The sky scream was gone, and the silence was louder than any sound. The digital glitches that had been jumping around in the air were also gone, but I could still see them flickering in my eyes. I was still trying to understand the broken warnings and weird error codes when I saw them: a few people huddled together like scared animals. A small fire made shadows in the dark. I felt a bit of hope. People were alive, not just ghosts or signs of the System's breakdown. I walked up carefully, my boots crunching on the trash all over the ground. The air around them felt different, tense. It wasn't because of the sky scream; they were just really focused. As I got closer, I saw what they were doing. They were all staring at glowing screens close to their faces. Their fingers moved fast, and they seemed to be saying something quietly. The fire made their eyes shine with a crazy look. They were totally into their stats, levels, and all the little parts of their digital lives. Four heads looked up, surprised. The fire reflected on their screens, showing numbers and symbols I couldn't read from far away. But what got me was what they did. They didn't say hi or smile or ask where I was from. They just flinched, all at once.
The idea of breaking the system scared me. I knew things weren't right – strange stuff had been happening, and the world felt unstable. But I never thought I might be part of the problem or just a sign of it. I looked at myself, confused. I knew I had stats and skills. I remembered my interface glowing not long ago. But now, when I tried to see it, nothing happened. It was just empty where the text and numbers should be. A bad feeling matched the word they used: void. Sector Overseer? Containment? This was getting out of hand. I didn't come here to be called a threat, something to be deleted. I just wanted to know what was going on and find others who understood. Panic started to hit me. They weren't just scared; they were against me. Their fear made them want to protect their world and what the System said was real. And just by being here, I was a problem for them. The void. It was a name and a sentence. The more they said it, the more I felt it – a hole inside me, like I wasn't part of the world. My interface's glow, the System's messages, and my stats were all gone. It was like trying to breathe with no air or see with no light.
Their faces were twisted with fear and doubt when I looked at them. They were stuck in how the System told them things were, so they couldn't see me as anything but weird. They cared so much about their levels and numbers that they forgot the basic human stuff that should connect us.
He moved closer, and the others did too, making a half-circle around me. The fire behind them made long, strange shadows that seemed to make fun of me for trying to talk to them. I felt really desperate. I had to get away and find a place where I could understand what was going on with me, where I wasn't seen as an enemy just for being there.
I turned and took off. I didn't look back because I didn't want to see the fear or hate in their eyes. I ran into the growing darkness, and the quiet empty land was now a good friend to my confused thoughts. The noise from the sky was gone, but something new scared me now. It was the terror of being cut off, of being like a ghost in a world that was made on the very System I couldn't get into anymore. The nothingness they talked about wasn't just a word; it was a scary thing that was starting to destroy me from the inside. I needed to find my way to connect, my stats, my link to this world, before the nothingness ate me up completely.
I cleared my throat, trying to inject a friendly note into my voice. "Hello? Is anyone there?"
One of them, a woman with matted hair pulled back from a gaunt face, pointed a trembling finger at me. "What… what are you?" Her voice was a raspy whisper, laced with fear.
Another, a burly man whose arms were covered in what looked like crude tattoos that pulsed with faint light, scrambled to his feet, instinctively placing himself between me and the others. "Don't get any closer!" he barked, his voice rough. "It's… it's a void."
A void. The word hung in the air, heavy with implication. I frowned, trying to understand. "I'm just… I'm looking for other people," I said, holding my hands up in a gesture of peace. "I saw your fire."
A younger man, his face pale and etched with anxiety, clutched at his interface as if it were a lifeline. "You… you don't have one," he stammered, his gaze darting from my face to my empty hands. "No… no HUD. No stats. Nothing."
The woman's eyes narrowed, a flicker of something akin to disgust mixing with her fear. "A statless anomaly," she spat, the words tasting like poison. "They said they existed. Anomalies. Things that… break the System."
"I… I don't understand," I said, my voice sounding hollow even to my own ears. "What do you mean, 'statless'?"
The burly man scoffed, a humorless sound. "You're not even registered, are you? You don't have a Level. You don't have Attributes. You're not a Player." He said the last word with a sort of reverence, as if it were a sacred title.
"I'm… I'm Keiran," I offered, hoping my name would somehow bridge the gulf that was opening between us.
"Keiran," the woman repeated, as if tasting it. "A name. But no designated entity. No… data packet." She gestured vaguely at her own glowing display. "Look. My Constitution is 12. My Strength is 15. My Level is 7. I have the 'Scavenger' skill active. What do you have?"
"I… I can't see it right now," I admitted, my voice barely a whisper.
The burly man took a step back, his eyes wide. "See? It's true. It's a Ghost."
"A Ghost in the Machine," the younger man breathed, his voice filled with awe and terror.
The woman muttered something under her breath, then addressed the others. "Containment. We need to contain it. Report it to the Sector Overseer."
"Wait!" I called out, my voice rising. "I'm not a threat. I'm just… lost."
The burly man chuckled, a harsh, grating sound. "Lost? You're a broken piece of code, a bug in the grand design. And bugs… bugs get exterminated." He gestured towards me with a hand that seemed to glow with suppressed energy.
"I just want to understand," I pleaded, trying to keep my voice steady. "What happened to the sky? What are these glitches?"
The woman snorted. "Trifles. System fluctuations. Minor disruptions. Nothing that a Level 7 Scavenger with a decent Constitution can't handle. Unlike you." She emphasized the last word, her gaze sharp and accusatory.
"You're the anomaly," the younger man added, his voice gaining a sliver of confidence now that he was surrounded by his peers. "You're the reason things are… off. You're the void."
"But… I remember," I said, my voice barely audible. "I remember… having a system. I remember… leveling up. Skills. Quests." The words felt like ancient memories, dredged up from a forgotten past.
The burly man narrowed his eyes. "Lies. Delusions. The System doesn't forget. It doesn't break. You are broken."
"I don't want any trouble," I said, taking a step back.
"Trouble finds those who don't belong," the woman replied, her voice cold. "And you, anomaly, you don't belong here."