At the academy, Layla, and Fex had already slipped back into their dorms, leaving Logan behind with the promise that he'd alert them through their watches the moment he uncovered anything useful.
Right now, Logan was hunched over a forest of half-finished gadgets scattered across his room. Sweat trickled down his forehead, catching the harsh glow of his screens. On one of the larger monitors, a single straight line crawled horizontally—flat, unmoving—while beneath it, endless strings of code cascaded downward like a digital waterfall. To anyone else, it was just gibberish. To Logan, it was a language that refused to speak back.
"How is this even possible…?" he muttered, fingers twitching over the keys. "No… no, I didn't consider that. Maybe I'm not catching the right signal…"
He leaned closer, breath shallow.
"…Yes. Yes—finally!"
The once-dead line on the graph shot upward in a sharp, violent spike. The higher it climbed, the more compressed the graph became, as if the system itself struggled to contain whatever he had just tapped into.
Without hesitation, Logan fired off a message to the strange new group he had met only hours ago.
Somewhere else, Layla rummaged through a forgotten storage box, clothes and scraps of old academy junk tossed aside until—
"Found it."
She held an orb in her hand. With a steady breath, she pressed the small recessed button. A pulse of light travelled upward, and after a few seconds, a voice crackled through.
"What is it, Agent 88?"
"I found something important," Layla said, keeping her voice low. "After TrueDream's visit this year… eight students have gone missing. Every trace I followed points to them being sent to a planet called Pioletic. And among them are some of my frie—" she corrected herself quickly, "—my new allies. They've been thrown into that place. Please… do something. Time is running out."
The line went silent long enough for her heartbeat to grow loud in her ears.
Then it reactivated—cold, clipped.
"Agents have already been withdrawn from planet Pioletic, Agent 83. Under current circumstances, nothing can be done to retrieve them."
"But they won't survive there long. You have to intervene—"
"Agent 83. Know your place."
The voice hardened.
"You hold no authority to make demands. And let me remind you of your mission. You are not out there to enjoy freedom from Pure, nor to form bonds or attachments. You are there to gather intelligence. So stop behaving like an ordinary student and carry out the task assigned to you."
A final pause.
"May Pure be with you."
The channel cut off, leaving only silence.
-----
quinn just placed his hands on the door following the inspect skills instruction and string of numbers came up in his screeen.
A passcode machine which is linked to a steel door. Entering the right combination to the door will successfully open. The combination to the door is 2536725364
Quinn immediately tested out the number the system had given him.
"Beep!"
*Kachuck
The door then made an unlocking sound and swung open.
As he heard the sound of the door unlocking a grin appeared on his face that couldn't be contained.
"I love you system, Quinn said as he stepped into the container.
But the moment Quinn stepped inside, his excitement died. No gleaming beast gear. No hidden piles of beast crystals. Just shelves—endless shelves—stacked with books and nothing else.
Still, the moment he picked up the nearest one, everything changed.
Earth Ability Book – Level 1Unable to learn. You are beyond the scope of this book. Convert to 10 EXP?
A room full of ability and skill books. A treasure vault disguised as a dusty library. He couldn't learn the weaker abilities anymore, but exp… exp was always welcome.
He confirmed the conversion.
The book began to crumble between his fingers, dissolving into shimmering dust. A warm surge pulsed through his body.
+10 EXP8486 / 12800
Quinn scanned the room again. He'd barely scratched the surface. This place really was a gold mine.
He moved to the next shelf, brushing his hand across a new row of books. One of them pulsed with a heavier aura.
Earth Ability Book – Level 3Unable to learn. Convert to 1000 EXP?
He blinked, picked it up again just to make sure he wasn't hallucinating. But no—the number stayed the same. A single Level 3 ability book offered a thousand experience points.
He didn't hesitate. He absorbed it instantly.
9536 / 12800
The book beside it was a skill book, and as he suspected, it offered half—500 EXP. A pattern. A profitable one.
Quinn launched into a frenzy, grabbing book after book. Absorbing everything he couldn't use and tossing the rest aside. He would've loved to sell them—these books would fetch a ridiculous price—but they couldn't enter his storage, and dragging them around was a nightmare waiting to happen.
So he devoured them for EXP instead.
The numbers climbed, slowly tightening the gap. The requirement for his next level was steep, almost cruel, but this room was his salvation—a hidden vault overflowing with experience.
After what felt like an eternity of tearing through shelves, the counter finally flashed.
You have levelled up.You have levelled up.[Congratulations. You are now Level 10.]
System Level 10 rewards had been un—