Chapter 77| One Percent To Threshold

Chapter 77: Chapter 77| One Percent To Threshold

Zane looked at her.

Her hair was down, her Sundress blooming with bright colors. Bucket hat set aside on the table beside her handbag. The glasses still on. And staring closely he noticed her makeup. He hadn’t clocked it properly at the gate but now across a small table in a restaurant on the fourth street of the Vance City commercial district it was visible. Light foundation. Lipstick. The specific effort of someone who had decided Saturday was worth looking like Saturday.

’I didn’t know heroes could look like this,’ he thought. ’I genuinely assumed they only thought about kicking bad guys into walls and optimising chain activation windows.’ He threw a short internal laugh.

’Maren specifically,’ he added. ’I assumed Maren only thought about those things.’

The system surfaced.

『 System Note: Your assumptions have been updated. The system approves of this development. 』

’Quietly,’ Zane thought.

『 Quietly noted. 』

"Nothing," he said. "Just... thanks for suggesting this."

She looked at him.

The calculating stillness running whatever it always ran.

Then something shifted in her expression. Not the smirk, not the red face, not the flat look. Something more settled than all of those. The specific expression of someone who had received something genuine and was deciding how to hold it.

"You’re welcome," she said.

She went back to her menu.

The system ticked.

『 SECOND QUEST — COMPLETE 』

『 Reward: Impact Breaker output +10% permanently 』

『 Impact Breaker ceiling updated: 65% → 75% 』

『 System Note: She said you’re welcome. The system notes this. You should note this too. 』

Zane looked at the notification.

’75%,’ he thought. ’From one Saturday in Vance City.’

『 From creating genuine conditions and letting things happen naturally. The output improvement reflects increased synchronisation between host combat style and acquired Sigil. 』

’So getting closer to Maren improved the Sigil I stole from Dex,’ Zane thought.

『 The system finds that elegantly structured. 』

’Of course it does,’ Zane thought.

He put his communicator away and looked across the table.

Maren was reading her menu.

The system ticked one more time.

『 Maren — Familiarity +3% 』

『 Current: 69% — Acquaintance tier 』

『 System Note: 1% from Genuinely Close threshold. The system is very aware of this. You should be too. 』

’69%,’ he thought. ’One percent from genuinely close tier. One percent between 60% Overdrive output and 90%. Sitting right there like it’s been waiting for something to tip it over.’

The system surfaced.

『 Seems she’s really enjoying your company. 』

’You think so,’ Zane thought.

『 The familiarity data suggests it strongly. 69% from someone who does not distribute warmth casually is significant. The system is simply noting what the numbers say. 』

’I noticed,’ Zane thought.

『 Good. Now do something about the one percent. 』

He looked at her across the table.

Bucket hat set aside. Glasses on. Lipstick still intact from the morning. The Saturday version of her that he’d been processing since the gate and hadn’t fully finished processing.

She looked up from the menu.

"You’re staring," she said.

"You know who wouldn’t stare when a cute girl is right in front of them," Zane said.

Maren looked up from the menu.

"You’ve started flattering me again," she said.

"It’s the truth honestly," Zane replied.

She looked at him for one more second.

Then the smirk appeared.

"Stoooop," she said. The specific ecstatic tone of someone who was telling him to stop and absolutely did not mean it.

He laughed. Short. Genuine.

She went back to her menu with the smirk still sitting on her face.

The system surfaced.

『 System Note: She said stop in that tone. The system notes this means the opposite. 』

’Don’t need to tell me that system ,’ Zane said mentally.

『 Good. 』

The waiter arrived. They ordered — grilled chicken, seasonal sides, the kind of straightforward lunch that didn’t require deliberation. The waiter collected the menus and headed back toward the kitchen.

Now there was just the table and the window and Vance City doing its Saturday thing outside.

Maren looked at the street.

He looked at her.

’This is the non-academic context,’ he thought. ’This is what she looks like when nobody is running a session and the drill timer isn’t counting down and the only thing on the agenda is lunch in a small restaurant on the fourth street.’

’Relaxed,’ he thought. ’Underneath all the precision she’s actually relaxed.’

"You like it here?." he asked. "The city."

She glanced at him.

"More than the campus," she replied. "The campus is good for what it’s for. But it’s contained." She looked at the street. "Out here things just exist without needing to justify themselves."

Zane looked at the street.

’Things just exist without needing to justify themselves,’ he thought. ’That’s the most Maren sentence that has ever been said in the history of sentences.’

"Yeah," he said. "I get that."

She looked at him sideways.

"You’ve been out here before," she said.

"No," Zane said. "First time since arriving."

She looked at him.

"Since Six weeks ago?." she asked.

"Yeah," Zane confirmed.

She shook her head slightly. The specific head shake of someone who found something both unremarkable and completely predictable about the person sitting across from them.

"You need more fresh air, Calloway," she said.

"You’re the second person to tell me that," he said.

"Who was first," she said.

"The same person who told me toughness doesn’t show on faces," he said.

She looked at him.

He did same likewise.

She didn’t know who he was referring to. Just held his gaze for a moment with the calculating stillness doing its thing. Trying to place it, filing it under unknown reference, letting it go.

The corner of her mouth pulled slightly.

The food arrived.

They ate in the specific comfortable silence that had migrated from the training grounds to the classroom corridor to the academic block stairwell and had now apparently followed them all the way to a restaurant on the fourth street of the Vance City commercial district.

Halfway through lunch Maren put her fork down.

Looked at him.

"Why did you come today?." she asked.