Chapter 143| Late Night Gains

Chapter 143: Chapter 143| Late Night Gains

Outside, the night air was cool. The lanterns along the maintenance road swayed in a light breeze. Nil had one arm slung around Maren’s neck and was humming something tuneless.

Maren shifted her weight, steadying her.

"I’ve got her from here," she said. "She’ll sleep it off."

"Thanks for dinner," Nil mumbled. "Best contest ever."

"You didn’t win anything."

"I won dinner."

"You did not." Maren looked at Zane. A beat, a real look, softer than she’d shown all night. "Thanks for coming."

"I got dragged," Zane said. Which wasn’t a lie.

"You came anyway," Maren replied.

He didn’t have an answer for that.

She tilted her head toward the dorm road.

"Seems this is where we bounce, Zane," she said. "It was hella fun."

She took Nil toward the girls’ dormitory path, one slow step at a time. Nil waved over her shoulder without turning around.

Zane stayed at the edge of the lantern light, watching them go.

His eyes drifted down. Both of them were in short skirts, the hems swaying with every slow step, their bare thighs catching the lantern glow as they walked. He let himself look a second longer than he should have.

His communicator buzzed. 9:42 PM.

Nyx: 8 AM. Arena 3. Don’t be late.

He read it once and pocketed the communicator.

’8 AM. Arena 3. Nyx,’ he thought.

He started walking.

The lanterns along the maintenance road swayed behind him as Zane started walking.

He made it maybe thirty meters before the system spoke up.

『 DAILY QUEST: Overdrive activation window reduction 』

『 Objective: 6 consecutive activations 』

『 Progress: 3 / 6 』

『 Current window: 0.61 seconds 』

『 Status: Pending 』

’Of course,’ he thought. ’Thanks, system.’

『 You’re welcome. 』

’That wasn’t gratitude.’

『 The system chooses to hear it as gratitude. 』

He sighed and kept walking. Nobody was on the road, just the hum of the lamps and the cool night air still carrying the smell of grilled meat from his jacket.

Then something felt off.

Not the quest. Not the system. His hands. They were swinging loose at his sides, and they shouldn’t have been. Ten minutes ago they’d been holding something.

He stopped.

Turned around.

Far behind him, small and yellow in the dark, the Lantern & Ember sign glowed against the storage buildings. And beside the wall, parked at the rack where he’d left it, was a very old, very rentable scooter.

’I left the scooter.’

He stood there for a full three seconds.

He checked his communicator. 9:51 PM. The rental window wasn’t the problem. Walking back and then walking to the dorm again was.

’Now I’m just like Dex,’ he muttered. ’Forgetting things like it’s a lifestyle.’

『 System Note: The host has said something very accurate. 』

’Don’t.’

He shrugged his bag higher on his shoulder and activated Overdrive.

Short bursts. Tiny pulses. The window opened and snapped shut under a second, each one bleeding off just enough output to count. He ran down the road in broken, rhythmic strides, the lamplight stretching and shrinking under his feet.

One. The road blurred. Two. A lantern flashed past. Three. He cut left around a storage shed. Four. Five.

The restaurant sign swelled in front of him.

Six.

『 DAILY QUEST COMPLETE 』

『 Overdrive activation window: 0.61 → 0.58 seconds 』

『 Progress: 4 / 6 』

『 Progress to milestone: 0.58 / 0.50 seconds 』

『 Milestone reward: HIDDEN 』

He slowed to a stop beside the wall, breathing hard but not hard enough to matter.

’Quest done,’ he thought. ’Scooter retrieved. Two birds, one very embarrassing stone.’

『 The system will not bring up the embarrassing part. 』

’Thank you.’

『 The system will bring it up later. 』

He unlocked the scooter and rode back through the dark campus, the road slipping by in long pools of lamplight. The air on his face cooled him down properly. By the time the boys’ dorm came into view, his pulse had settled and the only thing still bothering him was the knowledge that he’d run a quarter kilometer for a rental scooter.

He parked it where he’d found it and went inside.

_ _

Room 714 was lit.

Dex was already there, sprawled across his bed with one boot on and one boot off, a bag of chips balanced on his chest. Gerald wheezed from the corner vent in his usual rhythm.

Zane pushed the door open.

Dex didn’t look up from his communicator.

"Hmm," he said. "Look who came late."

"You’re one to talk."

"I’m always late. It’s my brand." Dex finally glanced up, and a slow grin spread across his face. "You though. You don’t do late. So I’m hoping it’s because girls with big boobs took your time. That’s a valid excuse."

Zane dropped his bag. "Oh, I forgot about your kink."

"That’s peak kink," Dex said with great dignity. "A man should be proud of his standards."

"I’m sure."

"I’ve actually added something." Dex held up a finger. "Big soft ass with the boobs. Combo looks nice. Balanced. Complete."

"Hell nah," Zane said.

"You say that now."

"I’m saying it forever."

Dex shrugged and crunched a chip. "Your loss."

Zane sat on the edge of his bed and started unlacing his shoes. For a minute the only sounds were the chips, the vent, and a distant door closing down the corridor.

Then Dex spoke again.

"By the way. I called your name during the drill. Twice."

Zane paused mid-lace.

"Maybe you were busy," Dex said. "Maybe you were concentrating. You didn’t look over."

Zane thought back to Arena Two. The rails, the targets, the buzz of the second-year block across the chalk line. He’d been locked on the drill and then locked on the girl at the head of that line. A lot of faces had been in that room.

"Oh," he said slowly. "The drill with the second years. Right, you were probably there. I didn’t notice you."

"Obviously," Dex said.

"You could’ve waved," Zane replied.

"I did wave."

"Not hard enough."

"I’ll wave harder next time." Dex lay back down. "Or you could just look around once in a while."

"I was looking around," Zane said. "At something else."

Dex stopped chewing.

"What something else?"

"Nothing."

"Zane."

"Chips are getting crumbs on your sheets."

Dex looked down at his chest. There were, in fact, crumbs. He brushed them off with the speed of a man whose dignity had just been tested, then pointed a chip at Zane.

"I’m coming back to that."

"You do that." Zane replied.

Zane finished with his shoes and pulled his shirt over his head. His communicator sat on the desk, the last message from Nyx still glowing on the screen.

Nyx: 8 AM. Arena 3. Don’t be late.

He looked at it for a moment.

『 System Note: The host has a spar in nine hours. The system recommends sleep. 』

’I know.’

『 The system also recommends sleeping before the host thinks about anything else. 』

’I know, I know.’

He dropped onto the bed and stared at the ceiling.

Across the room, Dex had started humming something off-key. Gerald wheezed like a metronome nobody had asked for. The lamplight outside the window slipped through the blinds in pale stripes across the floor.

Eleven minutes later he stopped counting, and the room went dark.