Aetherborne Infinte Glitch

Chapter 9

Axel sat in his apartment across from Vax. The room was small, but it no longer felt like a place of safety. It felt like a checkpoint between stages of a system he was slowly beginning to understand. Outside, the city continued its usual rhythm—distant sirens, shifting footsteps, mechanical hums from patrol units moving through the lower districts—but none of it mattered inside this space.

Vax sat opposite him, composed as always, hands folded neatly, posture controlled. But Axel did not relax. He never relaxed. Even while sitting still, his [Arcanist’s Sphere] remained partially active beneath his skin, and his instincts stayed sharp like a blade resting half-drawn. People did not sit with him anymore without being measured.

He looked at Vax directly.

“You said there are people being hidden,” Axel said calmly. “Explain it properly. What exactly are they, and why does the system erase them?”

Vax did not answer immediately. Instead, he leaned back slightly, as if organizing information that had been buried for too long.

“The world you know,” Vax began, “is not the full structure of reality. What you call cities, rankings, and dungeons are only the visible layer. Beneath that layer, there are controlled regions known as the Inland Rifts.”

Axel’s expression did not change, but his attention sharpened.

“These are not normal dungeons,” Vax continued. “They are sealed systems. Controlled environments created and maintained by the Empire. Inside them, growth is not random. It is monitored, tested, and directed.”

The words did not surprise Axel. They aligned too closely with everything he had already experienced—his abnormal skill behavior, his infinite Focus structure, his ability to stack power without the usual limits.

Vax continued.

“The Empire uses these zones for two purposes. First, to train elite hunters beyond public ranking systems. Second, to observe anomalies—individuals whose development breaks standard classification rules.”

Axel leaned slightly forward.

“Anomalies,” he repeated.

“Yes,” Vax said. “People like you.”

The room became quieter, but not empty. It felt heavier, like pressure building in layers.

Vax explained further that these individuals were never recorded in public systems. Their names never appeared in ranking boards. Their achievements were either erased or rewritten under different identities. To the public, they simply did not exist. But inside the Empire’s structure, they were treated differently. Not as citizens. Not even as hunters in the normal sense. They were treated as controlled assets.

Axel listened without interruption.

His entire life, everything he had done up to this point, suddenly aligned in a different way. The dungeons he cleared. The way his stats behaved. The way skills merged into his body without resistance. It was not just growth. It was deviation. And deviation, in a controlled system, was never accidental.

Vax continued speaking, his voice steady.

“These Inland Rifts are where the Empire studies evolution. They watch how power develops when restrictions are removed. They test limits, compare results, and eliminate instability when necessary.”

Axel slowly leaned back in his chair.

For him, the world had always been simple. Enter dungeon. Clear dungeon. Gain power. Repeat. But now that structure was being revealed as something far more controlled. A system inside a system. A game where rules were visible only to those who wrote them.

And for the first time, Axel understood something clearly.

He was not just progressing inside the world.

He was being observed inside it.

Vax paused for a moment before continuing, lowering his voice slightly.

“There is also another truth,” he said. “Some anomalies are not captured. Some grow too fast. Some break away from the control system entirely. Those individuals are not erased. They are monitored from a distance.”

Axel’s eyes narrowed slightly at that.

“So I’m not the only one,” he said.

Vax shook his head slowly.

“No. You are not.”

A brief silence followed. Outside, a patrol siren passed and faded, like the city itself was moving without care for what was being revealed inside this room.

Axel looked down at his hand for a moment. The same hand that had crushed dungeons, absorbed skills, and rewritten his limits without resistance. He had never thought of himself as part of anything larger. He had only thought in terms of survival and growth.

But now, growth had a direction.

And that direction was being watched.

He slowly closed his hand into a fist.

Not fear.

Not hesitation.

Calculation.

If there were others like him, then the world was not a ladder.

It was a battlefield.

And he was not at the bottom anymore.

He was already inside the structure they were trying to control.

Vax watched him quietly, as if waiting for the reaction he already expected. But Axel did not react emotionally. He did not question morality or fear consequences. Instead, his thoughts moved forward, like a system analyzing next stages of progression.

If Inland Rifts existed, then they held higher-tier resources. If anomalies were monitored, then they were valuable. And if the Empire was hiding them, then they were either threats… or tools they could not fully control.

Either way, they were useful.

Axel slowly leaned back.

“I need access to those places,” he said finally.

His voice was calm. Not requesting. Not asking.

Deciding.

Vax studied him for a moment, then nodded slightly, as if confirming something internally.

“Then your path is already shifting,” Vax said. “Because once you step toward the Inland Rifts, you will no longer be operating under normal hunter systems. You will be entering the level where rules are rewritten.”

Axel’s gaze did not move.

“Good,” he replied quietly.

Because for him, rules were never something to obey.

They were something to outgrow.