THE SYSTEM'S JANITOR

CHAPTER 6: THE FIRST FACE-SLAP(THE AUDIT)

The dust from Governor Vane’s collapsing shack hadn't even settled before the air above us curdled. A streak of white light descended from the Imperial Skyship, slamming into the cobblestones with the force of a falling star.

When the radiance cleared, a man in blinding platinum armor stood there. He looked like a god carved from ivory, his cape fluttering despite the lack of wind. This wasn't a border guard. This was Ser Alaric, Lucius’s lead squire—a B-Rank Knight whose name was synonymous with "unmatched."

"I was told I’d find a corpse," Alaric said, his voice smooth and cold as a glacier. He looked at the rotting timber that used to be a mansion, then at me. "Instead, I find a Scrapper standing in the ruins of a Governor’s home. Explain yourself, Thorne, before I decide your tongue is scrap too."

"Alaric! Kill him!" Vane screamed, crawling out from under a pile of moth-eaten rugs. "He stole the mana! He turned my palace into a hovel! Look at my robes! They’re burlap!"

Alaric didn't even glance at him. He kept his eyes on me. "A 0.01 potential extracting Imperial mana-veins? Preposterous. You’re either a thief of a higher order or a glitch in the world’s design. Either way, my orders from Master Lucius are clear. Verify the anomaly, then delete it."

"Delete me?" I stepped forward, my boots crunching on the gravel. "Lucius is getting nervous, isn't he? Sending a B-Rank to check on a rounding error?"

"Nervous?" Alaric chuckled, drawing a sword that hummed with pure solar energy. "A lion does not get nervous about a flea. He simply cleans his fur. You are a stain on the Hegemony’s records, Kaelen. I am the eraser."

"Kaelen, run!" Miri shouted, clutching her cooking pot. "That’s a B-Rank! You can't scrap a Knight!"

"Stay back, Miri," I said, my eyes tracking the light reflecting off his blade. "He thinks he’s made of sunbeams. I want to see what happens when the sun goes out."

"Arrogant to the end," Alaric sighed. He took a stance, his blade glowing with an intensity that made the townsfolk shield their eyes. "Die with the honor of witnessing a true skill. [HEAVENLY SLASH]!"

He moved. To the human eye, he was a blur of white light. The sword came down in a vertical arc, a crescent of pure, concentrated energy meant to bisect me and the ground I stood on.

I didn't move. I didn't dodge.

"Is he suicidal?" Vane cackled. "He's just standing there!"

I closed my eyes for a fraction of a second, letting my [Scrapper] perception take over. I didn't see a sword. I didn't see a knight. I saw the Logic of the attack. It was built on two concepts: [LIGHT] and [SPEED].

If it’s a construct, I thought, it’s just highly organized scrap.

I reached out my hand, palm open, and caught the edge of the light-blade.

[SKILL ACTIVATED: SCRAP EXTRACTION]

[TARGET: CONCEPT OF LUMINOSITY]

"What?" Alaric’s voice broke.

The blinding white crescent didn't explode. It didn't cut. Under my touch, the light began to drain. It looked like ink being sucked into a sponge. The brilliance faded into gray, then into a murky, oily black.

"My... my mana!" Alaric gasped. "Where is the Light?"

"I scrapped it," I whispered. "Your attack is based on being seen, Alaric. Without the light, what do you have left?"

"I have the steel!" he roared, trying to force the blade down.

"Wrong," I said. I pulled harder on the extraction. "You have a weightless, invisible stick."

Suddenly, the entire town square plunged into total, supernatural darkness. I had scrapped the light not just from his blade, but from the very air around us. The townsfolk screamed. Vane wailed in the shadows.

"I can't see!" Alaric’s voice was high-pitched now, stripped of its divine calm. "Where are you? Thorne! Show yourself!"

"I'm right here," I said. I could see him perfectly; his armor was still vibrating with the residue of the mana I was stealing. "You spent so much time being a 'Heavenly' knight that you forgot how to fight in the dirt."

"I'll kill you! I'll butcher you!" He swung blindly, his sword whistling through the empty air, hitting nothing but the void I had created.

"You’re a B-Rank, right?" I asked, my voice echoing from every direction. "That means your body can handle a bit of impact."

"What are you—"

"I’ve been holding onto something for you," I said. I stepped into his personal space, my fist pulled back. I tapped into the reservoir I had filled back at the gate when those thugs tried to club me. "Lucius’s thugs gave me this. I think it belongs to his Squire."

[RELEASE: KINETIC ABSORPTION (100%)]

I punched him. Not with my own strength, but with the combined momentum of every blow I had absorbed since my exile.

BOOM.

The darkness shattered as the kinetic energy released. It wasn't a punch; it was a cannon blast.

Alaric didn't even have time to scream. The B-Rank Knight, in his master-crafted platinum armor, was launched backward like a stone from a catapult. He hit the first stone wall of the bakery—it disintegrated. He went through the second wall of the tannery—it exploded into dust. He finally slammed through the third wall of the guard barracks, the sound of rending metal and shattering stone echoing like a thunderclap.

Silence fell over Oakhaven.

I stood in the center of the square, my hand still smoking, my breath steady. Miri stared at the trail of destruction, then back at me.

"You... you just sent a B-Rank knight through three buildings," she whispered.

"He was top-heavy," I said, wiping a smudge of dust from my shoulder.

I looked up at the Imperial Skyship hovering above. The cannons were no longer glowing. The crew was leaning over the railing, their faces pale with disbelief.

I pointed a finger at the ship. "Tell Lucius the audit is over. And he’s in the red."

Suddenly, a low, guttural vibration shook the earth—stronger than the Monolith’s crack. From the hole Alaric had made in the third wall, a dark, pulsing red light began to emanate. It wasn't Alaric.

A voice, deeper and more ancient than any Knight, crawled out of the wreckage. "So... the 0.01 has finally woken up the system."

The ground beneath my feet began to liquefy into black ink.