Frequency. The fundamental substance of everything on Solaris-3.
Every flower, every blade of grass, every creature possessed its own unique Frequency. And when that Frequency fell into chaos, lost its natural rhythm, the thing it once belonged to twisted into something else entirely: a monster known as a Tacet Discord.
Born from corrupted Frequencies, Tacet Discords fed on instinct alone, devouring the Frequencies of other living things to stabilize themselves, to evolve. In practice, that meant one thing: they killed and consumed everything in their path.
Tacet Discords were the enemy of Civilization itself.
Left unchecked, they would swallow the world whole.
Deep within the Gorges of Spirits, at a place called Memento Square, three Whisperin-type Tacet Discords shimmered into existence like mobs respawning on a game map. Two were humanoid, their arms tapering into scythe-like blades. The third stood several meters tall, a fortress of twisted flesh.
Common Class x2. Elite Class x1.
A formation like that would give a seasoned Resonator trouble, with a real risk of casualties.
The Chasm Guardian roared, a guttural bellow that shook the stones. The two Havoc Warriors shrieked in answer, raw and hungry. All three ached to devour, to feed on the Frequency of the living.
They never got the chance.
Two swords split the air with a sharp whistle and buried themselves hilt-deep in the skulls of both Havoc Warriors. Instant kills. Before the bodies hit the ground, both Rovers had already closed the distance to the Chasm Guardian.
Fists clenched. Weight behind the blow.
The impact sent the fortress-sized Chasm Guardian flying like a cannonball. A conservative estimate put its remaining health below a third. A candle guttering in the wind.
"Big, but it can't take a hit."
"Good thing I held back, or that would've finished it."
They dusted off their hands and retrieved their Originite: Type II swords from the skulls of the fallen Havoc Warriors. Their combat instincts were almost identical, it turned out. Both preferred to open with a thrown blade to clear the trash mobs.
The only problem was that each of them only had one sword. Throw it, and they were unarmed. Their bare fists packed plenty of force, sure, but going weaponless felt reckless.
"We should stock up on ten spare blades," they muttered in unison.
They caught each other's eye and laughed. The synchronicity between them had almost stopped being surprising. But there was a more pressing issue.
"Only one Tacet Discord left. Not enough to share."
Both pairs of eyes settled on the Chasm Guardian as it wobbled back to its feet. Elite Class or not, the thing was still a punching bag to them. They'd pulled their punches on purpose, after all. They wanted a live target to test their Fortes on.
The Chasm Guardian froze.
Something in those two gazes registered even through its corrupted instincts. Its massive body, thick as a fortress wall, shuddered and took a step back.
"Forget it. Let's just hit it together."
"Works for me. On three!"
Memory was gone, but everything about combat had been carved into their bones. Fighting was reflex, instinct. And that included knowing how to use their own power.
Both Rovers clenched their right fists.
Pale gold light kindled in their eyes.
"Echo, resonate with me!" x2
The Tacet Marks on the backs of their hands blazed to life. Golden radiance pooled into their raised fists, but it wasn't ordinary light. It was time itself.
The Chasm Guardian's massive body locked mid-step. Frozen. Not a twitch, not a tremor. Suspended in absolute stillness.
Three. Two. One.
The sound of shattering glass tore through the air.
As the time-stop released, a surge of energy detonated outward. No explosion, no fire, no sound. But the entire Gorges of Spirits shuddered under the force of it.
As for the Chasm Guardian...
Against an attack that could shake a valley, an Elite Class Tacet Discord didn't stand a chance. Not even dust remained.
"Uh... was that a little too much?" they said together, staring blankly at the aftermath.
A crater yawned before them, at least ten meters across.
This isn't a game anymore. The realization hit Rover like cold water. He hadn't been dropped into the game. The game had become reality. Wuthering Waves had incredible environmental interaction, sure, but no ultimate ability in the game could punch a hole in the terrain. Here, though? The sheer destructive power of a high-level Resonator was terrifying beyond anything numbers on a screen could convey.
What used to be damage values on a HUD now carved itself into the earth for real.
"We need to be careful with that one. Way too much power."
"Agreed. Should've dialed it back."
Time-stop plus detonation. Control and damage in one package. And neither of them had even gone all out. That blast wasn't close to their limit.
Two stunned voices broke through from behind them.
"You destroyed an Elite Class Chasm Guardian in a single hit?"
"Rovers, you... both of you are insane!"
Yangyang's hand flew to her mouth. Chixia's jaw hung open.
Both of them felt their scalps prickle. A Chasm Guardian gave even veteran Resonators fits. Whenever the Midnight Rangers located one, they deployed a full squad and took it down carefully, methodically.
And these two had obliterated it in one move.
Chixia's reaction was pure awe. Yangyang, sharper, had already arrived at the real conclusion: the two Rovers she'd stumbled across today were no ordinary Resonators. Anyone with this kind of strength would command respect anywhere on Solaris-3.
"Well, it helps having her fighting beside me," he said with a shrug.
"Please. He could've handled it alone without breaking a sweat."
He gave his Originite: Type II a flourish and slid it into the sheath at his hip. She spun hers by the handle and sheathed it behind her back. Both movements were crisp, effortless, and perfectly mirrored.
Yangyang and Chixia exchanged a knowing smile, struck by the same thought for what felt like the hundredth time: Those two really are impossibly alike.
After collecting the three LF Whisperin Cores the Havoc Warriors and Chasm Guardian had dropped, the Rovers finally noticed what loomed nearby. A statue, enormous and unmistakable.
A dragon. An Eastern dragon, carved from the mountain itself.
The sculptor hadn't so much built it as liberated it from the stone, every scale and whisker rendered with breathtaking precision. Rover caught himself reaching for a phone that wasn't there, instinct telling him to snap a photo, check in, maybe say a little prayer for good luck.
Then the world went dark around them both.
A deep, resonant growl rolled through the blackness.
Yangyang and Chixia vanished. The stone dragon did not.
It moved.
Antlers like golden branches. Scales black as the void. White whiskers trailing through the dark. The dragon's serpentine body stretched at least a hundred meters, radiating an authority so vast it pressed against the skin like atmosphere, sacred and absolute.
Rover knew this scene. He'd played through it. But the other Rover stiffened in shock as the divine creature glanced between them, surprise flickering in its ancient eyes.
Then it lowered its head.
Joy. Welcome. Deference.
Two... two Resonators? the Sentinel thought, bewildered. What is happening? Never mind. I need to notify Jinhsi immediately.
The vision came fast and left faster.
The darkness dissolved back into the familiar landscape of Memento Square, the stone dragon inert once more. Yangyang and Chixia hovered close, waving their hands in front of the Rovers' faces with worried expressions.
"Rovers? Are you two alright?"
"Huh? Did we do something?"
"You both froze in front of the Sentinel's statue," Chixia said, jerking a thumb over her shoulder at the towering dragon carving. "Completely unresponsive, no matter how much we called your names."
Both Rovers looked up at the statue again. Impressive as it was, the craftsmanship that had seemed miraculous moments ago paled against the real thing. That dragon had been something beyond biology, beyond imagination. A myth made flesh, divine in a way no pile of carved stone could ever imitate.
Rover, the transmigrator, wasn't confused. He'd expected this.
But she spoke up and described what they'd seen.
Yangyang and Chixia went pale.
"You saw the actual Sentinel?!"
"Um... what's a Sentinel?"
"Wherever Civilization and history exist, a Sentinel exists alongside them," Yangyang said, turning toward the statue with unmistakable reverence. "Sentinels are like gods. They guide and protect our Civilization. This statue honors Jinzhou's own Sentinel: Jué."
Even Chixia, bright and boisterous as ever, had gone serious. Her expression was tight with genuine awe.
"Different regions have different attitudes toward their Sentinels, but for Jinzhou, Jué is beyond question. Jué commands the Temporal Mandate, knowing Jinzhou's past, present, and future. Time flows around Jué like a river. The vast sweep of ages is nothing more than a shallow stream beneath the Sentinel's grasp."
Every word Yangyang spoke carried the weight of true belief. Chixia nodded along, her face full of the same quiet devotion.
The female Rover scratched her cheek, a little awkward.
She was quietly grateful she hadn't told the whole story. Because if Yangyang and Chixia ever found out that the Sentinel they worshipped as a god had just bowed its head to two amnesiac wanderers...
Well. Their reactions would've been something to see.