The portal didn't just move them through space; it felt like being shredded by a paper shredder and taped back together.
Han Seo-Jun slammed onto a floor of cold, vibrating metal. He was no longer in the golden Elysium Gardens. The air here was thick with the smell of old grease, recycled oxygen, and the hum of a thousand overclocked servers.
"Welcome to the Null-Sector," the girl said, tossing her hood back. She had neon-pink hair shaved on one side and eyes that cycled through hexadecimal code. "The only place in the world where the Architect's 'Sight' is blocked by $12\text{ terabytes}$ of constant white noise."
Seo-Jun stood up, dusting off his coat. He looked around. They were in a massive underground hangar. Dozens of people—most with mechanical limbs or glowing "Glitch" tattoos—were busy disassembling captured Enforcer drones.
[ZONE ENTERED: THE BLACK FOLDER (HIDDEN BUNKERS)]
[SYSTEM STATUS: ANONYMOUS]
"I'm Zero-One," the girl said, checking a holographic monitor on her forearm. "And you... you're a walking disaster. Do you have any idea what you did back there? You didn't just kill an Apostle; you corrupted the local source code. The Architect is currently re-writing the physics of the entire Upper District just to find your trail."
"He can rewrite whatever he wants," Seo-Jun said, his hand crackling with a remnant of the light he'd eaten. "I'll just delete the new version too."
"Big talk for a guy who was almost 'remote-wiped' ten minutes ago," a voice boomed from the shadows.
A massive man stepped forward. He was seven feet tall, but half his body was made of translucent, flickering blue data. He looked like a half-finished character model. In his hand, he carried a heavy railgun that seemed to be vibrating out of existence.
[IDENTIFYING...]
[NAME: CAPTAIN MACRO]
[LEVEL: ??? (BROKEN)]
[CLASS: TANK / SYSTEM-CRASHER]
"Macro, take it easy," Zero-One warned. "He's the one the prophecy mentioned. The 'Zero-Rank' who can consume Divine Data."
Macro looked Seo-Jun up and down, then spat a glob of blue liquid on the floor. "He looks like a bug to me. A glitch that hasn't been patched yet."
"A bug?" Seo-Jun's eyes flashed violet. He moved—not with speed, but by deleting the distance between him and the giant. In a millisecond, his hand was inches from Macro's chest. "Want to see how fast I can crash your system, 'Captain'?"
The air between them warped. Sparks of black static and blue data collided, creating small miniature vacuum pockets.
"Enough!" Zero-One shouted, slamming a button on her console.
A massive holographic map of the world projected into the center of the room. It showed a giant tower reaching from the Earth to the moon—the Server Spire.
"We don't have time for a measuring contest," she said. "The Architect has just authorized the 'Global Update.' They aren't just hunting you anymore, Seo-Jun. They're purging everyone. Anyone with a Soul-Rank lower than 10 is being scheduled for 'Format.' Millions of people in the slums are going to die tonight."
Seo-Jun froze. He thought about the people in the gutters he'd left behind. They weren't heroes. They were just people trying to survive a game they never asked to play.
[NEW URGENT QUEST: 'STOP THE UPDATE']
[OBJECTIVE: INFILTRATE THE NEURAL-GATE]
[REWARD: SOUL-INTEGRATION (PHASE 1)]
[PENALTY: TOTAL SYSTEM RESET (DEATH)]
"How do we stop it?" Seo-Jun asked, his voice low and dangerous.
Zero-One smirked, her eyes glowing neon pink. "We don't stop the update. We hijack it. We're going to inject you into the system as a global patch. Instead of deleting the Low-Born, the Architect is going to find himself installing a virus in every single one of his citizens."
Seo-Jun gripped his fist, the power of the eaten light finally settling into his core. "A global infection. I like the sound of that."
[AUTHORITY INCREASED: 0.5% -> 1.0%]
[YOU HAVE GAINED THE TITLE: 'ENEMY OF THE STATE']