[HOST INTEGRITY: 3%]
[LOCATION: UNKNOWN - JUDICIAL VOID]
[TIME: NULL]
---
There was no transition.
No travel.
No warning.
One moment, Ren was standing in his office—the smell of cheap incense and cold rain filling his nose.
The next—
Nothing.
The air was gone.
Replaced by a stillness so absolute it felt like drowning in vacuum.
His ears popped. His lungs seized.
Gravity was wrong here. Heavier. It pulled at his bones like they were made of lead.
Beside him, Ye Lingshan gasped and dropped to one knee.
Her sword rattled in its scabbard, the metal vibrating like it was afraid. The spiritual weight of this place pressed down on her like a mountain.
She tried to draw the blade.
It wouldn't move.
Stuck in the sheath like it was welded there.
"What—" she choked. "Where are we?"
Ren Wu did not kneel.
He leaned heavily on his umbrella, knuckles white, a fresh trickle of black blood running from his nose.
It dripped onto his collar.
Stained the white fabric.
[HOST INTEGRITY: 3%]
[SYSTEM WARNING: ENVIRONMENT HOSTILE TO BIOLOGICAL FUNCTIONS]
[RECOMMENDATION: IMMEDIATE EVACUATION]
Ren looked up.
They were standing on a platform of black obsidian, floating in an infinite grey void.
No walls. No ceiling. No floor beyond the small circle they stood on.
Just... emptiness.
Far above—impossibly far—ten massive thrones circled the darkness like the points of a crown.
Nine were empty.
Sealed with chains of rusted spirit-iron that looked older than civilizations.
The Tenth Throne was occupied.
Judge Mortis.
He was not human.
He was not even humanoid.
He was a wound in reality.
Fifteen feet of elongated shadow wrapped in robes made of shifting, living text. Legal script crawled across the fabric like insects.
He didn't glow.
He absorbed light.
Drank it into his mass until the space around him became darker just from his presence.
His face was a mask of polished bone. White as fresh snow. A single vertical crack ran down the center, filled with something that looked like molten blood.
In the hollow sockets of his eyes, two red stars burned.
The red of dying suns.
[ENTITY DETECTED: HIGH JUDGE MORTIS]
[AUTHORITY LEVEL: SUPREME ADMINISTRATIVE ]
Ren wiped the blood from his lip with the back of his hand.
Left a dark smear.
"Bit dramatic," he whispered. His voice was barely audible. "But efficient."
The red stars turned toward him.
The Judge did not speak.
The voice simply arrived in Ren's skull.
Like someone had opened his head and poured concrete directly into his brain.
"DEFENDANT: REN WU. ENTITY CLASSIFICATION: 404. UNAUTHORIZED EXISTENCE."
The words tasted like copper and ash.
Mortis raised one hand. The temperature dropped twenty degrees instantly.
"THE HIGH COURT IS NOW IN SESSION. CHARGES ARE AS FOLLOWS."
The voice had no emotion. No anger. No malice.
It was purely procedural.
Like a machine reading a grocery list.
"CHARGE ONE: ILLEGAL SYNTHESIS OF SPIRITUAL MATTER. DESIGNATION: THE GREY LINE."
"CHARGE TWO: UNAUTHORIZED BINDING OF DECEASED LABOR FORCE."
"CHARGE THREE: MANIPULATION OF SECTOR 9 MARKET INDEX WITHOUT PERMIT."
"CHARGE FOUR: IDENTITY FRAUD. FALSE CULTIVATION SIGNATURE."
"CHARGE FIVE: INTERFERENCE WITH ADMINISTRATIVE SYSTEMS."
Mortis leaned forward.
The platform shook.
The red stars flared brighter.
"EVIDENCE HAS BEEN RECORDED. GUILT IS ESTABLISHED."
The void around them flickered.
Massive holographic projections appeared in the air.
Ren mixing the ash and waste in his factory.
Ren binding the fifty ghosts to the machine controls.
Ren purchasing Nether-Core's debt instruments.
It wasn't an accusation.
It was a recording.
Every moment. Every decision. Every crime.
Played back in perfect, damning detail.
"THE LAW IS A STRUCTURE,"Mortis intoned. "YOU HAVE INTRODUCED CHAOS. ENTROPY. DISORDER."
He raised a gavel.
It looked like a war-hammer made of black stone. Runes carved into its surface glowed with the same cold red as his eyes.
"THE SENTENCE IS COMPLETE DISSOLUTION. JUDGMENT IS IMMEDIATE."
The hammer began to fall.
"Wait."
Ren's voice was a whisper.
Barely audible against the crushing weight of the Judge's presence.
But it carried.
Ren took a step forward. His leg trembled so violently he almost fell.
"I request..." He coughed. Black blood splattered the obsidian. "An Audit."
Silence.
The kind of silence that happens when a machine encounters an error it wasn't programmed to handle.
Mortis froze.
The hammer stopped mid-swing.
The red stars narrowed to pinpricks.
"VERDICT IS MANDATORY,"** Mortis stated. **"AUDIT PROTOCOLS ARE RESERVED FOR ARCHITECT-CLASS ENTITIES."
Ren looked up. His vision was blurring at the edges. Grey creeping in from the corners.
He was dying on his feet.
"Check the syntax, Mortis."
His voice was getting weaker.
"Charge One. Illegal Synthesis."
Ren pointed a shaking finger at the holographic projection of the Grey Line.
"Does it accelerate entropy... or does it stabilize it?"
Mortis stared at the projection.
[ANALYZING...]
[CROSS-REFERENCING LEGAL DATABASE...]
[ERROR: CONFLICTING PRECEDENTS DETECTED]
A red spark flickered across the Judge's bone mask.
For exactly 0.3 seconds, the giant figure seemed to... glitch.
The sheer inevitability of him wavered.
Like a video feed with bad connection.
The Memory
(Fragment - Corruption Level: 99% - Source: Unknown)
A hall of white stone stretching to infinity.
Golden laws drifted through the air like ribbons of light.
A man stood in the center.
He wore no robes. Just a simple grey suit.
He was writing symbols in the air with a finger made of fire.
A younger Mortis knelt before him. His bone mask was whole. Uncracked.
"Record this protocol," the man said. His voice was calm. Absolute.
"If an anomaly stabilizes reality, the Law must adapt. Not erase."
"But Sir," young Mortis asked, "what if the anomaly is dangerous?"
"Efficiency is always dangerous, Mortis. That's why we audit it."
(End Fragment)
The red stars widened.
The glitch stabilized.
Judge Mortis lowered the hammer slowly. He leaned down, his massive face looming over the tiny platform.
"DEFINE LAW," Mortis commanded.
It was a test.
The kind of question that had destroyed a thousand legal scholars.
Reduced them to ash and screaming.
Ren coughed. Blood ran down his chin.
He straightened his tie with trembling fingers.
Looked the monster in the eye.
"Law isn't morality," Ren rasped. "Law is accounting."
He took a shuddering breath.
"Law is a structure built to preserve functional existence. If the Law obstructs existence..."
He pointed at the holographic playback of the starving ghosts.
"...it becomes corruption."
Ren's voice grew stronger. More certain.
"They were fading. I stabilized them. Your Law says they should starve. I say your Law is operating in the red."
Mortis stared.
The silence stretched.
Ten seconds.
Twenty.
Lingshan watched in terror as the shadows around the Judge began to vibrate. To writhe.
Then—
Mortis sat back.
The crushing pressure lifted. Just a fraction.
"SYNTAX RECOGNIZED,"*Mortis boomed.
"ARCHITECT PROTOCOL... DETECTED."
---
The Stay
Mortis raised the gavel high.
Not to strike Ren down.
To seal a judgment.
BOOM.
The sound echoed through the void like thunder.
"JUDGMENT... POSTPONED."
Ren's knees almost buckled. He caught himself on his umbrella.
"CONDITIONAL STAY GRANTED,"*Mortis announced. "DEFENDANT REN WU. YOU HAVE REQUESTED AUDIT. YOU SHALL RECEIVE IT."
Three massive, burning runes appeared in the air above Ren's head.
They hurt to look at.
"YOU CLAIM COMPETENCE. PROVE IT. THREE PROOFS REQUIRED FOR ACQUITTAL."
"PROOF ONE: DEMONSTRATE THE GREY LINE DOES NOT ACCELERATE LONG-TERM ENTROPY."
"PROOF TWO: DEMONSTRATE GHOST LABOR IS CONSENSUAL AND SUSTAINABLE."
"PROOF THREE: DEMONSTRATE YOU ARE A LEGAL ENTITY WORTHY OF CONTINUED EXISTENCE."
Mortis's voice dropped. Lost the mechanical edge.
Became dangerously personal.
"FAIL EVEN ONE... AND I WILL ERASE YOU PERSONALLY."
The Judge raised his hand.
"COURT ADJOURNED. YOU HAVE SEVENTY-TWO HOURS."
The void shattered like glass.
Wind rushed in from nowhere and everywhere.
Gravity snapped back to normal.
[LOCATION: LAST STOP FACTORY - LOADING BAY]
[TIME: 12:35 AM]
Ren slammed back into reality.
Hit the concrete floor hard.
His umbrella skittered away across the oil-stained ground.
"REN!"
Lingshan scrambled over to him. Grabbed his shoulders. Turned him over.
His face was grey. Ashen.
Black blood poured from his nose, his ears, the corners of his eyes.
"I got it," Ren whispered. His eyes were unfocused. Staring at the ceiling. "I got the stay."
"You're dying," Lingshan said. Panic cracked her voice.
She pressed her hands against his chest, trying to push spiritual energy into him.
It was like pouring water into a broken cup.
"Your heart is barely beating. Your spiritual channels are collapsing."
A faint, bloody smile touched his lips.
[SYSTEM ALERT - CRITICAL]
[HOST INTEGRITY: 1%]
[CATASTROPHIC SYSTEM FAILURE IMMINENT]
[INITIATING EMERGENCY REBOOT PROTOCOL...]
[ESTIMATED DURATION: 72 HOURS]
[WARNING: CONSCIOUSNESS WILL BE SUSPENDED]
Ren's eyes rolled back.
Showed only white.
His breathing stopped.
Then started again. Shallow. Irregular.
The world went black.
[END OF VOLUME 1]
STRATEGIC STATUS UPDATE:
Ren Wu: Alive (Barely) - Comatose for 72 hours
Legal Status: Conditional Stay - Under High Court Audit
Nether-Core: Hostile Takeover Complete (Awaiting Paperwork)
Factory: Operational - Ghost Workers Maintaining Production
Next Phase: Volume 2 - The Audit
Author's Note:
The gavel has fallen.
Ren survived the High Court, but the debt is far from paid.
Three proofs. Seventy-two hours. One dying man against the legal machinery of Hell itself.
Volume 2 begins with a reboot.
Will Ren wake up in time to save himself? Will the factory survive without him? Can a dead man prove he deserves to exist?
The audit begins soon.
If you enjoyed this volume, please drop a Power Stone. Ren is going to need all the help he can get.
Next: Volume 2, Chapter 51 - The Reboot
---
[VOLUME 1 COMPLETE]