GASSSSSSP.
I sucked in air—or rather, my Core sucked in ambient mana. The sensation was like being pulled underwater and then suddenly breaking the surface.
The white void vanished. The pixelated walls snapped back into solid stone. The sound returned with a deafening CRACK of thunder.
I was back in the Core Room.
Seraphina was still standing there, but she had fallen over. She scrambled to her feet, sword raised, eyes wild.
"Max?" she shouted, spinning around. "What happened? The world... it stopped."
"System update," I said. My voice sounded deeper, more resonant. I checked my reflection in a pool of water on the floor. My crystal body wasn't just black anymore. It had veins of gold running through it.
"Did we win?" Lilith asked, peeking out from behind a stalagmite. She had lost her hard hat, but she was still clutching the clipboard.
"We didn't lose," I corrected. "We just survived the audit."
I looked at the notifications scrolling across my vision. They were different now. The frantic red warnings were gone, replaced by a calm, professional grey.
System Alert:
Reboot Complete.
Patch 1.01 Applied.
New Designation: Independent Dungeon Operator (Provisional).
Current Debt: 1,350,000 Mana.
Payment Plan: Restructured.
The debt was still there. Vane hadn't been defeated; he had just been forced to retreat. The Church was still powerful, and I still owed the System a fortune. But the immediate threat of foreclosure was gone. The Admin had given me breathing room.
"Boss!" A rattle of bones drew my attention.
Gub, my Skeleton Janitor, was sweeping furiously at a pile of dust. He seemed distressed.
"Dust not move!" Gub clicked his jaw. "Dust stuck!"
I looked closer. The "dust" was actually a patch of static that hadn't fully rendered back into reality yet.
"Don't touch that, Gub," I warned. "That’s a glitch. Put a wet floor sign over it."
I turned my attention to the center of the room. Seraphina hadn't sheathed her sword. She was staring at me with a complicated expression. She looked like someone who had just watched a man jump off a cliff and learn how to fly on the way down.
"You talked to Him," she whispered. "Didn't you? The One Above."
"We had a meeting," I said.
She let out a long, shaky breath and finally lowered her weapon. The fight had drained her. Her pristine armor was scorched, her cape was torn, and she looked like she needed a week of sleep.
"I can't go back," she said softly. It wasn't a question.
"No," I agreed. "Vane saw you defend me. You’re an apostate now. A heretic. If you walk into a Church, they’ll arrest you."
"I spent my whole life following the Manual," she said, looking down at her hands. "I thought the System was justice. But today... Vane was going to kill us for profit. And you..."
She looked up at me. "You saved us by breaking everything."
"Disruption is messy," I said.
I dissolved my crystal shell’s outer opacity, letting a warm, inviting blue light flood the room. I projected my Avatar again—the man in the suit. I walked over to her.
"Seraphina, look at this place," I said, gesturing to the dank cave, the skeleton sweeping a glitch, and the demon secretary filing her nails. "We are a mess. We have no infrastructure. We have active hostiles in the C-Suite of the Church. And I have no idea how to navigate the legal code of this world."
I extended a hand.
"I need a Compliance Officer. Someone who knows the rules so we can... creatively interpret them. Someone who can keep the heat off while I build the business."
Seraphina looked at my hand. Then she looked at the entrance tunnel, where the sunlight of the outside world—a world that now wanted her dead—was filtering in.
"Compliance Officer," she tested the word. "Does it come with dental?"
"Full benefits," I promised. "And no overtime on weekends."
A small, genuine smile touched her lips. It was the first time I’d seen her smile. It changed her face completely, softening the hard lines of the auditor into something human.
She took my hand. Her grip was iron-strong.
"You’re going to get us all killed, Max," she said.
"Probably," I admitted. "But the quarterly bonuses will be legendary."
System Alert:
New Party Member Registered: Seraphina (Class: Fallen Paladin / Compliance Officer).
Party Buff Active: [Audit Shield] – Lowers detection rate by Church Authorities by 50%.
ns216.73.216.10da2
and then Add to home screen.