Chapter 62: Prohibited Name
The path leading to the meeting point with the Guild The Core was old and poorly marked, winding through moss-covered ravines and trees too twisted to grow naturally. The trail seemed to escape conventional maps—as if it had been traced not with logic, but with intention.
Eren walked ahead in silence. The sun was just a faded spot behind the clouds, and the world seemed less clear. Something was wrong with reality. Not just in his body, not just in the game — but in the structure that supported it all.
He had felt that sensation before, when the system updated.
But now... now it was crawling.
"Kaela," he said suddenly, turning back, "tell me what was the last buff you used."
Kaela raised an eyebrow. She walked with her arms crossed, her eyes alert, her mood visibly impatient since the psychic encounter with the Core. Still, she replied:
"Impact regeneration. Why?"
"That’s not what’s showing up on my interface," Eren muttered.
He spun the status tab. The list was bugged. Kaela’s active effects showed something else: a spell called "Blind Fury," which she didn’t even have in her arsenal. Further down, the names of the monsters were mixed up. Instead of "Nyssa," it read "Morwynn." The slime’s portrait appeared with red eyes and an expression she had never made. And Morwynn herself, when trying to communicate telepathically, sounded as if her voice was passing through a distortion filter.
It was subtle. But it was real.
"The system is corrupting the links," he said. "And it’s not even trying to hide it."
Sylha floated behind him, laughing softly.