Chapter 16: The Standardization Protocol
The blue dome of the quarantine didn't just seal the sky; it penetrated the soul.
As the giant mechanical eye of the Monolith pulsed with a rhythmic, golden light, Elara felt a strange, cold sensation washing over her. The raw, chaotic power she had felt after destroying the Cathedral—the wild "Error" energy—began to condense. It was being squeezed, forced into a rigid structure that her mind could suddenly understand as a visual interface.
A transparent screen flickered to life in front of her eyes. It wasn't the glitchy, broken overlay she was used to. It was sleek, white, and terrifyingly official.
[PROCURING DATA...]
[INDIVIDUAL IDENTIFIED: ELARA (ANOMALY_01)]
[SYSTEM OVERRIDE DETECTED... RE-CALIBRATING TO GLOBAL STANDARDS]
[CLASS ASSIGNED: ARCHITECT OF ERRORS (UNIQUE)]
[LEVEL: 1]
[VITALITY: 100/100]
[RESONANCE (MP): 50/50]
"What... what is this?" Joran grunted. He was staring into empty air, his hands batting at something invisible. "There's a box... it says I'm a 'Glitch-Knight' Level 1. It says my strength is suppressed by 90%!"
"It's a cage," Elara whispered, her eyes scanning her own stats with a mixture of horror and fascination. "The Overseers aren't just watching us. They've turned our reality into a Controlled Environment. They've given us 'Levels' and 'Stats' so they can measure us like livestock."
Kaelen walked over, his obsidian arm now pulsing with a faint blue number '1' near the wrist. "It's worse than that, Elara. Look at the city."
Elara looked. The broken buildings weren't just flickering anymore. Large, glowing pillars of light were erupting from the ground in various sectors of the Capital. Each pillar was surrounded by a swirling vortex of jagged, red code.
[NOTIFICATION: INSTANCE GATE DETECTED]
[TYPE: CORRUPTION_NODE]
[RANK: F]
[OBJECTIVE: CLEAR THE NODE TO STABILIZE THE SECTOR]
[REWARD: SYSTEM_POINTS / DATA_SHARDS]
"They've turned our home into a dungeon," Elara realized. "The 'Purifiers' aren't just deleting us. They're forcing us to 'Play' by their rules. If we don't clear these nodes, the sectors will be 'Formatted'—completely erased."
The first silver sphere—the Purifier—approached the balcony. Now that the System had standardized her vision, Elara could see it differently. It wasn't just a sphere; it had a health bar.
[MOB: SANITIZER-DRONE]
[LEVEL: 3]
[TYPE: CONSTRUCT]
"It's Level 3," Joran growled, drawing his sword. "And we're Level 1. The math doesn't look good, Architect."
"The math is theirs," Elara said, a familiar kaleidoscopic glint returning to her eyes. "But the logic is still mine."
The drone fired a beam of white light. In the old world, Elara would have had to manually rewrite the air to block it. Now, the system prompted her.
[SKILL ACTIVATED: ERROR_SHIELD (LVL 1)]
[COST: 10 RESONANCE]
A shimmering barrier of distorted pixels appeared in front of her. The beam hit the shield and dissipated into harmless sparks.
"Joran, now! Strike the core while its 'Cooldown' is active!"
Joran lunged. His movement was slower than before, constrained by his Level 1 stats, but his instincts were sharp. His sword, now glowing with a faint system-light, sliced through the drone's shell.
[CRITICAL HIT!]
[SANITIZER-DRONE DEFEATED]
[EXP GAINED: 15]
[LOOT ACQUIRED: 1x POLISHED CHROME SHARD]
A small, glowing piece of metal floated in the air where the drone had been. Joran grabbed it, looking confused. "It... it feels solid. Real. Like a reward."
"That's how they hook you," Elara said, her mind racing. "They give you a 'Game' to play so you don't realize you're a prisoner. But if this is the only way to get stronger, then we'll play. We'll build a Guild, Joran. We'll gather every 'Exception' in this city and turn them into a force that the Overseers can't calculate."
They descended from the palace into the chaotic streets. The fear was still there, but it was being replaced by a strange, desperate greed. People were discovering their own "Screens." In one alleyway, Elara saw a group of former servants ganging up on a single drone, their eyes lit up with the thrill of "Leveling Up."
"We need a headquarters," Kaelen said, his eyes scanning the map that was now permanently etched in the corner of his vision. "Somewhere defensible. Somewhere near a high-density node."
"The Library," Elara decided. "The old man left it for a reason. It's built on a ley-line of old code. It will be our Guild Hall."
As they fought their way through the streets, destroying drones and gathering shards, Elara noticed something strange. Every time she used her [ARCHITECT] skills, her "System-Bar" would flicker.
[NOTICE: UNREGISTERED SKILL 'PATTERN_SIGHT' DETECTED]
[ATTEMPTING TO CATEGORIZE...]
[ERROR: CATEGORY NOT FOUND]
A smirk touched her lips. They could standardize her levels, her health, and her mana. But they couldn't standardize her "Error." She was still the glitch in their perfect machine.
They reached the Library. It was surrounded by a shimmering red mist—a Rank E Node.
"First mission as a Guild," Elara said, looking at Kaelen and Joran. "We clear this node, we take the Library, and we start the [DEBUGGER_INITIATIVE]. We aren't just survivors anymore. We're players in a game we didn't ask for. And I intend to break the high score."
[QUEST: FOUND THE GUILD 'THE EXCEPTIONS']
[REWARD: GUILD_BASE UNLOCKED / LEADERSHIP_SKILL]
"Let's go," Joran said, his sword ready. "I've always wanted to see what's inside a Rank E."
They stepped into the red mist, the world around them dissolving into a structured, dangerous Dungeon. The progression had begun.