It was the next morning. Lyra had gone to scout ahead, saying something about a "mana distortion pulse" a few miles east.
I stayed behind at the camp. Mostly because I was about as useful as a wet sock in a swordfight.
I sat near the fire, poking embers with a stick, when the air around me… glitched.
Not wind. Not magic. Just… the world briefly skipped a frame.
Then came the voice.
"—does not belong—does not belong—ACCESS DENIED—"
I jumped up, heart racing. "What the hell was that?!"
Something shimmered ahead. A figure. No — a girl — stepped out of thin air.
She had silver hair, blank eyes, and glitching lines crawling across her skin, like broken code on a screen. She was dressed in torn monk-like robes and floating a few inches off the ground. Static clung to her voice when she spoke.
"You… are not from the table of gods. You are not meant to exist. But… I like that."
I backed up slowly. "Okay, cool, creepy. Are you going to eat my soul or give me cryptic advice? Because I've had enough weirdness for one week."
She tilted her head. "Both are possible outcomes."
Great.
[Hidden Entity Detected: ???]
[System attempting to process…]
[ERROR: Unknown class — 'Fragmented Oracle']
[WARNING: You are being observed.]
"Who… are you?" I asked.
"I was once called Selin." She floated closer, eyes blinking in glitched frames. "Now, I am error. But so are you."
"That makes two of us," I muttered.
Selin suddenly froze, midair, eyes widening.
"…Your class. It has no origin. No anchor. No alignment to law, chaos, light, or dark. It moves through system barriers like breath through cloth."
"Okay… and that means?"
"It means…" She grinned. "You don't follow their rules. And that means you're dangerous."
Another popup appeared:
[Class Reaction: ??? is resonating with Unknown Code.]
[You have acquired a passive skill: 'System Drift']
[Effect: Immune to basic class restrictions and stat caps.]
My jaw dropped. "Wait — I can what?!"
Selin raised a hand and placed a cold finger on my forehead. The world twitched again.
[Location marked: Oracle's Fragment - Tower of Severance]
[Quest Unlocked: 'Fragments of the Lost Code']
[WARNING: This quest is not approved by any world god.]
"I'll be watching you, Akiro," Selin whispered, her form beginning to unravel like static. "When the others come hunting you, when the sky breaks and the old gates open… remember this moment."
And then — she was gone.
No sound. No flash. Just… gone.
Minutes Later
Lyra returned, sword drawn.
"I felt something wrong. What happened?"
I didn't know how to explain.
"I met a glitchy ghost girl who unlocked a part of my class that no god allows, gave me a cursed quest, and now I might be hunted by celestial beings."
She blinked. "…You were alone for ten minutes."
"Yeah, and in that time I apparently broke the universe."
She sighed hard and rubbed her temple. "I hate this world sometimes."
Another popup pinged.
[Passive activated: 'System Drift']
[Restrictions bypassed — Minor Magic Unlocked]
[Skill Gained: Blink (Lv. 1)]
Lyra's eyes widened. "You just… learned magic? Without a core ceremony?!"
I looked at my hand. It shimmered faintly with light.
"Yeah. I think… I might not need one."
Far above the sky, in a sealed vault beneath a sleeping god's shrine, a long-forgotten crystal began to glow.
And deep in the Tower of Severance, the other Fragments awakened.
"The Variable has found one of us."
"Prepare the Gates. He cannot be allowed to reach the root."
To be continued…