The Library of Alexandria was screaming. The sound wasn't human; it was the screeching of millions of ancient scrolls turning to dust as the reality around them began to collapse. The "Architects" had triggered a wipeout protocol to erase the "Rebellious Merchant."
"Omar, the exits are vanishing!" Laila shouted, her daggers drawn, sparking with desperate mana.
Omar looked at the blue screen floating in front of him, flickering with red error messages.
[Warning: Host Rebellion Detected.]
[Initiating 'Forceful Reset' in 120 seconds.]
[Penalty for refusing 'The Loyalty Trial': Permanent Soul Deletion.]
"You want a sacrifice?" Omar growled, his eyes glowing with a mixture of defiance and the blue light of the System. "I'll give you a sacrifice. I sacrifice my status as your pawn!"
Omar didn't run for the exit. Instead, he ran back to the diamond desk of the Grand Archivist.
"Archivist! You said there's a 'Glitch' in the code. Tell me where it is, or everything you've protected for eons burns with me!"
The Archivist looked at the crumbling ceiling, then at Omar. For the first time, the old man smiled—a genuine, dangerous smile. "The glitch isn't in the library, boy. It's in the Emporium. Your shop is the only place the Architects cannot fully see. It is a 'Void Space'. If you can fuse your soul with the shop itself, you become the Architect of your own realm."
"How?"
"Give up the System," the Archivist whispered. "Delete the interface. Become a Merchant who trades with his own power, not theirs."
Suddenly, a red beam of light blasted through the library roof. Malakor the Collector descended, riding a massive mechanical spider. His eyes were cold, fueled by the orders of the higher powers.
"The Architects have doubled the price on your head, Omar!" Malakor laughed. "I don't even need your blueprints anymore. I just need your corpse!"
"Laila! Hold him off for 30 seconds!" Omar screamed.
Laila didn't hesitate. She used every ounce of her mana, triggering a forbidden technique: [Shadow Domain: Thousand Fang Strike]. A dome of darkness exploded around Malakor, hundreds of spectral daggers raining down on his mechanical shield.
Omar closed his eyes and entered his subconscious. He saw the golden "System" core—a glowing cube of complex equations.
[Final Warning: 30 Seconds to Deletion.]
Omar reached out and grabbed the core with his mental hands. It burned like white-hot iron.
"I am Omar... the son of the desert nomads," he whispered, memories of his hard life in Marrakech flashing by. "I carried the weight of the rich on my back for coins. I will not carry your chains for power. UNINSTALL!"
He didn't click a button. He tore the golden cube apart with his bare soul.
[CRITICAL ERROR!]
[SYSTEM DELETED...]
[EMPORIUM CORE: UNBOUNDED...]
[NEW STATUS: INDEPENDENT WORLD-TRADER.]
A shockwave of pure, white energy erupted from Omar. It blew Malakor back, shattered the mechanical spider, and stopped the library's collapse for a split second.
Omar opened his eyes. The blue screens were gone. The "levels" were gone. But he felt more powerful than ever. He could feel every item in his shop, every brick in the Emporium, as if they were part of his own body.
He didn't need the System to see value anymore. He was the value.
"Kaelen!" Omar roared.
The Ghost Knight manifested, but he looked different. His armor was no longer silver; it was black as the void, fueled now by Omar's own rebellious will.
"Master," Kaelen knelt. "The chains are broken. I am yours truly."
"Take Laila. Get back to the shop. I'm closing the door to this timeline... forever."
Malakor tried to stand, his face twisted in rage. "You can't do this! Without the System, you're nothing! You're just a human!"
"No," Omar said, standing at the threshold of his black wooden door. "I'm a Merchant who just bought his own soul. And the price... was you."
Omar snapped his fingers. The "Void-Grenade" effect he had internalized earlier triggered, but this time, it was amplified by the Emporium's core. A massive vacuum swallowed Malakor and his gear, trapping them in the collapsing timeline of the Library.
Omar stepped through the door and slammed it shut.
Inside the Emporium (Safe Zone):
Omar fell to the floor, breathing heavily. The shop was dark. No glowing lights, no system chimes. Just the silence of a man who was finally free.
Laila crawled toward him, wounded but alive. "Is it... over?"
"The System is gone," Omar said, looking at his hands. "But the shop is still here. And the Architects... they know where we are now. We're not just merchants anymore, Laila. We're outlaws."
He looked at the shelves. They were empty. He had lost his "System Inventory," but he had kept his knowledge and his loyal guardian.
"We start from scratch," Omar smiled, a wild look in his eyes. "But this time, we set the prices."