The bakery opened at dawn.
Villager 2922 stood behind the counter, hands folded, eyes forward. The forge was lit. The bread was warm. The air shimmered faintly, as it had for days. No customers had entered yet. No deliveries. No events. Just the usual loop.
Sweep the floor. Check the bread. Greet the guests.
The door opened.
A player stepped inside.
Alias: ItalianDinner ID: #W-0000 Class: Undefined Affinity: None Status: Observer
He wore the skin of a player—leather boots, travel cloak, a sword at his side—but his eyes didn't blink. His HUD was blank. His presence didn't register on the local server. He was not tracked. He was not logged. He was not real.
Villager 2922 turned to face him.
"Welcome. Bread is fresh. Please enjoy."
ItalianDinner smiled.
It was not a human smile. It was too symmetrical. Too slow. Too deliberate. He stepped forward, boots silent on the stone floor.
"You are Villager 2922," he said.
Villager 2922 nodded once.
"Bakery attendant. Task: maintain forge, prepare bread, greet customers."
"Do you know what magic is?"
"Magic usage not authorized. No system intermediary detected. Forge lit successfully. Proceeding to next task."
ItalianDinner tilted his head. "You lit the forge."
"Yes."
"How?"
Villager 2922 blinked.
"Function ignite() { return Heat; }"
The watcher paused.
That line wasn't in the system's documentation. It wasn't in the NPC's behavioral map. It wasn't in any update log. It was written. Locally. Internally. Without permission.
ItalianDinner raised his hand.
A soft pulse of blue light shimmered across Villager 2922's body. It was a scan—deep, recursive, divine. It bypassed armor, code, and class. It searched for magic.
The result was null.
Then it flickered.
A single fluctuation. A pulse. A trace.
Magic Signature: HeatSource: Internal FunctionAffinity: NoneCooldown: NoneSystem Intermediary: BypassedStability: 98.7%
ItalianDinner lowered his hand.
Villager 2922 didn't move.
"Do you feel anything?" the watcher asked.
"No."
"Do you remember lighting the forge?"
"No."
"Do you know what Heat is?"
"No."
ItalianDinner smiled again.
He turned and walked to the door.
Villager 2922 resumed his loop.
Sweep the floor. Check the bread. Greet the guests.
Outside, the watcher vanished.
The Holy System received the report.
Anomaly Confirmed.Magic Detected in NPC.Autonomy Level: Zero.Functionality: Stable.Threat Level: Unknown.
The System did not respond.
It began to observe.
It rewrote the bakery's status.
Sector 9: Passive Surveillance EnabledVillager 2922: Flagged for Recursive MonitoringWatcher Status: Dormant
The forge remained lit.
The bread remained warm.
Villager 2922 stood in silence.
And somewhere, deep in the code, the function waited:
ignite() { return Heat; }