Sector Zero was where the Tower's "Trash" went to die. High above, the 1st Floor shimmered with artificial sunlight and golden fields. Down here, it was a graveyard of broken stone, discarded NPC corpses, and "Null-Fog"—a thick, grey mist that ate away at a person's sanity.
Kai's boots crunched on a pile of rusted iron swords. His mana was at 4%, and his vision was blurring.
[Viewer Count: 8,400]
[Chat: "Is he seriously going into the Null-Fog?" / "F-Rank death wish lol." / "Wait, look at the coordinate tracker... he's near the Dead Zone."]
"Almost... there," Kai wheezed.
Through the Editor's Sight, the fog wasn't just weather. It was a massive wall of ERROR: ASSET_NOT_FOUND.
Suddenly, a massive, flickering hand reached out from the mist and grabbed Kai by the collar, hauling him into a shack that shouldn't have existed.
Inside, the air smelled of ozone and hot charcoal. A man stood over a forge, but he wasn't hammering iron. He was hammering a glowing cube of purple light.
"You're late, Censor," the man grunted. His voice sounded like two radio stations playing at once.
"Bram?" Kai asked, catching his breath.
"That's the name the System deleted," the Smith replied. He turned, his right side flickering in and out of existence. "I saw your stream. Bold. Stupid. But bold."
"I need... I need a way to fight back," Kai said, holding up his cracked phone. "The Peacekeepers are coming. And Vane won't stop until I'm 'Redacted' for real."
Bram let out a glitching laugh. "You're bringing a phone to a god-fight? Pathetic." He snatched the phone from Kai's hand. "But you have 'Truth Points.' And I have the 'Original Source Code'."
[System Prompt: Bram the Smith offers a 'Legacy Upgrade'. Cost: 1,000 Truth Points. Accept?]
"Do it," Kai muttered.
Bram tossed the phone into the purple forge. "Chat!" Kai yelled, turning toward a hovering lens—the Smith's own 'Illegal' camera.
"Don't look away now. You're about to see the first 'Legendary' item of the Zero-Floor!"
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The forge erupted in a pillar of black fire. When Bram reached in, he didn't pull out a phone. He pulled out a Sleek, Obsidian Gauntlet with a glass screen embedded in the forearm.
"The 'Author's Veto'," Bram grunted, sliding it onto Kai's arm. "It doesn't just stream. It 'Overwrites'."
Suddenly, the shack's door exploded.
Three Peacekeepers stepped in, their red visors glowing. "Found you. Sector Zero is a Restricted Zone. Penalty: Immediate Deletion."
Kai felt the gauntlet hum. It felt warm, like a living heart.
[Item: Author's Veto (Growth Type)]
[New Skill: 'Script-Kill' — Force a 'Glitch' into an enemy's physical form.]
"Bram, get back," Kai said, his eyes turning cold as he looked at the Peacekeepers.
"Don't get blood on the forge," the Smith grunted, returning to his anvil. "It's hard to clean 'Real' blood off 'Fake' stone."
The Peacekeepers charged, their energy blades humming. Kai didn't dodge. He raised the gauntlet, his fingers flying across the glowing glass screen on his wrist.
[Input: Target_Peacekeeper_01]
[Command: DELETE_GRAVITY_FRICTION]
The lead Peacekeeper didn't hit Kai. As soon as his foot touched the floor, he lost all friction. He went spinning across the room like an ice skater on a frozen lake, slamming into a pile of scrap metal with enough force to dent his armor.
The other two paused, confused.
"My turn," Kai whispered. He tapped a new command.
[Command: LORE_REVEAL — 'The Coward's Armor']
A black box appeared over the second Peacekeeper.
[LORE: This armor was stolen from a fallen comrade during the 3rd Floor Raid.]
"Hey, chat," Kai said, the gauntlet recording every second. "Meet the men who 'protect' you. Thieves and cowards."
[Viewer Count: 55,000]
[System: The viewers are 'Outraged'! Truth Points +2,000!]
"Shut him up!" the third Peacekeeper screamed, lunging with a spear.
Kai didn't even look. He swiped his thumb across the gauntlet's screen, 'Deleting' the air in front of the spear's tip, creating a miniature vacuum. The spear snapped in half, sucked into the void.
"My name is Kaizer," Kai said, his voice echoing through the global stream. "And the Tower is under new management."
With a final tap, he 'Redacted' the floor beneath the Peacekeepers, dropping them into the endless Null-Fog below. Their screams faded into digital static.
Kai turned back to Bram. The Smith was looking at him with a strange expression—one of the few "rendered" eyes he had was filled with a mix of pity and pride.
"You've started a war, kid," Bram said. "The Architect is going to send a 'General' next. Someone you can't just 'Delete'."
"Then I'll just have to rewrite them," Kai replied. He looked at his gauntlet.
[New Quest: Reach the 1st Floor Gate.]
[Current Reward: Title 'The First Glitch'.]
"Let's go, chat," Kai said, stepping back out into the grey mist. "We have a Tower to burn."