Chapter 126: Connections
CONTINUOUS OFFICE
"So you’ve had all this here the whole time." Golden stared at the giant map on the wall with the admiration of someone who had just discovered the ace hidden up someone’s sleeve. "One hell of an ace."
Haru and the Head Continuous looked at the same map, yellowed paper, old folds, marks of use dating back decades before either of them had been born.
Golden picked up a fragment and fitted it over a specific area.
It fit perfectly.
"Huh." He said. "Fits perfectly."
"You two went further than the others." the Head commented without looking up from his work. "Most people just asked me where the area was. None of them came to compare it with the map."
"How did you know this map was the answer?" Golden asked Haru.
"It’s old." Haru replied simply.
"And?"
"If I were a professor designing this kind of test." Haru said slowly. "I’d use an old map on purpose. It complicates perception. Makes it harder to know where anything is until everything is assembled correctly. Original maps like this are full of notes from the people who used them before."
Pause.
"First challenge: see the map as a whole. Second: know how to actually read it. Third: know the places it shows."
"And it wasn’t just because of the notes." He continued. "When we revealed the crystal in Sector B, I already suspected the fragments were copies split from this map."
"So why didn’t we bring them all here earlier?" Golden asked.
"And risk leaking information about something this rare?" Haru said. "No. Everyone chose their own activity. Being a Continuous was mine."
"And Isabela Valtherion." Golden continued. "As far as I know, you’re her bodyguard."
"I am."
"Isn’t your job to protect her?"
"The last thing Isabela wants is help." Haru said. "She can handle herself. She’s with Kira."
"Not to mention that in the game she makes it either way." He thought without saying it out loud. "Her fate is already set."
"The real difficulty here is knowing exactly where." Haru said while looking at the map. "The crystal exists even without enough fragments. But it won’t reveal itself without them. It’s like searching in the dark."
He thought for a moment.
"I could install the HUD on Golden." He considered. "Even if it’s invisible, the crystal might still keep its durability bar. I’d just have to explain what to control."
"But that’s not a good idea."
"First: I’d have to explain what kind of eye power it is. Second: explain bars, numbers, reading them. Third: keeping the HUD active on someone who’s not a Gamer would drain both of us. Horrible feeling. It drains both sides."
"So how do we find the crystals without seeing them?"
"What if..."
"Vandris’ Eye." He said.
"Eye of what?"
«»
What happened wasn’t installing a Gamer HUD.
It was something else, older, rarer, something described on a specific page of Vandris’ diary that Haru had reread so many times the words were engraved into his memory: possession.
It wasn’t invasion. It wasn’t total control.
It was lending someone a window.
Haru had a hundred spirits inside him, all different, all carrying fragments of abilities that had never fully manifested because his body could only process the appearance for now, never the true power. His eye turned black. He could see raw mana, but only in a limited, incomplete way.
"If I still can’t manifest the full power inside myself..."
"...maybe I can manifest it in someone else?"
The answer was yes.
He used Mind Whisper, not to force, but to invite. He placed a hand on Golden’s head, concentrated enough mana to create a temporary bridge, and said one simple sentence:
"Stay here."
One spirit left Haru’s core, not completely, still connected, still part of him, but temporarily occupying the space Golden offered.
It was uncomfortable for both of them. Golden felt a cold that came from nowhere. Haru felt the temporary emptiness where that spirit normally resided.
And then, unlike when Haru tried to manifest it inside himself, where he could only achieve the form without the function, inside Golden the true power appeared.
Simply because there was more room inside Golden than inside Haru.
Vandris’ Eye.
Not cosmetic.
Functional.
Golden opened his eyes. One of them now had a widened pupil, a depth that should never exist in a normal human eye.
"What the hell is this feeling?" he muttered.
"Keep your eyes open." Haru said. "You’re going to see strange things for a while."
And that was how they found the crystals until they reached...
...THE SEWER DISTRICT...
The last area on Haru’s map was exactly where no normal student would ever think to search.
"Based on my observations." Haru said as they descended the damp stone stairs. "This area has barely been explored. Hard-to-find fragments, rarely traded in the market."
"And what does that mean?"
"That there should be something valuable here."
"Difficulty creates valuable things." Golden finished, already understanding the logic.
They reached the academy sewers, dark stone tunnels, water slowly trickling, a smell neither of them would ever forget.
"Holy shit." Golden said while looking around. "If it’s not here, we’re seriously screwed."
With Vandris’ Eye active, Golden saw—not clearly at first—but shapes resonating against the darkness, points of energy that shouldn’t exist inside an ordinary sewer.
"There’s... there’s something over there." He pointed.
They kept collecting them, more crystals that no one else had found, crystals hidden in places that required exactly the kind of vision Golden now temporarily possessed.
Golden had already accumulated far more points than Haru, the natural consequence of being the one revealing every discovery.
As they turned a deeper corner in the sewer system...
They found Armand.
And Morrow beside him.
Armand turned, controlled surprise, but genuine surprise.
Vandris’ Eye glowed faintly on Golden’s face in the darkness.
Haru looked at Golden.
"Disqualify yourself." He said.
"What!?"
"I need you to get disqualified. Now."
Armand raised his hand, signaling Morrow, who was already preparing his fists.
<ONE DAY EARLIER>They were standing in the courtyard when Armand stopped.
"You wanted to know why I already expected you to be disqualified." He said, not asking, simply resuming the conversation that had never truly ended.
"For two reasons." He continued. "First: you’re predictable. Second: it had to happen."
He pointed at a random student walking through the corridor, someone with visible fragments in his pocket, walking carelessly.
"Punch that guy." He said. "Looks like he’s carrying a lot."
"What?"
"Go on. Hit him."
"What..."
"Hit him." Armand repeated. "Hit him. Hit him."
Morrow punched the stranger without warning, without any prior provocation.
The student fell. Confused, hurt, with no idea what had just happened.
The coin gave no notification.
"Nothing." Morrow said, looking at himself, completely clean.
"Variables." Armand explained. "The test only registers violence committed by active variables, people still participating, those the system recognizes as valid players. It doesn’t register actions committed by a disqualified ghost against someone who’s still inside... you can’t be disqualified twice."
Pause.
"That’s the most useful loophole there is."
Morrow smiled, finally understanding.
He punched the student again.
And again.
Until he passed out, unable to fight back without disqualifying himself as well, the perfect prey for a rule that protected exactly the people who needed protection from the rules themselves.
He took the fragments. The crystals the student had already collected and handed them to Armand.
And they did it again.
And again.
Until they reached that final location, inside the sewer.
<PRESENT>"They disqualify you from taking the test... not from keeping your points."
Haru had just explained the same mechanic to Golden, predicting that Armand had already discovered it and used it first.
"So that’s why you let me reveal the crystals." Golden said slowly, putting the pieces together. "You wanted to buy me."
"Yeah." Haru confirmed, watching Morrow prepare to attack.
"You can leave now." Armand said with studied calm. "You’ll just pay me later."
"Go fuck yourself." Golden answered without hesitation.
Armand smiled, his first genuine reaction since they appeared.
"Golden Flavius Elegantius II." He said. "Junior."
"Armand." Golden said the full name, something Haru still didn’t know, a surname carrying its own weight. "Long time."
"Disqualify yourse..." Haru said, one final confirmation.
Before he could finish the sentence, Golden had already punched Haru in the face.
"Learn to close your damn window, bum."
CRACK.
The coin notified:
[RULE VIOLATION]
◊ User: Golden F. Elegantius II Junior
◊ Violation: Physical aggression during the test
◊ Penalty: TOTAL DISQUALIFICATION
◊...
Golden charged straight at Armand, now free from every rule, Vandris’ Eye still glowing faintly in the damp darkness of the tunnel.
Morrow stepped in front before Golden could reach him, physical block, large body against large body.
Armand looked toward where Haru had been.
Haru had already disappeared.
[Shadow Steps]
The sewer was dark enough, the walls had enough recesses, deep enough shadows...
Gone.
"See you around." Armand said to Golden, turning, vanishing in a burst of shadows of his own, a technique different from Haru’s but serving the same purpose.
Armand, Haru teleporting, Golden and Morrow fighting, Genius trying to free himself from the Chinese man all thought the same thing.
"I have to put an end to this."
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