System Override

Nora backed into the corner. She was blind to the real world, her vision clogged with red error messages. Adrian was down. She was a Level 1 Human with a plastic ID badge and a stapler.

She was going to die.

* No,* she thought. *I'm not an NPC. I'm the User.*

"The System acts on my perception," she muttered. "It's tracking me."

She looked at the chaos in her mind. If the Mimic was running the software, maybe she could exploit the hardware.

She focused. She didn't try to fight the monster. She tried to fight the narrative.

**[TRAIT: PLAIN]**

* Description: You are easily overlooked.*

"Overclock it," Nora hissed.

She squeezed her eyes shut and poured every ounce of her will into that single, pathetic trait. She remembered every time she had been ignored in a meeting. Every time a bartender skipped her. Every moment of invisibility.

She weaponized her mediocrity.

**[SYSTEM ALERT: OVERRIDE.]**

**[ACTIVATING SKILL: GHOST IN THE MACHINE.]**

**[PRESENCE REDUCED TO 0%.]**

Nora opened her eyes. The red pop-ups vanished. The room was clear.

The Mimic was standing three feet away, its claw raised. It froze. Its head twitched, scanning the room.

It couldn't see her.

She was standing right in front of it, but to the creature, she was empty data. Null space.

Nora held her breath. She looked at Adrian, who was groaning on the floor, trying to rise.

She needed to end this.

The server room. The Mimic was digital-biological. The server room had a Halon gas fire suppression system. Halon displaced oxygen. But it also dropped the temperature to near absolute zero at the point of discharge to protect the electronics.

Nora moved. She didn't run; running attracted attention. She walked, smooth and grey, slipping past the monster like a draft of air.

She grabbed Adrian’s collar. He tensed, ready to strike, but she pressed a finger to his lips.

**[PARTY INVITE SENT: ADRIAN THORNE.]**

**[ADRIAN THORNE ACCEPTED.]**

She dragged him, inch by inch, out of the office. The Mimic roared, thrashing around the room, destroying the furniture, searching for the prey that had just vanished from its radar.