As Nathan continued cutting wood according to the system’s instructions, the Tower Manager was busy tinkering with the system panels as usual— until she stopped, as a new notification suddenly popped up.
[A new skill package has been created. Assign the skill directly to Bugged Hunter.]
The Tower Manager sighed.
"Tch... anything for the sake of humanity always comes in the easiest way. But whenever I make a request, the system acts like it’s reading poetry written by a maniac."
Hunters were exiting the gates.
Some stretched their bodies, others took selfies for their social media stories—trying to look like hardworking professionals even though their abilities were subpar.
Among them was a man in a black suit—sharp eyes, tall, and upright.
"No one knows who owns WhiteNull," he muttered, walking toward the right side of the Tower. "Who could be the genius behind a potion like Mettallumcum?" He frowned.
He made his way toward a parked car.
"No one’s claiming it. Did they do it on purpose? Are they some noble soul committed to righteousness? Selling high-grade potions at dirt-cheap prices?"
The man opened the car door and got in.
A few hundred meters from the Tower of Genesis, in a cafe...
Two female hunters were enjoying a cup of coffee.
"Hey," said one of them—a busty brunette.
"Hmm?" The other—black-haired, medium-chested—raised an eyebrow, holding her coffee cup.
"That new viral potion... its name is weird.
The part before ’-cum’ sounds like Latin or something."
"Huh?" The black-haired woman chuckled.
"Yeah... maybe the alchemist just thought it’d be funny. Isn’t it clearly derived from ’metal’?"
"Really? Mettallum? And why the fuck the alchemist put -cum? that’s so weird." the busty woman furrowed her brow.
"C’mon, that potion really useful also viral. And you wanna complain about the name?"
"Hmm... I just feel weird every time I heard that name," the busty woman crossed her arms.
Black-haired woman exhaled slowly, "Fiona, I have a thought," she said.
"Metallumcum, maybe just short for... ’Metaphysical Cumulative Mana’"
The world moved like an old joke pretending to be new.
It wasn’t calculated with precision, but spoke like a poet high on logic dust.
The world outside the Tower kept spinning—oblivious to the glitch growing roots within it.
Somewhere between protocol and prophecy, a name was being carved into data, not destiny.
A woman sat holding her phone.
On the screen were two round buttons—one red, one green.
She stared at the screen.
"Is he still busy working? I hope he’s doing okay."
She sighed and turned around.
"My only son... I hope you’re eating well."
The man in the black suit who had previously gotten into a car had now arrived in front of a large building. He parked the car and walked out.
A young man with dark, messy-yet-neat black hair that slightly covered his eyebrows was walking toward him.
His face was sharp, jawline slim, and eyes piercing—always seeming to evaluate the world around him.
He wore a long black jacket with a hoodie, unzipped to reveal a plain white T-shirt underneath.
His posture was firm—not overly muscular, but compact. His aura was calm and cold, yet radiated an invisible pressure.
Even while standing still, he looked like a shadow ready to move.As if he wasn’t just an ordinary human, but a being destined to disrupt the system itself.
The man in the black suit glanced at him. "Not entering the Tower today?" he asked.
"Ahh... of course not, i visited my mother at the hospital," he replied. "Are you still looking into the guy behind the WhiteNull?" the man put both hands into his pants pockets and walked closer to the man in the black suit.
The man in the black suit nodded, while the man approaching him began to show an annoyed expression.
"What’s wrong with you?" asked the man in the black suit.
"I’m pissed at this world, and that damn Tower too!" the sharp-jawed man grumbled.
"The hell you talking about? Pissed about what?" The man in the black suit frowned.
"You know? Not only I level up," he gritted his teeth, "then someone just showed up bringing a legendary class potion and selling some strange fruit—and that motherfucker started to get attention from the baddies!"
The man in the black suit just stared silently at the sharp-jawed, black-haired man who continued ranting incoherently.
The absurd became sacred, and the sacred got updated.
And in the middle of it all, an unnoticed dude kept cutting wood.
Not knowing that his piss was trending.
Not knowing someone missed him.
Not knowing someone was looking for him.
Not knowing anything—yet becoming everything.
The Tower Manager opened the system panel.
Her hand moved slowly, sliding into the monitoring tab.
A single panel appeared—showing Nathan cutting logs with a blank face, ragged breath, and pants now stained with tree dust.
She frowned, then opened the auto-command tab.
"Why not just send the skill through the system?"
A new panel popped up.
[Auto-delivery method disabled.]
[Skill must be given directly by the Tower Manager.]
The Tower Manager sighed. "Again with this crap. Why direct now?"
[Based on analysis, direct interaction between Tower Manager and Subject #000 (Bugged Hunter) will accelerate world development by 77%.]
She stared at the panel for a long time.
"...You’re just a system created by The One Who Made the Earth.
You’re supposed to follow, not improvise." She crossed her arms.
[I only operate based on algorithms and principles implanted by The One Who Made the Earth.]
[All decisions are grounded in the program’s core directives.]
The Tower Manager paused, then scoffed.
"Getting real smart with your words now, huh."
She stood up, ready to slice the air to open a path to Nathan.
[Before the skill is granted to Bugged Hunter, Tower Manager must introduce her true name to Bugged Hunter.]
The Tower Manager froze.