Haru and Isabela were training in the courtyard.
Isabela advanced with her sword, channeling mana. Red flas enveloped her blade. She attacked.
Haru defended with his own sword, retreating. The impact sent a wave of heat through his arm.
"It’s been five days..." he thought, keeping his guard up.
Isabela attacked again. Faster. Stronger.
Haru dodged. He watched.
"All Isabela wanted was to be recognized as soone strong, capable, and independent. It’s not just her... but people in general have this tendency. And I just gave her what she wanted."
Haru deliberately lowered his guard.
Isabela wasted no ti. She spun her body and delivered a side kick to his chest.
Haru fell on his back, the air leaving his lungs.
Isabela stopped on top of him, panting, her face red with effort. The tip of her sword pointed at Haru’s neck.
"Why are you holding back?!" she shouted, irritated. "Fight for real!"
Haru lay there for a second. Then he leaned on his elbows, looking at her.
"I am fighting for real, miss, you are getting stronger every day."
Isabela’s eyes widened, she blushed, not from effort, but from sothing else. She quickly lowered her sword, turning her face away. "I-I don’t need cheap complints from a slave!" she said, her voice coming out louder than necessary. But inside... She liked it.
[Isabela Valtherion: Trust ??% → ??%]
The baron watched from his office upstairs.
The large window looked directly onto the training yard. From there, he could see Isabela and Haru fighting. He saw when Haru fell. He saw when Isabela stopped on top of him, panting. He saw when she lowered her sword and turned her face away, red.
The baron crossed his arms. "He’s hiding his strength..." he thought, his green eyes fixed on Haru.
He turned away.
Cedrick was standing near the office door, waiting silently.
"I’m going on a trip, Cedrick," said the baron, walking over to the desk. "I’m going to the provincial capital. Urgent business."
Cedrick nodded. "And when will you be back, my baron?"
The baron picked up so docunts from the desk, folding them and placing them inside his coat.
"I’ll be back on the day of Isabela’s personal bodyguard election." He paused. He looked out the window again. "I see she’s been doing well with that slave. It’s hard to see Isabela smile."
Cedrick took a step forward. "The gar?" he asked, his voice neutral. "He is, shall we say... a very peculiar slave."
The baron turned his head toward him. "I would be concerned about his trustworthiness," he said, his voice firm. "But he spoke his intentions in the sphere. Just like you, Cedrick."
Cedrick swallowed hard.
The sphere.
All those who wielded swords in that mansion passed through the sphere. An ancient magic crystal that forced whoever held it to speak the truth. The baron used it to identify traitors. Those who lied... did not live to tell the tale. Cedrick had passed through the sphere when he was recruited. At that ti, he had nothing against the baron. His heart was clean, but now... Now he was corrupt, and the baron didn’t know it.
"Very well," said the baron, adjusting his cape on his shoulders. "Until I return, I entrust Isabela to you. Keep your eyes on the slave."
Cedrick bowed. "Yes, my baron."
He looked into his eyes for a second. "You may go, Cedrick."
Cedrick left the office, letting out a long sigh.
The afternoon arrived. Training was over.
Haru was still receiving the system ssage to kill Arwin. Constantly. Every few minutes, the notification flashed in the corner of his vision.
He couldn’t access anything else in the system. The only thing it showed was mana. But in a buggy way.
[⚠ MANDATORY QUEST: KILL ARWIN CORVUS ⚠]
[Mana: ????/????]
Haru was sitting in the stable, leaning against a bale of hay. He was eating a piece of dry bread. Hard. Tasteless.
He took a bite and held out the rest to Maximus, the brown horse in the nearest stall. Maximus took the bread from his hand and chewed slowly.
Haru smiled slightly. "You’re my only friend here, you know?" he murmured.
Maximus nodded, as if he understood. And maybe he did. Because whenever Haru opened the system, Maximus looked directly at the floating screens. As if he could see them.
Haru opened the system again.
[Status⚠] [Skills⚠] [Traits⚠] [Curses & Blessings⚠]
Everything was blocked. Warning symbols appeared on all tabs.
"What the hell..." he murmured, running his hand through his hair. "The system is frozen. I can’t see my status. Not even my skills, just this ssage about killing Arwin and... wait."
He looked more closely at the mana tab.
"Why does it say ’????’ instead of showing the exact number?"
He tried to force the Skills tab. He clicked several tis. He clicked and held. He tried to drag it. Nothing.
Maximus snorted, looking at him.
Haru got angry. "Open up, damn it!" he shouted loudly. "How am I supposed to kill him if you don’t show what I need to prepare myself in the most efficient way?!"
He started clicking on the "KILL ARWIN" ssage repeatedly.
Once. Twice. Three tis. Ten tis. Twenty. Thirty.
Suddenly, a new ssage appeared:
[ERROR: User input limit exceeded]
[System temporarily unresponsive]
[Rebooting in 3... 2... 1...]
Haru’s eyes widened.
"Error?" he muttered. "Wait... if it gave an ERROR, that ans there’s a way to break this."
The system flashed, then restarted, returning to normal, but still locked.
But Haru smiled. In his previous life, he had been an excellent hacker. Not of magical systems, of course. But of networks, servers, devices, video gas. And the logic was always the sa. "Systems that give errors can be exploited," he thought aloud. "It’s like forcing a locked cell phone... if the encryption is weak, you can access the settings without a password."
Maximus nodded again, as if in agreent.
"In the original ga, was there a hidden nu? So debug mode? Sothing the developers would use for testing?"
He tried combinations. He clicked on the four corners of the screen at the sa ti. He tried to "pull" the screen down, as if it were a cell phone notification, and tried to speak commands aloud:
"Open settings." Nothing. "Admin." Nothing. "Debug." Nothing. "Root." Nothing.
"Damn... there has to be sothing..."
Maximus gave a low whinny, Haru looked at him. "You’re right. I’ll try again."
He decided to force another error. "If I can make the system crash AGAIN, maybe a different option will appear."
This ti, he clicked on the buggy mana ssage.
[Mana: ????/2,400]
He clicked repeatedly. Ten tis. Twenty. Thirty. Fifty. Sixty. Seventy.
The system began to shake. The screen flashed.
[ERROR: Data query overflow]
[Unable to process request]
[System crash imminent]
Haru smiled.
"Co on... co on... show sothing..."
Suddenly, a new line appeared:
[Would you like to view ERROR LOG?]
►[YES]◄ ►[NO]◄
Haru clicked [YES].
Suddenly, a new window appeared:
┌─ [ERROR LOG] ────────────
│ [Log #1847] User: Haru Mizuki
│ ├─ Error Type: Mana Display Corruption
│ ├─ Cause: External interference detected
│ │ └─ Source: [Linked Player: Arwin Corvus]
│ │ └─ Action: Partial system lock applied
│ ├─ Affected Modules:
│ │ ├─ Status Window [LOCKED]
│ │ ├─ Skill Tree [LOCKED]
│ │ └─ Mana Display [CORRUPTED]
│ └─ Suggested Fix: [ADMIN ACCESS REQUIRED]
├─ [OPTIONS]
│ ├─ [View Full System Diagnostics]⚠ Requires Hacker LV.5
│ ├─ [Attempt Manual Override] ⚠ Requires Hacker LV.10
│ └─ [Export Log Data] ✓ Available
└──────────────────────
Haru read everything. His eyes lit up. "So that’s it! Hahahaha!" he laughed, slapping his knee. "Son of a bitch..."
Maximus whinnied softly, staring at the floating screen.
"But look at this..." Haru pointed to the text. "That ans if I level up, I can unlock it. I can hack it! And if I can unlock my system..."
He didn’t finish the sentence. He just smiled.
He clicked on [Export Log Data].
[Log data exported to: /SystemFiles/ErrorHistory/]
[You can now access this folder anyti]
"Perfect," he muttered, closing the window. "It’s like having access to a cell phone’s ’Files’ without unlocking the screen. The encryption is weak. There’s a lot you can do here."
A new notification appeared:
[DISCOVERY: System Vulnerability Detected]
[HACKER SKILL: Progress 1/100 → 8/100]
[New Knowledge Acquired: "Backend Access via Error Exploitation"]
Haru let out a long sigh. "Eight out of a hundred... still a long way to go. But now I know it’s possible."
He looked up at the stable ceiling, thinking.
"If I keep forcing errors, studying the logs, testing commands... eventually I’ll be able to hack not only my system, but those of other possible players."
Maximus snorted again.
Haru was about to say sothing, but the system flashed, a new ssage.
[SSAGE FROM: Arwin Corvus]
◊◊"The baron is gone. Perfect. Cedrick is going to kidnap Isabela TONIGHT. Don’t interfere. If you get in the way... I’ll kill you myself. But if you help... I’ll give you a 2,000 XP bonus."
Haru read the ssage slowly, remaining silent for a second.
"Keep underestimating . While you think you’re in control..."
He smiled. Wide. Dangerous. "...I’m going to fuck you up. I’m tired of this shit!"
He shut down the system with a sharp gesture.
He got up from the ground, brushing the straw off his pants, and looked at Maximus.
"Sorry, buddy. But today there’s going to be blood."
Maximus shook his head.
Haru left the mansion and waited for nightfall sitting on a high branch, hidden by the foliage of the forest surrounding the Valtherion mansion. He watched the walls.
Three figures jumped over the wall silently and sprinted toward the dense trees. Isabela was unconscious, carried in the arms of one of them. Haru jumped from the tree and began the chase. The kidnappers’ speed was superior; the distance between them increased with every second.
Suddenly, the figure carrying Isabela glowed blue and disappeared into thin air. They had used a Teleportation Crystal. The second kidnapper repeated the process, vanishing shortly thereafter. Only one remained behind, continuing to run on foot to cover the escape.
Haru drew his training sword and threw it at the last man’s back. The figure spun with precision. With a quick gesture, he fired a wave of green energy that stopped Haru’s blade in midair and repelled it with full force against its owner.
Haru did not dodge. He didn’t defend himself. He opened his guard and let his own sword pierce his throat.
The tal ruptured his windpipe. Haru fell to his knees, blood spurting onto the dirt floor. In front of him, the last kidnapper activated the crystal and disappeared in a blue flash. On the floor, choking on his own blood, Haru smiled.
"You... don’t know who you’re ssing with," he thought, as his vision darkened. "If it takes a hundred ’todays’ to catch you, I’ll have a hundred ’todays’."
He fell.
[CHRONIA’S CURSE: ACTIVATED]
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