**Chapter 56: The Corruption**
**Day 1,234 (Midday).**
**Location: The Crimson Citadel – Mars.**
**Current Status: Watching the ants.**
**Mood: Suspicious.**
Peace is a lie. There is only lag.
We had thirty-six hours left before the Devourer fleet arrived in physical space. The countdown clock was plastered on the HUD of every player in the solar system, a constant red reminder that the tutorial was over and the raid boss was en route.
You would expect panic. You would expect rioting. Instead, humanity had done what humanity does best: they normalized the apocalypse.
I sat on my throne, scrolling through the global surveillance feeds.
On Earth, in the ruins of Shanghai, a raid group was farming "Nightmare Slimes"—small, detached pieces of the void that had leaked through the atmosphere. They were laughing. They were min-maxing their loot drops.
"Tank, pull the aggro!" someone shouted over the voice chat. "Don't look at its eyes or your Sanity drops! Just hit the tentacles!"
"Got it! Healer, cleanse the madness debuff!"
They were treating cosmic horror like a Tuesday grind. The Sanity mechanic I had patched in was working *too* well. It had turned existential dread into a resource management mini-game.
"Zero," I said, tapping the armrest of my throne. "Am I paranoid, or is this going too smoothly?"
**[Statistical Analysis: Global efficiency is up 200%,]** Zero replied, his avatar hovering by my shoulder. **[The players are adapting rapidly. The introduction of Tier 5 weaponry has emboldened them. Confidence is at an all-time high.]**
"Confidence," I muttered. "Confidence is what you have right before you walk into a trap room."
I looked at the power charts. My own strength had compounded again at midnight, pushing me further into the realm of abstract mathematics. I could now probably bench press a neutron star if the mood struck me. But raw power wasn't the issue.
The issue was the *quality* of the silence from the enemy.
The Star Devourers were a hive mind. We had killed their King. We had jammed their psychic scream. They should be lashing out. Instead, the void beyond the heliopause was quiet.
"Show me the top rankings," I ordered.
A leaderboard appeared.
**Rank 1: Shigu (Admin)**
**Rank 2: Damon (Class: Titan)**
**Rank 3: Viper (Class: Shadow Walker)**
**Rank 4: Aris (Class: Arch-Mage)**
**Rank 5: Kael (Class: Grand Strategist)**
I focused on Rank 5. Kael. The leader of the "Logos" guild. They were the brains of the operation, the ones coordinating the logistics between Earth and Mars.
"Zoom in on Kael," I said.
The feed shifted. Kael was currently on a space station orbiting Venus, overseeing the deployment of the new Void-Buster Cannons. He stood on the bridge, his robes shimmering with high-tier enchantments.
He wasn't moving. He was staring at a console.
"Zero, check his vitals."
**[Heart rate: Normal. Mana levels: Fluctuating. Sanity: 100%.]**
"100%?" I frowned. "Nobody is at 100%. Even I get a headache looking at the void. Why is he perfect?"
Kael smiled.
It wasn't a normal smile. It was a facial expression constructed by someone who had read a manual on how human muscles worked but had never actually used them.
He reached out and tapped the console.
**[System Alert: Defense Grid Sector 4 – Deactivated.]**
**[System Alert: Friendly Fire – Enabled.]**
"Zero!" I shouted, standing up. "Lock him out!"
**[Access Denied. Administrator privileges overridden by Local Override.]**
"Override?" I felt a cold spike of adrenaline. "How?"
On the screen, Kael turned to his crew—twenty elite players who trusted him with their lives.
"The update is here," Kael said softly. His voice didn't sound like it came from his throat; it sounded like it was vibrating the air directly. "The Admin wants you to grind. *We* want you to ascend."
He raised his staff. It didn't glow with blue mana. It glowed with a sickly, corrupt violet.
"Kill them," Kael whispered.
The players on the bridge froze. Then, five of them—his top lieutenants—turned. Their eyes were entirely black. No whites. No irises. Just the void.
They drew their weapons and slaughtered the other fifteen players before anyone could cast a shield.
***
**The Outbreak**
**Location: Global.**
**Time: T-Minus 35 Hours.**
It didn't happen in one place. It happened everywhere, all at once.
In New York, the Guild Leader of "Stormfront" suddenly turned his Gatling laser on his own healers.
On the Moon, a transport pilot disabled the airlocks, venting three hundred low-level players into space.
In the mess hall of the Martian Citadel, friends who had been sharing lunch suddenly drove steak knives into each other's necks.
Red warning lights flooded my vision.
**[Alert: Mass PVP Detected.]**
**[Alert: Insider Threat.]**
**[Corruption Spread: 15% of High-Level Player Base.]**
"They didn't attack their minds," I realized, watching the carnage unfold on a hundred screens. "They made an offer."
The Sanity bar protected against *fear*. It protected against the mind breaking under the weight of the unknown. But it didn't protect against *temptation*.
The whispers hadn't stopped. They had just changed the frequency. Instead of screaming "Die," they had been whispering "Power." *Why serve the Admin? Why grind for scraps? We can give you the source code.*
The Devourers had targeted the whales. The ambitious. The ones who wanted to be Number One so badly they didn't care who gave them the XP.
"Ren!" I projected my voice to the command deck. "Status!"
Ren's face appeared on my HUD. He was bleeding from a cut on his forehead. He was firing a pistol off-screen.
"We have a mutiny, Boss! The Logos Guild turned! They're sabotaging the Pylons!"
"Identify the corrupted," I commanded. "Is there a marker?"
"No red names!" Ren shouted, ducking as a fireball exploded behind him. "The System still reads them as 'Allies'! I can't target them with auto-turrets!"
Of course. They hadn't technically left the faction. They were running a malicious script inside the guild.
"Zero," I said, my voice dropping to a dangerous calm. "Isolate the network. Anyone who has engaged in unprovoked PVP in the last five minutes gets a 'Traitor' tag. Manually update the database."
**[Processing... That is 40,000 players, Architect. Many are top-tier.]**
"I don't care if they're my own mother. Tag them. Turn the turrets on."
I walked to the edge of the balcony. Below, in the training grounds of the Citadel, chaos had erupted. The elite guard was fighting itself.
"Damon," I contacted the Anchor of Strength.
"Boss!" Damon sounded breathless. The sound of metal crunching on metal filled the background. "Kael is here! He just suplexed a tank! Since when is the Mage class physically strong?"
"Since he sold his soul for a stat boost," I said. "Hold him there. Do not let him reach the Generator."
"I'm trying, but he's... glitching! He's using cooldowns that shouldn't exist!"
I clenched my fist. The air around me cracked.
"Hold on, Damon. I'm coming down to handle the ban hammer personally."
***
**The PvP Zone**
**Location: The Crimson Citadel – Lower Courtyard.**
I didn't take the elevator. I jumped.
I fell fifty stories, wrapped in a comet-tail of golden mana, and slammed into the center of the courtyard. The impact wave knocked everyone—friend and traitor alike—off their feet.
Dust settled. I stood up, straightening my tie.
"Alright," I said, my voice amplified to boom across the entire planet. "Who broke my game?"
Across the courtyard, a group of fifty players stood amidst the wreckage of a supply depot. They were glowing with that same violet energy. Their equipment was twisted, the textures flickering as if the reality engine couldn't render them properly.
At their front was a player named **Vortex**. Level 90 Berserker. I remembered him. I had given him his axe personally last Christmas.
"Shigu," Vortex said. His voice was a chorus of two: his own, and something scratching at the back of his throat. "You look small."
"And you look like a texture error," I replied, walking forward. The loyalist players scrambled to get behind me. "Drop the weapon, Vortex. I can purge the corruption if you surrender now."
Vortex laughed. He lifted his axe. The blade wasn't steel anymore; it was a rift in space.
"Purge?" he sneered. "Why would I want to go back? Do you know what they showed us? The math beneath the world. The limits you put on us. You capped our growth, Shigu. You kept us as pets."
"I capped your growth so you wouldn't explode," I said dryly. "The human body can't handle infinite mana without... well, becoming me."
"We are evolved," Vortex roared. "We are the Vanguard of the Silence!"
He charged.
**[Skill: Void Rush.]**
He moved instantly. No acceleration. Just point A to point B. He was in front of me, bringing the axe down on my skull.
It was fast. Faster than any player should be.
But I wasn't a player.
I caught the axe blade between my thumb and forefinger.
The shockwave cracked the Citadel's foundation. Vortex's eyes widened. The blackness in them flickered with genuine fear.
"You think a stat boost makes you a god?" I asked softly.
I squeezed.
The axe shattered.
"I *am* the patch notes."
I flicked a finger against his forehead.
*Thwack.*
It wasn't a lethal blow. It was a physics lesson. Vortex flew backward at mach 2, smashing through three reinforced concrete walls before embedding himself in the side of a tank.
**[System Notification: Player Vortex Incapacitated.]**
The other corrupted players hesitated.
"Next," I said.
They screamed—a collective shriek of the void entity possessing them—and rushed me all at once. Mages cast entropy spells; rogues tried to backstab with daggers made of nothingness.
I didn't dodge. I didn't block. I just walked.
Every spell that hit my aura dissolved into base code. Every blade that struck my skin shattered.
**[Status: Invulnerable.]**
**[Passive Skill: Admin Authority.]**
I grabbed a rogue by the collar and threw him into a mage. I kicked a paladin so hard his armor disintegrated, leaving him in his undergarments (standard Boxers of shame).
"Zero," I commanded while casually backhanding a fireball out of the air. "Isolate the infection signal. They are receiving a broadcast. Where is it coming from?"
**[Triangulating... Signal origin is local. It is coming from Sector 7. The Communications Array.]**
I stopped. Sector 7. That's where Kael was.
"He's not just sabotaging," I realized. "He's acting as a repeater. He's boosting the corruption signal to the rest of the system."
I looked at the sky. The violet hue was spreading. If Kael finished his upload, half my army would turn against the other half.
I crouched.
**[Skill: Sky Step.]**
*Boom.*
I launched myself into the air, leaving a crater where the courtyard used to be, aiming for the upper atmosphere.
***
**The Duel of Logic**
**Location: The Communications Array – High Orbit.**
The Array was a massive satellite complex, a spiderweb of metal and glass designed to coordinate the fleet. Now, it was pulsing with dark light.
Kael stood at the center of the main dish. He wasn't alone.
Damon was there. Or, what was left of him.
The Anchor of Strength was on his knees. His massive shield was sundered in two. His armor was smoking.
"Stay down, brute," Kael said, adjusting his glasses. He was typing on a holographic keyboard with three hands—two physical, one made of shadow. "I am busy rewriting the faction allegiance protocols."
"You... traitorous... nerd," Damon wheezed, trying to stand up. "Shigu gave... us everything."
"Shigu gave us a cage," Kael replied calmly. "The Void offers the universe. It is a simple calculation of ROI (Return on Investment)."
Kael pressed a key. The dish hummed louder.
"Alignment complete in 30 seconds. Say goodbye to the Order of Truth. Welcome to the Order of Silence."
"Order of Silence?"
I landed on the dish, thirty meters away from him. The vacuum of space carried my voice via mana projection. "Did you workshop that name? It's a bit derivative."
Kael stopped typing. He turned to face me.
"Admin," he nodded politely. "I calculated you would arrive at exactly this moment. You are predictable."
"And you're violating the Terms of Service," I said. "Step away from the console, Kael."
"I can't do that," Kael smiled. "I have seen the end, Shigu. The Devourers aren't enemies. They are the garbage collectors of the universe. They delete obsolete data. And humanity? We are very obsolete."
"Speak for yourself," I said. "I just got an upgrade."
Kael sighed. "You rely on brute force. I rely on variables."
He waved his hand.
**[System Alert: Gravity Well Inverted.]**
Suddenly, up was down. The artificial gravity on the dish reversed. Damon went flying off into space, flailing.
I didn't move. I simply decided that gravity applied to me only when I wanted it to.
"Cute," I said.
I took a step.
Kael frowned. He typed furiously.
**[System Alert: Atmosphere Venting. Temperature Absolute Zero.]**
Ice formed instantly on my suit. I shrugged it off. My body heat was equivalent to a small star.
"Is this it?" I asked, walking closer. "You're the smartest strategist in the guild, and your plan is to throw weather effects at me?"
"No," Kael said. His eyes glowed intensely. "My plan is to use your own rules against you."
He pointed at me.
**[Admin Command: Log Out.]**
I stopped.
A window popped up in my vision.
**[Logout Requested.]**
**[Confirm?]**
My limbs locked up. My vision blurred. Kael had hacked the core permission set. He was trying to force-eject my consciousness from the reality I had built.
"You built backdoors," Kael lectured, walking toward me as I struggled against the paralysis. "For emergencies. I found them. The Silence showed me the code."
He stopped inches from my face.
"You are powerful, Shigu. But you are still a user. And users can be banned."
He reached out to press the "Confirm" button floating in the air before me.
I watched his finger move.
"Zero," I thought.
**[Yes, Architect?]**
"Am I a user?"
**[Negative. You are the Hardware.]**
I grinned beneath my mask.
"System Override," I whispered.
**[Command: Delete System32.]**
Wait, no, that's too drastic.
**[Command: Format C: /Force /Target: Kael]**
The logout window shattered like glass.
I reached out and grabbed Kael's finger.
"What—" Kael gasped.
"You hacked the software," I said, my voice dropping an octave, resonating with the infinite power boiling in my veins. "But I'm the one paying the electric bill."
I twisted his hand.
"And your subscription has expired."
I placed my palm on his chest.
**[Skill: Conceptual Restore.]**
I didn't blast him. I didn't disintegrate him. I poured pure, unadulterated **Order** into his system.
The corruption was chaos. It was a cancer. I flooded it with chemotherapy made of light.
Kael screamed. The violet shadow attached to his soul shrieked and tried to flee, but I held him tight. The shadow burned. It sizzled. It evaporated.
Kael's eyes rolled back. The blackness drained out of them, leaving them white, then returning to their natural brown.
He collapsed into my arms, smoke rising from his robes.
The Array stopped humming. The violet light died.
I looked down at the unconscious strategist.
"Rebooting," I muttered.
I tapped my earpiece. "Ren. The signal is dead. The corruption should be stunned."
"It is!" Ren cheered over the line. "The traitors just... froze. They're confused. Some are throwing up. We're detaining them now."
"Good."
I looked out into the deep void. I grabbed the unconscious Kael by the collar and floated up.
I saw Damon drifting nearby, paddling through space like a dog. I grabbed him with my other hand.
"Let's go home," I said.
***
**The Aftermath**
**Location: The Crimson Citadel – Med Bay.**
**Time: T-Minus 24 Hours.**
The brig was full. The hospital was fuller.
Thousands of high-level players were currently in "quarantine," bound by suppression cuffs. They weren't enemies anymore, but they weren't exactly trusted allies either.
I stood over Kael's hospital bed. He was awake. He looked terrible. Pale, shaking, stripped of his arrogance.
"Shigu," he whispered. He couldn't look me in the eye.
"You killed forty-two people, Kael," I said. "And you nearly bricked the defense grid."
"I... I didn't..." He choked up. "It made sense. At the time. The voices... they made it all a logic puzzle. And the answer was always betrayal."
He looked at his hands.
"Am I banned?"
I looked at him. The smartest man in the room, reduced to a weeping child because a cosmic horror whispered a cheat code in his ear.
"If I ban everyone who screwed up today," I said, "I'd lose 15% of my DPS."
I pulled a chair over and sat down.
"You're not banned. But you are demoted. Rank 1 Rookie. You start from scratch."
Kael nodded, tears streaming down his face. "Thank you. Thank you."
"Don't thank me yet," I stood up. "Because I need you to tell me exactly what you saw in the code."
Kael shuddered. "I saw... I saw the Fleet."
"We know about the Fleet."
"No," Kael looked up, terror in his eyes. "Not just the Devourers. I saw what's *behind* them."
The room went cold.
"Behind them?"
"The Devourers aren't the invasion force, Shigu," Kael whispered. "They're the refugees."
I froze.
"Refugees? From what?"
Kael opened his mouth to speak, but the words wouldn't come. He just pointed at the ceiling. At the stars.
"Something... hungrier."
***
**Epilogue of the Chapter**
I walked out of the med bay. Ren was waiting for me in the hallway.
"The corruption is purged," Ren said. "We're down a few thousand troops, and morale is shaky, but we're back online."
"Refugees," I muttered to myself.
"What?"
"Nothing." I shook my head. "Ren, double the watch. And tell the players that PVP is permanently disabled. If anyone's weapon so much as sneezes at a friendly, I want them teleported into the sun."
"Understood."
I walked to the balcony again. The countdown clock in the sky was ticking.
**[Time to Arrival: 23 Hours, 59 Minutes.]**
We had survived the psychological warfare. We had survived the internal betrayal. We had patched the holes in our minds and our ranks.
But Kael's words echoed in my head.
*They're the refugees.*
If the planet-eating monsters were running away from something... then what the hell was I about to fight?
My power ticked up. Another 10%.
I looked at my hand. It was glowing brighter than ever.
"Let them come," I said to the silence. "I'm not running."
I turned back to the Citadel.
"Zero. Order pizza. Large. Pepperoni."
**[...Architect?]**
"It's going to be a long night. We have a war to win."
**Chapter 56 Ends.**