By nightfall, they were back at the perimeter.The air was still. Too still. Even the insects had gone quiet.
Myaterous worked without speaking. He reinforced the camp wall, replaced broken support beams, and reactivated the electrostatic veil. Lira handled supplies while Joren stood guard, eyes fixed on the treeline.
Irelia watched them work, her hands still dirty from travel.
"You built all this in a week?"
He didn't look up. "Five days."
She studied the structure — crude but efficient. The walls were made from mud layered with fibrous roots, hardened by chemical bonding. Even the firepit was placed with precision, angled to keep heat from escaping the shelter.
"You think like a machine," she said.
"Machines don't think," he replied. "They follow logic. People waste it."
There wasn't much else to say.
The sky darkened fast, and then the notification came — a cold tone echoing across the region.
[Regional Evaluation: Phase 1 Initiated]Parameters: Stability, Influence, Synthesis Output, Loyalty.Timeframe: 24 Hours.Rewards: Variable.
Irelia flinched slightly at the voice. "It sounds like someone's watching us."
"They are," Myaterous said. "Always have been."
He stared at the hovering text until it faded. Evaluations meant ranking. And rankings meant attention — both from the system and other players.He didn't want either, but ignoring it wasn't an option.
He turned to his team.
"No one leaves the perimeter tonight. Lira, increase food rations. Joren, double the patrol route. Irelia, you're with me."
"Where?" she asked.
"To the synthesis chamber. We'll optimize."
The chamber wasn't really a room — just an open pit covered by woven branches. Inside, glowing fragments of failed synthesis attempts were stacked like bones.He moved among them, selecting pieces carefully.
"Every evaluation favors efficiency. The system tracks progress, not comfort. We'll give it something it can't ignore."
He started combining small items — copper dust, bone ash, plant fiber, and what looked like melted glass.Each attempt made the air hum softly.
"Concept: Energy Containment.""Concept: Organic Channel.""Catalyst: Resonance Core Fragment."Synthesize.
A low flash. The result floated in front of them:
Result: Proto-Nerve Conduit (Tier: Advanced – Organic).
Irelia frowned. "What even is that?"
"A bridge," he said. "Between ideas."
He wasn't exaggerating. The conduit pulsed faintly, alive. It could link two separate syntheses, allowing data to pass between them — a primitive neural net.
"You're trying to make the system talk back?" she asked.
"No," he said. "I'm teaching it to listen."
For a while, they worked in silence. Each failed synthesis was logged, each success cataloged. The evaluation timer ticked down in the corner of their vision.
Then something strange happened.
[Evaluation Notice: Anomaly Detected in User Myaterous – Synthesis Output Deviation 0.04%]
The words hung there for a moment before disappearing.Irelia stared at him. "What does that mean?"
"It means," he said quietly, "the system noticed me."
He didn't sound afraid — just aware. Like a man standing in the dark, realizing someone else was breathing behind him.
Outside, thunder rolled far in the distance. The mist that had thinned earlier began to gather again, curling like smoke above the forest.
"The storm's returning," Joren called from outside.
Myaterous stepped out of the chamber and looked up. The sky was flickering — faint geometric patterns of light flashing across the clouds, like a circuit waking up.
"No," he said. "That's not weather."
Irelia joined him, staring upward. "Then what?"
He didn't answer immediately. He was watching the patterns, trying to decode them — each flash, each symbol, every interval.
"It's communication," he finally said."From who?""The next stage."
And then, as if responding to him, the system spoke again.
[Evaluation Complete – Top 1% Identified.]User: Myaterous (Rank 1)Observation Granted – Higher Entities Engaged.
The world went still.
Irelia took a step back. "What did you do?"
Myaterous stared at the message for a long time. His eyes reflected the pale light in the sky — cold, sharp, almost distant.
"Nothing," he said. "Yet."