The System window flickered, a final, heavy message burning into the center of his vision.
> [IT IS TOO LATE. YOU ALREADY CAUGHT HIS ATTENTION.]
Julian felt a cold sweat break out across his back. "He? Who is 'he'?"
> [MY CREATOR.]
The window shattered into a million digital fragments, and the apartment was plunged into a suffocating, absolute darkness.
The familiar scent of his shampoo was replaced by the smell of frozen earth.
From the void, a voice spoke—not through the system, and not through the air, but directly into the center of Julian's mind. It was a voice that sounded like a thousand whispers layered over a single, terrifying heartbeat.
"So... this is the little flame that reached out to the stars."
Julian felt a phantom hand brush against his cheek—a touch that felt like liquid ice.
"A scholar who wants to save the world. How very... exhausting. But your light is delicious, Kim Jowoon. It tastes of something I haven't felt in an eternity."
