The Grand Cathedral of Data was not merely a building; it was a monument to the Architect's vanity. It stood at the very center of the Upper District, a colossus of white marble and floating holographic circuitry that pierced the artificial sky.
To the citizens of the High-Tier, this was a place of worship where they offered prayers in exchange for bandwidth and mana. To Han Seo-Jun, it looked like a tomb.
The air around the perimeter hummed with the sound of $10,000$ chant-bots, their binary prayers vibrating through the ground.
"We're approaching the outer perimeter," Zero-One's voice crackled in Seo-Jun's earpiece. "The stealth cloak won't hold against the Cathedral's scanners. Once we cross the threshold, we go loud."
Seo-Jun stood on a rooftop overlooking the plaza, the rain from the lower districts unable to reach this altitude. He gripped the hilt of the Void-Threader. The weapon didn't reflect the ambient light; it seemed to absorb it, creating a jagged tear in his visual field.
"Macro," Seo-Jun whispered. "Make them look at you."
"With pleasure," the giant's voice boomed.
Below, Captain Macro stepped out from behind a statue of the First Saint. His half-data body flared with blinding blue light. He leveled his heavy railgun at the massive, golden doors of the Cathedral.
"Knock, knock," Macro grunted.
BOOM.
The railgun fired a slug of condensed gravity. The sound was deafening, a thunderclap that shattered the windows of every nearby skyscraper. The Cathedral doors—reinforced with Level $80$ holy enchantments—buckled. Gold plating peeled back like wet paper, and the shockwave sent a dozen automated Sentry Golems flying into the air.
[SYSTEM ALERT: HOSTILE ACTION DETECTED]
[DEFENSE PROTOCOLS: ENGAGED]
[THREAT LEVEL: EXTREME]
Alarms screamed, turning the golden light of the district into a flashing crimson emergency mode. From the shattered doors, a swarm of Silver Paladins poured out, their armor gleaming and their swords wreathed in white fire.
"Go!" Macro shouted, racking the slide of his railgun. "I'll tank the aggro! You get inside!"
Seo-Jun didn't hesitate. He dropped from the roof, a streak of darkness falling toward the chaos.
As he hit the ground, three Paladins lunged at him. These were elite mobs, Level $65$, programmed with perfect teamwork subroutines. Their movements were synchronized to the millisecond.
"Target acquired," the lead Paladin droned. "Purge the—"
Seo-Jun didn't break stride. He simply spun, the Void-Threader trailing a ribbon of purple static.
There was no sound of metal hitting metal. There was no resistance. The blade passed through the Paladins' waists as if they were made of smoke.
For a second, nothing happened. Then, the reality of the situation caught up with the System.
[CRITICAL ERROR]
[OBJECT 'PALADIN_01' NOT FOUND]
[OBJECT 'PALADIN_02' CORRUPTED]
The upper halves of the Paladins slid off their bodies, dissolving into pixels before they even hit the ground. Seo-Jun stepped through the dissipating data cloud, his eyes locked on the darkness of the Cathedral's interior.
[EXP GAINED: 45,000]
[EXP GAINED: 45,000]
"Too slow," Seo-Jun muttered, sprinting into the grand hall.
Inside, the Cathedral was a cavernous expanse of verticality. Pillars of light stretched up into a vaulted ceiling made of screens, displaying the lives of every citizen in the city. It was the Neural-Gate—the central nervous system of the world.
And standing in front of the Gate was him.
The Inquisitor.
He was floating three feet off the ground, draped in robes of flowing red velvet that seemed to bleed onto the floor. He had no face—only a smooth, porcelain mask with a single, vertical slit glowing with golden light.
"Han Seo-Jun," the Inquisitor said. His voice didn't echo; it arrived directly in the center of Seo-Jun's mind, bypassing his ears entirely. "The Anomaly. The Glitch. The mistake that thinks it is a man."
Seo-Jun stopped, the Void-Threader humming aggressively in his hand. The weapon wanted to feed.
"I'm not here to talk philosophy," Seo-Jun said, his voice cold. "I'm here to upload a patch."
The Inquisitor tilted his head. "You believe you can defeat me? I am connected to the Time-Server. I have already simulated this battle $14,000$ times. In every single iteration, you die."
"Then let's try number $14,001$."
Seo-Jun launched himself forward.
[SKILL: 'LATENCY STEP']
He vanished, reappearing instantly behind the Inquisitor, swinging the Void-Threader at the entity's neck. It was a strike faster than sound, faster than thought.
But the Inquisitor wasn't there.
Seo-Jun's blade sliced through empty air.
"Too predictable," the Inquisitor's voice whispered from the left.
A blast of golden force slammed into Seo-Jun's ribs. It felt like being hit by a freight train. He flew across the hall, smashing through a marble pew and skidding across the polished floor.
[HP: -15%]
[WARNING: RIB FRACTURE DETECTED]
Seo-Jun coughed, tasting iron. He scrambled to his feet, but the Inquisitor was already casting his next spell.
"I know where you will step before your muscles contract," the Inquisitor intoned, raising a hand. "I know when you will breathe. I know when your heart will beat."
Chains of light erupted from the floor, wrapping around Seo-Jun's ankles and wrists. He struggled, but the chains tightened, burning his skin with holy fire.
"Deletion is too kind for you," the Inquisitor said, floating closer. "I will disassemble your code line by line. I will see what makes a Zero-Rank tick."
Seo-Jun gritted his teeth, the pain searing through his nerves. The Inquisitor was right. In a world governed by the System, you couldn't beat the Administrator's logic. If the System said the Inquisitor was faster, he was faster. If the System said he could see the future, he could see the future.
But I'm not part of the System, Seo-Jun thought.
The dark static in his soul surged. He remembered the feeling of eating the divine light—the chaotic, messy power of the Glitch.
"Zero-One," Seo-Jun gasped into the comms. "Cut the bandwidth."
"What?" Zero-One panicked. "If I jam the area, I'll blind your HUD! You won't be able to see his level or his health bar!"
"Just do it!"
ZZZZZT.
A high-pitched whine filled the Cathedral. The screens on the ceiling flickered and died. The HUD in Seo-Jun's vision vanished. No health bars. No mana counters. No aim assist.
The Inquisitor paused, his golden mask flickering. "You blind yourself? Desperation is ugly."
"You predict my moves by reading the System's intent," Seo-Jun said, the violet circuits on his arm glowing so bright they burned through his coat sleeve. "You read the data packets my brain sends to my body."
The chains of light holding Seo-Jun began to turn black. The corrosion spread rapidly, turning the holy magic into rust.
[PASSIVE ACTIVATED: 'CHAOS THEORY']
[SYSTEM LOGIC: REJECTED]
Seo-Jun shattered the weakened chains.
"So," Seo-Jun smirked, blood dripping from his lip. "What happens if I stop sending data packets?"
He closed his eyes. He stopped thinking about attacking. He stopped planning. He surrendered to the Glitch—the pure, random noise of corruption.
The Inquisitor raised his hand to fire another blast, but for the first time, he hesitated. "I... I cannot see..."
Seo-Jun moved.
It wasn't a skill. It wasn't a technique. It was a convulsion of space-time. He moved like a lagging video game character, teleporting in jagged, nonsensical intervals. He was here, then he was three meters to the left, then he was directly in front of the Inquisitor.
[ERROR: MOVEMENT DATA CORRUPTED]
[PREDICTION IMPOSSIBLE]
The Inquisitor fired a beam of light, but it passed through Seo-Jun's afterimage.
"You can't predict chaos!" Seo-Jun roared.
He drove the Void-Threader upward in a savage arc.
The Inquisitor tried to erect a barrier, but he was too slow. The logic of the battle had broken. The blade caught the Inquisitor's hovering form, slicing diagonally from his hip to his shoulder.
SSSHHH-CRACK.
The sound was terrible—like a server rack being crushed by a hydraulic press.
The Inquisitor fell back, his red robes slashed open, revealing not flesh, but a swirling vortex of golden numbers. He crashed onto the steps of the Neural-Gate, clutching his wound. Blue sparks bled from the cut.
"Impossible..." the Inquisitor gasped, his voice glitching, skipping syllables. "My calculations... absolute... probability... $100\%$..."
Seo-Jun stood over him, the Void-Threader dripping with liquid gold data. He placed a boot on the Inquisitor's chest.
"Your math was perfect," Seo-Jun said, raising the blade for the final strike. "But you forgot one variable."
He leaned in, his eyes two voids of infinite darkness.
"I don't solve the equation. I break the calculator."
Seo-Jun thrust the blade down.
[CRITICAL HIT!]
[TARGET 'THE INQUISITOR' DEFEATED]
[LEVEL UP!]
[LEVEL UP!]
[LEVEL UP!]
[LEVEL REACHED: 25]
[HIDDEN CONDITION MET: 'GOD-SLAYER' CLASS EVOLUTION AVAILABLE]
The Inquisitor exploded into a shower of loot and experience orbs, but Seo-Jun ignored them. He stepped over the remains and looked at the Neural-Gate. It was a massive console of pulsating light, waiting for an input.
"Zero-One," Seo-Jun said, breathing heavily, the adrenaline crash hitting him hard. "I'm at the console. Upload the payload."
"On it," Zero-One replied, her voice shaking with relief. "Initializing Global Virus... Seo-Jun, brace yourself. When this upload starts, every Enforcer in the city is going to know exactly where you are."
Seo-Jun turned back to the shattered doors of the Cathedral. Outside, he could hear the sound of a thousand jet thrusters approaching. The Architect was sending the entire army.
Seo-Jun pulled out his last cigarette—now magically restored by a looting glitch—and lit it.
"Let them come," he said, blowing smoke at the holy altar. "I'm just getting warmed up."