The Upper District wasn't just a place; it was a different dimension. Here, the sky was a permanent, curated sunset of gold and violet. The air didn't smell like rain and ozone; it smelled like expensive incense and "Pure Mana."
Han Seo-Jun stepped through the threshold of the Great Gate. Behind him, the bridge was a smoking ruin. In front of him, the citizens of the High District—nobles with Level 50+ cores—froze in their tracks.
They stared at his tattered, blood-stained coat. They stared at the static sparks jumping off his skin.
[SYSTEM NOTIFICATION] [ZONE ENTERED: ELYSIUM GARDENS] [REPUTATION WITH 'THE ASCENDED': HATED] [REPUTATION WITH 'THE FORGOTTEN': RISING]
Suddenly, every screen in the plaza—giant holographic billboards that usually showed perfume ads—flickered. The images of the gods were replaced by a single, pulsing red eye.
"CEASE."
The voice didn't come from the air. It vibrated inside Seo-Jun's skull.
"Subject 000, Han Seo-Jun. You have bypassed the logic of the Soul-Container. You have harvested Divine Data without a License. Return the stolen code, and your deletion will be painless."
Seo-Jun looked at the nearest hologram. He reached into his pocket, pulled out a crushed cigarette pack, and found one last, bent smoke. He lit it with a spark of purple energy from his fingertip.
"License?" Seo-Jun exhaled a cloud of grey smoke that turned into digital zeros as it hit the air. "I'm a freelancer now. And I don't do returns."
[ANOMALY DETECTED] [THE ARCHITECT IS ATTEMPTING TO 'REMOTE-WIPE' YOUR CORE] [GLITCH-KING PASSIVE ACTIVATED: 'FIREWALL OF THE DAMNED']
A pillar of white light descended from the artificial sun, hitting Seo-Jun with the force of a nuclear strike. The pavement turned to liquid glass. The onlookers shielded their eyes, expecting the "Glitch" to be vaporized.
But inside the light, Seo-Jun was laughing.
The white light was pure information—the Architect's primary weapon. To anyone else, it was a death sentence. To Seo-Jun, it was a buffet.
"Is that all?" Seo-Jun roared. He opened his mouth and literally inhaled the beam of light.
[ERROR! ERROR! ERROR!] [ILLEGAL INGESTION OF 'ADMINISTRATOR-LEVEL' ENERGY] [CONVERTING DIVINE LIGHT INTO... CORRUPTION...]
Seo-Jun's muscles expanded, his height increasing as the raw power forced his body to evolve. His hair, once black, began to flicker between reality and white noise.
[LEVEL UP!] [LEVEL UP!] [NEW SKILL UNLOCKED: 'SYSTEM COMPRESSION']
Suddenly, a small, hooded figure darted from the shadows of a nearby marble pillar. It wasn't an Enforcer. It was a girl, no older than sixteen, wearing a cloak made of "Stealth-Mesh."
"Stop eating the light, you idiot! You're gonna crash the local server!" she hissed, grabbing his arm.
Seo-Jun looked down, his eyes still glowing with void energy. "Who are you? Another Apostle?"
"Apostle? Please," she scoffed, tapping a device on her wrist. A ripple of distorted air covered them both. "I'm the one who wrote the virus that gave you a chance to wake up. Now move, before the 'Security Patch' gets here. And by 'Security Patch,' I mean the Level 100 Paladins."
Seo-Jun looked back at the sky. The red eye was glowing brighter. The ground was starting to shake.
"The Paladins?" Seo-Jun smirked, his hand moving toward the hilt of a sword he hadn't even summoned yet—a blade made of pure, compressed errors. "Let them come. I'm still hungry."
"Save the edge-lord speech for later," the girl groaned, dragging him into a shimmering portal in the side of a luxury boutique. "We're going to the Underground. The real one."
[QUEST UPDATED: 'THE RESISTANCE'] [MEET THE LEADERS OF THE 'NULL-SECTOR']
As they vanished, the pillar of light finally died down. There was nothing left in the plaza but a giant, pixelated crater and the lingering smell of a cheap cigarette.