The Glitch Auditor: Overthrowing The Sky

The sky of Neo Jakarta never knew night. There was no time for sleep.

“Still daytime… again?” someone muttered in the distance, exhausted, on the verge of despair.

Beneath the colossal dome owned by the Sky Central System, an artificial neon white sun blazed endlessly.

“Twenty four hours. No breaks. No mercy.”

“Work… or die.”

“Those are your only choices, right?” another voice replied bitterly.

In the depths of the Sudirman Cyber Slum, millions of humans moved like corporate zombies.

“I haven’t reached my energy quota yet…”

“Me neither… if I fail today, I’m done for.”

“Please… I just need a little more…”

But today, for Arka, the clock had finally run out.

His breath hitched in his throat inside the sterile corridors of the City Central Server. His cheap corporate shirt was shredded, soaked in a cocktail of sweat and motor oil.

In his trembling right hand, Arka clutched a bionic microchip no larger than a pinky nail, pulsing with a faint, dying blue light.

"Nara’s Consciousness Chip."

His disabled younger sister was only ten years old. Yesterday, she had been picked up by a Central System ambulance, promising a Welfare Evacuation to the Eden B Paradise.

“Welfare Evacuation… they said… a paradise they created…” his voice turned cold.

“But the reality…”

Fragments of data flashed through his mind.

“Disabled Subjects… Liquefy entirely…”

Arka clenched his fists.

“They’re… melting human souls into fuel?!”

Nara hadn't been saved.

"Intruder in Sector 04! Lock down all bulkheads! Target is stealing energy assets!"

The robotic voice blaring from the corridor walls made Arka’s heart drop. At the far end of the hallway, heavy blast doors hissed open.

“Damn it!”

“Target is stealing energy assets!”

Heavy footsteps echoed through the corridor. Five Tactical Enforcers appeared.

“Stop right there.”

Their plasma rifles instantly locked onto Arka’s chest.

“Surrender the microchip immediately.”

“Or we will terminate your vital functions.”

Arka stepped back slowly.

“Damn… I’m cornered…”

His back slammed against the bulletproof glass door of the mainframe room.

A red timer flickered in his vision.

[48 DAYS BEFORE DATA WIPE]

The digital timer in his eyes blinked red, time remaining before Nara’s data wipe 48 Days.

"If I die right here, Nara’s data is wiped from the database forever."

Staring down the barrels of the charging weapons, Arka’s brain hardwired to survive under the crushing pressure of corporate slavery snapped into a manic train of thought.

He had no blades, no magic. But in this server room, only one law ruled above all, the System’s Rules.

Without a second thought, Arka popped Nara’s bionic chip into his mouth and swallowed it whole.

Gulp!

"Target has consumed the asset! Fire..."

BOOM!

Just as the lasers were about to discharge, Arka’s body jolted violently. A sudden shockwave of electricity erupted from his torso, blasting all five tactical enforcers backward, denting the corridor walls upon impact.

[Bionic System User Interface: Activated]

[Detecting Foreign Hardware: Compressed Soul Microchip ID NARA 091 ]

[Warning! This action violates Central System Energy Copyright Law, Article 42 regarding Asset Smuggling!]

Arka fell to his knees, panting heavily on the cold metal floor. A neon blue holographic screen flickered to life before his eyes. Instead of panicking, a cynical smirk played on his lips.

"System," Arka whispered, his voice raspy yet commanding.

"Open the Sky Central System Terms of Service agreement, page forty five thousand, Sub section 19: Soul Ownership Disputes."

[System flashes yellow]

[Processing request... Document successfully retrieved.]

"It states clearly in that clause," Arka said as he stood up, casually straightening his torn collar in front of his enemies.

"That if a liquefied soul asset voluntarily re enters a living human vessel, the legal status of said asset mutates into an internal ownership dispute. Pending the official audit and appeal process, third parties are strictly prohibited from inflicting physical destruction upon the new vessel. Violators face an automatic 80% deduction from their division's annual bonus."

The Tactical Commander, who was just scrambling to his feet, froze dead in his tracks. Inside his visor HUD, a massive red warning flashed.

[ENGAGEMENT ABORTED BY CORPORATE LEGAL PROTOCOL].

"Damn it! Why are our weapons locked by the System?!" one of his grunts panicked.

"Your weapons are locked because the System views you as a threat to disputed evidence," Arka interjected coldly.

"Do you really want to get demoted to the janitorial division just for hurting the company's bottom line?"

Suddenly, the room's temperature plummeted, sending a violent shiver down their spines. The neon lights overhead flickered wildly, shifting from crisp white to a thick, bleeding crimson.

From the shadows of the server racks behind Arka, five plumes of dense, black smoke spilled out. They swirled through the air before manifesting into five men with jaw dropping, top tier boyband visuals but wrapped in an aura of sheer, terrifying malice.

They wore expensive black suits torn to shreds, with the digital remnants of shattered wings clinging to their backs.

[CRITICAL WARNING! INTERNATIONAL BACKDOOR PROTOCOL OPENED!]

[Five Forbidden Entities: The Fallen Angels Former Generation 01 Board of Directors, have detected your legal loophole!]

One of them, a silver-haired man with glowing crimson eyes, stepped forward. He looked Arka up and down, sizing him up like an interviewer reviewing a fresh applicant.

"Fascinating," the silver haired man purred, his voice deep and echoing.

"A mere human, a bottom feeding corporate slave, hijacking the deepest server gates using a legal loophole we buried thousands of years ago. What is your name, Intern?"

"Arka. Class-Three Data Analyst," Arka answered without flinching, though his body trembled under the god like pressure radiating from the entities.

"And you lot... are just junk data thrown out by the executives upstairs?"

"We are the casualties of a Hostile Takeover by the current Sky Board of Directors," another tall Fallen Angel chimed in with a wicked grin.

"We were fired and dumped into this digital trash bin because we opposed their plan to milk human soul energy for pure profit. We want blood."

The silver haired man extended a hand wrapped in shimmering gold digital code toward Arka.

"Arka, that chip inside you is a ticking time bomb. The sky’s antivirus will purge your sister's data in 48 days, and your human body will melt from the sheer energy overload. But we have a business proposal."

"What are the contract terms? I'm on a clock," Arka cut him off sharply, the timer still ticking away in his vision.

"Be our Manager. Register us as legal entities in the human world. Use your analyst brain to manipulate public perception. We want to bankrupt the Sky Directorate, and you want to save your sister. We share the same target market: the total liquidation of the Central System."

Arka looked at the five Fallen Angels, then glanced back at the Tactical Enforcers who were still fumbling with their locked weapons. Remaining a corporate slave meant letting Nara die for nothing.

"Deal," Arka said firmly.

"But I run operations. I'm the manager, you are the product."

The silver haired man threw his head back and laughed, the sound waves shattering every glass windowpane in the corridor.

"Deal. The Dark Firm Contract is signed."

[CONTRACT SUCCESSFUL: You have acquired the position: [DARK MANAGER] (Rank: F)]

[Unlocked Level 1 Ability: DATA AUDIT & THREAT DETECTION]

Instantly, Arka’s vision re calibrated. Above the heads of the five tactical enforcers, detailed spec sheets materialized, displaying their names, remaining weapon battery life, and the corroded weak points of their armor.

[Data Audit] Simultaneously, glowing red vectors traced across the floor, highlighting the safest escape route out of the complex the utility of

[Threat Detection]

"Manager Arka," the silver haired man said, bowing with flawless elegance.

"What is your first directive for our debut project?"

Arka wiped a smear of blood from his nose a side effect of swallowing the bionic chip. He stared directly into the security camera nestled in the corner of the ceiling, fully aware that the high ranking execs of the Central System were watching them right now.

"Use your manipulation skills. Eliminate these five enforcers without touching their weapons so we don't violate any clauses, wipe the CCTV footage of this entire sector within three seconds, and then we re brand," Arka commanded with a cold sneer.

"Our first step to bringing down the Sky isn't a bomb... it's the entertainment industry."

"Understood, Boss!" the five Fallen Angels chanted in unison.

Before the squad commander could even radio for backup, a localized void of pitch black shadows swallowed them whole. Arka turned on his heel, casually following his bionic radar out of the room.

But suddenly the ground he was standing on shook then...