Three days after the Fate Engine shattered, the world still hadn't stopped shaking.
Not physically.
Mentally.
Across the planet, Players woke up every day with different numbers on their screens. Skills that once worked perfectly now glitched or failed. Classes evolved into strange new forms. Some people lost power. Others gained abilities the System had never intended to give.
Chaos spread faster than monsters ever did.
Governments tried to return. Failed.Guilds tried to take control. Failed.Religions formed around the System… and around Kai.
Yes.
Around him.
In Ark One, whispers followed him wherever he went.
"The man who broke fate.""The boy who hurt God.""The anomaly."
Some wanted to worship him.
Some wanted to kill him.
Maya stayed close to Kai at all times. Even in this fortress-city, she didn't feel safe.
"Kai," she whispered as they walked through a ruined district of Ark One, "people keep staring at us."
"I know," Kai replied. "They're deciding what we are to them."
Seraphine followed behind them, her eyes always scanning.
"The System is reorganizing," she said. "When a god gets wounded, it doesn't cry. It learns."
Kai nodded.
"And next time it won't send Enforcers."
Maya swallowed. "Then what will it send?"
Kai looked up at the sky.
"Something smarter."
Somewhere far away…
A new symbol appeared in every Player's system window.
[WORLD EVENT: HUNT OF THE UNWRITTEN]
Kai felt a chill crawl down his spine.
The world wasn't just reacting anymore.
It was coming for him.
The moment the WORLD EVENT appeared, panic erupted.
Every Player's system window glowed red.
[HUNT OF THE UNWRITTEN HAS BEGUN][TARGET: ALL FATELESS ENTITIES][REWARD: PERMANENT POWER, SYSTEM FAVOR]
Maya grabbed Kai's arm.
"That means us…"
"Yes," Kai said quietly.
Across Ark One, Players stopped mid-step, mid-sentence, mid-battle.
They turned.
And they looked at Kai.
Not with curiosity.
With hunger.
Seraphine cursed under her breath.
"It just weaponized the entire world."
A Player near them started shaking.
"I don't want to do this…" he whispered.
Above his head:
FATE: WILL ATTACK KAI
Kai met his eyes.
"I know."
The Player screamed and charged, fire forming around his fists.
Seraphine cut him down in one clean motion.
Blood splashed onto the pavement.
Maya gasped.
Seraphine wiped her blade.
"This is what the System does. It forces choice by threatening survival."
More Players were moving now.
Some hesitantly.Some eagerly.Some like they were possessed.
"Kai!" Maya cried. "There are too many!"
Kai closed his eyes.
For a brief moment, the Observer window flickered back to life — weak, unstable, but still there.
He saw fragments of paths.
Ways to escape.
Ways to survive.
One narrow line through a storm of death.
"Follow me," he said.
And he ran.
Kai sprinted through Ark One's shattered streets, pulling Maya along as Seraphine covered their backs.
Explosions rocked buildings. Skills lit up the air. Players chased them like a pack of wolves chasing wounded prey.
"Kai, I can't keep up!" Maya cried.
"Just a little more!"
Kai followed the one thin glowing path only he could see — a path not written by fate, but by probability.
A corner.
A collapsed tower.
A sewer entrance.
"Down there!" he shouted.
They dove into the darkness as fire and lightning tore the street behind them apart.
The sewer tunnel was narrow and damp, but it hid them from system tracking.
Maya collapsed to her knees, gasping.
"They… they were going to kill us…"
Kai knelt in front of her.
"They're being forced to."
Seraphine leaned against the wall.
"The System has declared you an infection. It will keep escalating until you're dead… or until something breaks."
Kai smiled faintly.
"Then we'll break something bigger."
Maya looked at him with fear and trust in equal measure.
"Kai… what are we now?"
He met her eyes.
"Enemies of God."
And somewhere far away, the Architect was already designing something to kill him.
Something that could think.
The sewer tunnel stretched endlessly ahead, lit only by flickering emergency lights and the faint glow of corrupted system windows.
Above Kai's vision, faint warnings appeared.
[TRACKING UNSTABLE][HUNT ONGOING]
"They're still searching," Maya whispered.
"Of course they are," Kai said. "The System doesn't let go of prey."
Seraphine's eyes narrowed.
"And neither do its champions."
Something stirred in the darkness ahead.
A presence.
Cold.
Calculated.
Kai felt it before he saw it.
THREAT: APPROACHING
A new name appeared in his vision.
NAME: NULLCLASS: SYSTEM REAPERLEVEL: UNKNOWNPURPOSE: ERASE THE OBSERVER
Kai's blood ran cold.
The System hadn't just sent Hunters.
It had built something specifically for him.
Maya's grip tightened.
"Kai…?"
He looked into the darkness, a slow, dangerous smile forming.
"Looks like God sent an assassin."
And this one…
Was made to kill him.