Kaelen lay on the rusted grating of the dock. His leg was bleeding, but the wound looked strange. The edges were grey and flaky, like burnt paper.
[System Notification][You have leveled up!][Level 2 -> Level 5][+15 Stat Points Unassigned]
Kaelen sat up. Level 5? He had spent three years grinding scraps just to get to Level 2. One kill gave him three levels?
He tried to open his Status Screen. Usually, it was a clean, holographic square. Now, the edges flickered with static.
Name: Kaelen Class: Glitch Walker (Unique) Level: 5 HP: 120/120 MP: ERROR (Source: Void)
Active Skills:
Decay (Lvl 1): Accelerate the entropy of a target. Cost: 5% Corruption.
Junk Sense (Lvl 3): Locate valuable scrap.
Passive Skills:
System Cloak: You are invisible to low-level scans.
"Corruption?" Kaelen whispered. "What is Corruption?"
A voice answered him. It wasn't audio. It was a text box that appeared directly in his mind, written in a font he had never seen.
[User: Kaelen. Do not speak that word aloud.]
Kaelen scrambled back, hitting a crate. "Who's there? Is that a GM?"
[I am the Sub-Routine of the Tenth Seed. You may call me 'Guide'.]
"A Guide? Like a tutorial fairy?"
[Negative. I am a patch designed to prevent the Apocalypse. You have inhaled the data of a Previous Cycle. You are now a virus in the System.]
Kaelen held his head. "I'm a virus? Look, I just want to sell scrap and buy food. Take it back."
[Impossible. The code has rewritten your DNA. Listen closely, User. The System is designed to hunt anomalies. If the Moderators (The Church) find you, they will format your soul.]
Kaelen went pale. The Church of the System. The Silver Masks. They were the terrifying enforcers who dragged people away in the night for "re-education."
[Hide the box. Spend your points. Act normal.]
Kaelen looked at the black box. He shoved it into his backpack. He dumped all 15 points into Agility. He needed to run.
"Hey! Rat-boy!"
Kaelen froze. Walking down the dock was Garrick, the winch operator. He was a Level 8 Brute, a low-tier thug who managed the scavenger docks.
"You been down there a long time," Garrick sneered, cracking his knuckles. "You owe me 30% of your haul."
Kaelen stood up. His leg throbbed. The Guide text appeared: [Threat Detected. Recommend using Decay.]
"No," Kaelen thought. "I can't kill a person."
"I... I didn't find anything good," Kaelen lied. "Just rebar."
Garrick frowned. He grabbed Kaelen's backpack. "Liar. I saw you pull something up. Let me see."
Garrick reached for the bag containing the Void Box.
Kaelen's heart hammered. If Garrick saw the box, he'd sell Kaelen to the Church for a reward.
Kaelen grabbed Garrick's wrist. He felt a cold pulse in his palm. The Decay wanted to come out. It was hungry.
"Don't," Kaelen warned, his voice surprisingly steady.
Garrick paused. He looked into Kaelen's eyes. For a second, Garrick didn't see the weak scavenger. He saw something... ancient. A shadow of a skeleton sitting on a pile of dust.
Garrick flinched back, instinctively terrified. "Freak," Garrick muttered, shaking off the feeling. "Fine. Keep your trash. But next week, the fee is double."
Garrick walked away, looking over his shoulder nervously.
[Crisis Averted.][Note: Your 'Presence' stat has increased.]
Kaelen let out a breath he didn't know he was holding. He limped toward the elevator to the slums.