Maya's POV
The coffee shop was too crowded for murder.
That's what I told myself as I pushed through the door, knife hidden in my jacket pocket. My eyes scanned the room, looking for Jae-hyun. Looking for the man who might kill me.
He sat in the back corner, two coffee cups already on the table. His black eyes found mine immediately, and something passed between us. Recognition. Wariness.
Fear.
I walked over, each step feeling like walking to my execution. My system stayed silent—no warnings, no alerts. Either Jae-hyun wasn't planning to attack, or he was so powerful my system couldn't detect his intentions.
Neither option was comforting.
"You came," he said as I sat down. "I wasn't sure you would."
"I almost didn't." My hand stayed in my pocket, fingers wrapped around the knife handle. "The message you got. Show me."
Jae-hyun pulled out his phone without argument. The screen glowed with golden text:
[EMERGENCY ALERT - VOID KING SYSTEM][TARGET IDENTIFIED: MAYA CHEN][THREAT LEVEL: EXTINCTION CLASS][Her Death's Architect system will corrupt in 72 hours][She will become the Zombie Queen - humanity's greatest enemy][DIRECTIVE: Eliminate her before awakening][REWARD: Unlock True Void King abilities][This message will self-destruct in 60 seconds]
I read it twice, my stomach twisting. "Zombie Queen?"
"That's what it said." Jae-hyun leaned back. "According to this message, you're destined to lose control of your powers. To become the thing that ends the world instead of the zombies themselves."
"And you believe it?"
"No." His answer was immediate. "Because whoever sent this made a critical mistake."
"What mistake?"
Jae-hyun's eyes locked onto mine. "The message said my system would unlock 'True Void King abilities' if I killed you. But I already have those abilities. I unlocked them in the first timeline at level seventy-five." He tapped his phone. "Whoever sent this doesn't actually know what happened in our timeline. They're guessing. Lying."
Relief flooded through me. "So you're not here to kill me."
"I'm here to figure out who wants us to kill each other." He pushed one of the coffee cups toward me. "And why they're so desperate to keep us apart."
I took the cup but didn't drink. "Yiren got a message too. It told her I'd enslave humanity. That I'd kill her and Ethan."
"Will you?"
The question hung in the air.
"I was planning to destroy them," I admitted. "Not kill them. Just... make them powerless. Make them feel what they made me feel."
"Past tense? You were planning?"
"Someone knowing the future is trying to prevent it." I set down the cup. "Which means my revenge might be more important than I thought. Important enough that someone's willing to sabotage the entire timeline to stop me."
Jae-hyun nodded slowly. "I've been thinking about that. About who has the power to send false system messages." He leaned forward. "In the first timeline, there were rumors. Whispers about a hidden player. Someone with an Administrator system—a system that could control other systems."
My blood went cold. "Control other systems? That's possible?"
"It shouldn't be. Systems are supposed to be locked to individual players. But—" He hesitated. "Three months before I died in the first timeline, I encountered someone. A woman. She could see my system interface. Could read my stats, my abilities, everything." His jaw clenched. "And then she changed them."
"Changed them how?"
"She reduced my level from seventy-five to seventy. Just... deleted my experience like it never existed." His hands curled into fists. "I tried to fight her, but my powers wouldn't work. She'd locked them. Turned them off like flipping a switch."
"What happened to her?"
"I don't know. She vanished. But before she left, she said something." His eyes met mine. "She said, 'The timeline is broken. Someone changed it. And I'm here to fix it, even if I have to kill every anomaly.'"
The words hit me like a punch. "Anomaly. Like us. People who came back."
"Exactly." Jae-hyun's voice dropped. "What if we weren't supposed to return? What if our resurrection broke something fundamental about the timeline? And now someone—some Administrator—is trying to fix it by eliminating us?"
My mind raced. It made horrible sense. We'd cheated death. Changed fate. Of course something would push back.
"But who is she?" I asked. "And why send others to kill us instead of doing it herself?"
"Because she can't." Jae-hyun's smile was bitter. "Administrator systems are powerful, but they have limits. She can manipulate systems, send messages, alter stats. But she can't directly harm players. It's a built-in restriction."
"So she's turning everyone against us."
"Yes. Making them think we're the villains. Making them think killing us is heroic." He pulled up something on his phone. "I hacked into the city's surveillance system earlier. Look at this."
The video showed a woman in a black coat standing outside my apartment building. She had silver hair and eyes that glowed with the same golden light as system screens. As I watched, she touched the building's wall—and a pulse of light spread outward.
"That was two hours ago," Jae-hyun said. "Right before your sister attacked you. She activated Yiren's system early and sent that message."
I stared at the woman's face, memorizing it. "We need to find her."
"Agreed. But first—" He reached across the table and grabbed my wrist. The touch sent electricity through my arm. "I need to know something. The truth."
"What?"
"In the first timeline, when I found your body..." His grip tightened. "I felt like my world was ending. Like I'd lost something irreplaceable. But we'd never met. I'd only seen you once, from a distance." His black eyes searched mine. "Why did a stranger's death destroy me?"
My heart hammered. "I don't know."
"I think you do." He pulled my hand closer, his thumb pressing against my pulse point. "Because standing here, touching you, I feel it again. That sense of connection. Like we're not strangers. Like we've known each other for—"
His eyes widened.
"What?" I asked.
"Your pulse." He stared at our joined hands. "It's synchronized with mine. Exactly. Same rhythm, same beat." He looked up at me, shocked. "That's impossible. Unless—"
My system blazed to life:
[SOUL RESONANCE DETECTED][PARTNER IDENTIFIED: KANG JAE-HYUN][CLASSIFICATION: FATED PAIR][MEANING: Your souls are bound across timelines][WARNING: If one dies, the other's power is cut in half][CURRENT RESONANCE LEVEL: 23%]
"No," I breathed.
Jae-hyun's phone lit up with his own system message. From his expression, he was reading the same thing.
"Fated pair," he whispered. "We're connected. That's why your death hurt me. Why I felt like I'd lost part of myself." He released my wrist, standing up abruptly. "This changes everything."
"How?"
"Because the Administrator knows." His face had gone pale. "She knows that together, we're too powerful to stop. That's why she's trying to make us kill each other. If we work together, we're unstoppable. But apart—"
The coffee shop window exploded inward.
Glass rained down as a figure crashed through, moving with inhuman speed. Silver hair. Glowing golden eyes.
The Administrator.
She landed in a crouch in the center of the shop, civilians screaming and running around her. Her eyes locked onto me and Jae-hyun.
"Found you," she said, her voice layered with power. "The two little anomalies who broke my perfect timeline."
Jae-hyun moved in front of me, power gathering around his hands. "Stay back."
"Oh, I'm not here to kill you." Her smile was terrifying. "I'm here to offer you a choice." She raised one hand, and every phone in the coffee shop started glowing. Every screen showed the same message:
[GLOBAL SYSTEM ANNOUNCEMENT][IN 60 SECONDS, ALL PLAYERS WILL RECEIVE A QUEST][QUEST: KILL MAYA CHEN AND KANG JAE-HYUN][REWARD: SSS-RANK UPGRADE + IMMUNITY TO APOCALYPSE][EVERY AWAKENED IN SEOUL IS NOW HUNTING YOU]
She laughed as chaos erupted.
"Run, little anomalies. Run and hide. Because in one minute, five thousand awakened humans are going to want you dead."
Then she vanished, blinking out of existence.
Jae-hyun grabbed my hand. "We need to go. Now."
"Where? She's turned everyone against us!"
"I know a place." He pulled me toward the back exit. "But Maya? We're about to find out who our real friends are."
Behind us, phones started chiming. The quest had arrived.
And five thousand hunters had just locked onto their prey.