Chapter 75| Saturday Came Early

Chapter 75: Chapter 75| Saturday Came Early

At lunch Sera was already at the table.

Purple hoodie today. He was fairly certain this one was new.

She pushed his coffee across.

"You look like something finally clicked," she said.

"Something like that," Zane said.

She looked at him with the settled expression.

"Good," she said simply.

She stole a fry and was surprised he didn’t make any gesture.

He let her have it. He was lost in thoughts thinking on how he’d complete his quest, the system had been really brutal these past few days.

The system ticked quietly in the background.

After the afternoon session Zane stopped at the main office on his way back to the dormitory.

Collected a weekend campus pass.

The office staff processed it without comment. Standard procedure. Students collected passes regularly under supervised conditions.

He looked at the pass in his hand.

ALDREN ACADEMY — WEEKEND PASS

Valid: Saturday — Vance City Commercial District

Return by: 21:00

He pocketed it.

Turned toward the dormitory building.

The junction where the path split. Boys dormitory one direction, girls dormitory the other.

Maren was already at the junction ahead of him. Heading toward the girls side. They happened to have coincidentally collected their passes at almost the same timing.

She glanced back when she heard his footsteps.

Saw him.

Saw his hand going into his pocket.

Looked at his pocket for exactly one second.

Then.."You got one."

"Yeah," Zane said.

She held his gaze.

Something in her expression that wasn’t the calculating stillness and wasn’t the smirk and wasn’t the red face from the butt tap payback yesterday.

Something more settled than all of those.

"Saturday then," she said.

"Yeah saturday, see you then," Zane said.

She turned toward the girls dormitory path.

He turned toward the boys dorm.

The system surfaced.

『 SECOND QUEST — Natural condition confirmed 』

『 Private meeting parameters: Saturday — Vance City — non-academic context 』

『 Condition met: Independent proposal from female counterpart 』

Zane walked toward the boys dormitory.

’Saturday might be a long day,’ he thought.

_ _

Two days had flown by like the wind.

Now it was finally Saturday.

Zane was already up by 8:00 AM.

His communicator beeped before he’d fully sat up.

The system. Two notifications stacked.

『 BOUND TARGET QUEST — Time Remaining: 1 day 20 hours 05 minutes 』

『 SECOND QUEST — Time Remaining: 22 hours 14 minutes 』

He stared at both of them.

’Death counts,’ he thought. ’I don’t know what else to classify these as. Two timers counting down to something I haven’t fully figured out yet. And one of them if not both ends today if Saturday doesn’t go the way it needs to.’

’Death counts suits them better than quest timers,’ he thought.

The system surfaced.

『 The system prefers the term progression milestones. 』

’Death counts,’ Zane thought again.

『 Noted. 』

He got up.

Today he didn’t need his training gear nor need to run a bag of reps. Which was sort of satisfying considering the fact he did them routinely.

He crossed to his box and crouched down. Shifted through the folded clothes until he found what he was looking for.

Dark fitted jeans. A clean white shirt. Something simple, no print, the kind that worked without trying. A lightweight dark jacket over it. Clean trainers that hadn’t seen the composite training floor yet.

He held it up briefly.

’This works,’ he thought.

He got dressed.

Checked himself once in the small mirror on the back of the door.

’Decent,’ he thought.

『 The system approves. You look like someone a girl would agree to spend a Saturday with. 』

’That’s the lowest bar you’ve ever set,’ Zane thought.

『 And yet it matters today. 』

He pocketed his pass and headed out.

He checked his communicator.

Weekend campus pass still valid. Return by 9:00 PM.

Gerald wheezed.

Dex was face down on his bed. Saturday apparently meant nothing to Dex’s sleep schedule. Boots still on. The hentai wall catching the morning light with complete indifference to the day of the week.

Zane pocketed his pass and headed out.

He arrived at the main gate at exactly 9:00 AM.

He’d assumed she’d be there. They hadn’t discussed a meeting point. The junction parting the day before yesterday hadn’t included logistics. But Maren was the kind of person who showed up where she was supposed to be without needing the details spelled out.

Got it. Here’s the updated section:

She was already at the gate.

She wore a Sundress. Light fabric, the kind that moved with the morning air. A bucket hat pulled low over her hair which was down for once, not the tied back efficiency of 6:20 AM, just down, sitting the way it sat when nobody had told it to do anything specific. A small handbag over one shoulder. Glasses he’d never seen before sitting on her face with the casual ease of someone who only wore them outside of academic settings.

He stopped for exactly two seconds.

’So different,’ he thought. ’She looks completely different outside of training context.’

The system surfaced immediately.

『 The system notes your reaction time. Two full seconds. Again. 』

’Shut up,’ Zane thought.

『 Just noting. 』

Maren looked up when she heard his footsteps on the gate path.

Looked at him.

Then looked at his outfit.

"You actually own normal clothes," she said.

She looked at him.

Her face went slightly pink before she could stop it.

"Stop it," she said.

"Just noting," Zane replied.

She turned and walked through the gate without responding.

He followed.

The system surfaced.

『 The system approves of this opening. 』

’I didn’t ask,’ Zane thought.

『 The system is offering unsolicited praise. Accept it. 』

Then they both started walking through the gate at the same time without further discussion.

The gate attendant. A stocky man in his fifties who had probably seen thousands of students pass through this gate over the years. Looked up from his station as they approached. Gave them a broad wave with the easy energy of someone who genuinely meant it.

"Hope you enjoy your outing," he said. Still waving. "And don’t forget to come back early."

Zane and Maren both raised their hands simultaneously.

"Thank you," Maren said.

"Appreciate it," Zane said.

The attendant settled back into his chair with the satisfied nod of someone who had done his part.

They walked through the gate and out onto the Vance City road.