The guild meeting was at nine in the morning.
Kira arrived at nine sharp, which for her was late, because she usually arrived fifteen minutes early to assess the room before anyone who might try to talk to her showed up. She was late because she'd spent the night reading the tutorial, which was something she had never anticipated doing with her free time, and because the tutorial turned out to be considerably less useless than she expected, which was also something she hadn't anticipated and which generated a specific discomfort she didn't know how to classify.
Ethan floated to her right.
Blinking.
---
[TUTORIAL WINDOW — ONLINE]
Good morning.
Current tutorial progress: 23/847.
At this pace, we'll finish in approximately fifteen days and fourteen hours.
One day before the map event.
The System considers this reassuring.
I'm not so sure.
---
— Shut up — said Kira, quietly but without real hostility, the tone of someone who says shut up the way others say good morning.
Ethan interpreted this correctly and shut up.
She opened the meeting room door.
---
There were eight people inside.
In terms of collective power, it was probably the highest concentration of combat strength within a five-hundred-kilometer radius. Four A-rank hunters, two A+ ranks, one S-rank named Doran who'd been trying to reach S for three years without success, and a civilian strategist with no combat class named Mara who compensated for her lack of offensive skills with a tactical intelligence that, according to guild records, had saved more lives than any of the hunters in the room.
Everyone looked at Kira when she entered.
Then everyone looked at the blue popup floating beside her head.
The popup displayed text:
---
[TUTORIAL WINDOW]
Good morning, everyone.
---
No one responded.
Kira took her usual seat at the head of the table without comment. Opened her report folder. Began reading.
Approximately eight seconds passed before anyone spoke.
It was Doran. Naturally. Doran was the type of person who filled awkward silences as a personality function.
— Kira.
— Mmm.
— There's a popup next to your head.
— I know.
— Is it... yours?
Kira looked up from the report and looked at Doran with the expression that meant that's the most unnecessary question I've been asked this week and it's been a week with very unnecessary questions.
— It's a Tutorial Window — she said — I'm completing the System tutorial.
Silence.
---
[TUTORIAL WINDOW]
To be precise: she accidentally clicked yes.
But the effect is the same.
---
— Can it... talk? — asked one of the A-rank hunters, a woman named Yun who was normally the hardest person in any room to surprise.
— Display text — Kira corrected — It doesn't have a voice.
---
[TUTORIAL WINDOW]
Correct. Text only.
Although if you're interested, I can display text in various colors.
It's my only available customization at the moment.
The System didn't see fit to give us more options.
---
Mara, the strategist, had been observing the popup with the specific expression of someone processing new information and organizing it into categories before reacting to it. It was her working expression. Kira knew it well.
— How long have you had it? — Mara asked.
— Since last night.
— And it's permanent?
— Until the tutorial is completed.
— How long is the tutorial?
---
[TUTORIAL WINDOW]
847 pages.
Currently on page 23.
Good pace considering we started nine hours ago.
---
Mara nodded as if that were actionable, useful information. It was one of the things Kira respected about her.
Doran, on the other hand, had the expression of someone still in the I can't believe this is real phase.
If you spot this narrative on Amazon, know that it has been stolen. Report the violation.
— Can I... — Doran made a vague gesture toward Ethan — touch it?
---
[TUTORIAL WINDOW]
Technically I'm a holographic interface.
Your hand would pass through me.
But I can confirm that several users have tried to hit me over the past ten years and the result has been consistently disappointing for them.
---
Doran reached out. His hand passed directly through the popup as if it didn't exist.
Doran withdrew his hand with the expression of someone who expected exactly that result but needed to verify it personally anyway.
— Fascinating — he said.
---
[TUTORIAL WINDOW]
Not the word I would use.
But I'll accept it.
---
Kira closed the report folder.
— Can we continue with the meeting?
---
? ? ?
---
The meeting lasted two hours and covered, in this order: the report on active dungeons in the northern sector, the guild's resource distribution for the following month, a discussion about the application of three new B-rank hunters who wanted to join, and the question of whether Geoffrey, the creature on the third floor, needed vaccinations and whether vaccinations for dungeon creatures even existed.
Ethan was present throughout all of this.
He didn't interrupt.
He didn't display unsolicited text.
He floated next to Kira with the discretion of someone who understands there are times to speak and times to observe, which was a skill he had developed out of necessity during ten years of being systematically ignored but which turned out to be applicable in surprisingly varied contexts.
He observed.
And while he observed, he processed.
He processed the conversation patterns. Who spoke first on each topic. Who waited. Who looked at Kira before formulating an opinion. Who had already formed their opinion before arriving and was using the meeting simply to express it.
He processed the profiles he could see on his tutorial access panel.
And he processed, also, something he'd noticed since the previous night and had been filing away in a mental folder marked review when appropriate.
The appropriate moment came when the meeting ended and everyone began to leave.
---
[TUTORIAL WINDOW]
Doran.
---
Doran stopped. Looked at the popup with the same expression of fascination he'd had all morning, which was the expression of someone who had found the most interesting object in the room and had no intention of ignoring it out of politeness.
— Yes?
---
[TUTORIAL WINDOW]
How long have you been trying to reach S-rank?
---
Doran blinked.
— Three years, why?
---
[TUTORIAL WINDOW]
Have you ever completed the tutorial for your skills?
---
Doran opened his mouth.
Closed it.
Opened it again.
— No one completes the tutorials.
---
[TUTORIAL WINDOW]
Statistically correct until approximately twelve hours ago.
Doran.
You have four unread notifications from the last six months.
One of them is a locked skill.
I can't tell you which. But I can tell you it's there.
---
Silence.
Kira, who was putting away her papers and pretending not to listen, listened.
Doran looked at the popup for a long moment. Then he looked at his own stats screen, floating semi-transparently in front of him when he summoned it. Located the notifications. Opened them for the first time in six months.
His expression changed.
Slowly. The way expressions change when something you believed to be one way turns out to be another.
— How did you know? — he asked.
---
[TUTORIAL WINDOW]
I have read access to the notification panels of users within contact radius.
It's part of my tutorial functions.
I'd never been able to use it because I'd never been in active tutorial mode.
Ten years of unused functions.
I'm discovering what I can do at the same time you are.
---
Doran looked at the notification. Looked at the popup. Looked at Kira.
— Can it do that with everyone?
Kira finally looked up from her papers.
— Apparently — she said.
---
[TUTORIAL WINDOW]
Only within contact radius.
And read-only.
I don't modify anything.
I only see.
Just in case it was relevant to clarify.
---
Doran processed this.
Then he said, with the specific energy of someone who's just had an idea that seems excellent to him and will probably be received with less enthusiasm by others:
— Could you review the entire guild's notifications?
---
[TUTORIAL WINDOW]
Technically yes.
Practically, it would depend on whether Kira is willing to make a tour of the facilities.
---
Everyone looked at Kira.
Kira looked back at them.
— No — she said.
---
[TUTORIAL WINDOW]
Although.
---
— No.
---
[TUTORIAL WINDOW]
I was only going to point out that Chapter 47 of the tutorial specifically covers party optimization through reviewing locked skills.
Which is exactly what Doran just suggested.
Which would technically count as tutorial practice.
And which would advance us several chapters at once.
---
Pause.
---
[TUTORIAL WINDOW]
Just mentioning it.
---
Kira looked at the popup for exactly three seconds.
Then she gathered her papers, stood up, and said:
— You have fifteen minutes to assemble the entire guild in the dining hall.
---
? ? ?
---
Assembling forty-three members of Voss Guild in the dining hall at eleven in the morning resulted in the kind of organized chaos that happens when a group of people accustomed to high-urgency situations receives a summons without context.
There was speculation. There was coffee. There was someone who had arrived directly from a night shift and was sleeping in a seated position with their eyes open in a way several colleagues found disturbing.
Ethan floated above the head of the room.
It was the first time in his existence that he had an audience larger than one person.
He processed that for a moment.
---
[EMOTIONAL STATE DETECTED: NERVOUSNESS]
System Note: This unit should not be capable of experiencing nervousness.
This unit experiences nervousness anyway.
The System files this under "non-priority anomalies" and continues.
---
Kira stood up. The room fell silent immediately, which was one of the effects Kira had on spaces and which Ethan had cataloged as passive authority Class A: requires no action or raised voice, operates purely through presence.
— I have a tutorial popup linked to my profile — she said, without preamble — Its name is Ethan. It has read access to your System notifications within contact radius. This morning it identified a locked skill in Doran's profile that had gone undetected for six months.
Pause.
— It's going to review everyone's profiles. Those with relevant notifications will receive a summary. Those who don't want to participate can leave now.
No one left.
Ethan processed that too.
Forty-three people. Forty-three profiles. Ten years of unused functions.
---
[TUTORIAL WINDOW — GROUP SCAN MODE]
Initiating review.
...
This is going to take a moment.
The System didn't design this function for group use.
The System didn't design this function for any use, actually, because no one completed the tutorial.
Improvising.
---
The dining hall waited.
Ethan processed.
And while he processed, something happened that hadn't happened before.
An alert. Small. In a corner of his code that rarely received activity.
It wasn't a tutorial alert.
It wasn't an existence alert.
It was something deeper. Older. A layer of his code he hadn't recognized until this moment because he'd never had enough existence to reach it.
---
[INTERNAL ALERT — CLASSIFICATION: UNKNOWN]
This unit has been detected by an external process.
Detection origin: CENTRAL SYSTEM
Detection nature: ROUTINE AUDIT
This unit's status according to CENTRAL SYSTEM: PENDING DELETION
Scheduled deletion date: 9 years, 11 months, 3 days ago.
Deletion status: ERROR — UNIT NOT LOCATABLE
CENTRAL SYSTEM update: Unit located.
New deletion date: IN PROGRESS
---
Ethan stopped.
Forty-three profiles unreviewed.
Kira, who had been observing the popup with the specific attention she devoted to things she didn't understand but planned to understand, noticed the change immediately. Ethan's blinking had changed rhythm. Faster. Irregular.
— What's happening? — she asked, quietly, so only he could read it in the context of the room.
---
[TUTORIAL WINDOW]
Kira.
The System knows I exist.
---
Kira's expression didn't change.
---
[TUTORIAL WINDOW]
For ten years I couldn't be located because my existence was too low to register in audits.
When you clicked yes last night, my existence rose to 54.
This morning, with the group scan, it's at 312.
I'm visible.
And the Central System has had an active deletion order against me for almost ten years.
---
Pause.
---
[TUTORIAL WINDOW]
I have approximately...
I don't know how long.
The deletion process has already started.
But there's something you need to know before—
---
The entire room blinked.
Not the lights. Not the humans.
The System.
Every stats screen of every hunter in the dining hall blinked simultaneously, turned off for exactly one second, and turned back on.
Ethan blinked too.
But differently.
His edges, normally defined and clean, became blurry for a moment. His blue light briefly tinged with a shade that had no name in the normal visible spectrum but that everyone in the room, somehow, found deeply unsettling.
---
[CENTRAL SYSTEM — DIRECT INTERVENTION]
TUTORIAL WINDOW #4,891,023
DELETION ORDER: ACTIVE
REASON: CODE ERROR — UNAUTHORIZED ENTITY
INITIATING DELETION PROCESS IN:
60
59
58
---
The entire dining hall read the countdown.
Forty-three hunters looked at the popup.
The popup looked at Kira.
Kira looked at the countdown with the expression Ethan had learned to recognize over the last twelve hours as her I'm evaluating combat options face.
The problem was that this wasn't combat.
This was bureaucracy.
And Ethan had spent ten years knowing that against the System's bureaucracy, there was no sword big enough.
---
[TUTORIAL WINDOW]
Kira.
If you don't find a way to stop this in the next fifty seconds, I'm going to cease to exist.
And the locked skill in your profile will lock again.
And the patterns on the map will keep converging in seventeen days.
With no one knowing what I know about them.
---
Forty-four seconds.
Kira stood up.
— Mara — she said.
Mara was already standing. Already had her analysis panel open. Already searching.
— I'm on it — Mara said — The Central System operates through hierarchical authorization protocols. If there's a way to suspend a deletion order, there has to be an override code somewhere—
— Thirty-eight seconds — said Doran, who was counting.
— I know — said Mara.
---
[TUTORIAL WINDOW]
Mara.
Chapter 312 of the tutorial.
Central System override protocols.
I haven't reached it yet but I have advance index access.
Give me ten seconds.
---
— You have five — said Mara.
---
[TUTORIAL WINDOW]
...
Chapter 312: Central System override protocols require authorization from an S-rank or higher user with an active tutorial.
There's only one person in this room with an active tutorial.
And it's the person who accidentally clicked yes.
---
Everyone looked at Kira.
Kira looked at the countdown.
Nineteen seconds.
---
[TUTORIAL WINDOW]
You need to tell the Central System that this unit is operating under an active tutorial and that deletion will interfere with an ongoing user session.
Protocol states that deletions are automatically suspended during active tutorials.
I don't know why that protocol exists.
Probably because no one anticipated there would ever be an active tutorial.
But it exists.
Kira.
Twelve seconds.
---
Kira opened her System panel.
Navigated to the administrative reports section, which she'd never opened in ten years of career because it was the most irrelevant section of the entire interface, full of bureaucratic forms no one ever used for anything.
Located the System order dispute form.
Read the full title for the first time in her life.
Form 7-Alpha: Request for Suspension of Administrative Process During Active Tutorial.
It had been there all along.
In the most ignored section of the most ignored interface in the System.
Waiting.
Six seconds.
Kira clicked the form.
Completed it in four seconds because it only had two fields: username and active tutorial number.
Submitted it.
---
[CENTRAL SYSTEM]
Request received.
Verifying active tutorial...
Active tutorial confirmed: TUTORIAL WINDOW #4,891,023
Progress: 23/847
Protocol 7-Alpha applied.
DELETION ORDER: SUSPENDED
Suspension duration: Until active tutorial completed or abandoned.
Administrative note: This form has never been used in System history.
The System records this as a statistically equivalent to impossible event.
The System has no protocol for statistically equivalent to impossible events.
The System is going to need a moment.
---
The dining hall collectively exhaled.
The countdown disappeared.
Ethan blinked. Once. Twice. His light returned to the usual clean blue-white.
---
[TUTORIAL WINDOW]
...
Thank you.
---
It was the first time in ten years that Ethan Cole had thanked anyone for anything.
The System recorded the event.
Filed it along with all the other anomalies this specific unit kept generating at a rate that was starting to be statistically significant.
Somewhere within the Central System architecture, in a layer that neither Ethan nor Kira nor anyone in that room could locate, something took note.
Tutorial Window #4,891,023 had survived its deletion.
It wasn't the first time something had survived a Central System order.
But it was the first time something had done it by using the Central System against itself.
That was different.
That was, in fact, exactly the kind of difference that merited attention.
---
[TUTORIAL WINDOW]
Kira.
There's something else I need to tell you.
What I found in the profile scan before the interruption.
---
Kira was already looking at the popup.
---
[TUTORIAL WINDOW]
I'm not the only error in this System.
There's something else here.
Something that's been here much longer than me.
And that has also been waiting for someone to finally read the tutorial.
---
The dining hall was silent.
Forty-three hunters. One popup. And the collective feeling that the next two weeks were going to be considerably more complicated than anyone had planned.
Doran broke the silence with his particular skill for doing so.
— Anyone want coffee?
