NOVEL WEB Chapter 6: Chapter 6: Nullzone Hunter
Volume 1 – Shadow Initialization
"The system deletes anomalies. But what if one anomaly was built to hunt the others?"
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The city was still playing pretend.
Drones buzzed along their pre-programmed paths.
Ads projected smiles that never aged.
Children leveled up inside simulation-based academies.
But beneath it all, a code layer had begun to bleed.
Jake Lagon stood alone in a hollowed-out subway station — one that didn't appear on any map, digital or divine. The platform was cracked, the screens glitched, and the rail lines didn't lead anywhere anymore.
He wasn't here by accident.
He was waiting.
Again.
---
A distant clicking echoed down the tunnel.
Not footsteps. Not wheels. Not gears.
Just… clicking. Like reality trying to load something it didn't have the assets for.
Jake's eyes narrowed.
They were finally trying something new.
---
He stepped onto the track, unmoved by the cold metal beneath his shoes.
The lights flickered once, then stabilized.
Not because the system regained control.
But because something else had arrived — something with authority clearance higher than Jake had seen before.
Not divine.
Not creator-tier.
Something… rewritten after deletion.
From the dark, a figure emerged.
It wasn't humanoid.
It had a body made of fractured script and logic strings — arms composed of failed render attempts, a head shaped like a rejected user ID, and glowing eyes that blinked in binary code.
On its chest, a title burned:
> NULLZONE HUNTER_001
[Class: Post-System]
[Objective: Terminate Non-Classifiables]
---
It spoke in error tones.
"Subject Jake Lagon. You are not in the memory bank.
You are not under resurrection license.
You are a failure of categorization.
Prepare to be harvested."
Jake didn't blink.
"You're the janitor they send when the dust won't sweep itself away."
He stepped forward. No aura. No intimidation.
Just presence.
"Tell me… when you delete me, where will you store the parts that don't exist?"
The Hunter lunged. Fast.
It bypassed time delay. Ignored reaction-based physics. It didn't follow battle rules.
But Jake?
Jake wasn't following battle either.
---
He didn't dodge.
He didn't counter.
He simply whispered:
"Not this reality."
And the Nullzone Hunter missed.
Not because it failed… but because Jake refused to exist on its targeting layer.
---
[ERROR: Physical space dislocated]
[ERROR: Timeline mismatch]
[ERROR: Causality loop not found]
The Hunter reprocessed its data. Adapted. Shifted forms.
Now it had three arms. Five heads. Seventeen targeting reticles spinning around Jake.
Jake raised a single hand, fingers barely apart.
"I'm not part of your update. I'm what you patch against without knowing why."
The world blinked — just once.
When it reloaded, the Nullzone Hunter had been reduced to its original line of code.
Jake walked past it as it dissolved.
---
He reached the far end of the broken tunnel.
A blank wall stood there.
But Jake could feel it: this was where the simulation ended… and something else began.
He placed his palm on the wall.
The stone didn't react.
The system didn't warn him.
No authority screamed.
That was what made it dangerous.
Jake leaned in and said three words only this universe would understand.
"I'm walking through."
And the wall vanished.
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End of Chapter 6