Chapter Seven: Exposure

The arrow's cold glint pierced the tavern's dim oil lamps. Amidst the aroma of fermenting malt from wooden barrels seeped the scent of violet-poisoned arrowwood. When myneckwas branded with[Truth Threads'] grid-patterned burns, Charlotte's warm breath hit my earlobe, suddenly reminding me of the fluorescent-dyed feathers I gave her phoenix pet using GM privileges last week - this must be what they call karma.

"First flaw." The elf archer pressed her knee against my spine - this posture was definitely learned from The Legend of Zelda's parry tutorials - "Every time I complete hidden quests, you always show that tester's smile when witnessing successful bug fixes."

I clutched the command panel beneath the blacksmith's apron, Charlotte's combat boots crushing the [Anvil Teleportation Coordinates] I'd secretly modified. Old Jack's voice drifted from the tavern's second floorBrewing Machineas overloaded machinery roared - the distiller I'd implanted with an automatic learning module now spewing alcohol vapors in Morse code rhythms.

"Second," her bowstring-winding fingers suddenly tightened, systemWarning Pop-upexploding before my eyes - [Disguise Integrity 87%]. Those damned player forum guides actually researched insane techniques like "observe NPC micro-expressions".

The bar counter erupted with oak barrels as Ironblood Alliance members charged in wielding [Lava Greatswords]. The leadingBerserkersported the ID "Kr No Fate Change", hislegendary weapon worth$3,000 currently embedded in the "probability-based self-destruct" code I'd tampered with yesterday.

"Surrender the hidden quest chain!" The greatsword shattered my beer stein, amber liquid freezing mid-air. Thanking God Mode, I spent 0.3 seconds adjusting tavern gravity parameters from 9.8 to 3.7, making the flyingThe wine beads morph intoslow-motion falling agate.

Charlotte's arrowhead abruptly veers off courseBerserkerBetween the eyebrows: "Get out, this is a private conversation." Her [Frost Trap] perfectly freezes the opponent's ankles -不愧是the server-wide first to achieve the "Arrow pointing Edge Master" title. I seize the moment to overturn the workbench with my knee, three hundred iron nails forming a temporary shield mid-air - don't ask, just know I added the "Material Mimicry Defense System" to the blacksmith shop last week.

"The third flaw is the deadliest." The elven archer's voice pierces through the chaos,her armorglowing with data-stream blue, "All NPCs' floating tags use SimSun font, but yours..."

My pupils constrict. The accidental UI font change to Kaiti three days ago when helping Old Jack fix his brew formula now glows like a flare in Charlotte's vision. Her Threads of Truth already pierce my nape, surveillance alerts flashing wildly across my retinas.

"Brave elf!" I spun around and grabbed the arrow. Beneath the blacksmith apprentice's burlap gloves, GM command streams bulged like golden veins. "Will you accept the dragon-slaying quest?"

A server-wide announcement effect suddenly descended from the sky - my hastily forged [World Event: Awakening of the Red Dragon Queen] using backend privileges. Charlotte's bow durabilityvalue beganto eerily display as "BP 128/75". This numerical contamination tactic learned from Animal Crossing successfully induced 0.5 seconds of judgment lag in her combat predictions.

The tavern floor suddenly collapsed, activating the [Random Teleportation Array] I buried here last week. Kicking Old Jack's brewing barrel into the array's core, high-concentration fermenting alcohol detonated spatial ripples. The [Arrow of Truth] Charlotte shotat me beforeplunging into the void was slapped by me into the Ironblood War Guild Leader's rear - don't worry, I'd reset that arrow's damage parameter to "forced dancing for 3 hours" just yesterday.

"Thank you for your patronage!" I delivered the line to the dust-choked ruins while frantically operating the GM panel behind my back. Charlotte's residual threads of truth were corroding the permission firewall. Needed to act immediately...

Thirteen feathered arrows suddenly pierced through the smoke, arranging themselves in a prime number sequence midair. Charlotte's deerskin boots crushed the Ironblood Guild Leader who was still performing robotic dance moves. Beneath her cloak peeked half of the [Paradox Scroll] - that artifact capable of briefly rewriting system rules, now oozing black light that devoured data.

"Did you think tampering with UI fonts was programmer's privilege?" The moment she tore open the scroll's seal, the three revival tokens I'd hidden in my apron pocketbeganmelting into silver slurry. "From your tacky habit of dyeing phoenixes, every quest rewardcarried the resentmentfrom late-night coding sessions at Starbucks."

The tavern walls suddenlypixelatedand disintegrated, plunging us into void space composed of underlying code. In the floating streams of green characters, Charlotte unfolded wings woven from SQL statements behind her. With every word she spoke, firewall logs drifted from her lips: "SELECT * FROMGM_CommandWHEREUserID= 'Lin Mo'--"

The work badgeon my chest suddenlyThe device overheated—this woman actually reverse-engineered my employee access! Frantically snapping three data chains, I dragged last week's backup of the [Christmas Special Event] code into the runtime zone. Snowflakes mixed with reindeer-shaped errorpop-upsflooded the screen as I seized the chance to replace Old Jack's brewing formula with my homemade antivirus program.

"NOT FOUND." Charlotte's arrows suddenly transformed into crimson 404 warnings. "But do you know what players excel at?" She tore open a second paradox scroll, instantly redirecting my GM panel to a dark web auction page. "Refresh!"

Fifty auto-bidding scripts activated simultaneously. My fingers moved autonomously to bid for the [Ragnarök] dungeon entrance. Worse yet, Kai a security monitor implanted itself—a blood-red [Ban Countdown: 59s] flashed at the corner of my retina.

"You forgot the timezone bug!" I roared, switching the system clock to Samoa time. During the stolen thirteen hours, I grabbed Charlotte's spent arrow and drove it into a ground fissure. When the fletching touched the core database, every Infinite Evolution player heard a rooster's crow—I'd synchronized the starter village rooster's spawn rate to heartbeat patterns.

Charlotte suddenly staggered and knelt on one knee. The [Poultry Phobia]DEBUFF I secretly added last week emerged behind her neck. Seizing this 0.3-second gap, I manually dismantled her bow's enhancement module, converting the +15 holylight enchantmentinto an [Auto-Play Cheesy Pickup Lines] function.

"Baby, I'm like a server that never crashes..."The bow suddenly began reciting in northeastern accent,"My longing for you is longer than a BOSS's health bar..."

The third-ranked elven ranger on the server froze instantly. I linked all her equipment durability to the blacksmith's hammering frequency - whenever Old Jack struck the anvil,her armorwould emit fart-like pooting sounds.

"You're definitely not an NPC." Charlotte suddenly opened her breastplate compartment, pulling out a [Data Materialization Lens] I'd never seen before, "Because no NPC would set pain perception to 10% - just to secretly eat spicy BBQ不without getting caught?"

As the lens focused, dense patch records emerged on my right arm. Those logs modifying monster respawn points, tampering auction tax rates, even including changing Kai Sa's virtual avatar to pink rabbit The lady's dark past scrolled likeliving tattoosacross her skin.

"Loophole 2.5," she licked firewall residue from her lips. "Your pupils dilate into hexadecimal confirmation dialogs whenever pretty players flirt."

The void suddenly convulsed violently. Kai Za's security protocols finally breached the timezone barrier. I watched my GM privileges fade as Old Jack's antivirus mead swirled through the code ocean. Charlotte drew her bowstring taut between collapsing database mountains, truth-threaded arrows weaving death warrants.

"Final tutorial," her arrowhead glowed with my own secret killing move - the one I'd hidden in the final boss skill tree for three years. "This is called [Force Display IP Address]."

As the arrow flew, I spent my last privileges teleporting to a novice village restroom stall. But Charlotte had etched tracking runes on every toilet roll. When I unrolled the third scroll, instead of quest prompts I found her dagger at my throat.

"Programmer-san," she popped the buttons of my NPC disguise, revealing the "996is a blessing""limited edition T-shirt," you wonder why my tracking arrow always does 1080-degree spins?"

I suddenly remember those 720 arrows shot astray by a test account in the training ground on launch day. Those seemingly meaningless parabolas are now projecting a complete containment matrix on my retina. The ruby on Charlotte's earlobe suddenly cracks open, revealing a miniaturized GM command terminal inside - that's clearly the testing equipment I lost last month!

"When you tampered with my coffee machine order records," she switches the dagger for my [Infinite Chocolate Generator] hidden under the village chief's bed, "didyou never considerthat mocha sauce viscosity could trap data streams?"

 Kai The ban countdown reaches zero just as my preset "Gong Xi Fa Cai"BGM overrides the warning siren. While Charlotte's distracted by Andy Lau's infectious singing, I crush the [Rollback Capsule] hidden in my molar. The whole world suddenly rewinds like an old VHS tape.

When the timelineresumes flowingAs the timeline stabilized, I stood at the tavern counter from three minutes prior. The silly smile I'd drawn with whipped cream at the bottom of Charlotte's wheat beer mug was melting away. This time I'd replaced the auction link for the [Thread of Truth] with a Panda Head meme, and stuffed fifty prank arrows that meowed like cats into her quiver.

But as I turned to slip toward the kitchen, an ice-cold arrowhead already pressed against my spine. Charlotte's voice trembled with the thrill of discovering an ultimate Easter egg: "Lin Mo, you forgot to clear the temp cache when rolling back the timeline—"

Within the data afterglow shimmering at her fingertips, there unmistakably remained the [Matrimony Quest Chain] I'd created for us two using admin privileges...