Five days. That was the time the System had granted the world to prepare before releasing the Supreme Executor. A deadline. A sentence. Or perhaps, a provocation.

  For Lysa, it was a clock ticking inside her chest.

  She and Kael had left Aemorr through the lower routes, following forgotten tunnels beneath the continent. Not out of cowardice — but because the surface now belonged to the System. Observation Towers had been activated in several cities. Sentinel spheres patrolled the sky. And in every village, Lysa’s face had been spread like a distorted icon, marked with the label: ABSOLUTE ANOMALY.

  But there was something more troubling.

  As they descended through the catacombs of the ancient Glass City, Lysa began to hear whispers.

  — Zero value...

  — The rewriting walks...

  — Where is the lost fragment?

  At first, she thought it was paranoia. But soon she realized the echoes didn’t come from her mind — they came from the code. Invisible lines pulsing through the walls, activating as she approached. Someone — or something — was calling to her.

  “Do you feel that?” she murmured to Kael, who walked just behind, sword in hand.

  He nodded.

  “It’s not magic. It’s… old. Like a buried voice still trying to speak.”

  The tunnel suddenly opened into a vast underground gallery, its pillars broken and sunken in shallow water. Fallen statuettes of forgotten gods littered the ground. In the center, a faded altar. And above it... a figure.

  Sitting cross-legged, wrapped in leather and rags, the woman seemed dead. But her eyes were open — two black voids, reflecting light where none existed. Her Life Value, projected in flickering, deformed sparks, shimmered:

  Life Value: ??

  Class: Obsolete

  Status: Banished

  Lysa approached cautiously. The woman didn’t move. But when she was just a few steps away, the stranger spoke:

  “I saw you in the Heart’s echo. I saw the Baron’s blood. I saw Aemorr. You want to break the System. But you don’t know what you’re trying to free.”

  Kael was the first to react.

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  “Who are you?”

  “I was called Miriya. I was the first Hacked. Before Lysa. Before the First Tower collapsed. Before the Silencing Protocol.”

  The revelation fell like thunder in the silence.

  Lysa felt the System tremble inside her mind. Red alerts lit up.

  FORBIDDEN-CLASS ENTITY DETECTED

  EXECUTION ON STANDBY

  PERMISSION DENIED: LOCATED IN DEAD ZONE

  Miriya smiled without moving.

  “They can’t hear here. Or see. Here, the code bleeds freely.”

  “Why did you call me?” Lysa asked.

  “Because you opened the path I once tried to walk. And because, unlike me, you have Essence Theft. You don’t just survive… you absorb. And soon, the Executor will come.”

  Kael crossed his arms.

  “You survived the hunt?”

  “No. I... ceased to exist. I erased my presence from the System. I didn’t die. I don’t live. I just observe.”

  She looked directly at Lysa.

  “But you can do more. You can bring the others.”

  “Others?”

  “There are more like you. Scattered. Hidden. Some are broken. Others still resist. Sprouts of the Fractured Code. You are the new class.”

  Lysa felt the Heart within her pulse. The Code whispered. Names began to flicker like remnants of memory:

  Andrel — Life Value 41 — Condemned for forging Registry

  Selene — Life Value 0 — Detained for attempting to manipulate base spell

  Nox — Life Value 67 — Deserting soldier with System immunity

  Three names. Three fragments. Three possible allies — or monsters worse than herself.

  “Where are they?” she asked.

  Miriya extended her hand. Three red dots glowed on her arm, forming a living map in the code. One to the south, one to the west, another far to the north.

  “You have four days. After that… not even Aemorr can save you.”

  Lysa nodded. Time was against her. But now she had a direction.

  Kael looked at her, hopeful.

  “Where to first?”

  She pointed south.

  “We’re going to find Andrel.”

  Andrel wasn’t hard to track. Finding him alive was another matter.

  The ruins of Telran — an old industrial fortress toppled after a miners’ uprising decades ago — now served as shelter for thieves, smugglers, and the forgotten. Records said Andrel had been imprisoned there after attempting to “rewrite his own Value.” An absolute heresy. But he escaped. And since then, no one dared enter the foundry where he hid.

  Lysa and Kael advanced through a cracked entrance, their feet crushing old ash and bone dust. The air smelled of burned iron. And old blood.

  Then they heard a laugh.

  “Knew you’d come. The Code screamed. It told me. You’re the girl from Aemorr.”

  The voice came from above. Then he appeared — hanging from rusted chains, laughing like a madman drunk on electricity.

  Andrel was thin, with sunken eyes, disheveled hair, and skin marked by self-inflicted carvings — runes etched with a blade. His Value flickered like a candle about to die.

  Life Value: 41-44

  Class: Fragmented

  Mental State: Unstable

  “You don’t look… trustworthy,” Kael muttered.

  “Trustworthy?” Andrel laughed. “I’m not here to comfort anyone. I’m here to break. But if you want to break things too, then tell me… how many numbers have you killed, girl?”

  Lysa didn’t answer.

  Andrel leapt from the chains and landed on his feet with disturbing grace.

  “You won’t survive alone. But together… maybe we won’t die. Today.”

  Lysa hesitated. She didn’t trust him. But the code pulsed in sync.

  “Let’s go. And fast.”