It was 4 AM and I was on Floor 3 when the flag flipped.

No ping. Not an automatic change to the corner of my screen. This was a system alert, the type that would flood my vision until I acknowledged it.

I drew my bow down.

SYSTEM ALERT — CRITICAL FLAG CHANGE

Character: LYRA

Corruption Meter: 92/100 → 99/100

Trigger: Passive Influence – ambient Vorn corruption through Daren proximity

Point of No Return: Pending → Imminent

Time To Threshold: Unknown – dependent upon conditions

Warning: When Corruption Meter hits 100/100, it locks permanently

Warning: Cheat system override available – one-time use only

Acknowledge? Y/N

I stood in the hallway with the corpse of a Thornback Runner at my feet while reading the system alert for the third time.

99 percent.

Not from a direct encounter with Vorn. Not from visiting the stall. This was passive corruption from the influence of Vorn through Daren. Without even seeing him, Daren got close enough that Lyra’s corruption meter climbed past ninety nine.

Seven points in. I double-checked the timestamp; six hours while I’d been underground.

Cheat system override possible. Limited to one use at this threshold.

I tapped into the notification and pulled up the complete list of available functions from the cheat system. It was unlocked now, ever since Chapter Four. I had access to it for the whole time. I just hadn’t used it yet because I thought it meant I couldn’t do what was asked in the normal way, and I didn’t need to because there wasn’t anything I couldn’t already do, and some part of me was still doing the normal thing even though the system said I didn’t have to anymore.

CHEAT SYSTEM — ACTIVE

Status: fully unlocked

Functions available:

— Stat Override: temporary or permanent

— Corruption Reversal: individual character

— Relationship Manipulation: add/subtract/lock

— Flag Suppression: hide/delete/redirect

— Wiki Access: instant, unlimited, no generation delay

— Weapon Tier Unlock: instant, all tiers

Active restrictions: none

Threshold bonus option: corruption reversal – full reset available for Lyra, limited to this instance

Full Reset. Not one point. Not a partial reset. Full reset – return corruption stat to 0%, delete all contact logs with Vorn, clear Point of No Return flag.

Only once. With this one particular window open. So once the meter reached 100 and the timer expired, I would lose my chance. And the lock would be on permanently.

The menu opened up right in front of me, in the dungeon corridor.

And this was what the cheat engine had always been built for. Not for the shortbow. Not for the stat boosts. Not for the EXP grinding that brought me from Unclassified to D-rank in less time than originally calculated. No. This. The point where the regular game plan falls through, and you have to use the special key that you’ve been saving since Floor 1.

I remembered Lyra in the stall. The trust value at 61. How she froze up when I told her that mentioning Vorn to Daren was okay. The 8-second period when the corruption had been at 92% for two weeks straight.

99% currently. While I was grinding underground, getting more EXP while convincing myself that the rate was good enough.

And so I clicked on the corruption removal.

CORRUPTION REVERSAL — LYRA

Current corruption: 99/100

Target corruption: 0/100

Vorn Contact Logs: wipe all / wipe partial / retain

Point of No Return flag: remove

Effect on relationship meter: None

Confirm? Y/N

Wipe all was my choice for the Vorn contact logs. The Point of No Return flag was removed. I confirmed the choice.

CORRUPTION REVERSAL — PROCESSING

The message appeared directly in front of me for three seconds.

Then it disappeared.

LYRA — STATUS UPDATE

Corruption level: 0/100

Vorn contact logs: cleared

Point of No Return: REMOVED

Mood Flag: update pending

System notes: Character will feel disoriented — corruption track removed, recalibration of emotional state

Disorientation. It appeared to be one of the anticipated effects of the process, since when the track was removed the character couldn’t remember anything about the corruption, only felt the lack of its presence. It was like coming out of sleep and realizing something was missing.

Lyra’s monitoring box was opened.

PASSIVE MONITORING — LYRA

Relationship / Daren: 612 — stable

Corruption: 0/100

Mood flag: Disoriented / Unclear

Current interactions: NONE

Vorn contact: no entries — log clear

Zero.

I stared at it for some time.

I then looked down at how much I had just spent.

CHEAT SYSTEM — UPDATE

Time limit bonus activation: UTILIZED

Full reset via corruption reversal: UTILIZED

Full reset uses remaining: 0

Note: Normal corruption reversal can be utilized, limited use only

No more. Time limit bonus used. I did have the cheat system, fully equipped. Stat overrides. Relationship manipulation. Flag suppression. Everything. Except the free full reset that could be acquired after reaching the threshold. All future corruption reversions for Lyra, or anyone else, were going to cost something that would be told by the menu whenever it was required.

That I put into memory and then I looked at the dungeon corridor.

The corpse of the Thornback Runner was still there. The EXP message was right where I left it.

+14 EXP — Thornback Runner (Weak Point Kill)

EXP Total: 437/1000

I accepted it.

The corruption was now at zero. The Point of No Return was gone. Lyra was disoriented but safe and the log was spotless and no one even suspected a thing, since flag suppression came with the package.

VORN — PASSIVE MONITORING

Corruption Status of Lyra: [DATA UNAVAILABLE]

Contact Log: [DATA UNAVAILABLE]

Assessment: recalculating

Not available. Vorn would see nothing but blanks when he checked the stats at some point during the day and expected to see ninety nine. No sign of corruption, no log, no point of no return notice. It had erased all evidence of his contact with her.

I did not know how he would react when he discovered that. The wiki was still partially erratic in relation to his records. But I knew what a careful predator did if the ground had shifted beneath his feet — stop, assess and figure out what had happened.

Vorn was going to assess me.

I grabbed another arrow and notched it.

It was tomorrow’s problem. Tonight I had 437 experience points and a corridor filled with Thornback Runners, plus Lyra’s first pure corruption stat. And the cheat system had come into play.

Really into play. Not potentially usable, not theoretically open, but really and truly accessible, and I knew what it cost and what it could give me.

I still had 128 points with Daren and the Lyra corruption scan, which would be going blank soon.

I had no corruption from Lyra, shortbow, Pattern Recognition II and no free actions left.

But this was an improvement over where I had been this morning.

+14 EXP — Thornback Runner (Weak Point Kill)

Total EXP: 451/1000

I continued on.

CURRENT STATS

STR: 12

AGI: 17

INT: 20

Skills: Friendly Conversation / Moral Support / Observe / Evasion I / Throwing I / Fast Learner / Precision Shot II / Enemy Analysis I / Pattern Recognition II

EXP: 451/1000

Rank: D

Cheat system: ACTIVE — full control

One time bonus: USED

The loop was broken.

Now came the part where I figured out what to do with that.