The building groaned, the walls flickering like an unstable video feed. Something was coming.
Ethan's breath quickened. His mind was still reeling from what just happened—he had hacked the System. Broken the rules.
And now?
Now, it knew.
Aya's grip on her knife was tight. "Ethan… we need to move. Now."
Ethan's vision pulsed with another System warning.
> [WARNING: SYSTEM COUNTERMEASURE DEPLOYED]
- Suppressing Anomalous Player…
- Calculating Response…
A low hum vibrated through the air, making Ethan's skin crawl.
Then—the emergency lights shut off.
Darkness swallowed the building.
Aya swore. "Not good."
Ethan's pulse thundered in his ears. His eyes darted around, trying to adjust, but the darkness was thick, unnatural.
Then he heard it.
A clicking sound.
Not footsteps. Not breathing.
Something mechanical.
> [New Threat Identified: System Enforcer]
- Level: ???
- Status: Executing Anomaly Removal
A shape emerged from the shadows at the end of the hallway.
Tall. Unnaturally tall.
Its body was a shifting mass of wires, metallic plating, and glowing red eyes—no, not eyes. Scanners. It moved with an unnatural precision, its joints clicking and whirring as if it were barely holding itself together.
Ethan's stomach dropped. This wasn't a monster.
It was something the System had created specifically to deal with people like him.
Aya tensed. "What the hell is that?"
Ethan didn't answer.
Because the Enforcer had already locked onto him.
> [System Notice: Target Confirmed]
- Beginning Erasure Process…
MOVE.
Ethan's instincts screamed at him. He grabbed Aya's wrist and bolted.
The Enforcer lunged forward.
A mechanical blade shot out from its arm, slicing through the air where Ethan had been standing just seconds before. The wall behind them melted into pixels where the blade had touched.
Aya's breath hitched. "It's deleting the damn environment!"
Ethan's mind was racing. I can't fight that thing. I can barely understand what it even is!
The hallway blurred as they ran. Behind them, the clicking grew louder.
Ethan turned a corner—
The wall ahead glitched.
His Exploit ability triggered automatically—red warning data flickering in his vision.
> [System Exploit Available: Emergency Escape Route]
YES.
The second Ethan thought the command, the wall ahead collapsed into a mess of broken pixels, revealing a stairwell.
Aya didn't question it—she just ran.
They burst through the doorway, feet pounding against metal steps.
The Enforcer followed.
It didn't run. It didn't hurry. It simply walked, each step precise, unhurried—like it knew it would catch them.
And it might be right.
Ethan's mind raced. "Think, think—"
The Enforcer's blade arm shifted, and a new warning flashed in Ethan's vision.
> [ALERT: SYSTEM LOCK TARGET ACQUIRED]
- Suppression Beam Engaging…
A high-pitched whine filled the stairwell.
Ethan's blood ran cold. Not good.
He shoved Aya forward. "Jump!"
She barely hesitated. She leaped over the stair railing, landing on the level below. Ethan followed a second later.
A beam of pure white energy blasted past them, disintegrating the entire upper staircase.
Aya hit the floor hard, rolling onto her back. "Holy—"
Ethan pulled her up. "Keep moving!"
They ran again, bursting out of the stairwell into another hallway.
Ethan skidded to a stop.
Dead end.
Aya cursed. "You have to be kidding me."
Ethan's mind raced. His System Exploit ability was still on cooldown. No easy hacks this time.
The Enforcer's shadow loomed behind them.
They were out of options.
Aya turned to face it, knife in hand, even though they both knew it wouldn't do anything.
Ethan clenched his fists.
Was this it?
No.
No, not yet.
Then—
The world flickered.
Not a glitch. Something else.
For a split second, Ethan thought he saw a figure standing in the hallway behind the Enforcer.
Tall. Cloaked in shadows. A single, glowing symbol burned on their chest.
> [Unknown Player Detected]
Then—
A shockwave erupted through the hallway.
The Enforcer froze mid-step.
Lines of golden code wrapped around its body like chains.
It twitched, struggling against an unseen force.
Then—its entire form shattered.
Not deleted. Overwritten.
Ethan gasped for breath, heart hammering. He looked up—but the figure was already gone.
Only a single System message remained:
> [System Override Complete]
- Interference Successful.
- Last Player Status: Still Active.
Aya stared at the empty hallway, then at Ethan.
"What the hell just happened?"
Ethan swallowed hard.
Someone had just saved them.
And whoever they were…
They had access to the System just like he did.
The Ghost in the System
The hallway was silent.
The Enforcer—gone. Not deleted, but overwritten.
Aya still had her knife in hand, but her fingers trembled slightly. "I don't get it. That thing was about to kill us, and then it just—" she motioned at the empty space where the Enforcer had stood.
Ethan exhaled slowly. His heart was still pounding.
Someone—or something—had just saved them.
And they were watching.
> [New System Notification]
- Last Player Status: Anomaly Confirmed
- Further Observation Required…
Ethan's jaw tightened. Observation? That meant whoever—or whatever—was behind this wasn't done with him yet.
Aya turned, scanning the empty hall. "Think it's safe to move?"
Ethan checked his System Exploit cooldown. Still unavailable. If they got into another fight, they were on their own.
"…Let's not wait around to find out."
Aya nodded, and together, they moved.
---
A World Falling Apart
The city outside was worse than before.
Buildings flickered, some frozen in mid-collapse, others twisted into impossible shapes. The air smelled of burnt data, like reality itself was decaying.
And then there were the people.
Or what was left of them.
Bodies littered the streets—some human, some… not. Some were half-erased, their limbs dissolving into code. Others were stuck in loops, repeating the same movements like broken NPCs.
Aya whispered, "This is worse than before…"
Ethan swallowed. The System wasn't just evolving. It was breaking.
> [System Alert: Zone Instability Increasing]
- Anomalous Events Rising…
- Unregistered Entities Spawning…
Ethan's grip tightened on his weapon. More glitches?
Aya caught his look. "We need to get out of the city."
Ethan nodded. "Yeah. But first, we need a plan."
Aya scanned the area. "There's an old subway station a few blocks from here. If the tunnels are still intact, we can use them to get out of the city without running into more of those… things."
Ethan considered it. Underground would be safer—less exposed. But if there were glitches down there, they'd be trapped.
He glanced at Aya. "You sure about this?"
She hesitated. "No. But do we have a better option?"
He sighed. "Didn't think so."
---
The Shadow Speaks
They moved carefully, avoiding the larger ruins and sticking to the back alleys.
That's when Ethan heard it.
A whisper.
Not from Aya.
Not from the System.
Something else.
> "You are not supposed to exist."
Ethan froze. The voice was in his head—but not like a System notification.
It felt… human.
He turned sharply. "Who's there?"
Aya frowned. "What?"
> "They will come for you again. You are unfinished."
The voice wasn't coming from one place. It was everywhere.
Aya grabbed his arm. "Ethan, what's wrong?"
His vision flickered.
For a brief moment, he saw it—a figure standing in the shadows of a collapsed building.
Tall. Cloaked. The same symbol burning on their chest.
Ethan's breath caught. "It's you."
The figure did not move.
Then—
> "Survive."
The world glitched.
For half a second, the entire city around them changed. The ruined buildings restored. The sky, once dark, turned bright blue. The corpses were gone.
Like the world had reset.
Then—just as quickly—it was back to normal.
Aya gripped his shoulder. "Ethan! What's happening?"
Ethan blinked. The figure was gone.
The world settled.
His System notifications were silent.
But something had changed.
He wasn't just a glitch in the System.
Someone—or something—was trying to fix him.
Aya looked worried. "You okay?"
Ethan exhaled. He had too many questions. Too few answers. But one thing was certain:
This wasn't just about survival anymore.
It was about understanding what he really was.
"…Yeah," he said finally. "Let's get to that subway."
Aya gave him a skeptical look but didn't push. "Fine. But the second something weird happens again? You tell me."
Ethan smirked. "Define weird."
Aya groaned. "Just move."
They disappeared into the ruins.
Above them, unseen, the System watched.
And deep within the glitched-out world, something far older than the Apocalypse Update stirred.
[End of Chapter 4]