The silence in the lobby didn't last long. It was replaced by the shrill, rhythmic pulse of a security siren.
[WARNING: UNREGISTERED MANA FLUCTUATION DETECTED]
Sarah Thorne was already on the phone, her eyes wide as she looked from the pile of grey dust that used to be Vance's armor to the janitor holding a mop.
Kai didn't wait for the internal security team to arrive. He knew the drill. When something broke, the people at the bottom were always the first to be blamed. He pivoted on his heel, grabbed his bucket, and disappeared into the service corridor before the heavy thud of combat boots echoed into the hall.
He didn't stop until he reached the Janitor's Closet in Basement 4. It was a cramped, windowless room that smelled of industrial bleach and forgotten dreams.
He slammed the door and locked it. His breath came in ragged hitches.
"System," Kai whispered.
The flickering red window was still there, hovering over his palm like a bloodstain.
[LOOT ACQUIRED: 1x REFRACTED MANA CRYSTAL (PURIFIED)]
"What the hell are you?"
He touched the window. It expanded, revealing a jagged interface that looked less like a polished game menu and more like the backend of a crashing website.
[ITEM: REFRACTED MANA CRYSTAL] [DESCRIPTION: A condensed fragment of a System Error. While standard Hunters consume Mana Stones to increase their stats, a Janitor recycles the waste.] [USE: PERMANENTLY REPAIR A PHYSICAL DEFECT OR ENHANCE A TOOL.]
Kai looked at his mop. The wooden handle was splintered, held together by duct tape. Then he looked at his own body thin, malnourished, and scarred from years of manual labor in high radiation mana zones.
"Repair me," he murmured.
He crushed the crystal.
Instead of the warm, golden glow of a level up, a sharp, cold sensation surged through his veins. It felt like needles made of ice stitching his muscles back together. The chronic ache in his lower back vanished. The blurry vision in his left eye sharpened until he could see the individual fibers of the dust cloths across the room.
[CORRECTION COMPLETE.] [PHYSICAL INTEGRITY: +15%] [CURRENT STATUS: CLEANER]
A knock thundered against the door.
"Open up, Zero! We know you're in there!"
It was Officer Briggs, the head of the Association's internal security. He was a man who enjoyed his job a little too much, especially when it involved "disciplining" the non powered staff.
Kai looked at the door. Through the wood, his new vision saw it. A jagged red line ran through the hinges.
[ERROR DETECTED: RUSTED HINGE ASSEMBLY] [ACTION: DELETE?]
Kai smiled. It was a cold, sharp expression. He reached out and pinched the air.
Snap.
The heavy steel door didn't just open; it fell outward with a deafening crash, the hinges simply ceasing to exist.
Briggs, who had been leaning his weight against the door to kick it in, stumbled forward, falling flat on his face at Kai's feet.
"You were saying, Officer?" Kai asked, stepping over the man.
"You what did you do?" Briggs scrambled backward, his hand flying to his mana baton. "You're Level 0! You're a bug!"
"I'm the one who cleans up the bugs, Briggs," Kai said, his voice dropping an octave. "And right now, this building is looking very, very messy."
As he walked past the stunned officer, a new notification flickered in the corner of his eye.
[URGENT TASK: EMERGENCY CLEANUP REQUIRED] [LOCATION: RANK S DUNGEON SITE - 'THE DRAGON'S GRAVE'] [ERROR LEVEL: CRITICAL] [REWARD: ???]
Kai gripped his mop handle. The Association thought they were sending a janitor to scrub floors. They had no idea he was coming to uninstall their reality.