Chapter 205: No Data Found

The elevator chimed softly as the doors slid open on the eightieth floor. Warm sunlight poured into the massive living room, making the whole penthouse feel bright and peaceful.

Sitting in her motorized wheelchair near the big windows, Calista turned her head the second she heard the doors. Her eyes went wide, as Evren, Amber and Zephyra walked in.

The television on the wall was still showing the live news from the city, but she completely ignored it. "Evren!" she cried out in pure relief.

She pushed the joystick on her armrest and sped across the floor toward them. She stopped the chair right in front of Evren, gripped the armrests tightly, and pushed herself up onto her feet.

Her legs wobbled, but her spine held firm. She took one shaky step forward before losing her balance, and Evren quickly stepped in and caught her in his arms.

"I’ve got you," Evren said quietly, holding her tight against his chest. Calista buried her face in his neck, her shoulders shaking as she cried into his torn combat jacket.

"You’re alive," she whispered, her voice muffled against his shirt. "I watched the live stream all morning... when you went in and we waited with no idea what was going on in there. I was so scared."

"We made it back, Calista," Evren said gently, patting her back. "The rift is gone for good. The whole city is safe now."

Amber walked up beside them with a tired smile. "He took the hardest hit out there, but we weren’t going to let that monster get past us."

Calista pulled back a little, wiping the tears from her cheeks with her sleeve. She looked at Amber’s split lip and the empty sheath at her hip, then glanced at Zephyra’s soot-covered jacket.

"Look at the three of you," Calista said, holding Amber’s hand and giving Zephyra a warm look. "You look like you walked straight through a fire."

"Felt like it, too," Zephyra muttered, a tiny smirk touching her lips. "Those void monsters don’t go down easy."

Right then, Evren’s stomach let out a loud growl. Amber pressed a hand against her stomach and chuckled, her own stomach rumbling right after.

"When did you guys last eat?" Calista asked, letting Evren help her sit back into her chair. Evren laughed dryly and replied, "We rushed out before breakfast when Kincaid called, and fighting an extinction boss burns a lot of energy."

"I can tell," Calista said with a sympathetic smile. "You three smell like burnt ozone and dried sweat. Go take a proper bath and get into clean clothes."

"What about food?" Amber asked, resting a hand on her stomach. "Is the kitchen staff around or should we order in?"

"The emergency lockdown only lifted half an hour ago, so local diners are just starting to fire up their kitchens," Calista explained. "I’ll call in an order for some hot bowls of noodles and grilled meat now. Go get washed up, and it should be here by the time we finish catching up."

"That sounds like a plan," Evren agreed, heading toward the hallway.

The three of them split off to their own bathrooms.

A long, hot shower washed away the sweat, dried blood, and chalky void dust, leaving Evren feeling like a human being again.

He changed into a soft black t-shirt and loose sweatpants, feeling the tension slowly drain from his shoulders. Amber and Zephyra joined him in the living room a short while later, both wearing fresh loungewear with damp hair combed back.

Calista had a pot of hot jasmine tea ready on the low coffee table. They all sat down together on the plush sectional sofa, letting the warm mugs heat their hands.

"So what actually happened inside?" Calista asked softly, looking between them. "The broadcast drones on the news lost signal right after the strike team went through the rift."

Amber took a sip of tea and shook her head. "It was a mess from the second we walked in. The void didn’t just throw monsters at us; it trapped our minds in hallucinations."

"Hallucinations?" Calista asked with furrowed brows.

"It made us see fake copies of each other," Amber said. "If Evren hadn’t figured out the trick, we would have torn each other apart before ever finding the boss."

"The rest of the strike team was in even worse shape," Evren added. "The monster had forty hunters paralyzed in a mental stasis trap. Drake’s sword shattered on the first strike, and the whole front line was completely pinned down."

"It was twenty-five feet tall, with four bone scythes and venom that melts steel," Zephyra said quietly from the corner of the couch. "Evren had to pin it with a summon, freeze its core vents, and detonate it with lightning before it could finish everyone off."

Calista held her mug with both hands, her eyes wide as she listened. "I saw Drake bow to you on live television. I’ve never seen him... ever, look so humbled."

"He almost watched all his men die today," Evren said. "Facing that kind of disaster changes a person’s priorities."

Right on cue, the penthouse doorbell chimed. One of Walter’s men wheeled in a large cart carrying insulated bags from a well-known family diner down the avenue.

Two hours had passed since the lockdown ended, and the food smelled fantastic. There were large steaming bowls of braised beef noodles, grilled chicken skewers, hot pork dumplings, and seasoned broth.

They moved to the dining table and ate without standing on ceremony. The hot broth and chewy noodles tasted incredible, driving the deep chill from Evren’s chest and filling their empty stomachs.

Calista smiled as she watched them clear the bowls. Seeing color return to their faces made the lingering fear in her chest finally melt away.

Once they finished eating, Amber leaned back in her chair with a long groan of satisfaction. "Now that my stomach isn’t eating itself, those terrace hot springs are calling my name."

"Go soak as long as you want," Calista laughed softly. "The mineral water will help those stiff joints."

They walked out to the covered terrace, where steam drifted gently from the sunken stone hot springs. Evren stepped into the private pool, slowly sinking into the hot mineral water with a deep exhale.

The soothing heat soaked right into his bruised ribs, easing the dull throbbing that had lingered since the cavern clash. Across the bamboo divider, he could hear the gentle splashing of water and the quiet chatter of Amber and Zephyra as they relaxed.

For the first time in days, the heavy weight of impending disaster was completely gone.

—

Later that night, the penthouse went quiet. Amber, Zephyra, and Calista had all gone to sleep, completely exhausted from the long day.

Evren sat alone at the wooden desk in his study, wearing a clean shirt and sweatpants. The city lights below twinkled peacefully through the glass.

He pulled the Level 102 Void Calamity Core out of his spatial ring. The dark purple crystal sat on the desk, about the size of a fist, heavy and cool to the touch.

A faint purple light pulsed from inside it, warping the air slightly. Evren leaned back in his chair and stared at it, thinking back to the fight in the cavern.

Right before the hydra pinned the beast, the monster had stopped for a second. It didn’t just attack him; it had spoken inside his head.

The words still echoed clearly in his mind: Archive Seed... Custodian Protocol... running. Evren rubbed his chin, trying to make sense of what that meant.

Monsters were supposed to be mindless beasts that just killed whatever moved. No textbook or hunter file had ever mentioned a void creature talking about archives or protocols.

Even weirder, the system screen had glitched at the exact same time. Evren focused his thoughts and called out mentally.

System, open status.

The familiar golden screen popped up in front of his eyes, showing his regular stats and his cash balance.

Progenitor Archive, Evren said mentally. The screen flickered once, and a simple message appeared:

[COMMAND NOT RECOGNIZED. NO DATA FOUND.]

Evren frowned at the screen, tapping his fingers against the wood. Custodian Protocol. System error.

The screen refreshed, but only showed the same summary:

[BOUND HEROINES: 3 (AMBER STERLING, ZEPHYRA NIGHTSHADE, CALISTA VESPER)]

[ACTIVE MULTIPLIER: 1,000X BASELINE]

[BANK BALANCE: $16,282,543,992.00 USD]

[SYSTEM VAULT BALANCE: $303,800,000,000.00 USD]

[SYSTEM STATUS: ALL MODULES 100% STABLE]

There was no mention of any error. The glitch that popped up in the stasis pod was completely gone, with zero record of whatever it had meant back then.

It was like the rift had triggered some weird temporary bug that wasn’t showing up anymore. Or maybe the system had just wiped it clean once they got back to the city.

Evren leaned forward, resting his chin on his hands as he looked at the purple core. The system had given him ridiculous money and power, turning him from an F-Rank nobody into a powerhouse

He had never really questioned where any of it came from before. But looking at the strange crystal on his desk, he had a feeling things were way bigger than just killing monsters and making cash.

He picked up the core and put it back into his ring. Tomorrow morning, Kincaid and the Defense Board would be waiting for the debrief, and he needed a clear head.

Evren stood up from his desk, stretched his stiff back, and stepped out of the study. He walked into the dimly lit hallway, planning to grab a glass of water before heading to bed.

As he entered the living room, a faint movement near the large glass windows caught his eye. Bathed in the pale moonlight, Calista was sitting quietly in her wheelchair, looking out over the sleeping city below.

Evren walked softly across the hardwood floor and stepped up beside her. Her eyes reflected the distant city lights as she turned her head toward him.

"Calista," Evren asked in a low, gentle voice. "What are you doing awake at this hour?"