The alarm blared, yanking me out of my coding trance with all the grace of a brick through a window.

  “Ah, fuck…” I muttered, already feeling the weight of the new day pressing down as I scrambled to shut down my coding environment. The virtual world I’d been immersed in shattered like glass, bits and bytes fading into nothing as the Deck’s environment minimised out of existence.

  I blinked, realising I was half-sitting, half-sprawled across my bed in a position that should’ve been undeniably uncomfortable hours ago.

  ‘This… is gonna suck,’ I thought with a sigh, bracing myself as I tried to move.

  Eight solid hours in the same position had left my muscles as tight as a thoroughly rusted hinge, and every little shift sent sharp jolts of pain shooting through my limbs.

  If only I could just hit the Rest Function and recharge in an instant—but no, I was stuck on this relentless schedule for just a few more days.

  So, with a few muttered curses and some tears prickling at the corners of my eyes, I pushed through the aches and spasms.

  It took a good few minutes before I could move without feeling like I was being stabbed by a thousand tiny needles or trying to rip my own muscles in twine.

  Slowly, I swung my legs over the side of the bed and stood up, joints popping in protest.

  The room was quiet, a silence only broken by my own, soft groans and protests.

  The lack of Gabriel’s usual snoring confirmed he was already out for work, which was a relief—waking him up with my pitiful noises wasn’t on today’s to-do list.

  Needing a little boost to shake off the morning haze, I pulled up the System Notifications, hoping for some dopamine to reward my late-night grind.

  ‘Alright, let’s see… What did I score for tonight’s all-nighter?’

  “Great,” I muttered, feeling that familiar twinge of disappointment.

  It wasn’t entirely unexpected—most of the XP for [Quick-Hacks] came from actual use in the field, especially when it involved breaking into tricky systems. The other majority of it came from actually completing a wholly new Subroutine or Segment.

  A mere 200xp after eight hours of work was disheartening, but not exactly unexpected.

  Still, it stung.

  The same amount of effort poured into almost any other skill would have netted way more experience. But I repeated the same words that I had been doing any time I had struggled with Kill Joy’s lessons, something that had become a bit of a mantra to ward off frustration: ‘Delayed gratification, Sera. That’s all it is. The big rewards will come when you finish this. Just hang in there.’

  The [Programming] XP drop was definitely more substantial since I’d been, well, programming. Even if most of my work involved copy-pasting chunks of pre-existing subroutine code and stitching them together, it still counted as real programming.

  Sure, piecing together snippets like that meant my overall XP gain was a bit lower, but it still beat staring at blank code lines.

  At the end of the day, progress was progress.

  Much like [Quick-Hacks], [Programming] rewarded finished products over half-done bits and pieces. So while I’d picked up decent XP, the real jackpot would come when I finally completed the whole Subroutine. It was one of those Skills that preferred to go big or go home—sprinkling in gains here and there but saving the bulk for the grand finale.

  Then there was [Manifestation].

  I’d been using it to hunt down specific code snippets faster, a trick I’d picked up when working on tweaks to my Avatar.

  Was it a bit preposterous to use a reality-bending Skill that could conjure stuff from thin air like I was some demigod, as a glorified search function?

  Maybe.

  Probably.

  Almost certainly yes.

  But it worked, and it was miles better than sifting through lines with my eyes crossed, hoping I’d picked the right keywords on the basic search function that IDEs came with.

  Not to mention, it seemed that the System even agreed, tossing me a bit of XP for both [Manifestation] and Anima. It wasn’t a lot, just a tiny nudge, but it was proof that I hadn’t offended the System-Gods by turning a god-like power into my personal search tool.

  If anything, it felt like a pat on the back for thinking outside the box; so I’d take it without much complaining.

  “So, what’s on the agenda today…?” I muttered, trying to shake my brain out of the programming mode it had been trapped in for the past eight hours.

  It was like trying to remember how to prayer-flick after not having done so for a few months—everything felt a bit confusing and just a tad off. But after a few moments of squinting into space and rubbing my temples, my brain finally decided to play ball and work like it belonged to an actual person again.

  “Ahh, right. Shopping.”

  With the Operator meeting just two days away and my next session at Miss K’s Dojo literally tomorrow, today was my last chance to knock out all the shopping for my initial Operator setup—something I considered non-negotiable if I wanted to make a good impression.

  Plus, Jade needed some new gear if she was going to be my navigator outside the Megabuilding when the time came for those inevitable off-site tasks.

  I pulled up my Contact List, found Jade’s name rather quickly, as I didn’t exactly have a huge amount of people on there yet, and typed out a quick, no-nonsense message to get the ball rolling.

  The time I picked would give me just enough room to finish my shift at Mr. Shori’s, freshen up, and swap into my Operator outfit. The last thing I wanted was to show up to Misha’s looking like I’d been rolling in noodle broth all day.

  In Gryplik culture, honouring a crafter’s work by showing up and actually using their created equipment any time it was in any way sensible to do so was kind of a big deal, and the last thing I wanted was to insult Misha’s meticulous handiwork.

  Introducing Jade to Misha had me feeling a little jittery, though, all things considered.

  Misha was my secret ace when it came to scoring amazing deals on top-tier equipment.

  But I’d already kind of committed to bringing Misha into the Clawed Beasts’ orbit as a business contact last time I had visited her, so that train had long since left the station.

  Doubling back now would only add unnecessary stress to my already way-too-stressful day.

  Besides, maybe this connection could benefit all three of us in the long run—that was the hope, at least.

  But before any of that, I still had my daily routine to check off: A good Body training session to keep the muscles firing and the experience trickling in, a quick cleanup for that sweet [Maid] experience, and then my shift at Mr. Shori’s.

  It was high-time to get the day moving…

  Training, cleanup, and my shift at Mr. Shori’s all went about as smoothly as I could’ve hoped—no unexpected chaos, no surprise stress, and, thankfully, no sketchy visitors half-threatening my life.

  Once I wrapped up the day’s work, I ducked into the back-kitchen of Mr. Shori’s stall to change.

  The space was just private enough for a quick swap, and I wasted no time slipping into my Operator outfit and stuffing my noodle-scented work clothes into the bag I’d brought along.

  I caught my reflection in the mirror-like black screen that Mr. Shori had hung up at the back door, checking for any obvious marks or stains on my gear.

  It only took a glance to realise I’d overlooked a pretty glaring detail: The blood splatter from yesterday’s Data-Collection incident. A few faded, reddish smears had stubbornly clung to the fabric, mocking my half-hearted attempt at washing it out the night before.

  “Great,” I muttered.

  I tilted my head, trying to decide whether Misha would be annoyed or proud about the stains.

  On one hand, they were proof that her work was being put to good use. On the other, showing up in blood-streaked gear could come across as sloppy—or worse, disrespectful.

  I chewed on the thought for a moment before shrugging.

  It would probably balance out in the end, so a last-minute scrub down felt somewhat pointless.

  With that decision made, I shouldered my bag, waved a quick goodbye to Mr. Shori, who barely looked up from his pots, and stepped out into the bustle of the late afternoon. The familiar sounds and smells of the Megabuilding hummed around me as I glanced at the time.

  It read 15:24.

  ‘Alright, time to wait for Jade.’

  Not wanting to waste what little downtime I had, I pulled up the System Notifications to check for any XP gains or progress updates from the morning and workday.

  I nodded to myself, feeling a little surge of satisfaction.

  There was something undeniably nice about seeing a long list of XP gains, even if it wasn’t as dramatic as the monster drop I’d gotten after my last Data-Collection mission.

  Still, progress was progress, and this round was spread across a bunch of different Skills and Attributes instead of being focused on just one or two.

  ‘Slow and steady progress,’ I reminded myself.

  The standout from today’s round of work was definitely the new Perk for [Negotiation] I’d picked up, however: [Cultural Savant].

  It had already proven itself during my shift at Mr. Shori’s, paying off big time.

  Honestly, I should’ve really expected it to kick in here, but seeing it flare to life in the middle of the shift had still been a big surprise.

  After all, where else would you find a melting pot of culturally diverse people than at a busy food stall? This place pulled in folks from all walks of life, and today was no exception.

  Throughout the day, it had pinged more than a dozen times, cluing me in on a customer’s cultural background and giving me tailored pointers on how to best interact with them.

  What really got me, though, was how specific and accurate it really was.

  Two elderly customers who’d come by for some ramen were about as classic old-school Japanese as you could get—or “Nihgon,” as [Cultural Savant] labelled it.

  The Perk nudged me to be extra polite, offer service immediately with a cold glass of water, a wet towel, and utensils, and keep my speech ultra-respectful.

  It was like having an instant crash course in proper etiquette pop into my head.

  Even Mr. Shori had noticed, pulling me aside after those customers left and giving me a rare compliment on my customer service skills.

  Coming from him, a literal multi-decade veteran in the business, that had felt amazing.

  Definitely a highlight of the day.

  But one thing had made me pause about the whole Perk situation: The Perk hadn’t pinged for Mr. Shori himself at all.

  For someone who looked and acted so traditionally Japanese—right down to speaking the language and moving with that practised, careful grace—I’d have expected [Cultural Savant] to give me some sort of heads-up.

  But nope.

  It was like it couldn’t pin him down to any specific cultural marker whatsoever.

  Weird, to say the least.

  But not exactly unexpected, considering how mysterious Mr. Shori’s background was overall.

  One day I’d have to try and squeeze some information out from him, but I had bigger fish to fry at the moment.

  Aside from the Nihgon duo, which I realised was a cheeky nod by the developers back in my old world (basically a shorthand for “Nihongo”, meaning “Japanese”, with a Western twist), there’d been a flood of more Hispanic and Latino-looking folks throughout the day.

  Those groups had their own developer-given cultural-group names, but between taking orders and making sure everything ran smoothly, I hadn’t had the time to really focus on what they were called.

  The Perk had insisted I keep things moving fast for them—apparently, they’d been given an impatient trait in this world.

  Whether that matched up with real-life stereotypes from my last life? No clue.

  My world experience before all this was limited to a tiny village and a dead-end job, so I’d hardly met anyone outside my own little bubble.

  Still, having [Cultural Savant] in my arsenal was proving way more useful than I’d imagined, and I couldn’t help but look forward to testing out just how far I could push it—especially when paired with [Polyglot].

  Unfortunately, I hadn’t gotten a chance to try out that combo yet; Mr. Shori had been watching me like a hawk throughout my entire shift, as he always did.

  It was one thing to nail some surface-level cultural nuances, but it was a whole different story to suddenly start speaking in a language I’d never shown any familiarity with before.

  Mr. Shori had turned a blind eye to my flawless Japanese since day one, chalking it up to whatever explanation he found reasonable, but I couldn’t rely on that leniency forever. I knew busting out random languages would raise more eyebrows than I was ready to handle.

  So, for now, I decided to play it safe and keep my overpowered Trait under wraps. Better to wait for the right moment than risk blowing my already fairly flimsy cover for a cheap flex.

  My train of thought came to a halt as I spotted Jade making her way toward me from a nearby alley. She looked the same as last time—rocking her semi-functional Operator outfit that I was hoping to help her upgrade today.

  “Hope you weren’t waiting too long?” she said with an easy smile that caught me a bit off guard.

  It wasn’t the usual nervous, half-intimidated vibe she gave off whenever we talked.

  This time, she greeted me like we were friends who met up regularly, and I couldn’t help but feel a mix of happiness and suspicion. While I definitely wanted to make some friends and had been trying my best to signal this to Jade, I was under no illusions that I had been particularly successful with that.

  So the real question in my head was: ‘What did Vega tell her to make her so chill around me all of a sudden…?’

  “Nope, just wrapped up here,” I replied, doing my best to mirror her friendliness. I’d need to figure out this new side of her before we got too deep into the day—best to know what was up before anything unexpected happened. “You’re in a chipper mood today. Something good happen?”

  Normally, I’d dance around the point, trying to get a grasp on what was happening in a more subtle way, but today wasn’t the time for my usual approach.

  Introducing Jade to Misha was important, both because Misha was an invaluable business partner and because she was… well, precious. I couldn’t let any strange tension mess that up, not when Misha’s safety and my reputation were on the line.

  Jade’s smile wavered as she scrunched her nose, weighing whether to tell me the truth.

  “Well... I guess I can tell you, since you’re kinda the reason for it,” she admitted, glancing at me. “Vega gave me a pretty hefty bonus from that last trip and to prep me for today’s shopping.”

  The big smile on her face fell, and her eyes dropped to the ground as she continued, “He said I need better gear if I want to stay a viable option as your liaison, so… yeah.”

  I nodded, noticing how her excitement dimmed at the mention of Vega’s words.

  ‘So, she’s hyped about having a stack of Creds for shopping? Is that really enough to flip her attitude toward me a full 180…? Well maybe not a full 180, but enough to be like this, at least?’ I wondered, trying to do a quick mental risk check.

  Realistically, what could Vega have said to make her more confident around me that he hadn’t already tried? Unless he’d pulled a move like, “We’ve got a sniper tailing her, so if she steps out of line, she’s toast,” it didn’t seem likely there’d be a big shift.

  I figured he’d probably exhausted all the usual pep talks to boost her confidence around me, but they hadn’t seemed to do much until now.

  ‘So is it really just about the Creds and the shopping then…?’

  I mean, I got it—shopping for new, useful gear was kind of my jam, too. And from the sound of it, Jade really needed those upgrades, not just for what I had planned for her but probably for her own goals, whatever they were.

  Maybe a little financial boost was all it took?

  What really threw me off, though, was that my Intuition hadn’t sent so much as a blip.

  Not even the smallest nudge that something was off in her behaviour.

  Now, Intuition wasn’t a lie detector or some magical snake-charmer warning system, but it was good at picking up when something felt off compared to the usual—unless, of course, someone with a higher Attribute or Skill was pulling the strings.

  At least, that was how the game theory went.

  The real kicker was that I wasn’t actually in a game—not really.

  I’d had that realisation more than once already: The people around me—“NPCs” if I wanted to be cold and clinical about it, which honestly felt pretty damn psychotic to utter even in my own head—didn’t operate on the same set of rules that the System did for me.

  They were unpredictable, layered, and, well, real.

  Even more real than I was, strangely enough.

  ‘Ain’t that a fucking nightmare of a thought…’

  Jade, for example, had me beat in most stealth scenarios, hands down.

  That had become glaringly obvious once again during our last outing together.

  She had this natural instinct for picking the best hiding spots and moved with a lightness that barely left a trace or made a sound.

  Sure, I could manage some of that too, thanks to my [Lightfoot] Perk, which helped me stay quiet through magical, downright reality-bending ways, but when it came to smooth, quick movements and finding the best cover in a split second, she was leagues above me still.

  But I had my strengths, too.

  My [Stealth] Skill gave me the edge in moving through crowded spaces without drawing attention—something Jade hadn’t quite mastered. It was clear that blending into a crowd wasn’t part of her usual training; she focused more on traditional sneaking and hiding.

  That’s one of the cases where it became obvious just how different the System worked for me compared to how the world worked for everyone else.

  For me, every Skill was a full-package deal.

  If I gained a Level in [Stealth], all parts of that Skill levelled up together, like some cheat-code that gave me a complete suite of abilities.

  But for everyone else, including Jade, it was a different story entirely.

  They had to train specific aspects individually—kind of like how learning worked in my past life.

  Get good at hiding in the shadows? Sure.

  But unless you practise weaving through a crowd unnoticed, you’re out of luck on that front.

  This ultimately brought up the big question: How exactly did my Intuition Attribute actually work here?

  If there wasn’t a direct equivalent for general Attributes or Skills for everyone else, then what exactly was my Intuition measuring itself against?

  Was it just an arbitrary number?

  Did the System pull data from whatever information it could scrape together and try to fit it into my System-based framework?

  Or was it something completely different?

  The silence from my Intuition during this moment was maddening.

  It wasn’t giving me any hint that Jade was off, just that her words matched what I knew about her. Meanwhile, the logical side of my brain kept whispering that there could be more to this sudden shift in her behaviour, but not really helping me figure out what it could be.

  The clash between my internal suspicions and my System-driven instincts was causing me all kinds of stress.

  ‘Do I trust her or not…?’ I wondered as Jade raised an eyebrow at me, a small smirk playing on her lips, as if to say, “You still with me?”

  I realised I’d been quiet for a moment too long, stuck in my head and overanalyzing the whole situation. Sure, it was important to think this stuff through, and I’d definitely need to carve out some time later to dig into it, but right now, I needed to keep the momentum going.

  “Ah, sorry,” I said, snapping back to reality and giving Jade a small grin. “Just spaced out for a sec—thought of something I need to deal with later. If you’re good to go, let’s get moving.”

  For now, I decided to trust Jade, even though the whole Intuition thing was nagging at the back of my mind.

  If things went sideways, I felt pretty confident I could handle myself against her, and Misha, despite being as precious as she was, had enough firepower in her Emporium to hold her own.

  Armour, weapons, gadgets—you name it, she had it all tucked away in that little treasure trove of hers; I had seen so first-hand.

  Even if the Clawed Beasts did decide to pull something, I doubted they’d be able to cause real damage before the floor’s security personnel stepped in and put an end to it.

  That thought alone gave me a bit of reassurance as Jade gave me a quick nod and adjusted her bag, looking surprisingly ready considering she had no real idea what I had planned for her.

  “Alright, let’s get to the elevators then. Goal’s on the 31st,” I said before turning and taking the lead.

  It was time to introduce Jade and the Clawed Beasts to the best equipment store clerk in the whole goddamn city…

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