Night fell over Blackthorn City like a dirty blanket.
The rain had stopped, but the streets still glistened with black water. Lanterns burned with weak yellow light under sagging awnings. The lower markets changed after dark. The tired merchants of the morning were replaced by people who only came out when the respectable world was asleep — sellers of stolen goods, cheap flesh, forbidden powders, and quieter, more dangerous things.
I moved through them like a shadow in a plain cloak, hood drawn low.
My system guided me with cold precision.
[Fragmented Flame Core – Integration: 94%]
[Secondary scan active]
[Early-awakened system signatures detected: 5]
[Filtering for lowest stability…]
[Optimal target acquired]
[Location: 67 meters ahead. Second floor of the boarded tenement above the bone-seller’s stall]
I adjusted my path.
The tenement leaned against its neighbors like a drunk who had given up on standing straight. The stairs smelled of mold and old urine. On the second floor, a single door had light bleeding under it. My system pulsed once.
[Target confirmed]
[Host: Female. Approximate age: 19]
[System Rank: Broken Seed – Extremely Unstable]
[Awakening age: 8 months]
[Primary attribute: Minor shadow affinity]
[Current condition: Heavy fever, system backlash, isolation]
[Copy difficulty: Extremely Low]
[She has not left this room in four days]
I knocked once.
Silence.
I knocked again, harder.
A weak voice answered from the other side, cracked and suspicious.
“…Who is it?”
There was a long pause. Then the sound of a bolt sliding back. The door opened just enough for a single bloodshot eye to stare out at me. The girl was pale, sweat-soaked, hair sticking to her face. Dark veins had begun to spider across her neck — a classic sign of a system rejecting its host.
She looked at me for a long moment. Desperation won.
She opened the door wider and stepped aside.
The room was small and stifling. A single candle burned on a crooked table. There was a thin mattress on the floor, a bucket in the corner, and nothing else. The air smelled of sickness and unwashed skin.
The girl closed the door behind me and leaned against it, breathing hard.
“If you’re here to rob me,” she whispered, “there’s nothing left.”
“I’m not here to rob you,” I answered.
My system spoke with quiet finality.
[Isolation: Confirmed]
[Initiating System Copy]
[Target resistance: None]
[Estimated completion: 29 seconds]
I stepped closer and placed my hand against the side of her neck, fingers resting lightly over those dark, failing veins.
Her eyes widened.
“What are you—?”
The silver light poured out of my palm and into her body.
She gasped. Her knees gave out. I caught her before she hit the floor and lowered her carefully onto the mattress while the system did its work with ruthless efficiency.
[Copy Progress: 22%… 49%… 77%…]
[Target’s system core located]
[Structure: Broken Shadow Seed]
[Abilities detected: Weak presence concealment, minor fear induction, unstable night vision]
[Copying…]
[Copy Complete]
[Second System Copy Successful]
[New Module Acquired: Broken Shadow Seed]
[Abilities Unlocked:]
— Veil of Presence (Low-level concealment)
— Whisper of Dread (Minor psychological pressure)
— Unstable Night Eye]
[Integration will complete over the next 8 hours]
[Target’s original system has entered deep dormancy]
The girl lay on the mattress, unconscious, breathing shallowly. The dark veins on her neck had already begun to fade. Whatever pain her broken system had been causing her was gone — at least for now.
I stood up.
Two silver coins and a small piece of dried meat from my pocket were left on the table. More kindness than she would have received from anyone else in this district. More than she needed to survive the night.
I left without looking back.
Outside, the night air felt sharper. Two stolen systems now burned quietly inside me — one of weak flame, one of broken shadow. Neither was powerful. Together, they were still far less than what a Sovereign-Class warlord carried.
But they were mine.
And they were growing.
My system spoke as I melted back into the dark streets.
[Two copies acquired in one day]
[Host foundation has measurably improved]
[Warning: Growth is still insufficient]
[The Warlord returns in two days and fourteen hours]
I raised my head and looked toward the distant lights of Blackthorn Keep.
Somewhere inside those walls, my stepmother still wore another man’s mark on her neck.
I had two days and fourteen hours left to become something that could no longer be forced to simply watch.