"Anomaly," a mechanical voice boomed from the sky.
The color drained from the world. The neon signs froze. The rain stopped mid-fall, hanging in the air like diamonds.
I froze. My heart hammered against my ribs. I knew that voice.
High above the school, piercing through the smog clouds, a giant eye opened. It was a searchlight, iris red and glowing, sweeping across the school grounds.
The System Eye. The automated moderator.
If it saw me—if it saw that I had just used an unregistered, SSS-rank forbidden skill to eat a mob—I would be Erasure-tagged before I could take my next breath.
"Alert," the voice droned, shaking the pavement. "Unsanctioned data deletion detected in Sector 9. Scanning for source."
The red beam swept over the gymnasium roof. It was moving toward the alley. Toward us.
Chen was panicking. "What did you do? The Mods are looking! If they find out I was PK-ing on school grounds, I’ll get suspended!"
He didn't get it. He was worried about suspension. I was worried about execution.
I had to hide. But how? I couldn't fight the System. Not at Level 1. I needed to lower my "Narrative Weight." I needed to be insignificant. Just a background extra. A piece of trash.
I slumped back down into the mud. I deliberately relaxed my muscles, forcing my heart rate to drop. I pulled up my own internal settings—a mental trick I learned in my past life—and suppressed my aura.
Be the mob, I told myself. You are an NPC. You are nothing.
The red beam hit us.
It felt like walking into a microwave. My skin tingled. The heat was invasive, scanning my bones, my stats, my history.
[SCANNING ENTITY: CHEN.]27Please respect copyright.ＰＥＮＡＮＡaL2rmcQ9iF
[RESULT: LEVEL 4 STUDENT. INSIGNIFICANT.]
[SCANNING ENTITY: KAI JIN.]
I held my breath. I let my jaw go slack, staring blankly at a puddle, drooling slightly. I projected the image of a beaten, broken loser who had just passed out from pain.
The red light lingered on me. It felt heavy, like a physical weight pressing on my skull. It was searching for the anomaly. It was searching for the monster that just ate a soul.
But right now, that monster was hiding inside a Level 1 weakling with 42 HP and no mana.
[RESULT: LEVEL 1 STUDENT. TRASH TIER.]27Please respect copyright.ＰＥＮＡＮＡGfxH3pE3wF
[ANOMALY SOURCE NOT FOUND. MARKING AS GLITCH.]
The red light snapped off. The rain crashed back down, noise returning to the alley in a rush.
"Resume standard protocols," the voice echoed, fading away.
ns216.73.216.10da2
and then Add to home screen.