The two weeks that followed the Devourer hunt were a period of intense, frustrating, and utterly exhilarating study for the members of Project Zero. They had been given a key to a new universe, but the door was heavy, and the lock was impossibly complex.
In his roaring, cluttered workshop, Hephaestus had abandoned all his other projects. The floor was littered with discarded components and scorched blueprints. Holographic equations from Oracle's paper on Rift Cartography floated in the air like constellations of alien stars. The old master craftsman, who hadn't encountered a true intellectual challenge in decades, was now wrestling with concepts that felt both divinely elegant and maddeningly obtuse.
"Temporal displacement affecting spatial harmonics... of course!" he would roar to his empty workshop, followed moments later by, "But how does that account for the chroniton particle decay rate?! This Oracle writes like a god and documents like a lazy intern!"
Despite his complaints, a new device was slowly taking shape on his main workbench. It was a chaotic assembly of spinning gyroscopes, pulsing crystals, and delicate copper wiring, all jury-rigged together. He called it the Rift Fluctuation Sensor, Mark 1. It was his attempt to turn Oracle's divine theory into tangible, measurable reality.
Captain Lin Mei, meanwhile, faced a different kind of struggle. In her spartan room, she was surrounded not by tools, but by data slates and cups of stale coffee. She was a soldier, a woman of action and instinct. The dense, academic theory was a foreign language to her. Yet, night after night, she forced herself to read, her lips moving silently as she traced the complex equations. She cross-referenced every concept with her own battlefield reports, trying to build a bridge between Oracle's abstract mathematics and the visceral reality of an open Rift. Her progress was slow, agonizing, but her determination was absolute. She would not be the weak link in this chain.
It was only Old-Man-Jiang who seemed to be in his element. He sat in his quiet tea house, not trying to master the deep science, but absorbing its strategic implications. He wasn't just reading a paper; he was reading the enemy's mind. He built complex war-game models on his tablet, simulating ambush scenarios, supply chain disruptions, and targeted strikes. With the power to predict Rift formations, the entire strategic landscape of the war had changed. Humanity was no longer blind. And in his mind, General Jiang Wei was already planning campaigns for a war that hadn't even started yet.
At Shanghai No. 1 High, the social ecosystem had settled into a new, stable state. Wang Feng, with his A-Rank combat talent, remained a prince, but he was no longer the sole center of the universe. A new star had risen to prominence: Su Liying.
Her A-Rank Healing and Empathy talent was deemed a "strategic-level asset" by the government. She was no longer just the school goddess; she was a national treasure. Serious-looking adults in sharp suits and military uniforms were often seen speaking with her in quiet corners of the school, trying to recruit her for their respective factions. She was polite to all of them, but remained non-committal, a fact that only increased her value.
This shift in attention did not sit well with Wang Feng. Driven by a potent cocktail of youthful arrogance and unrequited attraction, he found his irritation increasingly focused on the one person Su Liying ever seemed to show unsolicited concern for: the triple-zero trash, Qin Mo.
One afternoon, as students were leaving for the day, he saw his chance. Su Liying was walking just ahead of Qin Mo in a crowded hallway. With a cruel smirk, Wang Feng positioned himself and subtly stuck out his foot, intending to trip Qin Mo and make him sprawl humiliatingly at the goddess's feet.
But the expected clatter and fall never came.
Qin Mo, his mind preoccupied with calculating the optimal energy signature for Hephaestus's new sensor, didn't even seem to notice the foot. His body, moving with an instinct born from observing a thousand different types of ambushes, simply adjusted its path by a few centimeters, flowing around the obstacle like water around a rock. He continued walking without a single break in his stride.
Wang Feng was left off-balance, his own trap having made him look foolish. His face flushed with anger and embarrassment.
Before he could spew an insult, a calm, cold voice cut through the air.
"Is this really how the star of our school behaves, Wang Feng?"
Su Liying had stopped and turned, her usually warm eyes now holding a distinct chill of disappointment. "Harassing someone who has never done you any harm. Does bullying the weak make your A-Rank talent feel more powerful?"
Her quiet words struck with more force than any physical blow. The students around them stared, their expressions a mixture of shock and amusement. Wang Feng's face went from red to purple. To be publicly rebuked by the girl he was trying to impress was the ultimate humiliation. He stammered, unable to form a coherent reply, before pushing his way through the crowd and storming off in a fury.
Su Liying watched him go, then her gaze turned to Qin Mo's retreating back. His unnatural calm... his effortless avoidance of the trap... it wasn't the reaction of a normal person. The detached confidence of the "Oracle" persona, the impossible depth of his aura, and now this... the pieces of the puzzle were clicking together in her mind, forming a picture that was both terrifying and unbelievably exciting. She made a decision. It was time to stop speculating and start investigating.
That evening, in the digital sanctuary of [Channel: Zero], a message from Hephaestus appeared, buzzing with triumphant energy.
Hephaestus: It's done! The Rift Fluctuation Sensor, Mark 1, is online. It's unstable as all hell and the calibration is a nightmare, but it works! It can detect the 'chroniton particle' decay that Oracle's paper described. I'm getting... very strange readings from the Yangtze River Delta region.
Lin Mei and Jiang Wei were instantly alert.
Nomad-Lead: Can you pinpoint the source? Give us coordinates.
Old-Man-Jiang: What do the predictive models say when you input this new data?
Hephaestus sent over a stream of raw data. For the next hour, the three of them worked in a feverish, synergistic trance. Hephaestus refined the sensor readings, Lin Mei cross-referenced the energy signatures with her knowledge of Abyssal creature types, and Old-Man-Jiang fed the information into the complex predictive models from Oracle's document.
Finally, the old general made the call.
Old-Man-Jiang: The models have converged. There is a 92.7% probability of a Level 4 Rift opening at these coordinates. He posted a specific location in a remote, marshy area. Predicted formation time: approximately 36 hours from now. The energy signature strongly suggests the primary emergent threat will be 'Armored-type' Crustaceans, likely Abyssal Razorcrabs.
Just as they were absorbing the information, Oracle logged on.
Oracle: Your prediction is correct.
The simple validation sent a thrill through each of them. Their studies had borne fruit.
Oracle: The official government prediction from the 'National Prophet Division' will likely place the Rift 50 kilometers south of your location and predict its formation 12 hours later than your estimate. They rely on older, less precise models. They will be wrong.
Oracle: This presents an opportunity. A test. Your task is not to intervene directly in the battle.
Nomad-Lead: What? But we can give the military a warning! We can save lives!
Oracle: A direct warning from an unknown source will be dismissed. We will prove our superiority in a different way. You will leak your prediction anonymously to the public Hunter's Guild bulletin. Post the coordinates, the timeline, and the predicted monster type. Let the two prophecies compete in the open market of public opinion. We will observe the outcome.
With that, Oracle went offline, leaving them with another audacious, unorthodox command.
At her family's elegant apartment, Su Liying sat before her own computer. Her personal investigation had begun. She was scrolling through the public Hunter's Guild bulletin, a habit she had picked up to better understand the world she was about to formally enter.
She saw the official government warning first—a Level 4 Rift predicted to open south of the delta. Standard procedure. Then, her eyes caught a new post, flagged as "unverified" and "anonymous."
The post was written in a dry, academic tone. It provided different coordinates, a shorter timeline, and a specific prediction of 'Abyssal Razorcrabs,' citing "anomalous chroniton particle readings" as the reason for the discrepancy.
The tone... it was so chillingly familiar.
A sudden, wild idea sparked in her mind. On a hunch, she opened a new window and hacked into her school's private student database—a feat that was surprisingly easy for someone with her level of intellect. She pulled up Qin Mo's academic file.
His grades were a picture of perfect mediocrity. He was ranked squarely in the middle of the class in history, literature, and biology. Just another face in the crowd.
Except for one subject.
Physics.
In physics, his record was flawless. Every test, every exam, every homework assignment was a perfect 100. Not just correct answers, but solutions presented with an elegance and theoretical understanding that was utterly out of place for a high school student. He had even used mathematical principles in his test answers that wouldn't be taught until the university level.
She looked at his perfect score on the recent wave mechanics and resonance frequencies test. Then she looked back at the anonymous post on the hunter forum, a post that talked about "chroniton readings" and "spatial harmonics."
A shiver ran down her spine. It was a crazy, impossible leap of logic. But the pieces fit.
The hunter had found a trail.