The air tensed, thick with unnatural energy. Kieran barely had time to react before the Glitched Beast lunged at him, its body flickering like a corrupted video file. Its form warped between jagged pixels and raw, sinewy flesh, its crimson eyes burning like static-riddled screens.
Instinct took over.
He dove to the side, rolling across the damp earth just as the creature’s claws slashed through the air where he had been standing. The impact left deep scars in the ground, as if reality itself had been distorted by its presence.
> "Combat Mode Engaged."
"Warning: System Interference Detected. Damage Calculation May Be Unstable."
Kieran’s breath hitched. Unstable? That meant damage might not function normally—attacks could either deal no damage or be overwhelmingly lethal. Was this world even capable of fair combat anymore?
The beast twisted its grotesque body toward him, its claws shifting between organic tissue and pure data, its growl fragmented like a corrupted audio file.
Kieran clenched his fists. He didn’t have a weapon. No skills. No powers beyond Error Detection—which wasn’t exactly useful when a monster was about to tear him apart.
Then, a new notification appeared.
> "Emergency Protocols Engaged."
"Administrator Privilege Detected: Limited Combat Assistance Activated."
His vision shifted. A translucent reticle appeared over the Glitched Beast, highlighting its weak points—its unstable, flickering joints.
Kieran smirked. That’s more like it.
He dashed forward, faster than he expected. His movements felt... unnaturally precise, as if the System itself was adjusting his reflexes. He sidestepped another attack, feeling the rush of corrupted air graze his cheek, before he lashed out with a sharp kick—aimed directly at the beast’s unstable knee.
> "Direct Hit."
The Glitched Beast staggered, its leg phasing in and out of existence. Kieran didn’t hesitate. He grabbed a fallen branch, its surface humming with residual data corruption, and swung it like a weapon, smashing it against the creature’s head.
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> "Weak Point Struck! Damage Multiplier Applied."
The beast screeched, its entire form glitching wildly. For a moment, Kieran swore he saw fragments of code unraveling from its body—lines of red data leaking into the air like bleeding wounds.
Then, it collapsed, its body crumbling into static before dissolving entirely.
> "Enemy Defeated."
"Error Data Extracted: 3%"
"System Stability Restored: +0.02%."
Kieran exhaled, chest heaving.
That was way too close.
---
A Broken World
Kieran sat against a tree, examining his hands. They were steady—but he could still feel the System’s influence in his movements. It was as if something inside him had changed. He wasn’t just an “Administrator” watching from afar anymore.
He was part of the world now.
He swiped his hand through the air. His interface opened again, displaying his status screen.
━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━
[Player Status: Kieran Vale]
Level: 1 (Administrator Avatar)
Titles: [Administrator-in-Hiding]
Skills:
[System Override (Restricted)] – Limited world manipulation.
[Error Detection] – Identify glitched elements.
[???] – Locked.
━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━
His Administrator powers were still mostly sealed. But what stood out was the System Stability increase from defeating the Glitched Beast.
> Does that mean I can fix this world by eliminating corrupted entities?
Before he could ponder further, a faint noise caught his attention. Footsteps.
Kieran pushed himself up, eyes narrowing as he peered through the dimly lit forest. The sky above remained frozen in twilight, a surreal blend of gold and purple hues—a world stuck between day and night.
The footsteps grew closer.
And then, a figure emerged.
---
The Mysterious Girl
She wasn’t human.
That much was obvious.
She had silver-white hair, long and flowing like liquid starlight, and eyes that glowed with an unnatural golden hue. Her attire was strange—a mixture of old-world robes and futuristic plating, almost as if she belonged to two different timelines at once.
But what truly unnerved Kieran was the way her presence felt off. Like she wasn’t supposed to be here.
> "Error Detected: Unknown Entity."
"System Classification… Unavailable."
Even the System doesn’t recognize her?
She stared at him, her expression unreadable. Then, in a voice as clear as crystal, she spoke:
> "You’re different from the others."
Kieran tensed.
“Who are you?” he asked cautiously.
She tilted her head slightly, studying him.
> "I am… an anomaly."
Not exactly the answer he was hoping for.
She took a slow step forward, her form flickering slightly, like she existed in multiple realities at once. “And you… You carry the scent of the Administrator.”
Kieran’s pulse quickened. She knows.
His mind raced. If she knew about Administrators, that meant she was either a remnant of the previous system… or something far worse.
“…What do you want?” he asked, keeping his tone neutral.
She hesitated. Then, after a long pause, she spoke:
> "Help me. The world is collapsing, and I do not know how much time I have left."
Kieran narrowed his eyes. A request for help?
> "The System is broken," she continued, her voice softer now. "But something is making it worse."
That caught his attention.
The corruption wasn’t just natural decay—someone was accelerating it.
Kieran exhaled, his grip tightening around the data-fractured branch in his hand. If that was true, then his role as Administrator just got a whole lot more complicated.
“…Fine,” he said at last. “But first, you’re going to tell me everything you know.”
She nodded, her golden eyes glinting under the frozen twilight.
> "Then follow me. There is something you must see."
Kieran took one last glance at his status screen before closing it. Whatever mess he had been thrown into—this was only the beginning.
And somehow, he had the feeling things were about to get much, much worse.
---
End of Chapter 2