Leo didn't feel powerful.
That was the problem.
Level 20 sat on his status like a quiet accusation—no skills, no class, no visible stats beyond the number itself. Just UNRESTRICTED, blinking softly like a threat wrapped in neutrality.
Hale shut the apartment blinds manually. Old-school. No System interference.
"Listen carefully," she said. "At Level 20, regular hunters start getting curious. At Level 30, guilds investigate. At Level 50—"
"The Architects," Leo finished.
Cross shot him a look. "You shouldn't even know that word."
Leo rubbed his temples. Fragments from the Failed Instance still buzzed in his skull—broken lines of code, half-voices, glimpses of structures behind the System. Not knowledge. Afterimages.
"I didn't learn it," Leo said. "It brushed against me."
Silence followed.
That's when the alert hit.
Not his.
Global Emergency Notice.
⚠ HIGH-PRIORITY EVENT ⚠
LOCATION: ZONE D-17 (SEOUL OUTSKIRTS)
STATUS: MULTIPLE HUNTER TERMINATIONS
CAUSE: UNKNOWN
Cross swore. "That's a managed zone. A-rank supervision minimum."
Hale's eyes flicked to Leo.
"Not me," he said immediately.
"I know," she replied. "That's worse."
Zone D-17 looked like a war zone.
Concrete folded inward like paper. Streets warped into impossible angles. The air shimmered with unstable physics—gravity pulling sideways in places, upward in others.
Bodies lay everywhere.
Hunters.
Real ones.
Their gear intact. Their cores shattered.
Leo felt it the moment he stepped in.
Absence.
Not death—removal.
"These weren't killed," Hale muttered, kneeling by a corpse. "They were… overwritten."
Cross scanned the area. "No dungeon signature. No gate residue."
Leo's hollow stirred uneasily.
Something here felt familiar.
Too familiar.
Then the System flickered.
UNAUTHORIZED ENTITY DETECTED
The air split open.
A man stepped out—tall, well-dressed, smiling like this was a scheduled meeting.
No level display.
No guild insignia.
No System presence at all.
But the world bent slightly around him, like reality was deferring.
Cross raised his weapon instantly.
Hale didn't.
She went still.
"…Architect," she said.
The man chuckled softly. "Ah. You still use that word."
Leo's chest tightened.
This was different from the Failed Instance voice.
This one was present.
"Don't worry," the man continued pleasantly. "I'm not here for you. Yet."
His gaze slid to Leo.
And paused.
For half a second—
The smile faltered.
Then widened.
"Well," he said. "That's new."
The System screamed in Leo's head.
Not an alert.
A warning without words.
The Architect took a step closer.
Every instinct Leo had—human or otherwise—told him to pull.
To consume.
To erase.
But the hollow didn't obey.
For the first time—
It hesitated.
"Interesting," the Architect murmured. "You're not a deviation."
He tilted his head. "You're a blind spot."
Hale moved instantly, placing herself between them.
"He's under Order protection," she snapped.
The Architect laughed.
"Order?" He waved a hand dismissively. "You're an outdated patch pretending to be law."
He leaned closer, voice lowering.
"This zone collapsed because someone reached Level 30 without permission."
Cross froze. "That's impossible."
"Was," the Architect corrected. "Until tonight."
His eyes flicked—not to Leo.
But past him.
The ground behind them cracked.
Something crawled out.
A hunter.
Or what remained of one.
Its level flickered violently: 29 → 31 → 28 → ERROR
The body convulsed, reality tearing and resealing around it.
"Prototype," the Architect sighed. "Failed."
The thing screamed and rushed forward.
Hale fired.
The shot passed through it like smoke.
Cross emptied a clip.
Nothing.
Leo stepped forward.
The hollow roared.
The world slowed.
Not time—priority.
The corrupted hunter lunged.
Leo grabbed its face.
And pulled.
This time, resistance fought back.
Not strength.
Rules.
The System tried to intervene.
The Architect watched closely.
Then—
Crack.
The rules broke.
The corrupted hunter collapsed inward, unraveling into raw data that slammed into Leo like a tidal wave.
Pain exploded behind his eyes.
WARNING: FOREIGN STRUCTURE INGESTED
SYSTEM CONFLICT DETECTED
LEVEL UP
20 → 22 → 25
The ground shook.
The Architect's smile vanished completely.
"…You consumed a regulated entity," he said quietly.
Leo staggered but stayed upright.
The hollow burned now—hot, angry, awake.
"Yeah?" Leo said hoarsely. "It was attacking."
"That wasn't permission," the Architect replied.
He straightened.
For the first time, the air around him felt heavy.
"Level Zero," he said. "You are now visible."
Hale swore under her breath.
Cross whispered, "What does that mean?"
The Architect looked at Leo like a scientist spotting a flaw in reality.
"It means," he said calmly, "every system above you will start asking the same question."
He stepped back, reality sealing behind him.
"How long before he breaks the ceiling?"
The System chimed one last time.
LEVEL ZERO STATUS UPDATE
ARCHITECT ATTENTION: CONFIRMED
NEXT CONFLICT: INEVITABLE
The silence afterward felt louder than the screams.
Hale turned to Leo slowly.
"You just crossed the line," she said.
Leo clenched his fists.
Inside, the hollow didn't feel empty anymore.
It felt hungry.