The silence that followed the System's declaration was deafening, and for the very first time, Zane got the full meaning behind the phrase, the sound of silence. He stood frozen with his breath lodged in his throat as the words kept on resounding in his head over and over again.
'NULL. Bugspawn.'
These were words he believed he had never heard before, words he was unfamiliar with, but he strangely understood exactly what they meant in contrast to his present situation.
His fingers twitched at his sides with his nails digging into his palms hard enough to draw blood, but he wasn't paying attention to them. Around him, the plaza had erupted into gasps and murmurs, with whispers finally beginning to fill the air all around him.
Throughout his life, Zane had never gotten so much attention. He was always the Ironvale slum, the boy who worked odd jobs just to afford food, but now he had managed to have everyone's eyes on him, including the SysPaladins, the order Zane had loved and adored since the day he was pulled out of the flames by a SysPaladin.
"NULL? How is that even possible?"
"A Bugspawn? The System hasn't designated one in centuries!"
"Poor boy"
The whispers and murmurs slowly went on, but Zane barely heard them. His heartbeat was the only thing he could hear at the moment, and it was drowning out all reason. This can't be real.
"Grandmaster," he rasped with his voice cracking, "there must be some mistake. Please… scan me again."
Grandmaster Aldric, with his expression unreadable beneath the small weight of his golden circlet, stepped forward, and the Archmages beside him exchanged uneasy glances.
"The system does not err, boy. Its judgment is absolute," he declared.
Zane's stomach dropped. No. This can't be happening!
His eyes darted wildly across the crowd and finally landed on Lyra. Her hands were clasped over her mouth with her wide and horrified eyes glistening with unshed tears. Tears she was barely holding back as she looked at him. Further back, Ryn stood with a smirk so vicious it could have won him an award.
The Grandmaster waved a hand with his voice cold and bearing no emotions at all.
"A bug spawn cannot be allowed within our borders. The anomaly risks corrupting the system's integrity. Remove him. Immediately."
Zane's blood turned to ice. No. They can't…
But the SysPaladins moved before he could protest. Two of them, who were towering figures in gleaming white and gold, came toward him. Zane stumbled back, but hands like iron clamped around his arms and lifted him effortlessly off his feet.
"Wait! Please, please, I... this has to be wrong! I... I can't be…" His voice shattered.
The visor of the nearest SysPaladin reflected his own face, which was now pale and sweaty, with his eyes wild with terror. For the briefest moment, he could've sworn he saw the female knight's grip tremble.
Pity? But it didn't matter.
He was being thrown out of the city by the same people who had always dreamed of joining, the very system which he had dreamed of serving wholeheartedly was now throwing him out as a bugspawn and an anomaly.
They dragged him through the streets, and he didn't struggle. He knew fully well that the SysPaladins were more than capable of throwing him out without much effort, and to struggle would be to disgrace himself.
People watched. Some with pity and others with relief, as if grateful it wasn't them being hauled to the gates like refuse. Zane thrashed subtly and pleaded, but the SysPaladins' grip was unyielding against his hands.
He had never been so ashamed of himself before. If there was an afterlife, he imagined his parents watching him in shame. At least they had managed to be E-Ranked adepts, whereas he, on the other hand, was declared a Null and an error in the system.
By the time they reached the city's towering gates, his throat was raw and hurting from screaming.
An automaton NPC stamped with the System's insignia stepped forward with its voice flat and mechanical.
"Warning: You are now exiting Chronos Eos. The Outlands are beyond the System's protection." It shoved a single loaf of stale bread into his hands. "Caution advised. Hostile entities, corrupted data, and deleted programs inhabit this region. Survival is unlikely. Proceed at your own risk."
Zane stared at the bread. They were giving him just one loaf without water, weapons, or a class.
This is a death sentence!
The gates groaned open, revealing an intimidating view of the dreaded outlands beyond. The SysPaladins shoved him forward, and Zane barely caught himself before face-planting into the dirt. He whipped around in his desperation just in time to see Lyra pushing through the crowd with her face displaying the fear that only mirrored Zane's.
"ZANE…!"
The gates slammed shut between them, cutting out her cry.
Then came silence.
Zane stood there for a while, trembling as the gravity of his exile crashed down on him with waves of fear and panic.
He had no class, no home, and no future.
Behind him, the Outlands stretched endlessly as a twisted region of data corruption, where damaged trees warped like glitched polygons and the sky flickered with errors. Strange and half-deleted shapes moved in the shadows with whispers of forgotten NPCs and monsters that weren't meant to exist.
Zane swallowed hard. This was it, the beginning of the end for him. Surely there was no way he was going to make it out of this alive.
Then he heard a rustle.
His head snapped to the side. Something was watching him from the trees. No, several things were watching him. Glowing eyes blinked in the dark and was followed by a low growl of a creature he didn't even want to see.
Zane's heartbeat increased drastically. He took a step back, only to freeze as another sound answered from behind him.
He was surrounded, and the monsters slithered closer.
Zane Crowe, the newly named NULL, Bugspawn, and the boy with no class realized with numb horror that he was about to die in a place where the System couldn't even register his corpse.