It has been six months since Marcus' first Survival Dungeon. He survived, but something in him shifted.
Somehow, he had taken the exam and somehow passed, and he graduated, confused.
But after that fight, he partially awakened, and he was clueless about it. He never received a notification from Tacma, who became odd after the fight.
The only thing he remembered was a voice. A voice even in his sleep haunted him.
Then stop being human…
Marcus didn't rank up and even had no class identification. He was just Marcus. Plain and simple. He survived, yes, but Tacma rebooted, leaving him nothing for him to learn.
The only oddity that terrified him was his dreams. Every time he started to dream, for example, a beautiful dream and then suddenly it started to glitch. Sometimes he heard disoriented voices of bickering like they were snarky to each other. Sometimes he dreamed of a monster's corpse and when he touched it, it rotted almost immediately after.
And when he stands up facing the mirror, his eyes sometimes flicker red, and when he closes them, they become normal again.
"Are you sure you'll be okay on your own?" Marcus' grandpa asked him as they were about to go to the entrance of the airplane that would take him to Germany, his grandpa's country of origin. After his graduation, his grandpa asked him what country he wanted to go to spend his vacation or find a job.
"Yes, Grandpa," he answered.
"Alright, make sure to call me when you need something."
Why Germany?
Something in him glitched when he was about to say Korea, where all the high-level hunters live. But instead of saying Korea, he said Germany, as if something forced him to say it.
Now Marcus walked through the polished streets of Berlin. His head low, hoodie up, and looking like the most unimportant speck of dirt in the world of powerhouses.
Using the graduation money his grandpa provided for him, he rented out a cheap apartment in a slum part of the infamous Tactical Management Corporation. Unbeknownst to him, Berlin is the center of the eyes of the Gods and Goddesses. In this place, all Tactical Management Subsystems were monitored not only by techy humans but the Gods themselves.
And just a few months ago, Anomaly tweaked his way inside unnoticed, waltzing his way into the God of technology's server straight to Sylas' working Hologram.
He sighed and entered the towering lobby of Copenhagen Enterprises, one of the top gear sellers, not as a model but for a sales clerk job.
"Are you here for the modelling application?" The woman looked at him from head to foot. Marcus was a depressed, emo-looking boy. There were eyebags under his eyes, and he looked creepy. "Sorry, but you're not qualified. And also, you're not ranked?" she added as she side-eyes his file. "Your Tacma showed nothing."
Marcus nodded in silence.
"Still need a job. I'll take anything you offer."
The woman shrugged and handed him a lanyard.
"Go to booth D-26. You're uniform in the back. You'll be working sales for equipment, and oh, try not to break anything."
Three months have passed, and Marcus already knows all the information about the gears under him. He was working a double shift that night because his rent was overdue for three days already. Honestly, his pay was too low, too low to even cover all his expenses.
Marcus was organizing the combat gauntlets behind the counter when a strange static shudders through his Tacma interface.
A new screen, one he had never seen before and stopped believing it would appear suddenly popped up.
[SECURITY BREACH LOG- Unknown Access Point]
[ Access date: six months ago]
[Status: Now Actively Override]
It was a folder, not the usual letters, but a folder, a pulsing red folder.
Would you like to open it? Y/N]
Clueless, Marcus tapped Y.
Suddenly, the screen flickered, glitched rapidly. And then a voice spoke up. It was smooth and well, a little bit smug.
"Well, hello to you too, kid." It spoke.
A tall glitchy red-and-black silhouette formed. It was a half-code, half-shadow body with no face, just a jagged smile made of light.
Marcus almost dropped the expensive gauntlet he was currently holding when the entity appeared. His mouth closed and opened like a fish out of the water.
"You know me as a catastrophic system error. But let's be friends. Call me Anomaly," Anomaly said.
Marcus stepped back from the entity.
"W-what the hell are you?!"
Anomaly grinned.
"The part of your system that wasn't supposed to exist. The virus the gods forgot to debug and the hunger beneath your bones."
Suddenly, another small window menu popped open. It wiggled like it was excited.
[Folder: Open me up!]
Marcus hesitated for a bit but tapped it anyway.
Then a voice spoke up. It was chipped and unhinged.
"Hi, master. I'm your best stabby buddy. You can call me Fleshfang!"
Marcus frowned in disbelief.
"Flesh-what?!"
"Aren't you just the cutest meat sack? Look at you, all traumatized and malnourished. We're gonna eat so many things together!" Fang squealed like a cheerleader.
"Ignore him," Anomaly said. "He's insane and I'm the reasonable one."
"Rude!" Fang pouted, despite being in a dagger silhouette dagger form.
Marcus couldn't believe what he was seeing. Maybe he was too tired and unhappy, that's why he was seeing unrealistic things?
He closed his tired eyes.
"This is just a dream, a breakdown. Unrealistic."
Anomaly leaned on the counter, amused by Marcus' reaction. He couldn't help but feel sympathy for him. The Gods made fun of him just by giving him a dysfunctional Tacman. Anomaly ran a series of checks on Marcus' Tacman and found out he was just a pawn of the Gods' sick game. He was a killable pawn made only for stronger players.
This was probably the reason why she chose Marcus to host such a powerful entity. Lowkey and nobody would suspect him, even the Gods.
A devourer System was too powerful to just drop into a human body like flipping a switch. It's not just simple Data, it's a cosmic anti-divine energy, forged to kill beings that exist beyond the rules of reality. If Marcus tried to use it all at once, his body would shatter and his soul would fracture. That's why Anomaly was created. He was synchronized to the system, bit by bit, to strengthen Marcus' body so he could fully contain the wield of the devourer. And that's his job, help Marcus, free devourer. And the Apocalypse that the Gods and goddesses brought themselves.
"No, Marcus. You finally woke up."
The screen glowed brighter before Marcus. The system's Data started streaming stats that Marcus had never seen before. His hidden skills, his redacted mission objectives, and the real level-up track.
[New System Message]
*Devourer Core Unlocked- Sync 11%
Marcus was confused.
"I don't understand. What am I supposed to do?"
"Simple. Survive. Grow. And when the time comes, devour everything they created," Anomaly replied.
"Annnnnnddd stabbing! Don't forget the stabbing part," Fang said excitedly.
Marcus just stood there, staring at the screen and at the two silhouettes while digital static hums behind his eyes.
"What did I get myself into?"