was no time. Flee. That was the only logical imperative. His old life as Archivist Third Class had ended the moment he touched that book. Now, he was a fugitive.
His first obstacle was the wrought-iron gate separating the Forbidden Texts Section from the rest of the library. It was always locked at night. A formality, since no one was foolish enough to venture in. Kaelen approached, and the text shimmered into existence over the dark metal.
Object: Section Seven Iron Gate Status: Locked Structural Integrity: 98% Lock Mechanism: Reinforced Steel Tumbler Lock (Complexity: 7/10)
In the past, this would have been the end of the line. Now, it was a sentence waiting to be edited. Kaelen focused on the line Status: Locked. He didn't know the exact process; there was no instruction manual. He acted on instinct—the instinct of a man who had spent his life correcting cataloging errors. He visualized the word "Locked" being struck through, replaced by "Unlocked."
The Codex in front of him pulsed.
[user.kaelen] Attempting to edit variable [Status]. [system.kernel] Processing... Access Level verified. [system.kernel] Edit confirmed.
With a loud, sharp click that echoed through the silent hall, the heavy steel lock retracted. The gate swung open with a low groan.
A dizzying wave of power washed over Kaelen, a sense of absolute control he had never known. For a breathtaking second, he felt like a god in this garden of code. But the sensation was immediately chased by another, one that made him shudder. A chill that didn't come from the night air, but from within. A feeling of… dissonance. As if by fixing one off-key note in the world's song, he had introduced a subtle distortion to the entire melody.
A new notification, this one in a cautionary amber hue, appeared in his vision.
[system.kernel] Alert: Entropy Generation [0.5%]. Direct alteration of state variables generates residual corruption. Excessive accumulation may lead to catastrophic system failures and attract the attention of higher-tier Guardians.
Entropy. Corruption. So every edit left a scar on reality. An editor's signature. He wasn't a god; he was a vandal scribbling in the manuscript of the world, and each mark made the text more unstable.
[Estimated reboot time: 112 seconds].
The warning snapped him into focus. He slipped through the gate and ran, not carelessly, but with calculated purpose. His legs pumped, but his mind was reading the environment. He could see the glowing lines of code representing the patrol routines of the library's cleaning automatons, the dormant arcane sensors embedded in the walls. The world was no longer a place of objects, but of interconnected systems. And he could read the diagram.
He saw a glowing path ahead, indicating the route of a brass-plated automaton. [Cleaning Automaton 04 // Pathing: Aisle 4 -> Aisle 5 // ETA: 12 seconds]. He altered his course, ducking behind a row of shelves just as the machine whirred past, its optical sensors glowing a placid blue, completely unaware of his presence.
But just escaping wasn't enough. A missing archivist, an incapacitated Guardian, an anomalous book out of place. He had left too much evidence. Too many anomalies that would point directly to him.
A good archivist doesn't leave unfilled records.
He changed direction, sprinting toward the heart of the library: the Hall of Central Registry. It was a cavernous chamber where the logs of every book, every visitor, and every event were kept. If he was a bug in the system, then he needed to delete himself from the changelog.
He found the night's activity log, a massive tome lying open on a pedestal. His quill was still beside it. He wouldn't need it. As he looked at the page, he saw the code behind the ink.
Activity Log: Night Cycle 4.13 ... 21:05 - Master Archivist Elara begins verification rounds. 22:17 - Archivist Kaelen logs final check of Section Seven. 22:23 - [ANOMALY DETECTED] Uncatalogued book (ID: null) accessed by user [kaelen]. 22:24 - Containment protocol initiated. Guardian Unit 734 dispatched.
There it was. His death warrant, written in invisible ink.
Deleting the entire entry would be too large, too noisy of an edit. The Entropy generated would be catastrophic. But… what if he just edited the subject? It was a far more delicate operation.
He focused on the line ...accessed by user [kaelen]. His heart hammered. This was infinitely more complex than a simple door status. This was rewriting an event.
[user.kaelen] Attempting to edit variable [user]. Change [kaelen] to [null].
The Codex flared brightly.
[system.kernel] WARNING: High-level edit requested. Altering a historical event log requires a higher Access Level. [system.kernel] ... [system.kernel] Exception detected: User is the anomaly in question. Temporary permission granted for self-containment edit. [system.kernel] Edit confirmed.
The line of text in his vision and the line of ink in the physical book flickered and changed.
22:23 - [ANOMALY DETECTED] Uncatalogued book (ID: null) accessed by [ERROR: DATA CORRUPTED].
Success. But the cost was immediate and violent.
[system.kernel] Alert: Entropy Generation [5.0%]. Total Entropy Level: 5.5%.
A spike of pure agony lanced through his skull. The green code of his vision flickered violently, lines of it dissolving into angry red static. Nausea churned in his stomach, the world tilting on its axis as if reality itself was buckling under the strain of his alteration. He had erased himself from the record, but the smudge his edit left on the world was now ten times larger. A smudge that other Guardians would undoubtedly come to investigate.
But it had bought him time.
He staggered out of the Registry Hall, heading for the main exit. The grand oak doors of the Great Library, which had always seemed like the entrance to his entire world, were now his escape hatch.
He pushed them open and stumbled into the cold night of Aethel. The crisp air was a shock to his lungs. The cobblestone streets, the gas lanterns casting long shadows, the distant sounds of a tavern—it was all at once familiar and alien. Because now, he saw the overlays. He saw [Status: Weary] hovering over a passing carriage driver, [Intoxication Level: 47%] over a stumbling reveler, the [Structural Integrity: 68%] of the distant clock tower.
He was a stranger in his own home. A man who saw the scaffolding of the world.
He needed to disappear. A dark alley between a bakery and a tailor's shop seemed the perfect refuge. He plunged into the shadows, his back sliding against a cold, damp brick wall, finally allowing himself a deep breath.
That's when he felt the impact. He wasn't alone. He had collided with someone moving with the same furtive silence as himself.
His first instinct was to apologize and step away, but his new sense—his Read—activated first, locking onto the figure before him. It was a woman, wrapped in a dark, hooded cloak, but the text that bloomed in his vision was more revealing than any face.
Entity: Lyra Class: Paladin of the Holy Order (Level 52) Status: Broken, Disgraced, Fugitive. Attributes: Strength: 68, Agility: 55, Intellect: 34, Faith: 9 (CORRUPTED).
The word CORRUPTED glowed in a sickly red, a system error as blatant as the book he had found. A paladin's faith was their core. A corrupted faith was an impossibility, a paradox. She was, in her own way, an anomaly. Just like him.
The woman lifted her head, and the faint light from the street illuminated her face. It was young, with sharp features and eyes that held an exhaustion so deep it seemed ancient. There was no fear in them, only a hard, steel-like suspicion. Her gaze locked onto him, and for a terrifying instant, Kaelen thought she could see the code shimmering around him.
"You," she said, her voice low and raspy, yet carrying an unmistakable note of authority. She took a step forward, invading his space. "What's wrong with you? You're… broken, too."