Ishiki ran over from one roof to another... the cold bit into his face making his cheeks red. Suddenly though he stopped and froze, standing atop a townhouse.

The calculations that he did moments ago were still running in his mind and It was a mathematical impossibility. A paradox wrapped in a lie.

His mind raced, pulling at threads he had ignored for months.

Earlie, When he counted he number of players... he simply looked at the number of the people saved by the outer regiment from beyond the walls. And the people who had been here before him were the hardest to track.

But... he had actually managed to differ them because of their unique behavior.

'But now...' Ishiki looked down at the street where a group of late-night revelers were passing a bottle of wine. 'Now, everyone feels the same.'

Was it assimilation? or it was that the players had simply adapted to their surroundings? It was the biggest gift of human kind, the adaptability they showed was not a joke.

He himself had adjusted from his old regimes and beliefs. Even though it was slight, it was there. Even his mother had eventually started praying to the Angel of Hope.

Not to mention the fact that the natives of Aethelburg too had some special powers. It was simply useless to say that anyone who uses skill was a player from earth. Actually the system was more insidious than that.

A very important thing Ishiki had learned was that the System was an invading force here, just as it was on Earth. The Players on NEXUS were called Awakened and they too were bound to the trials and scenario's painted by the Neural Matrix System.

He was the living proof of that, because of the nature of his Title and the Exclusive Skill. The shinobi he had killed in his trial had a Title as well and skills too.

He was a Player as well, albeit a very powerful one. His Synth Reactor tier was that of Elite rank, while Ishiki's was only that of Innate rank.

He didn't know how to increase it or what it was.

Ishiki even suspected that his trial had actually taken place in NEXUS too, a twisted reflection of this place perhaps. Because their had been not a single Withering beast in his trial while this place was teaming with those.

Neither did he see the strange phenomenon of Crimson moon during the trial. Maybe it was just on another continent or, Empire as they call them. And according to that logic, he was a bastard prince of some other Empire.

'Wait... wait. So, I can be considered a spy?'

Or was it that this place was not real and just something created by the system? So were the people living here real?

He thought of the hundreds of reunions he had witnessed. Tears, hugs and stories of survival. He had assumed the System, in its infinite power, had plucked relatives from Earth and dropped them here in a single scenario.

But he had never checked. He had never walked up to a crying mother and asked, "Hey, what's your Level?"

It would have been cruel. It would have been insane.

'I can't just walk up to random people and ask about such things,' Ishiki thought, rubbing his temples. 'That's a quick way to get arrested or stabbed.'

And now, it seemed, it was the only question that he would need to ask the most.

If the Players' families were real, they would have Status Screens. They would be counted in the 906 people.

But if they were counted, the number would be totally different from what the system has—That didn't make sense.

Unless, they had a different scenario but somehow the ground of play was same.

Ishiki sighed, that seemed like a plausible thing actually.

It was getting late, so he decided to retreat back to his house for tonight. So he jumped down from the roof and sprinted across the maze like alley's of the Outer ring. Most were writhed in darkness.

As he sprinted back... a terrifying hypothesis began to form in the dark corners of his mind.

What if they weren't counted because they weren't Players?

What if they weren't counted because they weren't people?

Ishiki shuddered, a visceral reaction that had nothing to do with the cold.

'Yuki mentioned that something was wrong...' He remembered their last conversation. She indeed told him that her father was acting strangely and that the thing happening here was not normal.

He had dismissed her back then and told her that people can change.

"I'm an idiot," he hissed, clenching his fist.

He needed to talk to her. He needed to compare notes with the only other person who seemed to have noticed that there was something strange.

"Tomorrow," he decided, his eyes hard. "I'll force my way into the Secondary Ring if I have to. I'm seeing her."

He turned and melted into the shadows, retreating back to the home that suddenly felt like a stage set.

***

The night passed in a blur of insomnia.

Ishiki lay in his bed, staring at the ceiling, listening to the breathing of the his mother who was sleeping soundly in the next room. He felt strangely uneasy and lonely.

By the time the artificial sun began to bleed its pale, golden light through the curtains, Ishiki was already dressed and ready.

He pulled his heavy coat over his grey tunic, checking the hidden daggers in his sleeves. He looked at himself in the mirror—He had grown pale and his eyes rimmed with dark circles, but they were focused.

He stepped out of the house, hastily moving with purpose. The morning air was crisp and cold, carrying the scent of baking bread and woodsmoke. It was a little foggy as well, which seemed kind of disheartening.

Not too long ago, Ishiki had thought of touching snow for the first time in his life. He had always looked at it from a distance as it fell into the ocean beyond the walls he lived within on earth. Now he didn't wanna see them so much, for some reason.

He turned onto the main avenue leading toward the Secondary Wall, his pace was brisk as he sprinted while rubbing his hands together.

"Ishiki!"

The shout broke his concentration.

He stopped, turning slowly and saw a figure running toward him through the fog, he was even waving a frantic arm.

Soon a young appeared from the fog as he closed the distance. He was Julien, a fellow soldier in his squad.

On a closer look, the young man was flushed, his uniform disheveled as if he had dressed in the dark.

"Ishiki!" Julien gasped as he skidding to a halt in front of him. "Thank the Angel I found you. I was heading to your house."

Ishiki frowned, his patience thinning instantly. "Going to my house? Sorry, but I'm busy. What do you want?"

"Busy?" Julien wheezed, bending over to catch his breath. "Forget busy, man. We have a Code Black. Its an Emergency."

Ishiki stiffened. "Emergency?"

"The bridge," Julien said, straightening up and pointing toward the distant outer perimeter. "A whole damned pack of Withering beasts had climbed up the bridge from Crimson Canopy."

"What?" Ishiki narrowed his eyes. "How the hell did they climb up the bridge? Go catch the dumbasses who checked the security measures on last patrol."

"What will they do," Julien said grimly. "There are about 20 or so of them and our squad has been tagged for intercept. Captain Mateo is already waiting."

Ishiki clenched his jaw. 'Screw it...'

Of all the days and especially of all the cursed times for a breach. This had to happen now. But the matter he had was more pressing, sure some other squad can take care of it.

"I have somewhere to be, Julien," Ishiki said in a low voice.

"You can be there later," Julien pleaded, grabbing his arm. "You know the penalty for ignoring a Code Black. Do you want to be executed before breakfast?"

Ishiki looked at the desperate soldier and then he looked at the distant wall.

He cursed silently and turned around after the soldier. "Fine," he spat. "Let's get this over with."

They sprinted to the barracks. The atmosphere shifted as they ran; the sleepy morning calm around the city evaporated, replaced by the sharp, metallic tension of impending violence.

The fog dissipated slowly as they reached the barracks. Captain Mateo stood in the courtyard, a mountain of a man with skin like weathered oak and a mustache that looked carved from granite.

"Nice of you to join us, Ishiki and Julien." Mateo rumbled, not looking back.

"I was busy planning my retirement, you know." Ishiki deadpanned, falling into line.

"You can retire when you're dead," Mateo growled. "Or when we are back to Earth. Whichever comes first. Squad! Weapons check!"

The three other commanders—a silent sniper named Sarah, a brute named Korg, and Julien—Summoned their weapons. Ishiki sighed and drew a standard steel sword from a nearby rack

He hated this thing. It was heavy, dull, and lacked the soul of a real weapon. But he didn't have a weapon type vestige... so it was what it was.

They all hastily, made way towards the large obsidian gates and ordered the guards to push them open.

"Move out!"

The heavy iron gates groaned open and the squad surged forward, boots thundering against the pavement.

If you find any errors ( broken links, non-standard content, etc.. ), Please let us know < report chapter > so we can fix it as soon as possible.