The interior of the Association sedan smelled of lavender and cold sterile magic.
Agent Vance drove with one hand on the wheel, her eyes occasionally flicking to the rearview mirror.
She wasn't just looking at Ezra; she was scanning him. Her eyes glowed with a faint, rhythmic blue light—a High-Grade Appraisal skill.
Ezra sat in the back, staring out the window. He could feel her magic washing over him, trying to peel back his layers to see the monster underneath.
She's digging, the Voice in his head whispered. She's looking for the source code.
"Your file says you have a crippled leg," Vance said, her tone conversational but sharp. "Born with congenital mana atrophy. Yet, you walked to the car."
"The dungeon," Ezra lied effortlessly. "I found a high-grade potion on a corpse. drank it. It fixed the leg."
"A potion that cures genetic atrophy?" Vance raised an eyebrow. "That would be an S-Rank Elixir. Worth billions. And you just... drank it?"
"I was dying," Ezra said. "I didn't check the price tag."
Vance drummed her fingers on the steering wheel. "And the mana spike? The B-Rank readings?"
Ezra shrugged. "Maybe the potion had a side effect. Or maybe the Ogre blew up."
Vance didn't buy it. Ezra knew she didn't buy it. But without proof, she couldn't arrest him. The System—the one she trusted—was reporting him as an F-Rank porter with zero mana.
Because the System was wrong.
[System Error masking active.]
[Your existence is hidden within the corrupted sectors.]
[To her eyes, you are Empty.]
"We're here," Vance said, pulling the car up to the emergency entrance of St. Jude's Hospital.
Ezra opened the door before the car fully stopped. "Thanks for the ride."
"I'm coming with you," Vance said, killing the engine. "I need to verify your alibi regarding the payment. And... I'm curious."
Ezra didn't argue. He walked through the sliding glass doors, the antiseptic smell of the hospital hitting him instantly. It was a smell he hated. It smelled like sickness and poverty.
He walked straight to the reception. The nurse, a tired woman named Brenda who knew him well, looked up. Her eyes widened when she saw him standing tall, without his brace.
"Ezra?" she blinked. "You're... walking."
"I got lucky, Brenda," Ezra said, tapping the counter. "Check the account. Maya Cohen."
Brenda typed on her keyboard. Her jaw dropped. "50,000 Credits? Ezra, where did you—"
"Insurance settlement," he cut her off. "Update her status. I want her moved to a private room. And start the Mana Filter replacement immediately."
"R-right away!" Brenda scrambled for the phone.
Ezra turned. Vance was standing behind him, leaning against a pillar, watching.
"50,000," she mused. "Markus paid up fast. You must be very persuasive."
"I just reminded him of the contract terms."
"Right." Vance pushed off the pillar. "Can I meet her? The sister?"
Ezra's eyes narrowed. The temperature in the lobby dropped. The shadows under the reception desk twitched.
"Don't," Ezra said. His voice was low, vibrating with a frequency that made Vance's investigative badge tremble. "Do not bring your work into her room."
Vance paused. For a second, she felt it again—that primal warning. The sensation of standing on the edge of a cliff in the dark.
"Relax, Cohen," she said, raising her hands. "I'm not a monster. Just doing my job."
Room 404 was quiet. The only sound was the rhythmic hiss-click of the mana filtration machine.
Maya looked small in the bed. Her skin was pale, almost gray, and there were dark circles under her eyes.
The Mana Sickness was a cruel disease; it happened when a person's body couldn't filter the ambient mana in the air. Without the machine, the magic that empowered Hunters would slowly turn her blood into sludge.
Ezra sat in the chair beside her. He took her hand. It was cold.
"Hey," he whispered.
Maya's eyes fluttered open. They were the same color as his—brown, before his turned black.
"Ez?" she croaked. She squinted, focusing on him. "You're... standing?"
Ezra smiled. It was the first genuine smile he had shown since falling into the Abyss. "Yeah. I got fixed. A miracle."
"You look different," she whispered, squeezing his hand weakly. "You look... heavy."
Ezra squeezed back. "I'm just tired. But guess what? I paid the bill. All of it. You're getting the new filter tonight."
Maya smiled, a weak, fragile thing. "You didn't do anything stupid, did you? You didn't go into a Red Gate?"
"No," Ezra promised. "Just a standard run. Easy money."
Outside the room, in the hallway, Agent Vance was on her phone.
"Yes, Director," she spoke quietly. "I'm watching him. His records are clean, but my gut isn't. He wiped a C-Rank party without leaving a mark on them physically, but their mental states are shattered.
Markus is catatonic. He keeps muttering about 'the void'."
She paused, listening.
"No, no mana signature. That's the weird part. It's like he's a—"
[Warning.]
[Spatial Fracture Detected.]
[Location: Immediate Proximity.]
Ezra's head snapped up inside the room.
The air pressure dropped. The sound of the heart monitor warped, slowing down.
Here? Ezra thought, panic spiking in his chest. Now?
[The Abyss is attracted to you. You are a beacon. Where you go, the boundaries weaken.]
"No," Ezra hissed. "Not here."
A siren began to wail throughout the hospital. Red emergency lights started flashing.
"CODE RED," the intercom blared. "MANA INCURSION DETECTED. SECTOR: ICU. ALL CIVILIANS EVACUATE."
The ICU. That was this floor.
The wall opposite Maya's bed didn't break; it melted. The reality of the hospital room dissolved, revealing a swirling vortex of purple and black energy.
A Dungeon Gate. Opening directly inside a patient's room.
"Ez?" Maya sat up, terrified. "What's happening?"
Ezra stood up, placing himself between the bed and the swirling portal. "Stay in bed, Maya. Don't move."
From the portal, a claw emerged. It was made of blue crystal and rotting flesh.
[Enemy Detected: Crystal Ghoul (Level 8)]
Ghouls were fast. Vicious. They ate mana sources. To them, Maya's filtration machine was a dinner bell.
The Ghoul screeched and launched itself out of the portal, aiming straight for the bed.
Ezra raised his hand to erase it—
Bang!
A bullet made of condensed light slammed into the Ghoul's head, knocking it sideways. It crashed into the medical cart.
Agent Vance stood in the doorway, a glowing magical revolver in her hand.
"Evacuate the civilian!" Vance shouted, firing two more shots. Bang! Bang! The bullets chipped the Ghoul's crystal armor but didn't kill it. "I'll hold it off!"
"It's a Level 8," Ezra said calmly. "Your gun is C-Rank. You can't penetrate its hide."
"Go!" Vance yelled, reloading with a flick of her wrist.
The Ghoul recovered. It hissed, ignoring Vance, and lunged at Maya again.
Ezra didn't move to evacuate. He moved to intercept.
He couldn't use his full powers. If he summoned the Void or turned the Ghoul into dust, Vance would see. She would know he was the anomaly.
She would arrest him, and Maya would be left alone in the chaos.
I have to do this the hard way.
[Skill: Titan's Strength (Restricted Output).]
Ezra grabbed the IV pole standing next to the bed. It was a flimsy metal rod.
As the Ghoul flew through the air, jaws open, Ezra swung the pole.
He moved with the speed of a normal, high-tier athlete—fast, but not impossible. But the impact...
CLANG.
The metal pole hit the Ghoul's head. The kinetic force transferred perfectly. The Ghoul didn't just stop; it was batted out of the air like a baseball. It flew across the room and smashed through the bathroom door, shattering the tiles.
Vance stared. "That... that was pure strength. No mana reinforcement?"
"Adrenaline," Ezra said, dropping the bent pole.
From the portal, two more Ghouls emerged. Then a third.
"This is a Break," Vance cursed. "I can't hold three of them in a confined space." She tapped her earpiece. "Requesting backup! St. Jude Hospital! Level 3 Outbreak!"
"Backup will take ten minutes," Ezra noted. "They'll be dead by then."
He looked at Maya. She was shaking, clutching the sheets.
"Vance," Ezra said. "Take my sister. Get her out."
"What?" Vance fired a shot, distracting one of the Ghouls. "I'm the Hunter! You're the civilian! You take her!"
"I can't carry her fast enough," Ezra lied. "You have a speed buff. I'll hold them back with the furniture."
"You'll die!"
"Go!" Ezra roared.
The command was laced with a tiny fraction of [Authority]. Vance flinched. Her body moved before her brain could object. She grabbed Maya, wrapping the girl in a blanket.
"I'm coming back for you," Vance shouted at Ezra. Then she kicked the door open and sprinted down the hallway, carrying Maya to safety.
Ezra watched them disappear around the corner.
He turned back to the room. The three Crystal Ghouls were hissing, clicking their claws. They sensed the delicious mana of the sick girl was gone, so they turned their attention to the young man standing in the center of the room.
Ezra rolled his neck. A sickening crack echoed.
The mask dropped.
The fear vanished from his face, replaced by a bored, cold indifference. The shadows in the corners of the room surged forward, blocking the door and the windows.
"Okay," Ezra said. "She's gone."
His eyes went pitch black. The air in the room turned heavy, crushing the linoleum floor tiles.
[System Error: Restraints Removed.]
[Hunger: Active.]
The Ghouls screeched and charged.
Ezra didn't dodge. He didn't swing a pole. He simply opened his mouth.
It wasn't a physical bite. A spectral maw—a giant, jagged mouth made of pure entropy—manifested in the air above him.
"Eat," Ezra whispered.
The spectral maw snapped shut on the first Ghoul. There was no crunch. Just a slurp. The Ghoul vanished, erased from reality.
The other two Ghouls skidded to a halt. They were mindless killing machines, but even they knew when they were outclassed. They tried to scramble back into the portal.
"No takeout," Ezra said.
He raised a finger. [Shadow Step].
He flickered and appeared directly in front of the portal, blocking their exit.
He grabbed the heads of the two Ghouls.
[Devour.]
Black lightning crackled. The Ghouls dissolved into streams of blue and black data, flowing into his arms.
[Mana Absorbed.]
[Experience Gained.]
Ezra looked at the open portal—the tear in reality swirling on the wall. It was pulsing. Something bigger was trying to push through.
Ezra placed his hand on the event horizon of the gate.
Usually, only S-Rank Mages could close a gate by sealing it. Ezra didn't seal it.
He drank it.
He pulled the dimensional energy into himself. The vortex spun wildly, shrinking, destabilizing. The gate screamed—a sound like tearing metal—and then imploded.
Pop.
Silence.
The room was a wreck. The bathroom door was smashed, the IV pole was bent, but there were no monster corpses. No blood. Just Ezra, standing in the middle of a ruined hospital room, looking slightly more refreshed than before.
[Level Up!]
[Current Level: 13]
He heard footsteps running down the hall. Vance was coming back.
Ezra quickly kicked the bathroom wall, knocking more debris loose to make it look like a struggle. He ripped his jacket sleeve and scratched his own arm to draw a little blood.
He sat down on the floor, leaning against the overturned bed, panting heavily.
Vance burst into the room, her gun raised, followed by two armed hospital security guards.
She scanned the room. She saw the wreckage. She saw the closed gate. She saw Ezra bleeding on the floor.
"The Ghouls?" she demanded, spinning around. "Where are they?"
Ezra looked up, feigning exhaustion. "They... they went back in. The gate just... collapsed. I think it was unstable."
Vance lowered her gun. She looked at the wall where the gate had been. There was no trace of mana residue. That was impossible. Gates always left residue. Unless...
She looked at Ezra.
"You held off three Level 8s with a metal pole," she said softly.
"I got lucky," Ezra said again.
Vance holstered her weapon. She walked over and offered him a hand.
"You have a lot of luck, Ezra Cohen," she said, pulling him up. Her grip was tight. "But luck runs out. Eventually, the math doesn't add up."
Ezra met her gaze. His eyes were brown again. Normal.
"I'm good at math," he said.
[Status Window Updated]
Name: Ezra Cohen
Title: The Glitch, The One Who Hungers
Class: Entropy Bringer (Unique/Error)
Level: 13
Stats:
Strength: 22 (Superhuman)
Agility: 24 (Supersonic bursts)
Vitality: ∞ (Regenerates as long as Void energy exists)
Mana (Void): 150/200
Authority: 2 (The weight of your existence)
Active Skills:
Devour (Rank Ex): Consume organic/inorganic matter to restore energy and gain stats.
Shadow Step (Rank F -> E): Instant teleportation via shadows. Range increased to 50 meters.
Entropic Touch (Rank F): Decays matter on contact.
Heavy Impact (Rank D): Adds explosive kinetic force to physical attacks.
Passive Skills:
Titan's Strength: +10 Strength.
Intimidating Aura: Low-level enemies feel instinctive fear.
System Error Masking: Hides true stats from appraisal skills. Shows "F-Rank Porter".
Current Quest:
[The Awakening of the Kings]: The Abyss has noticed you. Other "Kings" are stirring.
Objective: Find a weapon capable of channeling Void Energy. Normal steel will crumble in your hands.