Location: The Spire (Sector 0) Time: Current
The Spire did not have windows. It did not need them.
Valerius sat upon the Throne of Perception, a seat forged not from metal or stone, but from flowing data streams and solidified code. The chamber around him was a perfect sphere of black glass, suspended in the center of the world's magnetic field.
It was silent here. Absolute, crushing silence. The kind of silence that would drive a mortal man insane in minutes.
But Valerius was not mortal. He was the Admin.
He closed his eyes, leaning back into the hum of the Throne. The black glass walls around him flickered, projecting the world in real-time. He didn't see it as a landscape of trees and cities; he saw it as a symphony of numbers.
He saw everything.
Heat signatures pulsed across the Northern Wastes as scavengers huddled around dying fires, their body temperatures dropping toward critical. Mana networks glowed beneath the neo-cities of the East like luminous circuit boards, feeding energy to millions who didn't know where it came from. Every registered heartbeat on the planet echoed in flawless synchronization—a rhythm he had composed a thousand years ago.
Order. Efficiency. Silence.
Valerius conducted the world with a subtle movement of his fingers, like a maestro leading an orchestra of ghosts.
"Sector 4. Atmospheric variance detected," he whispered.
A thousand miles away, above the agricultural domes, storm clouds shifted. A potential drought was averted by a 4% adjustment in humidity. Crops survived another cycle. The price of grain remained stable.
"Sector 9. Unauthorized assembly."
Valerius flicked his index finger.
Deep in the slums of a Sector 9 mining colony, a sonic dampening field activated inside a rebel meeting hall. The speakers on the podium opened their mouths, but no sound came out. Panic ensued. The rebellion died without a single scream, defeated by a muted microphone.
Valerius smiled. It was a cold, thin expression.
The System was beautiful because it was absolute. There were no variables he could not account for. No chaotic elements he could not smooth over with a simple edit.
"Sector 12. Monster surge."
He waved a hand. A patrol of Correction Units was rerouted. The threat was neutralized before the monsters even breached the perimeter.
It was too easy. It was boring.
Then—
A light blinked.
It wasn't a warning siren. It was tiny. A single red pixel pulsed on the vast, blue map of the Underworld layer. It beat out of rhythm with the rest of the world.
Thump-thump.
Valerius's hand froze mid-motion. The symphony faltered.
He opened his eyes. The blue light of the map reflected in his iris—a perfect circle of control, marred by that one, tiny red dot.
He zoomed in.
The world peeled away—past the crust, through ancient sewer networks, down through the bedrock, diving miles deep into the earth.
There, inside the coordinates of a forgotten pre-Silence bunker, was a void.
Not darkness. Absence.
The sensors failed as they approached it. Audio feeds returned static. Deletion protocols he sent to probe the area simply vanished, as if swallowed by something that should not exist.
"Curious," Valerius murmured.
He tapped the void.
[ ERROR: SIGNAL BLOCKED ] [ AUTHORITY CONFLICT: HIGHER TIER REQUIRED ]
His smile faded instantly. The boredom vanished, replaced by a sharp, cold focus.
"Higher tier?"
He was the Admin. There was no higher tier. He was the ceiling of this reality.
Unless...
He swiped his hand through the air, pulling up the historical logs for that sector.
[ LOG ENTRY: 14 HOURS AGO ] [ EVENT: CORE DISCONNECT ] [ ASSET: ELARA (UNBOUND) ]
Valerius sat back.
"The Librarian," he whispered.
She had escaped. He had expected her to run, to burn herself out in the wastes, or to be eaten by the Hollowed.
He had not expected her to find shelter.
And she had taken the Anomaly—Kaelen—with her.
Valerius studied the pulsing red pixel again. It was annoying. It was an itch in the center of his brain.
[ TERRITORY: THE ANCHOR ] [ POPULATION: 1 ]
Valerius paused. He read the number again.
"One?"
He laughed softly. It was a dry, rasping sound, like paper tearing.
"One citizen," he said to the empty room. "They have claimed a ruin, activated a Master Node, and named it a kingdom."
He drummed his fingers on the armrest of the Throne.
He could erase them. It would be easy. He could collapse the cavern roof. He could divert a subterranean river to flood the tunnels. He could rewrite the density of the Earth's crust and crush them instantly.
But brute force was... inefficient. It cost energy. It was messy. And Valerius hated waste.
Besides, if they wanted to build a kingdom, then they would be subject to the rules of kingdoms.
Kingdoms required resources. Kingdoms required stability. Kingdoms required permits.
Valerius tapped the air, opening a secure communication channel.
"Department of Audits."
The voice that answered was crisp, terrified, and immediate. "Yes, Prime Administrator?"
"We have a tax evasion issue in Sub-Sector 7," Valerius said calmly, watching the red pixel pulse. "A non-compliant territory has established itself without a license."
"Shall we deploy the Reapers, sir? Or a Correction Battalion?"
"No," Valerius said. "If we send soldiers, they will fight. If they fight, they become martyrs."
He paused, watching the data stream flow around his hand.
"Deploy an Auditor. Specifically... Asset 404."
The line went dead silent. For ten seconds, there was only the hum of the connection.
"Sir," the department head stammered, his voice losing its professional edge. "Asset 404 is... unstable. He is a Liquidation Specialist. Deploying him for a population of one seems... extreme."
"It is not the population that concerns me," Valerius replied. His eyes narrowed. "It is the precedent."
"Understood, sir. Asset 404 is being awakened. Arrival estimated in 24 hours."
"Good."
Valerius closed the map. The red pixel vanished beneath the blue overlay of the System, buried once again.
But he knew it was there.
"If they wish to exist," Valerius whispered, leaning back into the darkness, "let us see if they can afford the rent."