Chapter 26: The Nameless One Becomes a Flaw in the Rules

(Bearing Contradictions in His Own Being)

Within the Reality Null Zone, there was no concept of time.

Not stillness.

But—
time did not know whether it should continue.

The Nameless One stood at the center of the void.

The edges of his body were being erased, continuously.

Like a segment of code, rewritten again and again, yet never finalized.

With every breath,

new judgments fell upon him.

Judgment One:
Existence unstable → Must be cleared

Judgment Two:
Fact of continued existence confirmed → Cannot be cleared

Judgment Three:
Anomaly affects the whole → Must process

Judgment Four:
Processing will cause greater conflict → Delay

These judgments overlapped within him.

Not an external attack.

But—
the world argued with itself through him.

The Pyrohunter units stood at the edge of the void.

Neither advancing.
Nor retreating.

Their logic cores were overloading.

Because for the first time, they faced a target—
that could not be eliminated through any path, yet clearly “should not exist.”

The Nameless One slowly lifted his head.

He could feel it.

Not pain.

But—
weight.

The contradictions of the world pressed down on him.

The cost of his third transformation revealed itself in full.

His existence stability began to fluctuate violently.

17%.
16%.
15%.…

With every drop,

he became more “like” a flaw.

Yet the moment his stability fell below 15%,

something strange happened.

The decline stopped.

Not because the world had accepted him.

But because—
the world had begun to depend on him.

Deep within the Flame Order,

the nameless annotation was formally marked as:

Conflict-Bearing Node

The Flame Order realized:

As long as mutually contradictory judgments were temporarily anchored to this node,

the system would not immediately collapse.

And that node—
was the Nameless One.

He felt the shift.

The Pyrohunter units’ lock-on disappeared.

Not abandonment.

But—
their target had become “cannot be processed immediately.”

The Nameless One smiled slightly.

A faint smile.

“So that’s it.”

“It’s not that I shouldn’t exist.”

“It’s you—”

“who need me to remain unresolved.”

He had become a living buffer.

An existence recognized by the world, yet denied acknowledgment.

The cost was constant.

His body could no longer fully manifest.

Shadows lagged behind the real form.
Voices sometimes delayed.

With every step,

the world would reconfirm:
Is this allowed?

But in exchange,

conflicts among Pyrohunter units began to decrease.

The Reality Null Zone ceased to expand.

Some deleted areas stopped “failing.”

The world was not saved.

Only—
its death had been delayed.

The Reform Faction finally realized what had happened.

They saw the core of the data anomaly.

An unresolvable existence.

A person bearing all conflicts.

Someone whispered:

“He is… enduring the punishment for us.”

For the first time, the Flame Order generated a non-logical record.

Not a command.
Not a judgment.

A simple statement of fact:

Current world stability:
Dependent on an inexplicable individual

Deep within the Nameless One’s consciousness,

he remembered something.

The nameless annotation left by Su Lan:

“Please observe first.”

Suddenly, he understood.

She had not wanted the world to be lenient.

She only wanted the world to—
slow down in drawing conclusions.

The Pyrohunter units gradually withdrew.

Not by command.

But because—
they temporarily “didn’t need” him anymore.

The Nameless One stood alone at the center of the void.

Like a nail forcibly inserted into the system.

Belonging to no side.

Yet holding the entire structure together.

He whispered:

“I don’t need to be remembered.”

“As long as you—”

“don’t rush to erase each other.”

At that moment,

he was no longer just the Nameless One.

He had become—
a flaw in the world itself.