"...Administrator."
The word echoed through the unfinished building.
No one moved.
No one breathed.
Liam wasn't even sure he'd heard it correctly.
A monster...
Had spoken.
Emma slowly turned toward him.
"...Did it just..."
Liam nodded weakly.
"I heard it too."
Ben's face had gone completely pale.
"M-Monsters aren't supposed to talk..."
Noah tightened his grip on his sword.
"I don't think we're dealing with an ordinary monster anymore."
The giant wolf remained outside the entrance.
It didn't attack.
It simply stared at Liam.
Its molten-gold eyes never left him.
It was studying him.
The same way a person might examine an old photograph.
Like it recognized something that shouldn't exist.
The wolf took one slow step forward.
The unfinished floor trembled beneath its weight.
Then another.
It stopped just outside the entrance.
The narrow corridor that had trapped the Shadow Hounds was too small for its enormous body.
For the first time since the apocalypse began...
Liam noticed something.
The wolf wasn't trying to force its way inside.
It was... cautious.
Almost...
Respectful.
Its nostrils flared as it sniffed the air.
Then it spoke again.
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Its voice sounded rough, as though it hadn't used human language in centuries.
"...Why..."
A pause.
"...are you... here?"
Liam's eyes widened.
It wasn't threatening him.
It was asking a question.
"I..."
His throat was dry.
"I don't know what you're talking about."
The wolf stared at him for several long seconds.
Then it slowly shook its head.
"...No..."
"...Too weak."
It sounded disappointed.
Not relieved.
Not angry.
Disappointed.
A sudden blue window appeared before Noah.
His face changed instantly.
"Liam!"
"What?"
"My System..."
He read the message aloud.
Emergency Quest Updated
Target Detected
Eliminate the Unauthorized Entity.
Reward: Rare Equipment Chest
Failure: None
Silence.
Emma's eyes widened.
"My quest changed too."
Ben swallowed hard.
"Mine... mine says the same thing."
All three of them slowly looked at Liam.
No one spoke.
They didn't have to.
The "Unauthorized Entity"...
Was him.
Emma took an unconscious step backward.
"No..."
She whispered.
"There has to be a mistake."
Liam's chest tightened.
He already knew.
The System wasn't just rejecting him.
It wanted him dead.
Ben stared at his floating window.
"If... if we complete this quest..."
His voice trembled.
"We get rewards."
"Ben."
Emma's voice was sharp.
"Don't."
"I'm just saying!"
He looked between Liam and the glowing notification.
"I don't want to kill anyone!"
"But..."
His eyes dropped.
"...What if the System is right?"
The words hit Liam harder than he expected.
Not because Ben believed them.
Because Liam had already asked himself the same question.
What if he really was dangerous?
The giant wolf let out a low growl.
Its gaze shifted from Liam...
To the three Awakened.
The temperature in the room seemed to drop.
"...Children..."
The wolf spoke slowly.
"...Blind..."
Without warning...
It moved.
Not toward Liam.
Toward Ben.
"No!"
Emma shouted.
The wolf's massive claw crashed through the concrete wall.
Stone exploded everywhere.
Ben barely rolled away in time.
The claw left four deep trenches across the floor.
One more second...
And Ben would have been crushed.
"Liam!"
Noah charged.
His sword glowed with pale blue light as he slashed at the wolf's foreleg.
The blade struck.
Then shattered.
The broken pieces scattered across the floor.
Noah stumbled backward, staring at the hilt still in his hand.
"...Impossible."
The wolf didn't even look at him.
To it...
Noah wasn't worth noticing.
Liam's mind raced.
There had to be something.
Anything.
The Observation function.
It had worked before.
Please...
Work again.
A familiar sensation spread behind his eyes.
Administrator Function: Observation
Target: Unknown Alpha
The screen struggled to load.
Letters flickered in and out.
As though the System itself didn't want him to read them.
Finally...
A single line appeared.
Warning
Insufficient Authority
Access Denied
Then...
Another line forced its way onto the screen.
One that clearly wasn't supposed to appear.
Designation: Fenrir Spawn
Rank: Elite Commander
Current Condition: Sealed (97%)
Liam's heart skipped a beat.
Sealed?
Ninety-seven percent?
This wasn't the creature's full strength.
It had been weakened.
Somehow.
The next line appeared for less than a second.
Primary Directive: Locate Administrator.
The screen vanished.
Liam's breathing became uneven.
It wasn't here to destroy the university.
That was just a consequence.
Its real mission...
Had always been him.
The giant wolf lowered its head.
Its glowing eyes met Liam's.
"...Found..."
It took one heavy step forward.
Concrete cracked beneath its paw.
"...At last."
Far above the crimson sky...
A silent alarm spread through the Universal Survival System.
Not because Earth was under attack.
Not because monsters had invaded.
But because an ancient command, buried for billions of years...
Had just been fulfilled.
The Administrator had been located.