“Ren!”

  No answer.

  Only wind.

  There was no up here.

  No down.

  The zero-gravity zone stretched for hundreds of meters, a frozen explosion of buildings and steel drifting in silence.

  His vision burned crimson.

  Mira’s projection was gone.

  Only the Administrator’s override filled his sight.

  《Unregistered Error Identified》

  《Full Deletion Protocol Initiated》

  《Execution: 82%》

  This story originates from Royal Road. Ensure the author gets the support they deserve by reading it there.

  The air thickened.

  Not metaphorically.

  Physically.

  Pressure slammed into him from every direction.

  His ribs groaned.

  Gravity was increasing—everywhere at once.

  “They’re crushing you,” a voice whispered.

  Not Mira.

  Warmer.

  Familiar.

  “Use it.”

  Ren clenched his fist.

  The fragment inside him detonated with a pulse.

  His heart thundered.

  “If I’m a bug,” he growled, blood rising in his throat, “then I’ll corrupt the whole system.”

  Stage Two.

  The space around him bent.

  Not pulling.

  Not pushing.

  Rewriting.

  A sphere formed—barely five meters wide.

  Inside it, gravity answered only to him.

  “Fall.”

  He brought his arm down.

  The swarm of drones collapsed.

  Not shot.

  Not exploded.

  Crushed.

  Thousands of metallic bodies slammed downward at once, as if an invisible god had stepped on them.

  The sky rippled.

  Light warped.

  Then the backlash hit.

  Something inside his chest compressed violently.

  Blood spilled from his mouth.

  Stage Two demanded payment.

  Organs strained against impossible force.

  His vision flickered.

  “Ren—north!” Mira’s voice broke through the distortion. “There is a temporary blind zone—move!”

  She was still there.

  Somehow.

  Ren kicked off drifting debris and propelled himself upward.

  Behind him, detonating drones lit the sky orange.

  For a second—

  He saw it.

  At the top of the Observation Tower.

  A silhouette.

  Watching him.

  It raised a hand.

  Not threatening.

  Not welcoming.

  Acknowledging.

  “…That’s you,” Ren whispered.

  The zero-gravity field destabilized.

  His control faltered.

  The Administrator’s voice returned, colder now.

  《Growth of anomaly confirmed》

  《Escalating deletion priority》

  Ren hovered in the fractured sky.

  The world had made its decision.

  It was rejecting him.

  And he had just answered back.