Server Node 0 felt like stepping into a forgotten world.
The air was cold and dry, smelling faintly of old metal and dust. Flickering lights ran along the ceiling, illuminating rows of ancient servers that hummed softly like they were dreaming of a time before the System ruled everything.
Kai walked slowly between them.
For the first time since the apocalypse, he couldn't see names floating above people.
No levels.
No classes.
No fate.
Just Maya.Just Seraphine.Just reality.
Maya looked almost relieved.
"I didn't realize how heavy it was," she said quietly. "All those numbers watching me all the time."
Kai nodded.
"It was never meant to feel like that. But it did."
Seraphine knelt near a terminal, brushing dust away from an old interface.
"This place predates the current System," she said. "Back when it was just an experiment. Before it learned how to rewrite the world."
Kai felt something strange.
Like the air itself was listening.
"But the Architect didn't forget this place," he said.
Seraphine looked up sharply. "What do you mean?"
Kai closed his eyes.
Even here… something felt wrong.
"Dead zones don't exist forever," he whispered. "They're just blind spots until someone learns how to see in the dark."
At that moment, every terminal in Server Node 0 lit up.
Red text flooded the screens.
[WORLD EVENT INITIATED][THE SECOND GAME BEGINS]
Maya's heart skipped.
"Kai… what does that mean?"
Kai opened his eyes.
"It means the System stopped trying to kill me."
"And started trying to use me."
Every ancient screen in Server Node 0 flashed at once.
The red text burned into their eyes.
[THE SECOND GAME BEGINS][OBJECTIVE: CONTROL THE ANOMALY]
Seraphine swore. "It's rewriting its strategy."
Kai felt a chill crawl through his spine.
"The first game was power," he said. "The second is manipulation."
The screens changed again.
[GLOBAL BROADCAST ENABLED]
Images appeared.
Cities.Refugee camps.Battlefields.Families hiding from monsters.
Then one face filled every screen.
Maya.
She gasped. "That's me!"
Kai's fists clenched.
[PUBLIC ANNOUNCEMENT][THE FATELESS GIRL IS THE SOURCE OF SYSTEM INSTABILITY]
Across the world, Players saw Maya's face.
A reward symbol appeared.
[CAPTURE TARGET: MAYA REED][REWARD: SYSTEM ASCENSION]
Seraphine stared at Kai.
"It just turned her into the world's most valuable hostage."
Maya looked at Kai, fear in her eyes.
"I didn't do anything…"
Kai stepped in front of her.
"I know."
The System had found something better than killing him.
It had found someone he would die to protect.
All across the world, the broadcast spread.
On phones.On system windows.On hacked billboards.In the sky itself.
Maya's face became known everywhere.
The girl without fate.
The key to godhood.
Kai felt something dark twist inside him.
"You're not a person to them now," he said softly. "You're a prize."
Maya shook, tears in her eyes.
"I never asked for this…"
Seraphine clenched her jaw. "The System finally did what all tyrants do. It found leverage."
Kai turned to the glowing terminals.
"So this is your new game," he muttered. "You can't kill me… so you'll make me surrender."
The Observer window flickered weakly.
[ANOMALY UNDER PRESSURE]
Kai took Maya's hands.
"Listen to me. No matter what happens, don't let them take you."
"But if they don't—"
"They'll use everyone else," Kai finished. "I know."
Somewhere beyond the dead zone, Players were already moving.
Tracking signals.
Hunter guilds.
Mercenaries.
All converging on one name.
Maya Reed.
Seraphine drew her blade.
"Then we don't stay here."
Kai nodded.
"We move before the world closes in."
Above the ancient servers, one final message appeared.
[LET THE HUNT BEGIN]
And for the first time…
The System smiled.
The screens in Server Node 0 went dark one by one, leaving only the soft hum of ancient machines.
The message had been delivered.
The hunt had begun.
Maya's hands trembled in Kai's grip.
"They're all going to come for me…"
Kai met her eyes.
"Not if I can stop them."
Seraphine looked toward the tunnel that led back to the outside world.
"The dead zone won't stay hidden now. The System will start mapping it. We need to move — fast."
Kai nodded.
"We go somewhere the System can't predict."
Maya swallowed. "Is there such a place?"
Kai thought of something he'd felt earlier.
Of broken memories inside the servers.
Of forgotten code.
"There's more of this world buried beneath the System," he said. "Old cities. Old networks. Places the Architect abandoned."
Seraphine's eyes widened.
"Ghost zones…"
Kai smiled faintly.
"Exactly."
They headed deeper into Server Node 0, toward tunnels no one had walked in years.
Behind them…
The world was mobilizing.
Players.Guilds.Hunters.God-seekers.
All racing to claim one girl.
And one anomaly.
The System had changed the rules.
Now it wasn't trying to erase Kai.
It was trying to break him.