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System Not Found

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Chapter 2: The Error That Talks Back

When a man sees the sky glitch, there are only two possible reactions:

Panic.

Or denial strong enough to win an Olympic medal.

Li Yuhan, being the professional slacker he was, went with denial.

He blinked, rubbed his eyes, and stared out the window again.

The sky looked perfectly normal now — blue, bright, and disappointingly unbroken.

“...Right,” he muttered. “Totally fine. I didn’t just see the heavens buffering.”

> [Visual anomaly detected.]

[Analyzing data… Error. Data corrupted.]

[Conclusion: Unknown external interference.]

“External interference? Like Wi-Fi?” Yuhan whispered.

> [Possibly divine Wi-Fi. Signal strength: unstable.]

He sighed. “So not only are you glitchy, you’ve got jokes now.”

> [Humor module activated since Host is mentally fragile.]

“…You little—”

Before he could finish, the system spoke again — not as text, but as a faint digital voice, right in his mind.

It was calm. Slightly robotic. Yet there was something… too human about it.

> “Testing... one, two. Hello, Host Li Yuhan. Can you hear me?”

Yuhan almost fell off his chair. “YOU CAN TALK?!”

> “Correction: I could always talk. You were just too low-level to receive voice transmissions.”

“Bro, this isn’t a video game!”

> “Statement: You are currently running on System Integration v0.3. Reality Patch: unstable. Mission: survive long enough for update v1.0.”

“…Yeah, totally comforting,” Yuhan muttered, slumping forward. “So, what’s next? You gonna give me a tutorial boss fight? Maybe throw a dragon in the cafeteria?”

> “Processing sarcasm... success. You may be the least efficient host I’ve ever bound to.”

“Excuse me, ever?”

> “Affirmative. I’ve existed long before you humans learned to label glitches.”

That made him pause.

“Wait… long before humans? You mean—”

Before he could finish, the bell rang. Students began packing up, laughing, scrolling through their phones. But Yuhan noticed something weird.

Every single screen — phone, tablet, even the teacher’s laptop — flickered for a split second.

And across each one appeared the same three words:

> [System Not Found.]

The world froze.

Everyone around him seemed to pause mid-movement, eyes dulling for half a heartbeat before returning to normal — as if nothing had happened.

Yuhan’s pulse raced. “Hey—System, what was that?!”

> “...Unauthorized code detected.”

“Another presence has entered this dimension.”

The temperature dropped. His breath misted in the air, though the AC wasn’t even on.

A faint static buzzed in his ears, like a whisper from broken speakers.

Then, faintly—

> “...Yuhan...”

He spun around.

No one behind him.

“Who said that?”

> “Alert: Unknown signal attempting direct contact.”

“Host is advised to remain calm.”

“Calm?! I just got name-called by an invisible ghost glitch!”

> “Correction: Possibly a secondary system fragment.”

“...That’s worse!”

The voice — not the system, but the faint whisper — returned. Softer. Distorted.

> “...You shouldn’t have connected... They’ll find you...”

Then it vanished.

Everything went silent again.

> [Connection lost.]

[System rebooting functions… 37% integrity remaining.]

Yuhan exhaled shakily, staring at his flickering phone screen.

“...System, what the hell was that?”

> “Answer: I don’t know.”

“But whatever it was... it’s looking for you.”

The rest of the day went about as well as a PowerPoint without slides.

Li Yuhan tried to focus on normal life — really, he did — but it’s kinda hard when there’s an invisible sarcastic system in your brain giving unsolicited commentary every five minutes.

> [Reminder: You have 1 unassigned stat point.]

[Would you like to apply it to Intelligence?]

“Are you calling me dumb?” Yuhan whispered under his breath, pretending to scroll through his phone.

> [Observation: Host literacy level debatable.]

“Alright, you know what—” he muttered, glaring at the air like a lunatic.

A few students walking by stared at him. One girl whispered,

“...Is he rehearsing for drama club?”

Yuhan smiled awkwardly and walked faster. “Yeah, drama club. Totally.”

> [Lying detected.]

[Skill created: Improvised Excuse Lv.1]

“Wait—what?”

> [Skill description: Allows the Host to lie 2% more convincingly. Cooldown: 1 embarrassment.]

“...My life’s officially a comedy sketch.”

By lunchtime, he was sitting alone under a tree, half-eaten sandwich in hand, scrolling through his phone just to look normal.

Everything looked fine — blue sky, warm breeze, students laughing — but his gut told him something was off.

His phone buzzed again.

> [Warning: Signal fluctuation detected.]

[Possible foreign data nearby.]

“Foreign data? What, like Wi-Fi again?”

> [Negative. The interference feels… alive.]

Yuhan froze. “...What do you mean alive?”

Before the system could answer, the screen of his phone glitched — static crackling across it.

The front camera flashed once, capturing his confused face.

Then, for half a second, another face appeared.

Not his reflection.

A faint silhouette of someone looking back — eyes glowing faint blue, expression unreadable.

> “...Yuhan.”

The voice wasn’t in his head this time.

It came from the phone speaker.

Yuhan dropped it instantly, heart hammering. “Nope—nope nope nope—!”

> [Alert: Unknown signal breaching host boundary.]

[System defense activating.]

The air around him shimmered faintly — like a ripple across water. People nearby didn’t even notice; their eyes glazed for a moment, as if reality had… skipped a frame.

Then it stopped.

Everything went back to normal.

His phone screen was blank now. The System’s voice returned, calm but slightly static.

> “Host. That wasn’t me.”

“Then what the hell was that?”

> “Something else connected to the Network.”

“The Network?”

> “Yes. The one that shouldn’t exist in this world.”

Yuhan sat there, clutching his phone, his mind spinning.

“...You’re saying… there are others like you?”

> “No.” The system paused. “I’m saying… there were.”

A gust of wind rustled the tree leaves, scattering sunlight across his face.