MY SYSTEM LOADS 10 SECONDS LATE

CHAPTER 2 : prodigy of evading death.

*Click.*

The sound of the sinking stone tile echoed like a death knell in the quiet corridor.

Garret's eyes widened in sheer, unadulterated panic. His momentum had carried him a full step into the forbidden zone, his massive armored boot pinning the pressure plate flat against the floor.

"What the—!" Garret roared, his head whipping back toward Jaxen.

But Jaxen was already moving. Having experienced the exact trajectory of the trap just ten seconds prior, he didn't just step back—he threw himself flat against the opposite wall, completely out of the firing line.

*Thwip! Thwip! Thwip!*

The walls groaned as the ancient machinery unleashed its fury. A barrage of black, poisoned steel spikes erupted from the darkness.

Because Garret was a B-Rank Tank, his reflexes were sharp. He instinctively raised his massive runic tower shield, channeling his mana into a glowing barrier. "Heavy Aegis!" he bellowed.

*CLANG! CLANG! BANG!*

The first few spikes slammed into the shield, denting the metal and shattering the magical barrier. But the trap was designed for an S-Rank raid. The sheer volume and velocity of the projectiles overwhelmed his defenses.

A massive steel bolt punched straight through the edge of his shield, tearing through Garret's armored gauntlet. Another spike grazed his thigh, leaving a deep, sizzling gash.

"Argh!" Garret screamed, stumbling backward out of the corridor, his face pale as the dark purple poison immediately began to veins across his leg.

"Captain!"

The rest of the Iron Vanguard members rushed forward, panic breaking out across the ranks. Their unstoppable B-Rank leader was suddenly crippled before the raid had even truly begun. Mages immediately swarmed him, casting detoxify spells and healing incantations, while the knights formed a defensive wall.

Through the chaos, Garret's venomous glare locked onto Jaxen, who was calmly dusting off his leather armor.

"You... you dirty little rat!" Garret hissed, spitting a mouthful of blood. "You dodged! You intentionally let me trip the trap!"

Jaxen tilted his head, his expression a mask of pure innocence. "Captain, you pushed me, but your footing slipped on the damp moss. I merely reacted to avoid being crushed by your heavy armor. Isn't a scout's job to adapt?"

"You—!"

"Enough, Garret," a cold voice interrupted.

From the back of the group stepped a woman with sharp features, dressed in elegant, midnight-blue mage robes. It was Vice-Captain Lana, a B-Rank Elementalist. She looked at Garret's poisoned wound, then turned her analytical eyes toward Jaxen.

"Vance shouldn't have been able to dodge a push from a B-Rank Vanguard," Lana murmured, her eyes narrowing. "Your agility stats are E-Rank. How did you anticipate his movement?"

"I didn't anticipate the push," Jaxen lied smoothly, his face completely unbothered. "But my *[Basic Detection]* skill didn't just flag the tile. It flagged a micro-vibration in the air. When Captain Garret moved, the air pressure shifted, and my survival instincts kicked in."

It was complete nonsense, but in a world governed by mysterious System skills, unusual phenomena happened all the time.

Lana stared at him for a long moment, trying to read his expression. But Jaxen's mind was perfectly calm. He had already died once today; a cold stare from a mage wasn't going to make him flinch.

"Regardless," Lana turned back to the corridor, "the trap is on a sixty-second reload cycle. We've wasted ten seconds already. Bandage the Captain. The rest of you, advance through the archway before the mechanism resets!"

The Vanguard knights charged through the corridor, their heavy boots clattering against the stone. Jaxen followed at the rear, a quiet satisfaction settling deep in his chest.

As he stepped past the pressure plate, a subtle golden text drifted across his vision, invisible to everyone else.

```

[System Notification: Your action altered the local timeline.]

[Fate Deviation Rate: 0.02%]

[Data collected. Consciousness stability: 99.8%]

```

*Fate Deviation?* Jaxen thought, his eyes tracking the fading text. *So, changing the future increases this rate. What happens when it hits 100%?*

* Does it somehow increase his stats. An alternative status bar as compared to the standard system?*. Jaxen had a lot to learn about this newly obtained power. And why he had it.

Before he could ponder further, the raid team burst into the next chamber—and the air completely froze.

The room was massive, shaped like a colosseum, with crumbling stone pillars stretching up into the shadows. In the center of the room sat a massive, iron-bound treasure chest, glowing with an alluring, golden aura.

"A hidden vault chest!" one of the vanguard knights gasped, his eyes gleaming with greed. "Captain Lana, it's an unlocked prize drop!"

"Wait," Jaxen said, his eyes scanning the perimeter. His *[Basic Detection]* wasn't ringing, but something felt inherently wrong. The silence in the room was too heavy. "Don't touch it. It's too clean."

"Shut up, E-Rank," a knight scoffed, stepping forward. "The trap corridor is behind us. This is the reward room before the sub-boss. Out of the way."

The knight reached out and gripped the iron latch of the chest.

Jaxen opened his mouth to warn him again, but a sudden, overwhelming chill ran down his spine. It wasn't a skill triggering. It was an absolute, terrifying aura of death that filled the entire colosseum in a split second.

The ceiling above them shattered.

A monstrous, multi-legged shadow dropped from the darkness like a meteor, landing directly on top of the greedy knight, crushing him into a paste of armor and bone.

*BOOM!*

The shockwave blew the entire raid team backward. Jaxen hit the ground hard, his breath escaping him. He looked up through the dust and felt his blood turn to ice.

Towering over the shattered chest was a creature that shouldn't have been in a standard S-Rank vanguard zone. It was a massive, arachnid horror covered in razor-sharp bone plating, its eight eyes glowing with a malicious crimson light. Above its head, the world's standard System displayed its name in flashing, blood-red letters:

**[Calamity Beast: The Crypt Weaver - Level 120 (Abyssal Boss)]**

"An Abyssal Boss... here?!" Lana screamed, her composure completely shattering. "This isn't a standard S-Rank dungeon! The gate mutated! Retr—"

Before she could finish the word, the Crypt Weaver snapped its massive mandibles. A wave of invisible, razor-sharp sonic wind cut across the room.

Jaxen didn't even have time to blink. The sonic blade tore through the knights, through Lana, and cut straight through Jaxen's waist, severing his upper body from his legs.

Pain didn't even have time to register before his vision instantly dissolved into darkness.

```

[ALERT: Fatal damage detected.]

[Status: Dead.]

[ACTIVATING TALENT: 'Hindsight Bias'...]

```

*Whoosh!*

Jaxen's soul slammed backward through the vacuum of time once more.

He gasped, his eyes flying open.

He was standing at the entrance of the colosseum room. The knight was just stepping forward, his hand reaching out t

oward the golden treasure chest. Lana was watching with an eager smile.

To everyone else, they were about to claim a grand treasure.

To Jaxen, the timer was ticking. He had exactly eight seconds before the ceiling shattered and everyone in this room was slaughtered.