"Found you, Player 2."
The voice didn't echo in the courtyard. It echoed inside my skull, vibrating against my molars like a tuning fork. It was crisp, digital, and dripping with amusement.
I stood frozen near the fountain, my hand instinctively clutching the pocket where the Source Code fragment lay hidden. The massive black-and-gold airship settled onto the lawn with a final, heartbreaking crunch of the Headmaster's prize-winning petunias. Steam hissed from the landing gears, obscuring the view for a moment.
"Did anyone else hear that?" I whispered, my voice barely audible over the steam.
"Hear what?" Ria asked, shielding her eyes from the dust. "The sound of our tuition fees being crushed by a giant parking job? Yeah, I heard it."
"No," I murmured. "The voice."
Kaelen stepped in front of me, his hand drifting to the hilt of his sword. "I didn't hear a voice. But I feel the intent. That man... he feels like the Void."
The ramp hit the grass with a heavy thud.
The man in the black armor walked down. He didn't walk like a noble; nobles glided, trying to look effortless. This guy walked like he owned the physics engine. Heavy, deliberate steps. His cloak of shadows didn't just flap in the wind; it seemed to lag slightly behind him, like a bad graphical render.
He stopped at the bottom of the ramp. He was tall, handsome in a sharp, jagged sort of way, with pale skin and hair that was a shade of red so dark it looked like dried blood.
But it was the eyes.
To everyone else, they were probably just intense, glowing red eyes. To me, with [Observer Vision] active, they were swirling pools of scrolling text.
[Target: Valen]
[Class: The Rival Author]
[Objective: Domination]
[Status: Level 99 (Cap)]
Level 99.
I was Level 4.
"Students of Saint Caelum!" Valen's voice boomed, magically amplified without a wand. "Kneel before the Royal Selection Committee."
The pressure hit us like a physical weight. It was a Command spell, woven into his speech.
Around the courtyard, students dropped to their knees. Tybalt folded instantly, face-planting into the grass. Cian wobbled, then went down. Even Elara, standing near the Faculty Hall, was forced to one knee, her face twisting in anger.
I felt my knees buckle. The system text in my vision flashed red.
[System Command Detected: 'Kneel'.]
[Observer Privilege: Override?]
"Override," I gritted out.
I locked my legs. I stayed standing.
Beside me, Kaelen also remained standing. His dark aura flared, eating the pressure.
And Ria. She was hunched over, breathing hard, but she refused to touch the ground. "I don't... kneel... to bad drivers," she wheezed.
Valen scanned the crowd. He smiled when he saw the three of us standing.
"Interesting," Valen said. He walked forward, the crowd of kneeling students parting for him.
He didn't come to me. He went straight to Kaelen.
"Kaelen," Valen said, looking the Hero up and down like he was inspecting a prize horse. "The vessel of the Abyss. You look... stable. Disappointing. I expected you to be a raving lunatic by now."
Kaelen glared at him. "Sorry to let you down. Who are you?"
"I am Lord Valen," he announced, turning to address the courtyard. "High Inquisitor of the Crown. And due to the... incompetence... displayed during the recent Forest Expedition, the King has granted me emergency powers over this Academy."
He paused for dramatic effect.
"The curriculum is too slow. The threats are too real. Therefore, the Royal Selection is no longer next year. It begins now."
Gasps rippled through the kneeling students.
"We will hold the Apex Tournament," Valen declared. "Survival of the fittest. The winners join the Royal Guard. The losers... well, let's just say they get expelled from life."
He laughed. It was a practiced, villainous laugh.
Then, he turned his head and looked directly at me.
He didn't speak out loud. He tapped his temple.
"Nice work with the overlay, Ren. Very creative. But you missed a spot."
He pointed a gloved finger at Tybalt, who was still face-down in the grass.
"Your sidekick still has mud on his left boot. If he fought a boar, why is the mud from the riverbank, three miles east? Sloppy."
My heart hammered against my ribs. He saw everything.
"Meet me on the Astronomy Tower roof at midnight," Valen's voice projected into my head. "Bring the Fragment. Or I delete your save file."
"Dismissed!" Valen shouted aloud.
The pressure vanished. Students scrambled to their feet, whispering frantically.
Valen swept past us, heading toward the Headmaster's office with his entourage of armored guards. He didn't even acknowledge Headmaster Eldric, who had just come running out of the building, looking flustered.
"Okay," Ria said, rubbing her knees. "Who the hell was that? And why did he look at you like you owed him money?"
"He's the new boss," I said, watching Valen's cloak disappear into the building. "And we are in big trouble."
We retreated to Room 104. It was becoming our unofficial headquarters, mostly because it was the only place Tybalt felt safe enough to stop shaking.
"The Apex Tournament?" Cian paced the small room, nearly tripping over a pile of dirty laundry. "That's a death game! In the history books, the Apex was used to cull weak bloodlines during the War of Shadows. It hasn't been invoked in fifty years!"
"He's accelerating the plot," I said, sitting on my bed and staring at my hands. "Way faster than I thought."
"Ren," Kaelen said. He was leaning against the door, arms crossed. "The memory spell. It's fading."
I looked up. "What?"
"The boar," Kaelen said. He rubbed his forehead. "I remember hitting a boar. But I also remember... a wolf. A skeleton wolf. And you holding a typewriter."
Ria nodded slowly. "Yeah. I have a distinct memory of you throwing a rock at a guy's head, but also a memory of me finding a secret bunker. It's like... double vision."
"The overlay was temporary," I admitted. "It was just to fool the Truth Serum. Your real memories are coming back."
"Good," Ria said. "Because I really didn't want to believe that Vance was defeated by a bug bite. The wasp thing was funny, but the sonic cannon? That was legendary."
"So, Lord Valen," Kaelen cut in, bringing us back to the point. "He knows. He looked right at you, Ren."
"He knows," I confirmed. "He wants to meet me tonight."
"It's a trap," Tybalt squeaked from under his blanket. "It's always a trap."
"It is," I agreed. "But I have to go. He has admin privileges. If I don't show up, he can probably make life miserable for all of us. Or worse."
"Or worse?" Cian asked.
"He could delete us," I said. "Not kill. Delete. Erase us from the story so no one even remembers we existed."
The room went silent.
"I'm coming with you," Kaelen said.
"No," I said sharply. "This isn't a fight you can win with a sword, Kaelen. He's Level 99. He's an End-Game boss spawned in the tutorial zone. If you engage him, he'll crush you."
"So you're going to face him alone?" Kaelen challenged.
"I'm not going to fight him," I said, standing up. "I'm going to talk to him. Gamer to gamer."
I looked at Ria. "I need a favor. The third one."
Ria flipped her coin. It was a regular copper one now, since Cian had melted the gold one. "Name it."
"I need you to steal something from the kitchen."
"Food?"
"No," I said. "Salt. A lot of salt. And... do we have any chalk left?"
Midnight. The Astronomy Tower.
The last time I was near a tower, I dropped a bell on a shadow hound. This time, the stakes felt higher.
The wind whipped across the flat roof of the tower. It was the highest point in the academy, offering a view of the entire campus and the dark expanse of the Forest of Whispers beyond.
Valen was waiting for me.
He was sitting on the edge of the parapet, dangling his legs over the drop. He had taken off his helmet, revealing that blood-red hair. He was smoking a cigarette—which didn't exist in this fantasy world.
"You're late," Valen said without turning around. "Player 2."
"I had to climb the stairs," I said, walking out onto the roof. "Cardio isn't my stat."
Valen chuckled. He hopped off the ledge and turned to face me. Up close, the glowing text in his eyes was distracting.
"Ren," he said, tasting the name. "Generic name. Generic face. 'The Observer' class. I checked your character sheet. You're playing on Hard Mode, aren't you? No magic. Just meta-knowledge and a glitchy interface."
"And you're playing on Creative Mode," I countered. "Level 99? Black armor? A flying ship? Could you be more cliché?"
Valen grinned. "Hey, if you're going to be the villain, have fun with it. I've been in this loop for six cycles, Ren. I got bored of being the 'Hidden Master'. This time, I decided to just conquer the world. It's faster."
"Six cycles?" I asked. "So you know about the Architect? The loops?"
"Arthur?" Valen scoffed. "Yeah, I know about Arthur. Poor guy tried to build a perfect simulation. He wanted to save everyone. He failed. The code is rotten, Ren. This world is designed to crash."
He took a drag of his cigarette and flicked it away. It dissolved into pixels before it hit the ground.
"So I'm speedrunning it," Valen said. "I'm going to trigger the Apocalypse Event in Chapter 20 instead of Chapter 100. I'll wipe the board, collect the Source Fragments, and use them to break out of the server."
He took a step toward me.
"And you have one of those fragments. Give it to me."
I put my hand in my pocket. "And if I don't?"
"Then I kill the Hero," Valen said simply. "Kaelen is the anchor. If he dies, the story destabilizes. If I kill him now, the world breaks, and I can loot the debris."
"You need him for the Tournament," I bluffed. "You can't start the Apex without a protagonist."
"Watch me," Valen said. His hand began to glow with a dark, corrupted red light. "I can write a new protagonist. I'm the Admin now."
I didn't back down. I pulled my hand out of my pocket.
I wasn't holding the fragment.
I was holding a bag of salt.
"Salt?" Valen raised an eyebrow. "Are you going to season me?"
"Salt disrupts mana constructs," I said. "And chalk..."
I kicked the ground. Under the gravel, I had spent the last ten minutes—while he was monologuing—drawing a circle with my foot.
Ria had prepped the site earlier. The circle wasn't magic. It was geometry.
"You're a glitch, Valen," I said. "And glitches hate boundaries."
I threw the salt into the air.
"Asset Library: Summon Unstable Narrative Hole (Paused)."
I didn't unpause it. I just summoned the concept of it. The Asset Library projected the hitbox of the black hole directly between us.
Valen lunged forward—and slammed face-first into an invisible wall.
BZZZT.
His armor sparked. The text in his eyes glitched out, scrambling into random characters.
"What is this?" Valen roared, stumbling back. "Invisible collision? You're using an exploit!"
"It's called a hitbox bug," I said, backing toward the stairs. "You can't walk through a paused asset. And since it's a 'Hole', the game engine doesn't know how to render your pathing."
Valen pounded on the invisible barrier. It rippled, but held. He was trapped on the edge of the roof, separated from the exit by a 3x2 meter box of nothingness.
"You think this stops me?" Valen screamed. "I can fly!"
"Yeah, but can you fly while rebooting?" I asked.
I pulled out the Architect's ID card. I held it up to the salt-filled air.
"System Override," I whispered. "Log out User: Valen."
Nothing happened.
Valen laughed. "Nice try. I have Root Access. You have a Guest Pass."
He raised his hand. The red light intensified. He was going to blast through the hitbox.
"But," Valen said, his eyes narrowing. "You annoyed me. That's rare."
He lowered his hand.
"Keep the fragment, Ren. For now. Bring it to the Tournament. If you survive the first round, maybe I'll let you live to see the finale."
He spread his cloak. Shadow wings erupted from his back.
"But just to make sure you're motivated..."
He snapped his fingers.
Below us, in the distance, a loud BOOM echoed from the Commoner Dorms.
Fire erupted from Building C.
"No," I whispered.
"I didn't target your room," Valen said, hovering in the air. "I targeted the foundation. Building C is now a sinkhole. Hope your friends are fast."
He shot up into the sky, vanishing into the clouds.
I turned and sprinted for the stairs.
"Tybalt!" I screamed.
I ran down the tower steps, taking them three at a time. I burst out onto the lawn.
Building C was tilting. The earth had opened up beneath it—a deliberate terrain edit. The structure was sliding into the mud.
Students were screaming, pouring out of the exits.
I saw Cian dragging Tybalt out of a window on the first floor. Kaelen was holding a structural beam, bracing it with his bare hands and dark mana to keep the entrance open for others.
"Kaelen! Get out!" I yelled, running toward them.
"It's collapsing!" Kaelen grunted, his veins bulging.
The building groaned. The timber snapped.
Kaelen let go and dove out of the doorway just as the entire west wing of the dormitory crumbled into the sinkhole with a deafening crash.
Dust billowed out, covering everything.
I fell to my knees, coughing.
"Ty? Cian? Kaelen?"
"Here," Kaelen's voice coughed from the dust cloud.
I waved the dust away. Kaelen was on the ground, covered in plaster. Cian and Tybalt were huddled next to him. They were alive.
But our room—Room 104—was gone. Buried under tons of rubble.
My notebook. My clothes. Tybalt's secret stash of dried meat. All gone.
"He blew up our house," Tybalt whispered, tears streaming down his face. "He actually blew up our house."
I stood up, shaking with rage. The ID card in my hand felt hot.
Valen treated this world like a playground. He destroyed homes just to send a message.
"Ren," Ria appeared from the shadows, her face soot-stained. "You okay?"
"No," I said. "I'm not."
I looked at the smoking ruins of the dorm. Then I looked up at the sky, where the black airship hovered like a vulture.
"He wants a tournament?" I said, my voice cold. "He wants a game?"
I turned to my squad. They looked terrified, battered, and homeless. But they were looking at me for orders.
"We're going to enter his tournament," I said. "And we're going to break his game."
"How?" Kaelen asked, wiping blood from his lip. "He's Level 99."
"We grind," I said. "The tournament doesn't start for three days. We're going to the one place in the Academy where the Admins don't look."
"Where?" Cian asked.
"The Dungeon of the Forgotten," I said. "The old sewers."
"The sewers?" Tybalt gagged. "Again?"
"Not the drainage tunnels," I said. "The real dungeon. The one underneath them. It's a high-level zone that was cut from the final release of the novel. It's full of bugs, glitches, and XP."
I looked at the burning dorm one last time.
"We're going power-leveling," I said. "Pack your things. We're moving underground."