The silence in the apartment was gone, replaced by a low-frequency hum that seemed to vibrate the very air molecules. Outside, the first scream had been a signal. The world was no longer a place of laws and logic. It was a sandbox for a cosmic entity, and the tutorial was already claiming its first victims.
Ethan Jae Park didn't look out the window. He didn't need to. His Universal Logic Engine was already processing the sounds, the frequency of the screams, the distance of the crashes, the specific "thrum" of the spatial rifts opening in the Nawala streets.
Three rifts within a five-hundred-meter radius, he calculated. The first wave of 'Dungeon Entities' will reach this building in approximately four minutes and twelve seconds.
He turned his focus back to the violet-tinted panel hovering before him. This was the moment that would define his entire existence. The "Self-Defined Talent."
[A self-defined talent can be created under one condition...]
[Requirement must be discovered.]
Ethan's eyes narrowed. He wasn't looking for a hidden button or a secret menu. He was looking for the logic of the system.
The system is a machine of balance, he thought. To get something that breaks the balance, I must offer a counter-balance. It doesn't want my points. It wants my 'Potential.'
He spoke aloud, his voice calm and cold, cutting through the hum of the room. "I offer a trade. I will permanently seal my physical growth potential. My Strength, Agility, and Vitality will never exceed the baseline of a peak human. In exchange, I demand the authority to define my own growth curve for Intelligence and Experience."
For a heartbeat, the system didn't respond. Then, the violet light flared, blindingly bright.
[...Logical Deduction: Correct.][Sacrifice Accepted: Physical Potential Sealed.]
[Defining Talent: 'The System Glitch' (Rank: SSS-Rank / Unique)]
Ethan felt a sharp, cold sensation in his chest, as if a door had been slammed shut and locked. He felt "limited" in a way he hadn't before; his muscles felt heavy, his breath slightly shorter. But at the same time, his mind… it felt like it had been uncaged.
[Talent: The System Glitch (SSS-Rank)]
Effect 1: Experience required for leveling is reduced by 50%.
Effect 2: Each level grants +1 additional Stat Point.
Effect 3: Intelligence Resonance. For every 1 point increase in STR or AGI, INT increases by 2 points automatically.
Ethan let out a slow, controlled breath. It worked. He was now a "Glass Cannon" of the highest order. He would never be able to lift a car or outrun a bullet, but he would be able to outthink the gods themselves.
"Ethan? What did you do?" Krishara asked. She was standing by the kitchen counter, her hands glowing with a soft, pulsing green light. She looked at him with that intuitive gaze that always saw through his masks. "You look… smaller. But your eyes… they're terrifying."
"I made a trade, Krish," Ethan said, walking toward her. He didn't tell her the price. He didn't want her to worry about his "fragility." "I made sure that no matter how fast the world changes, I will change faster."
He looked at Nethan, who was sitting on the floor, his skin shimmering with the dull, grey light of the Iron Guard talent. The boy looked like a small statue of a warrior.
"Nethan, stay behind your mother," Ethan commanded.
He turned toward the balcony door. He could feel the space outside. It felt like a fabric, a thick, invisible curtain that he could now reach out and touch.
Infinite Space Authority, he thought.
He didn't just want to "Blink" or "Store items." He wanted to control the environment.
As he focused on the space in front of the door, a new bar appeared on his interface. It was blue, pulsing with a faint light, and labeled: [RESOURCE: UNIDENTIFIED].
A fuel source, Ethan noted. The system doesn't call it any name yet, but it's the energy required to execute a talent. So let's call it 'Ether'. Ethan thinks.
"Krishara, the bags. Now."
As she grabbed the pre-packed survival gear, a loud CRACK echoed from the hallway outside their apartment. It was the sound of wood splintering and metal bending.
Three minutes and forty seconds, Ethan noted. They're early.
A heavy thud hit their front door. Then another. The steel-reinforced wood groaned under the pressure of something that didn't have human hands.
"Appachchi?" Nethan's voice trembled.
"Don't move," Ethan said.
He didn't reach for a weapon. He didn't have one. Instead, he reached for the space between the door and the hallway.
Distance is a variable, he thought. If I increase the distance between the door and the creature to infinity, it can never reach us. But I don't have the 'Ether' for infinity yet. So, I will simply... fold it.
He made a small, twisting motion with his fingers.
The air in front of the door distorted, warping like a heat haze. To anyone else, it looked like a ripple in the air. But to the creature on the other side, the hallway had suddenly become a mile long.
The scratching stopped. The thudding stopped. From the other side of the door, a confused, guttural growl echoed, sounding as if it were coming from a long, deep tunnel."
Ethan glanced at his blue bar. It was dropping steadily. [Ether: 95/120].
What did you do?" Krishara whispered, her eyes wide."I made the door a very long walk," Ethan said. He didn't smile. He was already calculating his consumption rate. Five points per second to maintain the fold. I have one hundred and twenty points. I have twenty-four seconds.
"We're leaving. Not through the door."
He turned to the balcony. The rifts in the street below were fully open now.
Creatures, grey-skinned, multi-limbed things that looked like a cross between a wolf and a spider, were crawling out of the asphalt.
"Ethan, we're on the third floor!" Krishara cried.
"Not anymore," Ethan said.
He grabbed the bags with one hand and Krishara's hand with the other. He looked at the ground three stories below.
Space is not a height. It is a coordinate.
He focused on a point in the middle of the street, away from the rifts. He didn't "jump." He simply redefined where they were standing.
The world blurred for a microsecond. The sensation was like being pulled through a straw, a sudden, crushing pressure that vanished as quickly as it came.
THUD.
They landed softly on the pavement. Not a single bone jarred. Not a single bag dropped.
Ethan stood up, his eyes immediately scanning the perimeter. They were in the middle of the Nawala road, surrounded by abandoned cars and the smell of ozone. Ten meters away, one of the wolf-spider creatures was tearing into the hood of a parked tuk-tuk.
It stopped. It turned its head, its six red eyes fixing on the three humans who had appeared out of thin air.
It let out a screech that sounded like metal on glass.
"Nethan, Shield!" Ethan Shouted.
The boy didn't hesitate. He slammed his small hands together, and a translucent, grey barrier erupted around them.
The creature lunged, a blur of grey fur and sharp claws.
Ethan didn't move. He didn't need to. He was already looking at the creature's trajectory, its muscle tension, and the "space" it was about to occupy.
You're moving too fast, Ethan thought. Let me slow down the world for you.
He reached out his hand, his palm open.
"Space Compression."
The air in front of the creature didn't just stop it; it crushed it. The space the creature occupied was suddenly reduced by half. There was a sickening sound of snapping bone and bursting organs as the wolf-spider was flattened into a two-dimensional smear against an invisible wall of air.
It fell to the ground, a heap of broken limbs and black blood.
[Level Up!][Level Up!]
The notifications flashed in Ethan's vision.
[Current Level: 3]
[Natural Growth: STR +1, AGI +1, VIT +2, INT +4]
[Additional Stat Points Gained: 2]
Ethan felt the rush of power, the sudden, sharp expansion of his mind. He could see more. He could calculate faster. He pulled up his status window one last time before moving.
[STATUS WINDOW]
Name: Ethan Jae Park
Level: 3
Class: [Sealed]
Title: The System Glitch
Attributes:
STR: 6 (Base 5 + 1 Natural)
AGI: 7 (Base 6 + 1 Natural)
VIT: 7 (Base 5 + 2 Natural)
INT: 16 (Base 12 + 4 Natural)
Available Stat Points: 2
Resource (Ether): 200/200 (INT * 10)
"Ethan…" Krishara was staring at the dead creature, her face pale. "You… you killed it. Just like that."
"It was a simple calculation, Krish," Ethan said. He didn't look at the body. He looked at the next rift, which was beginning to pulse with a dark, red light. "But the math is getting harder. We need to move. Now.
"He looked at his family, his wife, the healer who could sense the flow of life, and his son, the shield who could withstand the world.
"Stay close," he said, his voice a cold, iron command. "We're going to find a place to dig in. And then, we're going to start taking this world back."
As they moved into the shadows of the Nawala streets, the violet panel flickered one last time.
[...Fascinating.]
The System was no longer just watching. It was learning. And so was Ethan.