The man that had haunted me in the ruins of Illatius Undertown which Infi called the Third casually reached the shimmering edge of the magical field that the billboard generated and stopped, tilting his head as he examined it.

I expected him to raise his arm, to fire that horrible all-erasing ray, but nothing of the sort happened.

The man simply looked directly up at Charles and me.

"Greetings," he called out in a eerily mundane, if somewhat nasal voice. "I am Agent Three of the Good Directorate. I'm afraid I must inform you that this is an illegal incursion. Unauthorized manipulation of Eurekan infrastructure is strictly prohibited."

My blood ran cold. This was Three - the living concept, the eraser of information that I had feared encountering. Somehow he had seen through my invisibility hex.

"How... how can he see us?" Charles asked.

"Oh, I see everything eventually," Three replied with that unnaturally wide smile. "Especially things that don't belong. Now then, I'm going to have to ask you both to come down here immediately. One of you needs to submit to processing at the station."

"The station?" I repeated as mentally evaluated my options. Would the billboard empower Endy enough to slice through a thing like Three? I traced a barrier hexagram through the air, making what I considered to be an impassible barrier between the billboard and Three, an absolute shield designed by Zariya.

"The police station, of course," Three clarified, speaking as if he was a mere human and not a conceptual weapon that nullified things out of existence.

I swallowed hard, my mind racing.

"Now, will you come down willingly or must I resort to more... forceful measures?" The man in the coat asked.

I glanced at Charles, who looked concerned but not as terrified as I was. I wondered if he saw Three as a mere mortal, a detective of some kind.

"What exactly do you mean by 'processing'?" I asked, stalling for time as I tried to think of a way out of this.

"Why, the standard procedures for dealing with anomalous entities, of course," Three replied cheerfully. "Identification, classification, integration. Nothing scary to worry about, I assure you."

"Integration?" I swallowed, my fingers ready to unleash Endy. "Not nullification?"

Three stepped through the absolute magical barrier as if it wasn't even there, his smile never faltering. I felt a chill run down my spine as he approached.

"Now, now, there's no need for hostility," Three said pleasantly as he stared at us from below. "I'm simply here to address minor local irregularities. This billboard has been illegally modified and filled with stolen items. Citizen Charles Snippy needs to report to his assigned workplace."

He turned his unblinking gaze to me. "As for you, null user, it seems your identification number has been scrubbed, either by accident or on purpose. You'll need to be reclassified, copyrighted, and assigned a new number. Standard procedure, I assure you."

"What if I don't want a number?" I asked. "I'm not from Eureka. I don't belong to your system."

Three's smile never wavered as he took another step closer. "I'm afraid that's not an option. Everyone and everything within Eureka must have a proper number designation, an ID tag. It's how orderly society functions."

Stolen content alert: this content belongs on Royal Road. Report any occurrences.

"And what if I refuse? What exactly will you do? Are you going to fire that nullifier of yours at me?"

"No," Three said. "I will not. I will simply summon backup after I figure out what all of this is."

"You have backup?" I asked.

"Of course," Three replied, still smiling that unsettling smile. "I am merely one Agent of order among many. The Good Directorate has limitless resources at its disposal to maintain stability and proper function within Eureka."

He clasped his hands behind his back, looking up at us with an almost fatherly expression. "You see, order is not just a concept - it is the very foundation upon which reality is built. Without proper categorization and organization, chaos would reign. And chaos, unchecked, leads to entropy."

Three grabbed the iron stairwell and began climbing up the tower. I grabbed onto Charles's hand, not sure exactly what to do.

"Every entity, every object, every idea must have its proper place within the grand scheme of things. That is how we prevent the collapse of order, how we stave off the encroachment of entropy. Your presence here, uncategorized and uncontrolled, represents a potentially dangerous anomaly that could spread if left unchecked."

Three reached the lowest floor of the billboard and began walking to the next one.

"You just want to maintain your control over reality, is that it?" I growled.

"This isn't about control or oppression. It's about preservation. About maintaining law and order that allows Eureka and her citizens to continue existing, operating as intended. Without order, without proper classification, everything crumbles."

"Your law is idiotic!" I growled at Three as he climbed higher. "Don't think that I'm blind and stupid! I know what you bastards are doing -manufacturing words and sending them into the Dead Zone when subscription expires. Infinite humans are suffering because of your System. Eureka is just one gargantuan repeating loop, making people in an endless cycle!"

Three paused his ascent for a moment to examine the cardboard walls, his unnerving smile never wavering. "The loop, as you call it, is not a trap - it's a safeguard. A way to preserve the original users."

"People like Charles here live hollow lives, with fake memories, doing the same meaningless job over and over!" I growled, not sure why I was even arguing with the Terminator. "There has to be a better way! A way for people to truly live! Can Eureka not simply print anything into existence? Why does money even exist? Why does Charles need to go to work?"

Charles shifted uncomfortably beside me, clearly conflicted about being caught in the middle of this sudden ideological debate.

Three resumed climbing, his eerie smile never faltering. "Money and jobs exist because they provides the users purpose and meaning. Laws exist to protect humanity."

"What, against entropy?" I growled. "That's nonsense! You're just maintaining control, keeping Eurekan citizens trapped in meaningless lives, not allowing anyone or anything to move forward!"

Three reached our level and stepped onto the metal grating. He looked left and right, examining the winding scribbles along the columns.

"Is this your construct?" He asked. "What is your name, null-user?"

"My name is none of your business," I said. "And yes, this is my construct. What of it?"

Three's gaze swept over the intricate runes and hexagrams covering every surface of the cardboard floor and ceiling. "Omnicode," he murmured. "A crude attempt at linking a Fractal Engine to a billboard as an focus tool. Illegal, but nevertheless... a stable construct."

I looked at the Agent, not sure where he was going with this.

Three turned his round glasses back at me. "You clearly have potential. With proper training and integration into the System, you could do great things..."

"Training?" I sputtered. "Great things? What... training?"

"As a System Wizard," Three said. "All users wielding Fractal Engines fall under the classification of a System Wizard."

"What's he talking about?" Charles whispered.

"I smell a ticket to Manchester on you," Three said. "I suggest you stop playing with local advert infrastructure and take the train to the City of System Wizards where you belong."

"And if I don't?" I asked.

"I tire of this discussion," Three said. "My analysis has been concluded. This falls under the jurisdiction of the System Wizards."

The Agent suddenly snapped his fingers. White, two dimensional doorways came into existence all around us. Figures dressed in black robes and black hats stepped from them, grabbing onto me. Endy blades flashing into existence around my hands as I attempted to slice through the people holding me.

"Dispel fractalizer waveform," One of the people on my left said, pointing what looked like a 2b pencil at me.

Every single Endy blade I wielded shattered, stopped existing.

"I told you to take the door to Manchester, didn't I?" A voice sounded from my left. I recognized it, my head snapping to the speaker.

It was wizard Revolution and she, like the rest of the people holding onto me was wearing a black hat and black robe.

The last thing I saw before being pulled through the nearest white doorway was Three's unnervingly pleasant smile and Charles's confused face.