Kaito's boots thundered against the stone corridors of the royal palace. To anyone watching, he looked like a desperate boy running from a nightmare, but in his vision, the world was a chaotic mess of bleeding data. The blue interface in his mind was flashing a violent, pulsating red.
[Warning: High-Level Anomaly Detected!][System Admin: Within 50 meters of your location...][Firewall Integrity: 62% - Danger!]
"Kenji! Get out of there!" Kaito screamed internally. He knew Kenji was just a scholar, a civilian caught in a crossfire he couldn't even see. If this 'Admin' found him with the forbidden scrolls, Kenji wouldn't just be executed—he would be erased from the system.
As Kaito reached the massive oak doors of the Royal Library, a sudden wave of unnatural cold washed over him. The summer air outside was sweltering, but inside the library, the atmosphere felt like a frozen void. Kaito pushed the doors open, his breath hitching. The vast library was silent, illuminated only by the flickering candle on Kenji's desk.
But the chair was empty. Kenji was gone.
Kaito's interface began to glitch, the digital windows flickering like a dying television. In the center of the room, the air itself seemed to tear. Reality was folding in on itself, revealing a shimmering, crystalline distortion.
"Do you truly believe you can break the laws of this world without consequence, Level Zero?"
The voice was ethereal—sweet as a melody, yet cold enough to freeze blood. Kaito spun around, his eyes scanning the shadows. High above, perched on the edge of a towering bookshelf, sat a girl. She didn't look like anyone from Astheria. Her clothes were a complex arrangement of silver and neon-blue fabrics that seemed to pulse with light. Her hair was a cascading silver, and her eyes... they were glowing pits of pure sapphire data. Small, intricate rings of code rotated slowly around her wrists.
This was Riya, a Sub-Admin of the World System.
Kaito immediately tried to run a diagnostic.
[Scanning Target: ???...][Error: Access Denied. Level 99 Encryption Detected.][Security Protocol: 'The Watcher's Eye' is active.]
"I don't care who you are," Kaito gritted his teeth, his fingers twitching in the air as he prepared his terminal. "Where is Kenji? He has nothing to do with this!"
Riya drifted down from the shelf, her feet touching the floor without making a single sound, as if she were exempt from the laws of gravity. She walked toward him, her gaze piercing through Kaito's physical form, looking directly at the 'soul'—or rather, the 'user'—underneath.
"The scholar is in a 'Sleep Loop.' He will wake up shortly with no memory of the last hour," Riya said calmly. "But you... you are an anomaly. I watched you on the training grounds. You modified the 'Friction Data' of the floor without a single mana-chant. Only those of us with 'Root Access' can rewrite the rules of the realm."
Kaito realized he was cornered. There was no way he could outpower a Level 99 entity. But a hacker never gives up. He began typing on his invisible keyboard at a speed that blurred his fingers.
[Command: Create_Decoy_Instance.exe][Target: Self][Action: Divert System Focus]
Riya tilted her head, a hint of amusement in her eyes. "Are you attempting to hack the system right in front of me? Your audacity is... refreshing."
She raised her hand, and the air around Kaito turned into a solid wall of force, intending to crush him. But just as the pressure hit, Kaito executed his script. Riya's eyes widened. She didn't see mana; she saw Kaito's fingers weaving a complex [Data Loop] that confused the library's local security protocols.
Suddenly, thousands of books flew off the shelves, swirling around the room in a cyclone of paper and ink. As Riya's focus shifted to manage the localized chaos, Kaito executed his primary exploit: [Bypass_Aura_Lock.sys].
The invisible pressure vanished. Kaito lunged to the side, breaking free from her tether. Riya dropped her hand, a mysterious, predatory smile spreading across her face.
"Incredible... you are performing 'Source Interference' without any formal training. You have no terminal, yet you execute commands through pure willpower. Who are you? Which server did you migrate from?" Riya asked, her voice filled with genuine curiosity.
Kaito was panting, a sharp migraine stabbing at his skull. "I'm Kaito. I didn't come from a server. I just... I see the bugs in this world, and I fix them. Or break them."
Riya stood silent for a long moment. The glowing rings around her wrists vanished. "Listen to me, Kaito. I could [Delete] you right now. Your existence is a violation of the Prime Directive. But I won't. Do you know why? Because this system is rotting. There are 'Viruses' deeper in the core that even I cannot purge. A 'Glitch' like you... might be exactly what I need."
She tossed a small, glowing crystal toward him. Kaito caught it, feeling a massive surge of energy the moment it touched his palm.
"That is a [Debugger]. It will stabilize your terminal and overclock your processing power. But be warned: if your brother Hiroshi or your friend Kenji find out who I am, the system will categorize them as 'Corrupted Data' and eliminate them automatically."
Before Kaito could ask another question, Riya dissolved into a cloud of blue pixels. The library returned to its eerie silence. A few seconds later, Kenji groaned and lifted his head from the desk.
"Ugh... Kaito? When did you get here? I must have fallen asleep over these scrolls again," Kenji said, rubbing his eyes.
Kaito looked down at the crystal in his hand. It vanished into his palm, merging with his invisible interface. Instantly, his vision became sharper, faster, and more detailed.
[System Updated: Version 1.2][Processing Power: +200%][RAM Capacity: Expanded][New Skill Unlocked: Passive Packet Sniffing (Always On)]
Kaito helped Kenji up and forced a smile. "You've been working too hard, Kenji. Let's get some air. Hiroshi is probably looking for us."
As they walked out, Kaito felt a lingering gaze on his back. He didn't know if Riya was an ally or just a different kind of threat, but he knew one thing: the game had changed. He wasn't just a boy learning to hack; he was now part of a grand conspiracy that governed the very fabric of existence.
And his first real test would be the 'Royal Duel' next week—where he would have to use his new [Debugger] powers to survive against the kingdom's greatest prodigies.