SSSSS-Rank: Negative Leveling

Luthra's entire nervous system felt like it was on fire, each synapse screaming as the system's combat data overwrote years of muscle memory with a brutal, unforgiving efficiency.

'Fuck… this is so much worse than just getting hit.'

He could see Rebecca approaching, a small, fast-moving blur of pure, uncontrolled power, and her fist was aimed directly at his head. He tried to move, to get his good arm up to block, but his body would not respond, it was completely locked in a state of agonizing transformation.

[Integration at 99%. Catastrophic neural failure is imminent if the host loses consciousness.]

'I'm not going to lose consciousness, you stupid machine, I'm going to get my head turned into paste.'

Rebecca was now only a few feet away, her fist cocked back for a final, decisive blow that carried all the weight of her newfound, tragic power. The world seemed to slow down, and he could see the individual specks of dust kicked up by her charge, each one a tiny monument to his impending, and very stupid, death.

This was it, a truly pathetic end for someone who survived a Beast King only to be beaten to death by a ten-year-old girl he was trying to help.

Just as her knuckles were about to connect with his temple, a final, definitive click echoed through the core of his soul.

[Integration of [Negative Void Combat Arts - Stage 1] is complete. Welcome, practitioner.]

The world snapped back into focus, but it was a different world now. He no longer saw a girl, a fist, or an attack, instead, he saw a flow, a rushing river of kinetic energy and murderous intent. He understood, with a clarity that was both terrifying and absolute, exactly how to stop it.

His body didn't dodge. Didn't shift left or right.

It simply stopped existing.

Rebecca's fist — a blow strong enough to powder stone — plunged through empty air where his head had been and slammed into the canyon wall. Rock shrieked under the impact, cracks racing outward like lightning across the surface. The shock numbed her entire arm to the shoulder.

She yanked her fist back, shaking it out, her face contorted in baffled rage.

"Where did you go?! That's cheating! You can't just disappear!"

A voice, calm and unhurried, rose from directly behind her.

"You missed."

She spun, eyes wide, and swung again without thinking.

Luthra stood there, his broken arms hanging useless at his sides, his face unreadable. He didn't move. Didn't need to. Her punch sailed straight through his chest — through the ghost of him — and her own momentum dragged her off balance. She stumbled, catching herself on her palms.

'Fast. But predictable. Her anger writes every move before she makes it.'

He was beside her before she could rise, his shadow draping over her. She twisted, pushing off the ground, a kick snapping toward his head.

He exhaled softly. 'This is getting tedious.'

His hand flicked — too quick to follow — not a strike, not a grab, but the edge of his palm brushing the base of her neck.

No sound. No drama. Just contact.

Her eyes glazed, her body folding in on itself. He caught her before she struck the dirt, slinging her light, unconscious form across his good shoulder.

The fight was finished before she knew it had ended.

He stood over the her unconscious form, his arm completely broken from the earlier confrontation.

'That was a mistake, I pushed her too hard, too fast.'

A blue screen simply flickered into his vision, displaying a series of notifications.

[Congratulations on the successful integration of [Negative Void Combat Arts - Stage 1].]

[New techniques are now available.]

[Technique Unlocked: [Void Step].]

'Void Step, so that's what it was called.'

[Void Step Lv. -1: A movement technique that utilizes negative energy to briefly erase the user's physical presence from a single location and re-manifest it in another. Current range: 10 meters. Cost: 5% of total stamina per use.]

'A stamina cost, that's a problem, I can't spam it.'

The new combat style was clearly powerful, but his body was not yet capable of wielding it without consequence, as his shattered left wrist and fractured right forearm proved.

He scooped Rebecca's body up, slung her over his shoulder, walked back to the hidden cart, laid her down among the sacks of supplies, and covered her with a blanket.

He then sat down on a nearby rock, his plan to assault the Gorgon Mines now severely compromised, all while his two-week time limit continued to inexorably count down.

'Tch, what a massive pain.'

With nothing else to do, a question that had been a minor annoyance suddenly demanded his full attention.

'Hey, System, let's talk.'

[Acknowledged. What information do you require?]

'This whole thing, you were created to help me get my power back, right, to help me get stronger?'

[That is the primary directive, yes.]

'Then what's with all the penalties, the fines, the threats of deactivation, and everything else, because if you're supposed to be helping me, why are you actively punishing me for making a mistake, are you trying to get me killed?'

The system was silent for several seconds before its white text appeared.

[Penalties are a necessary component of the Host's growth framework, designed to provide negative reinforcement for suboptimal decision-making, thereby accelerating the Host's adaptation to hostile environments.]

He let out a sigh of pure frustration.

'That's the most roundabout, robotic answer I've ever heard, so just talk like a normal person, because this is annoying.'

He did not expect a response, but the blue screen wavered, its text corrupting into meaningless symbols before reforming, though this time the text was a different color and appeared word by word.

Then, for the very first time, a voice spoke directly inside his head, and it was not mechanical, but belonged to a young woman.

[Is… is this better, Luthra?]

He went completely still.

'A voice? What the hell? It can talk? You can talk!!!?'

The voice in his head seemed to perceive his shock and continued, its hesitation evident in its speech.

[I apologize if this is startling, but you requested that I speak like a 'normal person', and this vocal emulation is the closest I can get to that.]

'This whole time… it was a person, or something like one?'

He focused on his original question, pushing the new thought aside.

"Fine, this is better, now explain the penalties again, and give me the real reason, no more of that 'suboptimal' crap."

[The real reason is… to teach you,] the voice said, sounding a little more confident, [My co-creator, from another universe', believed that true strength isn't just about power, it's about learning from your failures, so the penalties aren't meant to kill you, they're meant to make the lessons stick, since a fifty-thousand credit fine hurts more than a simple scolding, and the threat of enslavement is a much better motivator to win a fight than a simple 'Quest Failed' screen.]

He was quiet for a moment, processing her explanation.

'That's the dumbest teaching method I've ever heard, but fine, whatever, it's a stupid reason, but at least it's a reason.'

A different question now became much more important.

"Why now?"

[I'm sorry, I don't understand the question.]

"The voice," he clarified, "Why are you only talking to me now, after you've been in my head this whole time, why the silent text treatment until just this moment?"

There was a long pause, a full ten seconds of silence.

[Because, Luthra… you never asked me to.]