The System window hangs above the chamber like it was nailed into the air.
Everyone sees it.
Not just the people close to me. Not just the ones watching the fight. Even the rookies pressed against the pillars tilt their heads up, faces lit by that pale glow, mouths slightly open as if the world forgot to teach them what to say in a moment like this.
The creature freezes too.
Its claw is still extended toward my head, close enough that I can feel the cold coming off it, but the air around it tightens as if an invisible hand just wrapped around its throat. The pressure behind my eyes shifts, not pain, not fear, more like a lens focusing.
Minho's squad stares at the window.
The shield guy swallows hard.
The staff girl's grip tightens on her weapon like she expects the System to strike her next.
The supervisor's baton stays halfway raised, his injured leg shaking, his face caught between relief and anger.
Then the window updates again, text forming with calm certainty.
System Audit InitiatedSubject: Kang JaehyunCompliance RequiredTime Remaining: 30 seconds
A murmur ripples through the chamber, thin and panicked.
Public windows are rare. They happen when the System wants everyone to know something. A ranking announcement. A gate escalation. A death notice.
Not this.
This is the System pointing at a person.
Someone whispers, too loud in the silence. "Why does it have his name."
Another voice answers, sharp with fear. "He did something."
Minho doesn't speak, but his eyes move over the window, then over me, then over the frozen creature like he's assembling a picture. He looks too calm for someone who should be terrified.
He's the type who doesn't waste a crisis. He collects it.
The System window changes again, adding a new prompt.
Audit Condition: Display Status PanelTime Remaining: 24 seconds
The staff girl exhales in relief like that makes sense to her. "He just has to show his status."
Minho finally speaks, voice controlled, almost reasonable. "Do it."
It's not an offer. It's an order he has no right to give.
The supervisor snaps, "Minho, shut your mouth."
Minho doesn't look away from me. "If he doesn't comply and the System enforces it, we're all standing next to the blast radius."
He's not wrong. He's also not saying it for our safety.
He wants to see what I am.
So does the System.
I keep my face neutral.
If I refuse, I become a threat in the eyes of everyone here. If I comply fully, I become a containment project.
There's only one workable path.
Give them something true. Keep the rest buried.
I open my status panel.
A translucent window forms in front of me, and I can tell immediately it is not private. The rookies flinch as the text appears, eyes tracking each line. The supervisor's gaze flickers to it too, tense.
Name: Kang JaehyunRank: DCore Output: DSkills: Basic Reinforcement, Minor PerceptionCondition: Stable
Bare bones.
No hidden layer. No sealed trait. No ceiling data. Just what a normal D Rank should show.
For a heartbeat, the chamber holds its breath.
Then the System window updates.
Audit Result: IncompleteSupplement Required: Irregularity SourceTime Remaining: 12 seconds
The staff girl's face drains. "Incomplete."
The shield guy mutters a curse.
Someone behind Minho whispers, "He hid it."
Minho's mouth twitches. Not a smile, not exactly, but close. He looks pleased in a way that makes my skin crawl.
The creature twitches too.
The invisible pressure holding it tightens, then loosens for half a second, like the System's focus shifted from it back to me. Its claws scrape stone as it tests whether it can move again.
The supervisor steps closer to me, voice low and tight. "What does it want."
"It wants the cause," I answer quietly.
Minho leans forward slightly. "Then show it."
I don't respond. There's no point. He wants me exposed. The System wants me labeled. Neither of them care what happens to the people standing around me.
The System window flashes again.
Compliance Enforcement PendingTime Remaining: 6 seconds
The air grows colder.
Not from the creature. From the System.
The kind of cold that has nothing to do with temperature and everything to do with control.
I've felt it before, at the end of the world, when the System went silent and stopped pretending it was on our side. This is the same sensation, just restrained, like the System is choosing how hard to press.
If it enforces compliance, it will not ask politely. It will scan deeper. It will drag the irregularity out into the open. And if it does that while the creature is still in striking range, I might not even have time to blink.
I need the System to look somewhere else.
I need it to see a bigger problem than me.
My gaze drops to the depression in the center of the chamber.
The creature has been circling it like a dog guarding a bowl.
The floor around it has subtle marks, not scratches, not random damage. Repeated contact. Repeated pressure. A place something has returned to again and again.
An anchor.
I move.
Not a sprint. Not a dramatic lunge. Just two quick steps sideways, shifting my position so the creature's line of attack changes. It turns its head, tracking me, and the pressure behind my eyes sharpens.
The System window flashes.
Time Remaining: 3 seconds
The supervisor reaches out as if to stop me. He hesitates. He doesn't want to touch me while a public audit is active. Nobody does. He's afraid of being pulled into the same label.
Minho watches, eyes bright.
He thinks I'm trying to escape.
I'm not.
I'm trying to redirect the world's attention.
The creature moves again, suddenly, like the pause ended. Its claw comes down.
I duck under it and drive my shoulder into its torso, not trying to win, just trying to push it off line. It barely shifts. It's too heavy. Too anchored.
The System window flares.
Compliance Enforcement Initiated
A pulse of cold light washes through the chamber.
It feels like something sliding through my skull, searching, measuring, not caring what it breaks as long as it finds the answer.
My teeth grit together. I keep my face calm anyway. Panic would make it worse. Panic would make the scan dig deeper.
Then the scan hits something else.
The floor.
The depression.
The cavity under it.
The System window glitches for the first time, text flickering like it lost confidence.
External Irregularity DetectedGate Stabilization Protocol: Pending
The creature shrieks.
Not anger. Not pain.
Panic.
It jerks backward, claws scraping, like the System's attention just tightened around it instead of me.
Minho's squad stares up at the window, confused.
The supervisor whispers, "What did you do."
"I showed it the real problem," I say under my breath.
I drop to one knee at the depression's edge, fingers curling around a loose chunk of stone. The fissure from earlier is still there, hairline thin, like the chamber tried to heal it but couldn't.
The creature lunges toward me, desperate now, trying to put its body between me and the anchor.
The shield guy reacts, stepping in, but he's a beat late. The creature's limb slams into his shield and sends him sliding again, boots screeching across stone.
The staff girl screams and starts chanting, mana flaring uncontrolled.
Minho grabs her shoulder hard. "Stop."
She stops, shaking.
Good. At least one of them can learn.
The creature's claw comes down toward my back.
I twist aside and slam my palm onto the cracked edge of the depression, channeling raw output into the stone. Not a spike. A concentrated push, like cracking a weak wall.
The stone fractures with a sharp snap.
Cold air rushes up from beneath, stinging my lungs.
The chamber groans like it just took a breath.
The creature recoils. The pressure in the air collapses for a heartbeat, then returns thinner, unstable.
The System window updates again, faster now.
Gate Stabilization Protocol: ActiveEvacuation Route: Generating
A bright oval of light forms on the far wall, shimmering like heat haze. An exit that wasn't there a moment ago.
Everyone sees it.
Everyone surges toward it at once.
Minho's rookies move first, survival beating pride. The staff girl nearly trips. The shield guy grabs her arm and yanks her upright, dragging her forward.
The supervisor limps, jaw clenched, trying not to fall.
The girl from my group half carries the rookie boy, one arm around his waist, pulling him like she refuses to leave him behind.
Minho runs too.
But he doesn't run like the others.
He runs while watching me.
Not fear. Calculation.
He saw the System window. He saw it shift from my audit to gate stabilization the moment the depression cracked. He doesn't understand how, but he understands enough to decide I'm not normal.
The creature tries to follow the crowd.
It lunges toward the exit, movements frantic now, like it knows if we leave, it loses control.
I step into its path for half a second.
Not to fight it. To delay it.
The claw swings.
I duck and shove a loose slab of stone into the fissure, blocking part of the cavity. The cold air pulses once, and the creature shrieks again, stumbling back like it can't cross that boundary anymore.
That's enough.
I turn and sprint for the exit.
As I cross the threshold, the air changes. Warmth hits my face. Real air. Real gravity. The kind of normal that feels strange after a gate.
Then the light snaps shut behind the last person.
We spill out onto the training field outside the facility, coughing, dust on our clothes, eyes wide. Alarms begin to sound almost immediately, a harsh rising tone that draws staff from every direction.
Association personnel start running toward us.
Guild scouts step closer from the edges, drawn by instinct and opportunity. They pretend they're here by coincidence, but their eyes are too sharp and their steps too confident for that.
Minho stands three meters away from me, chest rising and falling, hair damp with sweat. His expression is controlled again, but there's something new behind it.
He's seen a door open.
Now he wants what's behind it.
The supervisor leans on a railing, breathing hard, staring at the gate facility wall like he expects it to open again and swallow us.
The rookie boy sits on the ground, shaking.
The girl who dragged him out looks like she might collapse herself now that she doesn't have to move.
And above all of us, the System window flickers one more time.
Subject Flagged: Kang JaehyunStatus: Irregularity ConfirmedMonitored Track: Escalated
A hush spreads across the training field.
People can ignore rumors. They can ignore gossip.
They don't ignore a public System window.
An Association officer pushes through the crowd, uniform crisp, face hard. Two more follow behind him. Not medics. Not support.
Containment.
His gaze locks on me as if he already decided the conclusion before asking questions.
"Kang Jaehyun," he says. "You will come with us for assessment."
Minho takes a step forward at the same time. "Officer, my squad witnessed the event. I request to submit a statement."
The officer doesn't even look at him. "You'll submit later."
Minho's jaw tightens. He looks at me again, and I can almost see the thought forming.
If he can't control the report, he'll control the story.
The officer gestures sharply. "Now."
I nod once, calm, and start walking.
Because if I resist here, I become a spectacle.
If I comply, I become a file.
Files can be stolen. Files can be rewritten. Files can be used.
As they lead me toward the assessment building, my private overlay flickers faintly at the edge of my vision.
Not a warning.
A notification.
New Condition AddedAudit Observation: Ongoing
I keep my face neutral.
Inside, I start calculating.
Because the System didn't finish with me.
And neither did the people who just saw my name in the sky.