第 027 Episode| The First Real Fight

???

It took three steps.

With each step the Instance ran a beat. Another step, another beat.

Distance remaining: 23 meters → 19 meters → 16 meters → 13 meters.

Lika's Triggerer sense of direction stretched out toward that thing.

He could read it.

Its layer came up from below, didn't belong to this layer — he already knew that. But this time he read more:

[The contact target · Layer Trace]
[Source layer: Layer 2 (suspected)]
[Layer density: 3.4 times the Layer 1 average]
[Signature: ??? · unauthorized but accepted by the Instance]
[Render priority: MAX (higher than the Observer)]

Its render priority was higher than Lika's own. When the Instance hit a compute conflict, it would draw the thing first and leave the ground under Lika's feet unrendered.

That was why he'd just been standing on pure black grid lines a moment ago.

---

Lika issued his first command under Triggerer authority.

Parameter adjustment: local_gravity_vector(target_id=the contact target) = -1

Normally this line would shove the opponent in the opposite direction.

The brain-chip interface flashed:

[Triggerer command confirmed]
[Execution failed: insufficient privilege]
[Conflict object: the contact target · render priority MAX]
[Instance refuses the modification]

The Instance refused. Inside the Instance, the opponent's privilege was higher than Lika's.

Coolly, in his head, Lika strung together the last few minutes of information — inside the Instance there were at least three privilege tiers above the version of him standing here now: the L.K.S._Core signature (the past him), the primary object's breathing compute, the contact target's render priority.

And this thing in front of him stood at the very top of everything Lika could face directly.

Lika's Triggerer authority was useless against it.

---

In the one or two seconds it took Lika to finish reading the message and stack the privilege layers together, it took a few more steps. Eight meters left.

"I chose to come here." Lika had said that a moment ago.

Its answer: "No. You were called here."

It took another step. Six meters left.

Lika saw its claw — three fingers, thirty centimeters long, deep green scales shot through with blue light — rise.

Its eyes moved again.

[Non-verbal message received]
[Source: the contact target]
[Content: the one who is called must pass.]

The instant the word "pass" landed in Lika's head, the claw came down.

---

Lika's reaction was faster than he expected.

He had never been in a fight — in P.E. he'd gotten hit dodging dodgeball more often than not — but this time he got clear.

As if something had issued the command for him — his body moved on its own. He had never felt speed like that.

The claw raked through the spot where he'd just stood. A thirty-centimeter gash opened across the ice-crystal floor — and the crystal didn't shatter. The terrain was rewritten — deep green texture spreading out along the claw mark.

---

Lika backed off three steps.

He gasped. His chest was pounding faster than usual. The Triggerer sense of direction was still there — he read his own heart rate: 142 beats per minute.

It didn't follow.

It drew the claw back. It watched him in silence.

The brain-chip interface flashed:

[Non-verbal message received]
[Source: the contact target]
[Content: First trial. You can dodge.]
[Note: unexpected.]

---

"Unexpected."

The word "unexpected" was in its message. Which meant it had expected that strike to land on Lika.

Reading the message in his head, Lika pushed his Triggerer sense of direction onto the thing and focused once more.

This time he changed direction — he read its data signature.

[The contact target · Signature Trace]
[Signature format: native to the Instance (not an external signature)]
[Creation time: Kaiyuan 925/3/11]
[Creator: L.K.S._Core]

---

Native to the Instance.

Written by the past him.

Kaiyuan 925/3/11.

The same day as "Black-Flame Flower Mother," "K," and the notes attached to _RiftMemory.lks.

This non-human enemy standing in front of him, the one that had nearly cleaved a claw through him a moment ago —

was also code the past him had written into the Instance.

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【Ch. 027 End · Inside the Instance · Rift Memory Layer 1, end of the corridor】