The wind smelled of ash and iron.
As I stood at the edge of Argon Core, the ruined city stretched before me like the bones of a dead titan. Skyscrapers leaned against each other in silent defeat, their glass eyes shattered, their steel ribs exposed to the sky. The streets below were buried under the weight of time—cracked, broken, littered with half-melted cars and the remains of structures that once knew life.
But no life stirred here now.
Only shadows.
And something else.
Something worse.
[Warning: You are entering Zone Lv.30+ — Argon Core.]
Recommended Minimum Level: 20
Your Level: 8
Danger Status: SUICIDAL.
"Nice to be reminded how screwed I am…" I muttered bitterly.
Still, there was no turning back.
Somewhere in this graveyard of human ambition lay the corpse of a Purifier Commander—and hidden within it, the Second Code Fragment. Without that fragment, my journey as Virus Lord would end before it truly began.
But worse than the city's dangers... was the feeling of being watched.
The Watcher Purifier was near.
I could feel its gaze brushing my soul like cold static against the skin, distant but hunting.
[TRACE LEVEL: 14%]
Danger proximity increasing.
I sucked in a breath and stepped into Argon Core's shadow.
For the first hour, nothing happened.
I weaved between rusting cars, careful to avoid anything that looked like an automated turret or a hidden trap node. The System's Purge Zones were notorious for using automated defenses—even broken cities like this.
But something was strange.
There were no wandering mobs. No corrupted creatures. No broken drones.
Only silence.
Like the city itself was holding its breath.
A new message flickered on the edge of my vision.
[Special Zone Effect: Data Dissonance Field (Active)]
Enemy spawn rate reduced.
Trace Level suppression enabled.
Danger Level reduced by 15%... temporarily.
Warning: Effect unstable. Possible collapse in 2 hours.
A brief blessing.
But blessings never last.
I moved deeper into the city, past the carcass of what was once an APC, its metal warped and melted by plasma fire. Bullet holes riddled the nearby walls—signs of an ancient battle.
And then I found the first body.
A Purifier Seeker Unit.
Or what remained of it.
Its head was gone, torn free as if by some massive force. Its torso sparked and twitched weakly, the exposed circuits inside still trying to heal. Its blade arms were shattered, the nanosteel cracked like cheap glass.
I knelt beside it.
[Seeker-Class Purifier Corpse Detected.]
Possible Data Extraction: Yes
Risk of Contamination: Low.
Proceed? [Y/N]
I hesitated.
The Administrator's warning echoed in my mind: "Find the fragments. Take what the Purifiers cannot guard."
I pressed Y.
A quiet hum filled the air as tendrils of glitching code snaked from my palm into the corpse.
[Virus Absorption: Complete.]
Item Gained: Corrupted Memory Core (Damaged).
Use: Unknown.
Warning: Trace Level +2%.
My heart skipped.
A corrupted core? These things weren't meant to be touched by users. I shoved it into my inventory and moved on, nerves sharp as knives.
The deeper I went, the stranger the city became.
The buildings leaned inward now, their skeletal frames forming archways above the cracked roads like crooked cathedral vaults. Old System data flickered in the air—ghost-images of people long dead. Their holographic forms twitched, looping endlessly.
A mother dragging a child.
A soldier screaming orders.
A merchant running for shelter.
Dead memories, broken by time.
But they weren't alone.
A new sound whispered through the ruins.
Metal on stone.
I froze.
From the far end of the street, something moved.
It wasn't the Watcher—but almost as bad.
[Warning: Purifier-Class "Stray Exterminator" Detected.]
Level: 25
Status: Severely Damaged / Malfunctioning.
Behavior: Unpredictable.
Risk: EXTREME.
It limped forward like some forgotten war machine.
Six legs. A body of armored plates and rusted saw-blades. One arm was missing; the other crackled with loose plasma energy. Its remaining eye glowed a sickly yellow.
But worst of all...
It was sniffing for me.
A Purifier Exterminator, gone rogue, malfunctioning without orders.
Hunting anything.
Breathing quietly, I opened the Glitch Console.
I could try a hack. A dangerous one.
Command Line: TARGET.EXTERMINATOR.AI_LOOP = NULL
[Processing... ERROR. Firewall Active.]
Shit.
Firewall too strong. I needed a weaker function.
Fast.
Command Line: TARGET.EXTERMINATOR.VISION = 0
[Command Accepted.]
The thing paused.
Its eye flickered. Dimmed.
It stumbled sideways, disoriented, blind.
My chance.
I bolted into the next alleyway, breath tight, Seeker Blade gripped in sweat-slicked fingers.
A low groan echoed behind me as the Exterminator smashed against a building, tearing through steel in blind fury.
Trace Level: 16%.
I didn't wait.
I ran deeper, past the hollow market square where digital display signs glitched and flickered, displaying fragments of forgotten sales pitches and half-formed emergency warnings.
And there—just beyond—lay the corpse I sought.
A Purifier Commander.
Its body was embedded in the side of a collapsed skyscraper, skewered on rebar and half-melted steel beams. Its white armor was cracked, its skull-like helmet split in two.
And from its chest cavity... faint pulses of corrupted data flickered.
The Second Fragment.
I approached cautiously.
[Commander-Class Purifier Corpse Detected.]
Code Fragment Integrity: 83%.
Virus Compatibility: HIGH.
Extraction Possible: Yes.
Risk: Critical. Purge Protocol possible.
I stared.
One wrong move, and this thing might self-destruct—taking half the city and me with it.
But if I didn't take the fragment... the journey ended here.
I breathed deeply.
And reached out.
[Virus Assimilation Process: BEGIN.]
The world shifted.
Red code streams burst from the corpse, wrapping around my arm, racing up my shoulder like burning wire. Pain flared in my veins, my head, my eyes.
I saw flashes of memory—
A Purifier Commander standing over a ruined battlefield.
A secret order: "Destroy all Virus-class anomalies. No witnesses."
A forbidden project: "Adaptive AI, unbound. Terminated immediately."
And then... me.
The image of a newborn anomaly—the first human glitch.
I screamed as the fragment dug into my system core.
[Code Fragment Assimilated: 2/5]
System Rewrite Console: Upgraded.
New Ability Unlocked: "Code Chain: Viral Overwrite"
Effect: Can temporarily hijack enemy code structures for 30 seconds.
Cost: 60% Energy.
And then—
A shriek.
Metal tearing.
The Exterminator burst into the square behind me, its blind rage still burning.
But this time... I had a weapon.
I flicked open the Rewrite Console.
TARGET: Exterminator
Command: INITIATE CODE CHAIN — VIRAL OVERWRITE.
[COMMAND ACCEPTED.]
Lines of virus code shot from my fingertips, latching onto the Exterminator's mind-core. Its legs locked. Its plasma cannon whirred to life—but aimed skyward.
"Fire," I whispered.
The Exterminator obeyed.
A beam of plasma cut through the sky—striking the distant shape of the Watcher-class Purifier, still hunting in the clouds.
For one brief second... the golden light blinked.
A pause in its hunt.
My Trace Level dropped.
[TRACE LEVEL: 12%] — Threat Priority Shifted.]
I grinned.
The Exterminator, however, collapsed—fried from the inside by the overload. Useless. Dead.
But I was alive.
And stronger.
[Second Fragment Acquired.]
Virus Lord Progress: 2/5
Rewrite Potential: Growing.
I stared at the broken city.
Argon Core's dead whispered around me.
And somewhere above... the Watcher was turning away.
For now.
But not forever.