Chapter 2: Syntax Error
The room was quiet, but it wasn't peaceful at the very least. Meanwhile Outside, the city was loud with sirens and explosions. Inside, the only sound was Mrs. Adesina's heart beating. It was thumping so hard that even Lyta could hear it from ten feet away.
Lyta stared at the floor. The so called Sewer Ghoul was gone, It had dissolved, but the blood was still there. David's red blood. It was soaking into the cheap grey carpet.
"Is... is it dead?" Steve asked with a shaky voice. The project manager was gripping his stapler so hard that his knuckles turned white. Above his head, the glowing text flickered and changed.
[CLASS: PALADIN ]
[RANK D]
[LV 1]
"A Paladin. That was supposed to be a holy warrior." Lyta thought to himself. But Steve looked like he was about to vomit.
"It's gone," Lyta said. His voice felt weird o.
He slowly reached down into the mess of green slime and red blood. The rusted machete that the monster had used was still lying there. It didn't disappear along with the body.
Lyta's hand hovered over it for a brief moment. Then a blue box appeared.
[ITEM: RUSTED CLEAVER]
[RANK: F ]
[DAMAGE: 5-8]
[DURABILITY: 12/50]
He grabbed the handle. It was wrapped in greasy leather and it felt cold and heavy. This wasn't a game controller or a keyboard that he was used to. This was a weapon.
"We need to move," Lyta said, as he wiped the handle on his pants. "That scream... it's going to bring more of those things that are outside."
"Move where?" Sarah from HR whispered. She still was hiding under a desk, while holding her high heels. "The police... we should wait for the police."
Lyta looked out the window. Lagos city was burning. There was Black smoke that covered the purple sky. While gazing Far away, he saw a commercial airplane nose-diving straight into the lagoon.
"There are no police, Sarah," Lyta said. He felt cold seeing it. "Look at the street."
They came to the window. Five stories down, the road was blocked with abandoned cars. People were running like ants, while trying to get away from shapes that moved way too fast to be human. Those were monsters.
"Oh God," Steve choked. "My wife. I need to call my wife." He tapped his phone screen repeatedly, but it was dead. He threw it against the wall in full frustration.
"Steve, stop," Lyta snapped at him. He didn't want to take the lead, but nobody else was doing anything. "Check your status. You have a Class, right? Paladin?" Using his 'code vision' skill, had seen his class.
Steve blinked at the blue text in his eyes. "I... yeah. It says I have a skill. Holy Strike."
"Good. Can you use it?" Lyta asked.
Steve held out a shaking hand. But Nothing happened. "I don't know how! There's no manual!"
"Figure it out," Lyta said. "Because we can't stay here. Plus my status doesn't seem to have a class, it says error"
He turned toward the exit door of the office that used to be boring. But Now, every cubicle shadow looks dangerous.
"Where are you going?" Mrs. Adesina asked, as she finally stood up.
"The server room," Lyta lied. He knew that couldn't tell them he needed a private place to test his own "System." "It has a heavy mag-lock door. It's safe. Are you coming with?"
The group looked at David's empty desk and his blood, then at Lyta who was holding the cleaver.
"I'm coming," Steve said. Then He grabbed a heavy metal hole-puncher.
They all walked close together into the hallway. The air there smelled like burnt wires and old pennies. lights overhead flickered and buzzed.
Lyta carefully walked in front with the cleaver. His heart was racing, but he was staring at a black terminal window in the corner of his eye.
>USER_LYTA
>ADMIN_LEVEL 1
> RAM USAGE: 12GB/64GB
> SYSTEM STATUS: ERROR
> AVAILABLE MANA: 10/10
Mana and RAM. He wondered if that was what powered the code.
He had two screens one was blue while the other was black. He had just finished looking at the black one so he decided to check the blue one.
[NAME: LYTA AGUNU]
[CLASS: ERROR]
[RANK: ERROR]
[SKILLS:]
>[1] CODE VISION = Sees the world as Python/C++ code (Matrix style).
>[2] CODE EDITOR = Can modify behavioral variables of low-level monsters (e.g., aggression = FALSE).
[STATS:]
> LEVEL: 1
> XP: [0/100]
> STRENGTH 5
> SPEED 6
> INTELLIGENCE 11
> DEFENSE 3
."which means, when I got a admin console unlocked notification back then, it... It actually unlocked the black system." Lyta thought.
They passed the break room, and a sudden scratching sound stopped them.
Skritch. Skritch.
It sounded like it was coming from the ceiling vents.
"Did you hear that?" Sarah whispered shakily.
The vent cover above them suddenly smashed open.
Lyta jumped back as something black and oily dropped onto the floor. It was a rat. But it was huge. the size of a dog. Its fur looked like spiked vines. Its eyes were glowing red, and its teeth were yellow, looking like jagged shards.
A small screen. known as a system window, popped up above the rat's Head.
[MONSTER: PLAGUE RAT (LVL 1)]
"Holy Strike!" Steve yelled. He thrust his hand forward. While trying to use his skill from the system.
A weak spark of gold light fizzled in his palm and went out. He couldn't even kill a rat.
"I... I don't have enough mana!" Steve panicked, while backing up.
The rat hissed and jumped forward, but not at Steve, instead it was at Lyta. It could smell the blood on him. Which attracted the rat.
Lyta swung the cleaver but missed. The rat was too fast for him. It instantly bit into his ankle.
"Argh!" Lyta shouted in pain. The pain was sharp. The yellow teeth sank through his jeans and into his skin.
He slammed his other foot onto the rat's ribs, pinning it to the floor. It twisted around, snapping and scratching at his shoe.
Lyta raised the cleaver to chop its head off.
Wait.
He stopped. The black window popped up again over the rat.
> TARGET: PLAGUE_RAT_04
> [1] DELETE
> [2] EDIT
> [3] RECREATE
Lyta gazed at the struggling animal. Killing it might give him EXP. "But That was how everyone else would play right?". But his system was different he was like an hacker. "In games hackers do grind for coins and exp, instead they hack the game to gain infinite coins and exp."
"Hackers never played by the rules."
"Cover me!" Lyta yelled at Steve.
"What? Just kill it!" Steve shouted back.
"I said cover me!"
Lyta dropped the cleaver. He ignored the pain in his ankle. He grabbed the rat by the back of its neck. It tried to bite his hand, but he slammed it against the floor and held it down with his superior weight.
He activated his code vision skill once again and focused on the code coming off the beast.
[ENTITY: PLAGUE_RAT_04]
[ALLEGIANCE: HOSTILE_TOWARDS_HUMANS]
[INTELLIGENCE: 2 (LOW)]
"Open Edit," Lyta gritted out. Suppressing the pain.
The command line opened.
> ACCESSING BIOLOGICAL SCRIPT...
> EDITING RESTRICTIONS: LEVEL 1 USER.
> CANNOT MODIFY PHYSICAL STATS.
> CANNOT MODIFY SPECIES.
> AI BEHAVIOR: EDITABLE.
He couldn't make it weaker, stronger or even change what it was. But he could change how it thought.
He looked at the ALLEGIANCE line.
allegiance = "HOSTILE_TOWARDS_HUMANS"
Lyta focused with all his concretions. His head started to throb, like someone was pressing a hot iron against his brain. The "Mana" bar in his screen also known as system window began to drop fast.
> MANA COST: 8
"Change it." He muttered.
He imagined the code backspacing. Then afterwards He imagined typing his own name.
allegiance = "USER_LYTA"
[ERROR: SYNTAX ACCEPTED. OVERWRITING NEURAL PATHWAYS...]
The rat went stiff under his hand. It seized up and foamed at the mouth. Its red eyes flickered. flash, flash, flash. It was like a router resetting.
"Lyta! It's going to bite your hand off!" Sarah screamed.
"Almost... There" Lyta gasped. Sweat was stinging his eyes. "Compile!"
The rat stopped struggling.
The red glow in its eyes stayed in place, but the anger was gone. It stopped hissing. And it's body relaxed.
Lyta slowly loosened his grip on the rat's neck.
"Lyta, get away from it!" Steve warned, lifting the hole-puncher.
Lyta quickly pulled his hand back.
But the rat didn't attack. It sat up and shook its head. Then It looked at Lyta. It didn't look at him like food. It looked at him like the way a dog looks at its owner.
[SUCCESS!]
[NEW SKILL ACQUIRED: COMPILE (BIO-HACKING)] = Can merge organic flesh with technology to create "Chimeras."
[NEW UNIT ACQUIRED: PLAGUE_RAT_04 (LVL 1)]
[NAME YOUR UNIT.]
Lyta let out a weak breath. The headache faded to a dull ache.
"Sit," Lyta whispered.
The rat sat.
Steve dropped the hole-puncher. It clattered on the floor. "What... what did you do? Did you tame it? I thought you didn't have a Class!"
Lyta stood up, limping on his bitten ankle. The rat ran over to his leg. But Instead of biting, it rubbed against his jeans, making a soft clicking sound. It turned to face the dark hallway, baring its teeth at the shadows. To the others, it looked like a dog guarding his Master.
"I don't have a Class," Lyta said, picking up his cleaver. While using his code vision, he looked at the code scrolling through the rat. He could now see more.
[UNIT 1]
[STATUS: AWAITING INPUT]
[HIDDEN GENE: TOXIN_GLAND (LOCKED)]
A hidden gene? Locked?
Lyta grinned. It was a scary grin that made Steve take a step back.
"I'm not a Paladin or priestess like you lots, Steve," Lyta said, while looking at his new pet. "I'm the Admin."
Steve looked confused "admin? What are you talking about ?, these are monsters not systems you can code. I strongly believe that you have a tamer class"
He looked at the prompt which was asking for a name.
"System," Lyta said softly. "Name unit 1: Bug."
[UNIT NAMED: BUG]
"Let's go," Lyta said to the group. He felt confident now. "Bug says the hallway is clear."
The rat squeaked and ran forward, leading the way.
As they walked toward the server room, Lyta looked at the "Locked" gene code again. He didn't just want a rat. He wanted a weapon for survival. He remembered the server closet had spare electronics, like wires, batteries, old circuit boards.
"Why settle for a biological rat when he could upgrade the hardware? In other words, chimeras"