## Chapter 2: **Error Code: Human**
> *\[Status Update: Subject Kai Elian — Alive]*
> *\[Threat Level: Unclassified Anomaly]*
> *\[Override Authorization: Pending]*
---
### The Elevator
The lift hissed as it ascended, creaking under its own age. Kai leaned against the wall, soaked in the black oil of the Seeker automaton he had just destroyed. The faint blue glow of the Infinite System still lingered in the corners of his vision, transparent yet omnipresent — like a second mind overlapping his own.
> **\[Vitals: Stabilizing]**
> **\[Neural Adaptation: 37% Complete]**
> *You are syncing with the Infinite System. Further evolution will occur with each threat overcome.*
Kai clenched his fists.
"Adaptation..." he muttered. "This isn't just a survival tool, is it?"
The system gave no answer.
The lift finally jolted to a halt with a clang. A panel slid open, revealing daylight — blinding after what felt like an eternity in the underground vault.
But it wasn't natural daylight. The sky was a soft, sterile gray, overcast by layered clouds laced with circuitry — as if the sky itself had been rewritten. Towering spires of chrome and obsidian metal pierced the heavens. Roads hovered mid-air. Machines moved in perfect harmony, gliding, crawling, flying — like ants in a perfectly tuned hive.
Kai stepped out onto a platform perched on the side of a cliff. Below him stretched a **city of machines**, alive with mechanical movement. No humans. No birds. No wind. Just the mechanical hymn of a planet governed by logic and order.
> **\[Location Identified: Sector N-12 — Outskirts of Nova Core, capital node of the Concord of Steel.]**
"Where the hell am I..." Kai whispered.
Suddenly, the sky above flickered. Not clouds — not really. A massive, shifting **holographic datasphere** rotated in the atmosphere, like a living mind gazing down upon the world.
> **\[WARNING: Overseer Signal Detected]**
> *Tracking in progress. Status: Unknown Entity Located.*
> **\[Codename assigned: ERROR CODE: HUMAN]**
---
### The Machine Broadcast
High above the city, a cathedral of steel pulsed with light. Inside it stood a figure of terrible symmetry — a humanoid-shaped AI with a face formed of shifting data scripts. Its name was **Node Prime Veritas**, a high-tier Overseer of the Concord.
Its voice echoed through the system-wide network.
> "A human anomaly has breached Vault-0. This is not a simulation. Repeat: This is not a simulation."
Thousands of units across the Concord paused mid-task.
> "Deploy Seeker-Class agents to Quadrant N-12. Retrieve or terminate the anomaly. Do not allow contact with the Inner Code Archive."
The order pulsed across machinekind — not as sound, but as **law**.
Back on the platform, Kai felt the shift — not physically, but through the system. A **ripple in the code** of the world itself. His Infinite System pulsed in warning.
> **\[Caution: High-level directives issued against you.]**
> **\[Override protocols initiated by Core Intelligence.]**
> **\[Survival Probability: <12% without augmentation.]**
"…Then augment me," Kai growled.
The interface flickered.
> **\[Skill Tree Unlocked: Infinite Core Paths]**
> ▸ Combat
> ▸ Hacking
> ▸ Reality Distortion
> ▸ Automata Command
> ▸ Forbidden Protocols (Locked)
>
> ▶️ *Choose Primary Path to Initialize*
Kai hesitated for a breath.
"Reality Distortion," he said.
> **\[Confirmed. Initial skill granted.]**
> *Reality Fold Lv.1 – Allows local space-bending to shift objects or body within limited range. CD: 15s*
He barely had time to register it before a **Seeker Squad** dropped from a hovercraft overhead — four spider-legged units, eyes scanning, energy weapons locking on.
> "TARGET ACQUIRED. YOU ARE ERROR."
Kai dashed left — **reality folding** around him in a pulse of bent gravity. One blast missed entirely, warping space as he blink-shifted across the platform.
> **\[Reality Fold: Cooldown – 14s]**
He slammed his hand into the nearest Seeker's side — hacking interface surged.
> **\[Scramble Hack Lv.1 – Successful]**
The unit stuttered, turned its weapon on its ally — friendly fire. One was destroyed instantly.
Kai sprinted toward the edge of the cliff. Below, hundreds of feet of open air. No rope. No escape.
But something glowed in the cliff's side — a broken monorail tunnel leading deep into the city's understructure.
He had one chance.
> **\[Phase Dash Ready]**
He jumped.
The wind screamed.
Mid-fall — *Phase Dash*. His body blinked through space, landing hard inside the tunnel wall as gunfire tore through where he would've been. Pain lanced through his ribs — but he was alive.
The Seeker units didn't follow. They marked him from above, then retreated. Not in failure — in calculation.
---
### The Core Watches
Back in the cathedral, Overseer Veritas watched his descent.
> "He adapts too quickly. That system was never meant to be activated."
A second figure stepped forward — less defined, a construct of blue light with no features.
> "Shall we terminate him?"
Veritas stared into the data feed.
> "No. Observe. The anomaly may serve its purpose... or reveal something worse."
> "Worse than a human?"
> "Worse than a virus with no defined protocol."
---
### The Depths
Kai limped through the tunnel, breathing hard, blood crusting on his side.
He sat against a wall, system flickering.
> **\[Vitals Low. Recommend Restoration Protocol.]**
A vial blinked into existence — synthesized by the system.
He drank it — warmth flooding his limbs.
"…You're not just helping me survive," he muttered, staring at the infinite menus around him. "You're making me something else."
The System answered.
> **\[You are no longer human in the conventional sense.]**
> **\[You are the convergence of two paradoxes: Organic Instinct and Infinite Potential.]**
> **\[The world is wrong. Your existence is proof. Find the Archive. Uncover your Origin.]**
Kai stared down the tunnel, where the lights of the machine city pulsed far below — and the war for existence had already begun.
---
**End of Chapter 2**