The System Hunter

Chapter 23: Level Three Isn't Free

The System offered Elias two hours of life for betraying June Ilyan.

She stood beside the restored pump, both hands still shaking from the flooded channel. Her reward clock had risen to fifty minutes, but the final permit board classified her as a nonqualified participant. Reporting her would give Elias extra time and remove a competitor from the appeals queue.

Rafi read the prompt over his shoulder. "It says optional. So refuse it."

"Optional to us," Elias said. "Not optional to the next person who needs the reward."

He rejected the action and requested a public review of June's contribution score. The screen announced that appeal petitions could be submitted by Level Three certified hunters or above. His Level Two authorization remained provisional, a gift from Continuity Nine that could be withdrawn at any moment.

"You completed the station mission," Tessa said. "That puts your verified XP over the next threshold. You should be eligible for Level Three after certification."

The System agreed when Elias opened his profile.

LEVEL 3 ELIGIBLE.

CERTIFICATION ASSESSMENT: AVAILABLE.

SECURITY TIME DEPOSIT: 01:30:00.

DEPOSIT RETURNED ON SUCCESS.

"Ninety minutes," Rafi muttered. "What if you fail?"

"He loses the deposit and the right to appeal this assessment until the next cycle," Tessa said. "And the assessment itself may consume time."

Elias calculated silently. The restored pump had replenished his balance, as had the transport contract, but the deductions for his earlier appeal and ordinary passing hours had cut deep. He could afford the deposit only by leaving himself dangerously little room for error.

"I can attempt certification," Rafi offered.

"Your XP isn't high enough yet," Tessa replied.

"Then I could take an evidence mission."

"And leave June alone while the permit queue closes?" Elias asked. "No. We use the path in front of us."

The certification station was a narrow glass booth overlooking the control room. Elias stepped inside, accepted the deposit, and felt ninety minutes vanish from his balance. A training drone descended on a wire above a mock industrial hazard. The assessment required him to identify a safe extraction path for a simulated injured worker without injuring a real bystander placed among the equipment.

Trajectory Assist lit up as an available skill. Its six-second debit would show the likely path of the swinging drone. Elias almost activated it, then noticed a puddle of hydraulic fluid under the crane. The question was not where the drone would swing. It was why the operator had marked the puddle as harmless water.

He stopped the assessment clock using the safety-abort button. It was a choice the kiosk had buried beneath a tiny gray label, as though safety were a technicality rather than the purpose of the test. Elias had missed labels like that before, back when he trusted public rescue equipment to tell him the truth. Not again.

"Unsafe scenario," he said. "The bystander is inside a live hydraulic spill zone. No movement plan is safe until the hazard is isolated."

The booth remained silent for thirteen seconds. Then its assessment display changed.

PROCEDURAL SAFETY EXCEPTION: ACCEPTED.

CERTIFICATION TEST PASSED.

LEVEL 3: VERIFIED.

SECURITY DEPOSIT RETURNED.

The returned time struck his balance like a reprieve. A new permission appeared: REVIEW COOPERATIVE MISSION ALLOCATION. Elias opened June's score before the System could close the panel.

Her work had been certified. The low ranking came from a separate field marked NONPRIORITY DEPENDENT STATUS. Someone had imported a custody restriction from an unrelated ledger and used it to penalize her application.

"This isn't a performance score," Elias said. "It's a punishment disguised as one."

He filed the contradiction, attaching June's restoration record and the relay inspection seal signed by Merrow. A warning flashed: APPEAL MAY DELAY FINAL EXTRACTION FOR ALL CANDIDATES. He submitted anyway.

The permit board froze. Across the room, hunters shouted. One of them forced his way toward the booth, accusing Elias of risking everyone's chance to leave. Rafi stepped between them, hands open, while June backed toward the pump's control rail.

Tessa spoke urgently through the earpiece. "The appeal succeeded in opening the allocation ledger. But somebody is changing the files while you read them."

The panel showed a live operator editing June's status. For less than a second, the operator's credential name was visible: DAX MERROW—DEPUTIZED QUALIFICATION SUPERVISOR.

Elias saved the screen. An alarm rang, and the booth door locked.

SUPERVISOR REVIEW REQUESTED.

EVIDENCE TAMPERING SUSPECT: ELIAS VENN.