Chapter 168| An Emergency Button

Chapter 168: Chapter 168| An Emergency Button

Zane was awake the next day before the sun. It was a Sunday.

Dex was out cold with the headband pulled over one eye. Gerald wheezed in the vent. Zane pulled on his training suit in the dark, took his bag, and slipped out into a morning so grey and quiet that even the lamps along the path looked tired.

At 5:50 AM the training grounds were empty. He walked to the far corner by the east fence, past the worn patch of grass where he and Maren usually stood, and dropped his bag against the wall.

Nobody here. Nobody watching.

’Alright,’ he thought. ’Let’s see it.’

『 HIDDEN REWARD: Available 』

『 Bonus for establishing a second bond target without system assistance. 』

『 +20% output on a Sigil of the host’s choice. 』

『 Select Sigil. 』

He didn’t need to think about it. He’d settled it last night, somewhere between replaying Nil’s room and staring at the blinds.

’Kinetic Force.’

『 Confirmed. Kinetic Force: B-rank 0% → B-rank 20%. Applying. 』

For a second nothing happened. Then something shifted at the bottom of his chest, a low warm pressure like a coal catching. The thread he’d fought to hold for three seconds in Arena 3 didn’t feel like a thread anymore. It felt like a door that had been painted shut and was now just open.

He let out a breath he hadn’t known he was holding.

He picked up a stone from the edge of the path, about the size of his fist, and tossed it three metres into the air. When it dropped, he reached for the third slot.

The stone slowed in mid-fall. Only a shade, like it had passed through syrup. Then it tilted sideways, slid along an invisible slope, and landed in the grass half a metre from where it should have hit.

Zane stared at it.

’I turned it,’ he thought. ’I actually turned it.’

He tried a bigger stone. Then a smaller one. Then three at once, and the third clipped his shoulder, and he swore under his breath and kept going. By the time the sun cleared the east wing, his arms ached and his face hurt from grinning.

_ _

The spins came next.

He sat down against the fence and called up the two small icons that had been waiting in the corner of his vision since Friday night.

『 GACHA SPINS: 2 available. Initiate? 』

’Yes.’

The brackets stretched and the text blurred, cycling through rewards faster than he could read. Three seconds. Four. The wheel slowed one entry at a time, hesitated, and stopped.

『 SPIN 1 — Impact Breaker: +20% output 』

『 Impact Breaker: B-rank 10% → B-rank 30% 』

Zane sat up straight.

’Thirty,’ he thought. ’It tripled.’

『 System Note: The host’s weakest slot is now a viable one. 』

’Go on, say you told me so.’

『 The system does not recall giving a prediction. 』

He pressed his palm flat against the grass and sent out a pulse, a fraction of what he could do now. The ground thumped. A clean ripple ran out across the lawn and bent the grass flat for a full three metres in every direction.

He took his hand away slowly. ’Okay,’ he thought. ’That’s different.’

『 SPIN 2 — Initiating... 』

The wheel rolled longer this time. It slowed, stuttered, and settled.

『 SPIN 2 — SURGE (Consumable) 』

『 Single use. For ten seconds, one active Sigil may exceed its output ceiling by +50%. 』

『 Stored in system inventory. 』

Zane read it twice.

’An emergency button,’ he thought.

『 Correct. The system suggests the host not waste it. 』

’This is something new but for sure, I won’t.’

He closed the notification and sat with the sun on his face and three working Sigils in his chest. A couple of months ago he’d had nothing. Now he had a toolbox, and a bad habit of lying to everyone he liked.

"Zane?" a voice called from across the pad.

He flinched and turned. Maren stood at the edge of the grass, ten metres away, in grey training gear with her hair tied up and a water bottle in one hand. His eyebrows shot up. She rested on Sundays. She never came to the grounds on a Sunday.

Her face was perfectly neutral. She was looking at the scattered stones around him and the flat ring of grass where the ripple had gone.

"Maren?" Zane said, scrambling to his feet and brushing off his trousers. "What a coincidence to meet you here? Thought you rest on Sundays."

"I could ask you the same thing," Maren said, walking closer with slow, careful steps. "What are you doing out here?"

"Training," Zane said, getting to his feet and brushing off his trousers.

"At six in the morning, on a Sunday, in the corner nobody uses." She stopped a few paces away and tilted her head. "Alone."

"I wanted some quiet, why do you sound surprised I’m alone."

"Nothing actually,You always want something quiet." Her eyes dropped to the ground. "What’s that?"

"What’s what?"

"The circle." She pointed at it with the bottle. "It’s perfect. You’ve never made one that clean."

Zane glanced at the ring of flattened grass. She noticed everything. It was one of the things he liked about her, and right now it was the most inconvenient thing in the world.

"I’ve been working on control," he said, rubbing the back of his neck.

"With Impact Breaker."

"Yeah."

"At that range?" Maren’s eyebrow went up. "That’s more than you were doing before."

"I’ve been practising," Zane said, keeping his voice even.

"Mm." She let the silence sit. Then, with no warning at all, she crouched, grabbed one of the stones from the grass, and flicked it straight at his head.

He caught the pull before he’d decided to.

The stone slowed, tilted, and slid past his ear into the fence behind him with a dull crack.

Maren didn’t move. She stayed crouched with her fingers still curled around the air where the stone had been.

"Okay," she said quietly. "That was new."

"I got lucky," Zane said, and heard how thin it sounded.

"You keep saying that." She stood up and wiped her palms on her trousers. Her eyes were sharp and a little hurt, and she was clearly choosing every word. "I’m not going to ask which Sigil."

"Maren..."

"I said I won’t ask." She slid the bottle into her bag and looked at him straight on. "You told me you’d explain once you understood it. I believed you. I still do. But I’d like it to be soon, Zane. I’m not asking for everything. Just soon."

"Soon," Zane said, because it was all he had. "I promise."

Maren studied him for another long second. Then she nodded once and sat down against the fence a polite arm’s length away, uncapping the bottle with her thumb.

"Show me the circle again," she said.

He did. She watched with her chin on her knee, and when his stance drifted, she reached over without a word and nudged his back foot a few inches to the left. It worked. He didn’t ask how she knew.

They stayed there until the sun climbed high. Her shoulder bumped his twice, neither time by accident, and neither of them mentioned it. At some point she stopped correcting his posture and just watched him work, and he caught himself wishing the morning would go slower.

Near noon she stood and shouldered her bag.

"I’m glad you came out here," Maren said, smiling a little.

"I’m glad you did," Zane said.

They both didn’t know how time flew so fast but it did.

She walked off toward the dormitories. He watched her until she turned the corner.

Then he looked down at his hands. Three Sigils, a pile of lies, and six days left on Nyx’s clock.

The wind picked up across the empty field. Far off, a bell rang for the evening meal.

’One thing at a time,’ he thought, and went to find his bag.