[SYSTEM]

  HUNTER INTERCEPT TIMER: 00:03:47

  FUGUE: 46%

  STATUS: HUNTED

  TEAM: 7 MEMBERS

  [/SYSTEM]

  Three minutes and forty seven seconds.

  "They are in the tunnels," Lara said. The sensor feed showed two blips moving in perfect sync.

  Marcus hefted his shock rod. "Ambush at the drain junction."

  "No," I said. Memory surfaced. The Reaper Class hunter at Blackstone Warehouse. Electricity did nothing. "They are built for anomalies. Your rod is useless."

  "We run," Eli said.

  "They are faster." I pointed to the map. "The tracker predicts escape routes based on movement patterns. We go where we should not go."

  Vex packed his tools. "Your problem. My debt is clear." He and Vera moved to a side grate.

  "That sector is flooded," I said.

  "Better than your lightning rod show," Vex replied. They left.

  Seven of us remained.

  We ran the wrong way. Deeper into the complex. Cold air bit at exposed skin. My bad ear rang. My skin itched with static. The 370/200 XP in my system was a pressure cooker with no release valve.

  [SYSTEM]

  PREDICTIVE PATH ANALYSIS DETECTED.

  SOURCE: [PREDATORY TRACKER]

  ANALYSIS: SYNCHRONIZING WITH PAST ROUTE DATA. CONVERGENCE LIKELY. DEVIATION REQUIRED.

  [/SYSTEM]

  The hunter was learning my patterns. We pushed into a narrow maintenance pipe. It emerged in a filtration chamber.

  Halfway across the chamber, the far hatch blew inward.

  Silent force. Metal peeled back like paper.

  Two figures entered.

  Reaper Class. Tall, seamless armor. No visible weapon. Tracker Class. Smaller, scanner arrays glowing. Its helmet tilted slightly.

  "Anomaly Prime," the Reaper's voice synthesized. "Systemic irregularity. Correction required."

  I triggered Echo Sight. A micro second pulse. A mistake.

  The world fractured. The Reaper showed as a null zone. A void in my Sight. A headache drilled behind my eyes. The Tracker glowed with prediction nets and probability calculations.

  [SYSTEM]

  FUGUE METER: 49%.

  SPIKE REASON: ECHO SIGHT USED AGAINST ADVERSARIAL NULL FIELD.

  [/SYSTEM]

  Feedback burned. A nail behind the eyes. My power was a liability against them.

  "Scatter."

  The team broke. The Reaper moved. It stepped past Marcus's swing. Its arm moved. Marcus hit the wall, breath gone.

  Tracker scanners pulsed. "Subject Eli. Trajectory calculated. Intercept in six seconds."

  Eli was cut off on a catwalk.

  I went for the Tracker. The Reaper shifted. It was already there.

  Stolen content warning: this content belongs on Royal Road. Report any occurrences.

  Its hand closed on my wrist. Pressure. Cold. Bone grated. My wrench dropped.

  "Correction is peaceful."

  Capture.

  But the contact was a data point. The Reaper's null field was not just armor. It was a logic gate. A system within the System. My Fugue energy was raw anomaly. Their containment was built to suppress it.

  I had an idea. A terrible one.

  I didn't pull away. I pushed. I focused every ounce of the itchy, static filled pressure of 370/200 XP into the contact point. I channeled it through the Fugue spike. I didn't try to see the Reaper's past. I tried to force my anomaly into its null field.

  A feedback shrieked in my mind. The System registered the clash.

  [SYSTEM]

  WARNING: UNPROCESSABLE ANOMALY FEEDBACK DETECTED.

  SOURCE: ANOMALY PRIME - REAPER CLASS INTERFACE.

  SEVERITY: SECTOR WIDE.

  CONTAINMENT PROTOCOL [REAPER CLASS] SUSPENDED.

  REASSIGN: INVESTIGATE FEEDBACK ORIGIN.

  [/SYSTEM]

  The Reaper froze. Its grip tightened, then spasmed. Its head jerked. Tracker scanners whirred wildly, shifting to scan empty air.

  "Command. Verify," the Reaper stated.

  Static. Tracker cursed. "Signal jammed. Source is everywhere and nowhere. Ghost ping. It's him. He's creating interference."

  The Reaper's helmet faced me. It released my wrist. "Priority reassignment. Target tagged. Source analysis required."

  In that second, Lara acted. She threw a concussion charge at the ceiling above the Tracker.

  The blast was deafening. Ductwork rained down. The chamber lights flickered. My Fugue spike had destabilized the local power grid.

  The Tracker dodged. The collapse created a barrier. The Reaper stood, torn between protocols.

  "Go."

  We went. Survivors through a maintenance hatch.

  We lost Finn. He was behind me. The support gave way. His cry cut short. Dust filled the passage. The hunters were behind the collapse.

  [SYSTEM]

  ESCAPE: COSTLY.

  GEAR LOST: COMMS SET, 60% AMMO, MAP DATA.

  MEMBER LOST: FINN. STATUS: PRESUMED CAPTURED (SIGNAL LOST).

  REMAINING: 7 MEMBERS.

  FUGUE: 54% (SPIKE: FORCED FEEDBACK LOOP).

  WARNING: XP OVERFLOW (370/200) CAUSING NEURAL STATIC. DETONATION RISK IF UNRESOLVED.

  HUNTER STATUS: ACTIVE (PRIORITY REASSIGNED - TEMPORARY).

  [/SYSTEM]

  Two hours later we reached a derelict water plant. The air was toxic. We had no medkits. Marcus had a broken rib. Eli shook uncontrollably.

  I was worse. The static itch was now a constant buzz under my skin. Ghost code flickered at the edge of my vision. Numbers. Error messages. The System was trying to process the overflow and failing.

  Marcus noticed my trembling hands. "What is wrong with you?"

  "I am holding back a flood," I said. My voice was strained. "The System will not let me level up. The energy is just sitting there. If I do not vent it soon, I am going to detonate."

  Lara salvaged a crushed data drive from Finn's gear. "This is not ours."

  I plugged it into a portable reader. One file. Weak encryption. It was meant to be found.

  [SYSTEM LOG EXTRACT - SECURITY TIER 9]

  SUBJECT: ANOMALY PRIME [LEO VANE]

  STATUS: CATALOGUED. CONTAINMENT PROTOCOL: [ERROR].

  ANALYSIS: HOST NEURAL ARCHITECTURE REJECTS STANDARD SUPPRESSION/PROCESSING.

  DIRECTIVE: CONTAINMENT IMPOSSIBLE. ESCALATION TO [REDACTED] REQUIRES EXECUTIVE CLEARANCE (TIER: KAEL VANCE - INSUFFICIENT).

  CURRENT PROTOCOL: TERMINATION VIA CONTRACTED ASSETS AUTHORIZED.

  [/SYSTEM]

  Silence.

  Marcus spoke first. "Processing?"

  "What they do to normal anomalies," I said. "Pacify. Absorb. I am glitched. They cannot process me. The only box left is dead." I looked at the log, then at their faces. "Kael cannot change that. He is a middle manager with a kill order. The System is keeping him out of the real loop."

  Eli asked the next question. "If he is not top tier. Who gave the order?"

  The file did not say. Kael was the link, not the source.

  I stood up. The static buzz focused into a cold, sharp clarity.

  The broadcast failed. The hub failed. Running failed. But the hunters were not unbeatable. I had just proved that.

  "Stop trying to cut the head off," I said. "We are not fighting a man. We are fighting a blind administrator. A bureaucrat with a budget."

  I tapped the system log on the screen. "Kael is insufficient. That means he has limits. He has to justify his resource expenditure. Every hunter he sends, every Guard patrol, every system alert costs him credibility with whatever is above him."

  I looked at each of them. "We do not need to hide. We need to become too expensive to delete. We poison the body he uses to function. Comms. Power. Sector 7 logistics. We break what makes him efficient. We make the System spend more protecting his operation than killing us. We make hurting us cost more than ignoring us."

  It was a plan for pain. A plan to target weakness. Asymmetric disruption.

  Lara nodded slowly. "So we stop hitting the shield. We hit the hand holding it."

  "Exactly."

  [SYSTEM]

  NEW DIRECTIVE LOGGED: ASYMMETRIC DISRUPTION.

  KAEL VANCE THREAT PROFILE: MID TIER ADMINISTRATOR (RESOURCE CONSTRAINED).

  PRIMARY TARGETS REASSIGNED: LOGISTICAL NODES.

  FUGUE: 54% - STABLE (OVERRIDE PRESSURE MAINTAINED).

  HUNTER RE-ENGAGEMENT PROBABILITY: 94% (6-12 HOURS).

  [/SYSTEM]

  ? I Am Not The Evil God [World hopping xianxia, system cultivation] ?

  by Tae_Mu