The first person to move wasn't Do-hyun.
It was a kid.
He couldn't have been older than fifteen, standing in the middle of the street with a cracked phone in his hand. His eyes were wide, unfocused—then suddenly sharp, like something clicked into place.
"I…" he whispered. "I died on a bus."
The words sent a chill through the air.
The woman beside him grabbed his shoulder. "What are you talking about?"
"I remember," he said, voice trembling. "The scream. The fire. And then—nothing. And now I'm here again."
The ground vibrated faintly.
Text flickered above the boy's head, unstable and wrong.
[UNREGISTERED AWARENESS DETECTED]
The system noticed.
Do-hyun cursed under his breath. "That's bad."
"It's worse than bad," I said. "He's not supposed to remember that much."
The boy's breathing sped up. Around him, others began to freeze, clutching their heads, whispering fragments of things they shouldn't know.
"I was crushed—"
"I didn't make it past the third night—"
"I remember choosing—"
The crown in the sky pulsed.
Hard.
A new message burned into my vision.
[ENFORCER DEPLOYMENT AUTHORIZED][SCENARIO ZERO — CONTAMINATION DETECTED]
The air folded.
Something stepped out of the blank white space beneath the crown.
It wasn't human.
Not fully.
It wore the shape of one—tall, armored in layered white plates etched with clean system symbols—but its face was smooth and featureless, like a mask that had never learned how to be a face.
An Enforcer.
Every awakened person staggered like they'd been punched in the gut.
The boy screamed.
The Enforcer raised one hand.
Do-hyun moved instantly.
He shoved me back and sprinted forward, blade hilt in hand, rage and precision perfectly aligned.
"Hey!" he shouted. "You want someone? Take me!"
The Enforcer turned.
Its blank face tilted toward him.
[TARGET ACQUIRED: SECONDARY VARIABLE]
"No!" I yelled.
Do-hyun leapt, swinging with everything he had.
The strike connected—
And passed straight through.
The Enforcer didn't even react.
It backhanded him midair.
Do-hyun hit the ground hard, skidding across the street and slamming into a car hard enough to cave the door inward.
"Do-hyun!" I shouted, running toward him.
The Enforcer turned back to the boy.
[UNREGISTERED AWARENESS — TERMINATION REQUIRED]
"No," I whispered.
Something twisted in my chest.
Not power.
Not rage.
Decision.
I stepped forward.
"Stop."
The word didn't echo.
It anchored.
The Enforcer froze mid-motion.
Its hand trembled.
[ERROR.][COMMAND SOURCE NOT FOUND.]
Every eye turned to me.
The boy looked up, tears streaming down his face. "You… you're the one," he said shakily. "I saw you before everything went wrong."
My heart pounded. "You don't need to remember everything," I said gently. "Just remember this—you're not broken."
The Enforcer's body began to fracture, hairline cracks spreading across its white armor.
[SOURCE OF CONTRADICTION — CONFIRMED]
The system screamed.
[JIHO — CEASE INTERFERENCE][YOU ARE NOT AN ADMINISTRATOR]
I met the Enforcer's blank face.
"No," I said quietly. "I'm worse."
I reached out.
And touched it.
The cracks spread instantly, light bleeding through as the Enforcer staggered backward.
It collapsed—not destroyed, but unraveled—its form dissolving into fragments of harmless white text that scattered into the air.
Silence fell.
Then—
The boy laughed.
Not hysterically.
Relieved.
"I'm still here," he whispered.
Do-hyun groaned from the ground. "Great… now you're inspiring people."
I ran to him, helping him sit up. "You okay?"
He winced, then nodded. "I've had worse."
He looked at the people around us—awake, scared, real.
Then at me.
"You just made yourself the biggest problem in this world," he said.
I swallowed. "Yeah."
He smirked faintly. "Figures."
Above us, the crown trembled violently.
The system had lost its first Enforcer.
And it was angry.
Very angry.