The first thing I noticed was the silence.
Not the ordinary silence after a fight.Not the kind that follows the end of a dungeon wave.
This was system silence.
As if the world had paused execution and was waiting for an answer it didn't have in its code.
The forest around me did not return to life.It… suspended.
The trees stood motionless, like frozen film frames. The air was dense, but not heavy. I could feel it on my skin like tension before a fracture.
[PREDATOR SYSTEM – STATUS: UNSTABLE][CORE: PARTIALLY DECOUPLED][QUESTION: AWAITING RESPONSE]
"WHO ARE YOU?"
I hadn't answered before.And I still wasn't answering.
Because the question wasn't directed at a human.Not even at a Hunter.
It was a question from an algorithm that had lost its reference point.
I stepped forward.
The ground beneath my foot trembled, as if only now receiving the instruction that it was supposed to support me.
"All right," I said aloud. "If you're asking, that means something broke."
The silence didn't react.The system did.
[NOTICE][DETECTION PARADIGM SHIFT][USER: UNCLASSIFIABLE]
Not "unknown."Not "error."
Unclassifiable.
That was new.
I looked around.
The team was gone. Either they had left, or the system had marked them as irrelevant and moved them further along the cycle. Both meant the same thing.
We had been separated.
Perfect.
I raised the Tangent Blade. The edge didn't glow. Didn't hum. As if it, too… was waiting.
"Predator," I said in my mind. "Retract the last question."
The system hesitated.
[PETITION DENIED][QUESTION IS CRITICAL]
"Then change it."
A pause.A real one.
[RECOMPILING…][ADAPTATION ATTEMPT…]
The forest shuddered. Light slid across the tree trunks like a rendering glitch.
And then I felt it.
Not presence.Not threat.
Observation.
Not from above.Not from the side.
From between.
— I've been… separated, — the Unknown Predator said quietly. — The system marked me as a contradiction. I no longer fit any cycle.
"So you're like me," I said.
He snorted bitterly.
"No. You're worse. You make cycles stop making sense."
The Predator System reacted immediately.
[NOTICE: STATEMENT CONSISTENT WITH DATA][COMPATIBILITY LEVEL: 61%]
"Where is Mira?" I asked without preamble.
The Unknown Predator hesitated.
"Stretched. Not dead. Not yet. Her consciousness is being used as… an anchor."
"For what?"
"For stabilizing Cycle Zero."
Silence.
"So the Third Predator…" I began.
"…is no longer just you," he finished. "It's a construct now. A fusion of what was rejected and what the system wants to reclaim."
My grip tightened on the hilt.
"And the Administrator?"
The Unknown Predator smiled crookedly.
"The Administrator is afraid."
That was… interesting.
"Of what?"
"That if you answer the system's question," he said, meeting my eyes, "you'll stop being its resource."
The Predator System flickered.
[QUESTION REACTIVATED][WHO ARE YOU?]
This time it didn't sound like an error.
It sounded like… a request.
"If I answer," I said slowly, "what happens?"
The Unknown Predator looked at the collapsing world.
"The system will stop trying to understand you. It will start adapting to you."
"And the cycles?"
"They'll fracture. Or merge."
"And Mira?"
"That depends on what you name yourself."
Silence returned.
But it was different now.
Not expectant.Tense.
The Predator System displayed its final message.
[NEW FUNCTION UNLOCKED][SELF-DEFINITION: AVAILABLE][WARNING: CHOICE IS IRREVERSIBLE]
I looked at the world waiting for me to name myself.
At the system, unsure for the first time what to do.At the shadow of Cycle Zero lurking beyond the layers.At Mira, stretched between existence and code.
"If I'm going to end the loop," I said quietly, "it won't be as your error."
I lifted my head.
"And not as your hunter."
The Predator System suspended all processes.
And I did what no one before me had done.
I began to answer.
And then—
The world broke.