The purple text seared itself into Leo's vision long after it had vanished, a phantom imprint of a truth too colossal to grasp. *Administrator Privileges. Catastrophic.* The words echoed in the silent, screaming chamber of his mind, a stark contrast to the very real, very physical snarl of the Void Hound shaking off its confusion.
Time, which had slowed to a crawl, snapped back with violent speed. The creature's yellow eyes fixed on him again, no longer just predatory but filled with a primitive, hateful intelligence. It recognized him now. Not as prey, but as a threat. An anomaly.
"Hey! Kid! Run!" Leo yelled, his voice raw, tearing his gaze from the monster to the little girl still frozen behind him. The sound of his own shout seemed to break her paralysis. She stumbled backward, her small feet scrambling on the asphalt, a terrified whimper escaping her lips.
The Void Hound ignored her. Its entire focus was on Leo. It paced, muscles coiling and uncoiling beneath its leathery hide, a low, continuous growl vibrating in the air. The other two hounds, sensing their leader's shift in attention, fanned out, forming a loose semicircle, cutting off his retreat. The scattered "heroes" were gone. The street was a stage for this bizarre standoff.
*Think, Leo, think!* His programmer's mind, rebooting from the shock, scrambled for a solution. The purple haze. What was it? How did he do it? It had felt like a reflex, a surge of pure will. He tried to summon it again, to consciously recreate the desperation and defiance he'd felt. He focused, gritting his teeth, imagining a wall of that same violet energy.
Nothing happened.
The lead hound lunged. This time, there was no mysterious force field. Only instinct. Leo threw himself to the side, the creature's claws ripping through the sleeve of his jacket and scoring a shallow, stinging line across his arm. He hit the ground hard, the impact knocking the wind out of him. Pain, sharp and real, shot through his shoulder. This was no game. The System might have given him a cryptic title, but it hadn't granted him a hero's plot armor.
He rolled onto his back, staring up at the hound as it loomed over him, drool dripping from its fangs. The smell of ozone and rot filled his nostrils. This was it. The grand reveal of the "Administrator" ended with him being torn apart in a dirty street.
A guttural shout echoed from the mouth of the alley he'd originally hidden in. "Hey, ugly! Over here!"
A trash can lid, hurled with surprising force, clanged against the hound's head. The creature flinched, turning its snarl towards the new interruption. It was Mark, the [Earth Mage], his face pale but set in a determined grimace. Behind him stood the girl with the shield, her name was Chloe, the shimmering barrier held firmly in front of her.
"Get up, Reject!" Mark yelled, his hands already weaving through the air. Chunks of pavement tore themselves free and orbited his fists. "We're not leaving you to be dog food!"
In that moment, Leo didn't care about the insult. The wave of relief was so potent it made him lightheaded. He scrambled to his feet, clutching his bleeding arm. Chloe advanced, her shield flaring brighter as one of the other hounds charged her. The impact sent a resonant *gong* sound through the street, but she held her ground, gritting her teeth.
"I can't hold them for long!" she shouted.
Mark let loose a volley of stone shards, peppering the lead hound and drawing its attention fully onto himself. "We need to fall back! To the university library! The walls are stone—I can reinforce them!"
It was the first coherent strategy Leo had heard since the Integration began. He didn't need to be told twice. He sprinted towards them, his heart hammering against his ribs. As he passed the little girl, who was now hiding behind a overturned car, he grabbed her hand. "Come on!"
The retreat was a chaotic, fighting withdrawal. Mark and Chloe formed the rearguard, using their abilities to slow the hounds' advance. Leo, with the child in tow, was the liability, the unpowered civilian they had inexplicably chosen to protect. The irony was bitter. He was supposedly an "Administrator," a threat level "Catastrophic," and he was being saved by a couple of beginners.
They burst through the heavy doors of the university library, slamming them shut. "Mark, now!" Chloe yelled, bracing her shield against the wood as the hounds threw themselves against it from the outside.
Mark slammed his palms onto the tiled floor. A deep rumble shook the building as the stone archway around the entrance thickened, new masonry grinding into place, sealing the doors behind a wall of solid rock. The pounding from outside became muffled, then distant. They were safe. For now.
Panting, they collapsed in the sudden quiet. The grand reading room was a wreck—overturned tables, scattered books, the evidence of the initial panic. Sunlight streamed through the high windows, illuminating dust motes dancing in the air. It was a tomb for a dead world.
The little girl, whose name was Lily, clung to Leo's leg, sobbing quietly. He knelt down, his own hands trembling, and tried to comfort her. "It's okay. You're safe now."
Mark leaned against his stone wall, wiping sweat from his brow. "Okay. What the hell was that, Leo?"
Leo looked up, meeting his gaze. "What was what?"
"That... purple thing," Chloe said, her voice hushed. "I saw it. When that thing jumped at you. The air went all wavy. And it looked... confused."
So, they had seen it. He couldn't pretend it didn't happen. But how could he explain it? He barely understood it himself. He decided on a half-truth, the only part that felt real. "I don't know. It just... happened. I panicked."
Mark snorted, but it lacked its earlier malice. "Panicked? Dude, my [Identify] skill didn't work on you when I tried it back there. It just says [Error]. Nobody else is like that." He pushed off the wall, his expression a mix of curiosity and suspicion. "Are you... are you even human?"
The question hung in the air, absurd and terrifying. Before Leo could formulate a response, a new voice, calm and authoritative, cut through the silence.
"The question is not *what* he is. The question is *why* the System recognizes him as an error."
A man stepped out from behind a bookshelf. He was tall, dressed in a tweed jacket that looked absurdly out of place, and held a thick, leather-bound volume. He looked to be in his late forties, with sharp, intelligent eyes that missed nothing. His head was completely bald, and a faint, intricate, silver tattoo was visible on his scalp. Most strikingly, a blue System screen hovered neatly beside his head, displaying his information:
**[Professor Aris Thorne - Class: Archivist - Level: 4]**
"You," Aris said, his gaze pinpointing Leo. "You are the source of the localized system instability. The anomaly."
Leo stood up slowly, putting himself between the professor and Lily. "Who are you?"
"A survivor. Like you. Though, it seems, unlike anyone else." Aris gestured with the book. "While everyone was outside panicking or playing hero, I was in here, researching. The System has a help menu, you know. A vast, convoluted database of rules, mechanics, and... protocols."
He walked closer, his eyes scanning Leo as if he were a fascinating specimen. "There's a brief, heavily redacted entry on something called the 'Anomaly Protocol.' It's triggered by the detection of an entity that exists outside the System's predefined parameters. An entity that possesses privileges which could, theoretically, overwrite the System's core programming."
Chloe and Mark exchanged bewildered looks. Leo's mouth went dry. *Overwrite the core programming.* The words from his phantom status screen echoed in his mind. *Administrator Privileges.*
"What are you saying, Professor?" Chloe asked, her shield flickering slightly.
"I'm saying," Aris said, his voice dropping to a conspiratorial whisper, "that the System didn't just give us powers and monsters. It's a closed environment, with strict rules. And he," he pointed at Leo, "is a bug. A glitch. And the System's primary directive, above all else, is to maintain its own integrity."
A cold dread trickled down Leo's spine. "What does that mean?"
"It means," Aris explained, his tone grimly academic, "that the System isn't necessarily on our side. It's on *its own* side. And if you are truly an 'Anomaly,' then you are not just a threat to the monsters. You are a threat to the System itself. And it will treat you as such."
As if on cue, a new, synthesized voice echoed, not from their individual screens, but from the very air around them. It was flat, devoid of emotion, and utterly chilling.
**[Regional Alert: Anomaly Detected in Sector 7-G.]**
**[Directive: Quarantine and Neutralize.]**
**[Dispatching Sentinel Units.]**
Outside the stone-sealed windows, a different sound joined the distant snarls of the Void Hounds. It was the rhythmic, heavy, metallic crunch of footsteps. Something much, much bigger was coming.
Leo looked at his hands, then at the terrified faces of Chloe and Mark. The professor's words had made one thing terrifyingly clear. The monster outside the door was no longer the biggest threat.
He was. And the System had just declared war.