NOVEL NEXT Chapter 12: Data Devourer
Chapter 12: Data Devourer
Location: Unmapped Sub-Dungeon – "The Nullstream Vein"
The dungeon wasn't supposed to exist.
It wasn't on the maps. It wasn't on the system's radar. It wasn't meant to be found.
And yet here Ryo stood, shadow aura pulsing with the raw charge of a fresh promotion, facing a warped gate surrounded by static-black tendrils writhing like corrupted vines.
[WARNING: Unauthorized Zone Detected – Nullstream Vein][System Error: Access Level Exceeded. Proceeding is not recommended.]
He touched the gate.
"I've never followed recommendations."
The Vein
Stepping inside was like diving into a corrupted server.
The world was flickering—stone walls morphing, floor tiles warping into polygons, sounds delayed by half a second like bad audio playback. Reality here had glitched.
The Protocol felt alive here. It pulsed under his skin.
Nova's voice crackled over comms.
"Ryo. Are you in the Vein?""Yeah.""Get out. Now. That's not a dungeon. It's a data leak—an overflow of unbound protocol energy.""Too late. Something's coming."
It Arrives
The shadows began to ripple.
Out of the black, emerged something—a mass of corrupted code, formed in the shape of a beast.
It had no mouth, no eyes—just a head filled with glitching runes and a body that flickered with unrendered data.
[Threat Detected: DATA DEVOURER]Class: Unknown. Tier: ?Ability: Consumes active skills, absorbs Protocol-based systems, and erases memory traces.]
The ground cracked beneath it.
And then it screamed.
A horrible sound, like a million error messages crashing at once.
Ryo felt his system buffer stutter.
"...Oh, you're going to be fun."
The Fight
Ryo activated Shadow Step, dodging the beast's tendrils as they lashed at him with terrifying speed.
His blade slid through the thing's arm—and did nothing.
[Shadow Strike: Nullified][Reason: Target has consumed your skill signature.]
"It's eating my skills!?"
Every time he used a technique, it adapted.
This wasn't a fight—it was a download war.
Adapt and Devour
He had one option: fight fire with fire.
Ryo let the Protocol core inside him pulse. Proto-Sovereign Core, activated to near overload.
He unleashed a surge of pure shadow data and triggered his new ability:
[Shadowbind: Chain the target with corrupted memory loops.]
The tendrils froze in mid-air. For half a second, the Data Devourer twitched violently—caught in its own memory echoes.
Ryo didn't wait.
He summoned Devour Code, a hidden ability that had emerged after the Echo Chamber trial—a passive mutation in his system.
[New Function Triggered: Shadow Reversal Protocol.]Reverses data consumption for a limited time—stealing data from the Devourer instead.
His body lit up with dark pulses.
He wasn't just resisting the Devourer.
He was consuming it back.
The Glitch King's Curse
Mid-fight, a deeper memory flickered in his mind.
A figure. Bound in chains. Crown of corrupted metal. Watching the battle through unseen eyes.
"You're not ready for this gift… but you've stolen it anyway."
The figure whispered a name Ryo didn't understand.
"Voidcrown."
And then—nothing.
The memory vanished as the Data Devourer let out a final screech.
Its body burst apart—raining glitchy fragments like broken glass across the dungeon.
Aftermath
[Skill Absorbed: Fragment of Data Devourer – Consume Skill Code]Grants ability to deconstruct low-level enemy skills and absorb fragments. Cumulative effect: Memory overload risk.
[Title Unlocked: Glitch-Breaker]
Nova's voice finally came through again.
"Ryo? Are you alive!?""Barely. But I think I just... hacked a monster.""You did what?""I'll explain later."
He looked at his hands.
They shimmered with data he didn't understand.
"I think I just became part virus."
Elsewhere...
Inside the Overseer's Tower, alarms blared.
The Devourer was meant to be unbeatable. A trap. A test. A warning.
And yet—he had survived. Worse: he had learned from it.
"Initiate Level 2 Observation on Ryo Kazen," a voice hissed. "He's becoming a variable we can't afford."
End of Chapter 12