The System stopped sending death.
It started sending offers.
Root stood in the war room of the compound, arms crossed, eyes locked on the glitching message still hovering midair.
[ SYSTEM TRANSMISSION – HOLLOW KING RECOGNIZED ]
[ REQUEST: Integrate Hollow Code into Global Framework ]
[ Compensation: Autonomy | Influence | Authority ]
[ Accept – Assimilate – Ascend ]
Veyr floated behind him, arms folded, mask unreadable.
"They're not trying to kill you anymore," he said.
"They're trying to hire me," Root muttered.
"No," Veyr corrected. "They're trying to reformat you into something they understand."
Root said nothing.
His fingers twitched.
Lyra stormed into the room, lightning hare perched on her shoulder. "We just intercepted another drone drop from the border towns. More players are defecting."
"To the System?" Root asked.
"No," she said. "To you."
She placed a cracked datapad on the table.
Dozens of usernames blinked on the screen.
All tagged:
[ FOLLOWING: THE UNWRITTEN KING ]
Root's chest tightened.
He hadn't declared anything. He hadn't posted announcements. He hadn't even left the region.
And yet… the story had spread.
Veyr tapped the message midair.
"You made a choice in the Crownlock," he said. "Now the world's reacting. You're not just a player or an outlier. You're a precedent. The System either assimilates you—or breaks trying."
Root tilted his head.
"Then let's make it choke."
Far beneath them, buried in an abandoned system vault, a figure in cracked armor watched the same transmission.
They traced the name "Root" with a metal finger.
Then smiled.
"So you're the one rewriting the end."
The compound buzzed with quiet urgency.
New names filled the servers. Refugees from system-controlled zones. Rogue summoners. Burned-out players who'd lost their class trees after resisting audits. They didn't have powers.
What they had was belief.
And it terrified Root more than any Auditor ever had.
He stood in the upper tower, watching the hollow valley below. The sky shimmered in unfinished textures. The Grin was crawling sideways across the ceiling like a lazy cat. Veyr floated near the window, holding a cracked transmission stone.
"Another Hollow frequency came in," he said.
Root turned.
"From where?"
"Don't know. Deep breach. Source doesn't match any player signature or summon trace."
"Bot?"
"Too poetic."
Veyr tossed him the stone.
"I think it's… one of us."
Root activated it.
Static. Then words, drawn in sigil-script and whispers:
"To the one who calls himself Hollow King—
You are not the first.
You will not be the last.
But you might be the only one still intact.
If you value that status…
Stop looking."
The message ended.
No coordinates.
No name.
Just silence.
Root stared at the stone.
"That was a warning," he said.
Veyr tilted his head. "Or an invitation."
"Either way," Root said, "it means we're not alone."
Across the breach—hundreds of miles away in a sealed digital rift—a figure sat cross-legged beneath a tower of glitching light.
They wore a Hollow sigil not on their chest—but branded into their face.
Their smile never moved.
"I wonder how long he'll last before the story turns on him, too."
Root didn't move.
The message from the Hollow rift still echoed through him like an aftershock. Each word clung to the back of his mind—not sharp like a threat, but heavy like a gravestone.
You are not the first.
You are not the last.
But you might be the only one still intact…
That phrase repeated itself.
Over and over.
Still intact.
Veyr watched from the edge of the war table, legs dangling through the holographic projection of Root's expanding map.
"So," the masked summon said casually, "do we follow the terrifying message from the creepy ex-Hollow with cryptic warnings and bad grammar… or do we pretend we didn't hear it and go back to growing our little heretic army?"
Root didn't answer right away.
Because something had changed in the interface.
A new window had appeared. One he hadn't opened.
[ SYSTEM TITLE OFFER: REGENT NODE STATUS – CONDITIONAL OVERRIDE ]
Description: Take dominion over a portion of the breach. Shape laws. Restrict access. Assign roles.
Condition: Eliminate Null-Signature Entity "VEYR" to complete synchronization.
The message blinked slowly, like a heartbeat.
Root's hands clenched.
"They're offering me a throne."
Veyr turned fully toward him. "Offering you their version of a throne."
"And all I have to do is delete you."
Veyr's laugh was dry. "To be fair, that's the requirement for most job promotions."
Root didn't smile.
He dismissed the prompt without hesitation.
[ OFFER DECLINED. RESTRICTION LOCKED. USER 'ROOT' FLAGGED AS NON-REGENT. ]
[ WARNING: USER MAY BE SUBJECT TO FUTURE INTEGRITY PURGES. ]
Veyr let out a long whistle.
"You really are bad at accepting gifts."
Root looked at him then.
"They're trying to clean me up. Polish me. Sand off the parts that don't match their design."
"Namely," Veyr said, "me."
Root turned to the map. Names were still being added. Dozens, now hundreds. Every one of them a ripple caused by his refusal to play the System's game.
"If I kill you," Root said slowly, "I become what they want. A controller. A crown they can point at and say, 'He bent the knee in the end.'"
Veyr floated beside him.
"Then don't bend," he said. "Let's burn the damn chair."
Later that night, Root stood alone near the data vault.
The message stone was still in his pocket.
He tapped it once.
No new signal.
Just static.
But in that static… something pulsed. Almost like a reverse echo. A code signature.
Root traced it with his eyes.
It wasn't a message.
It was a path.
[ HOLLOW THREAD DETECTED ]
[ TRACE ROUTE? Y/N ]
He didn't press it yet.
But he would.
Not for power.
Not for recognition.
To know.
To see what happens to Hollow users who keep walking—and whether intact was ever a guarantee.