Chapter 4 FIRST BLOOD

The third red-static hound ran fast. Its metal claws ripped into the geometric floor tiles. It ignored Lyra completely. Its bright red eyes locked onto Julian. It knew Julian’s weak body could not take a single hit.

Julian did not run away. He stood his ground. He held the rusty Glitched Shiv tightly in his hand. His heart beat fast, but his mind stayed cold and sharp. He activated his Perception attribute. In his eyes, the monster’s fast movements began to look different. He could see the thin blue lines of code that tracked its path through the air.

[Warning: Target approaching at high speed. Impact in 2 seconds.]

"Julian, move!" Lyra screamed. She turned and ran toward him, but she was too far away. Her heavy armor made her slow.

Julian did not move. He waited. One second. Half a second.

The monster jumped into the air. Its four mandibles opened wide. Red static electricity sparked inside its mouth. It lunged straight for Julian’s chest.

At the very last moment, Julian stepped to the right. It was a small, precise movement. He did not look at the monster's teeth. He looked at its shadow on the floor. He swung the rusty dagger hard.

The dull metal blade sliced across the side of the hound's neck.

Again, the attack did not deal real physical damage. The blade did not cut deep. But the unique property of the glitched weapon fired instantly.

[Glitched Shiv Trait Activated: Code Inversion.]

[Injecting 5 units of Latency Data into the target.]

The gray, pixelated cloud exploded around the beast. The hound froze instantly in mid-air. Its body began to shake and glitch. It looked like a broken picture on a bad television screen. It moved forward in tiny, slow, jerky steps. The giant monster was completely stuck in a loop of lag data.

Julian did not wait for the lag to end. He knew his Strength was too low to kill it by himself. He turned his head and looked at Lyra.

"Lyra! Now!" Julian shouted.

Lyra was already moving. She saw the frozen monster. She leaped into the air, holding her massive tactical sword with both hands. She landed her boots perfectly on a glowing blue line of code on the floor.

"Get away from him!" she roared.

She swung her heavy blade downward. The blue floor tile pulsed with bright light, sending a huge boost of power into her weapon. Her sword cut through the frozen hound like a hot knife through butter. The monster did not even have time to yell. It exploded into a massive cloud of red data-static.

The red light in the sky faded slightly. The angry howling in the distance stopped. The immediate danger was over.

Julian fell to his knees, gasping for air. His stamina bar was completely empty. His legs felt like lead. But then, a series of bright, golden text boxes began to flash rapidly in front of his eyes.

[Combat Encounter Concluded!]

[You have defeated 1x Patch 1.1 Red-Static Hound (Level 2 - Elite Variant).]

[Experience Gained: 60/100.]

[Congratulations! You have Leveled Up!]

[Current Level: 2 (Exp: 0/200).]

[You have earned 2 free Attribute Points.]

Julian felt a warm, golden energy flow through his chest. The heavy fatigue in his muscles vanished instantly. His stamina bar refilled to maximum capacity. He felt lighter, stronger, and more awake.

[Savvy Attribute Progress: 60/100.]

Lyra walked over to him and slid her massive sword into the bag on her back. She reached down, grabbed Julian's hand, and pulled him up to his feet. She looked at him with a mix of shock and deep respect.

"You really are something else, Julian," she said, shaking her head. "Normal people run and scream when an Elite variant charges at them. You just stood there and broke its programming."

"I told you, Lyra," Julian said, brushing gray dust off his clothes. "I look at the world through numbers. The monster had high speed, but its path was a straight line. Straight lines are easy to calculate."

He opened his status menu to look at his new power.

User: Julian Vance

Class Archetype: Unassigned (The Resourceful Climber)

Level: 2 (Exp: 0/2000

Available Points: 2

Core Attributes:2

Strength: 4

Agility: 5

Constitution: 4

Intelligence: 9

Perception: 12

Unique Trait: [Savvy] – Rank: E (Progress: 60/100)

Julian studied the numbers carefully. He knew most people would put their points into Strength or Agility to fight better. But he was not a normal fighter. If he tried to build physical strength, he would always be weaker than the monsters. He needed to focus on his real advantage.

He placed both of his new points into Perception.

[Perception updated: 12 → 14 (Exceptional).]

Instantly, the world around him became sharper. He could hear the faint hum of the electricity inside the cavern walls. He could see the tiny grid lines on the floor with perfect clarity. He could even see small rows of green binary code floating around the red dust of the dead monsters.

"Look," Julian said, pointing at the floor where the hound had died.

Among the scattered red dust, a small, glowing red crystal sat on the tile. It looked like a piece of glass, but it pulsed like a tiny heartbeat.

[Loot Identified: Red-Static Core (Rank: E - Uncommon).]

[Description: A condensed fragment of data from a Patch 1.1 variant. Contains high physical optimization code.]

Lyra knelt down and picked up the crystal. "This is a monster core. High-level player guilds kill hundreds of beasts just to find one of these. They use them to upgrade their weapons and armor."

She turned the crystal over in her hand, then held it out to Julian. "You take it. You found the loophole that killed the beast."

Julian took the warm crystal. The moment his skin touched it, his Savvy attribute sent a sudden, cold jolt into his mind. A new, flashing prompt appeared at the very bottom of his screen. It was written in a dark, forbidden purple font.

[Forbidden Glitch-Crafting Recipe Discovered!]

[Combine: The Glitched Shiv + Red-Static Core + 50 units of Uncompiled Energy.]

[Result: Unknown Anomaly Modification.]

[Warning: Forging glitched items will attract the attention of the System AI.]

Julian’s eyes widened. The system was warning him, but all he saw was an invitation. He didn't just want to survive Floor 1; he wanted to build real power. He wanted to create weapons that the System AI could not predict.

He looked back at the walled village of the safe zone. The cyan lines on the barrier shield were glowing brightly, keeping the rest of the horde away for now. But Julian knew the patch would get stronger. The System AI would not stop until the anomaly was erased.

"We need to go back to Malakai's shop," Julian said, slipping the red crystal into his pocket. "The first wave is dead, but the real fight is just beginning."