The elevator to Zone 9's breach point was silent—too silent. Ji-Hoon stood inside, arms crossed, hood pulled low. His interface pulsed in the corner of his vision, showing a countdown timer.
Arrival in Zone 9: 00:01:17
He leaned against the wall, exhaling slowly. The events of Zone 12 replayed in his head on a loop. The voice. The Recode. The kill.
["You're still alive. That's either a miracle... or a mistake."]
There it was again. That voice — mechanical, but not robotic. Sentient, calculating, amused. It had no source. No system tag. It was like a parasite between the code.
"Are you part of the class?" Ji-Hoon asked under his breath.
["I am the remnant of what your world tried to delete. You call me 'Recode.' But I was born before Godfall had a name."]
Ji-Hoon's hands clenched. "You're not a system. You're... a person, aren't you?"
["I was. Now I'm a ghost in the machine. And now... so are you."]
The elevator doors hissed open.
Zone 9 was chaos.
A massive crater had torn through what used to be a hospital district. Fractured buildings leaned at unnatural angles. People screamed in the distance as corrupted wildlife — mutated game mobs — tore through city blocks. And standing at the breach point was a figure Ji-Hoon hadn't seen in years.
Yoon Daesik.
He hadn't changed much. Still tall. Still annoyingly perfect. His armor gleamed black with silver trim — the mark of Guild NOX, Korea's #2 ranked combat guild. A glowing spear spun lazily in his hand, tipped with quantum shards.
Ji-Hoon stepped into the zone boundary, just as Daesik turned.
A pause.
Then a smirk.
"...You've gotta be kidding me," Daesik said. "They let you into a Class B zone?"
Ji-Hoon didn't flinch. "It wasn't their decision."
"Let me guess. Some backdoor glitch let you slip in?" He tilted his head. "Still pretending to be a player after all these years?"
Ji-Hoon's fists clenched. "I'm not pretending."
"Oh right, you got that little mirage trick." Daesik gave a low chuckle. "The joke skill."
⚠️ WARNING: B-Class Rift Entity Detected – [Name: Gore Seraphim]
Threat Level: HighAbilities: Flight, Pierce Damage, Chaos Buff
Spawning in: 00:02:43
The zone began to destabilize. The sky fractured again—reality warping as the Gate roared open above the crater.
Daesik sighed. "Look, stay back and don't get in my way. NOX has this zone claimed. You're a liability."
Ji-Hoon didn't answer. Not with words.
Instead, his interface flared.
[System Trace – Activated]
The moment Daesik twitched his wrist, Ji-Hoon saw the opening. His stance. His spear rotation. Ji-Hoon predicted three movement paths before Daesik even committed to one.
"...What the—?" Daesik's eyes widened slightly.
["You're evolving," the voice whispered inside Ji-Hoon's mind. "The more data you absorb, the faster you grow. Recode was never meant to be fair."]
Then, something new flashed on Ji-Hoon's screen:
✦ Path Fragment Recovered: "God-Slayer Protocol"
[Merging with Class Tree...]
✦ Passive Trait Acquired: Glitchstep– Allows Ji-Hoon to unpredictably break movement patterns, bypassing predictive combat systems.
✦ Skill Evolution: False Echo → Echo Fracture– Creates two illusions with divergent actions. One may act independently for 0.5 seconds.
The Gore Seraphim appeared in a flash of corrupted light, wings of bone and flame unfurling as it shrieked into the city ruins. Its halo spun like a chainsaw.
Daesik charged. His spear moved with elegant precision—piercing the monster's side in a spiral of energy. It roared, countering with a burst of chaos flame.
Ji-Hoon saw it.
Weak Point: Skullplate Node – Chance of Collapse: 12.9%Threat Behavior: Defensive → Aggressive (Next 2.2s)
He dashed forward, activating Echo Fracture. Two illusions peeled away from him, sprinting in opposite directions. The Seraphim slashed one — a phantom. The other circled.
Ji-Hoon moved underneath it.
The timing was perfect.
[System Trace – Bonus Action Unlocked]
— Target's Flight Node destabilized— Hit confirmed
✦ Critical Strike!
He punched the node with a piece of shrapnel.
The Gore Seraphim fell, stunned mid-air — enough time for Daesik to drive his spear through its chest.
The Gate collapsed.
And everyone stared at Ji-Hoon.
Later, after the battle, Daesik confronted him alone. No sneers this time.
"You're not E-rank anymore," he said flatly. "What the hell are you?"
Ji-Hoon didn't answer at first.
Then he turned, walking past him.
"I'm a bug they forgot to delete."