Julien’s mind went blank.
The grey void that had trapped his vision since the possession abruptly dissolved, shattering like glass.
When he opened his eyes, he wasn’t blind anymore.
He was standing in the dead centre of an endless, perfectly white room.
There were no walls, no ceiling, and no floor, just an infinite expanse of glowing white that stretched in every direction.
"Wow," Julien blinked, lifting his hands to inspect them.
"I can see now."
"You are surprisingly calm."
The voice echoed softly, lacking the weight it carried in the physical world.
Julien turned.
Gina was walking toward him from out of the white expanse.
She had abandoned the crisp business suit.
Here, she wore a simple, flowing grey dress, her pink hair loose around her shoulders.
"Uhmm," Julien hesitated, taking a small step back.
"Is this mind control?"
"More or less," Gina replied smoothly, closing the distance between them.
"I don’t like it when people hide things from , so I just let myself in."
Julien frowned, crossing his arms over his chest.
"Pardon my behaviour, but that is definitely sothing you should say before you scramble soone’s brain."
Gina chuckled, a sound of amusent that sent a strange ripple through the white space.
"Noted. But we don’t have much ti before your consciousness rejects the connection. Tell , Julien, what exactly do you know about Gates?"
She waved a hand lazily to her right.
The white space warped, and a massive, swirling red portal tore itself open in mid-air, casting a crimson glow across the clean floor.
Julien stared at it, his brain scrambling to pull together the basic Association pamphlets he had skimd months ago.
"Well," he stuttered slightly.
"I know about the blue ones. You go in, kill the boss, and the Gate closes. But the red ones don’t act like a gateway right away. If you don’t clear them... the monsters start raging outside after ten days or so."
"Why ten days?" Gina asked, tilting her head.
She watched him closely, clearly expecting an insider’s answer, a secret pulled from whatever high-tier entity he had contracted.
Julien stared blankly at the swirling red vortex.
"I don’t know."
Gina raised an eyebrow.
"Seriously, I don’t know," Julien defended himself, throwing his hands up.
"I had one forming right near my apartnt last week, and a monster straight-up jumped in the alleyway before the tir was even close to zero. They are unpredictable."
Gina’s gaze sharpened.
The faint amusent vanished from her eyes.
"Yes. That is the correct way to see these things. Unpredictable."
She took a slow step closer, her eyes sweeping him up and down.
"Just like your rank."
Above Julien’s head, the white space glitched into golden letters forming out of air, hanging right over his ssy hair like a natag.
[SSS]
Julien froze, his eyes darting upward to look at his own reflection in the suddenly polished floor.
His breath caught in his throat.
Wait, what?
"Your power does not give you anything, yet it gives you everything," Gina murmured, walking a slow circle around him, studying the golden letters.
"It is incredibly contradictory. Very interesting."
"You are flattering ," Julien said, forcing a nervous laugh as he tried to subtly swat the glowing letters away.
They remained anchored above him.
"But I think your system is broken. I sell low-grade potions, and I’m mostly an E-Rank on my best day."
Gina stopped in front of him, ignoring his ramblings.
"Can you guess how a weakling like you could handle a beast of that power anchoring itself in your soul?"
Julien stopped trying to bat the letters away.
He actually thought about it for a second.
The Shadow Beast had tried to force a permanent contract, and by all logical laws of the System, his mind should have shattered like an eggshell under the pressure of a Tier 2 entity.
"Frankly, I don’t know," Julien replied honestly.
"Plot armor? Or maybe whatever that rank is."
He pointed at the golden [SSS] floating above him.
"But it wasn’t skill, I can tell you that."
She turned her back to him and raised both of her hands.
The infinite white space began to fracture.
To the left of the glowing Red Gate, a new portal tore open, this one a deep erald green.
A second later, a pitch-black vortex materialised beside it, practically sucking the light out of the room.
And finally, a blinding yellow portal ripped into existence on the far right.
Four massive Gates, all different colours, side-by-side in Julien’s mind.
"These are the portals that have appeared in our world over the last year," Gina said, her voice dropping to a whisper.
"Blue, Red, and now these. And the terrifying truth, Julien, is that the Association has absolutely no idea what they do."
Julien stared at the black and yellow portals, cold tightening in his stomach.
He had never even heard rumours of those colours on the black market forums.
"It has been a year since the first Green Gate opened," Gina continued, staring into the erald vortex.
"We have sent twelve elite scouting parties inside. We don’t know if they are alive, because anyone who went inside didn’t co back. And no monsters have co out, either."
Julien swallowed hard, the sound loud in the quiet void.
"Okay. That is terrifying. But why are you showing this? I am a weak hunter. If you want to source supplies for the next suicide squad, we need to talk about my margins-"
"Julien."
Gina cut him off, turning to face him.
The glowing portals cast strange, multi-coloured shadows across her face.
"I would like to propose a deal."
"A deal?" Julien repeated, taking a cautious step back from the massive, multi-coloured portals.
"About what?"
Gina didn’t answer right away.
She simply raised a hand and snapped her fingers.
Above Julien’s head, the golden [SSS] shattered into dozens of tiny fragnts.
Instead, the pieces rearranged themselves into glowing red text.
A massive System ledger unfolded right in the middle of the white void.
[Penalty: Ergency Overdraft – 500,000 Credits]
[Damages: District 9 Infrastructure – 1,200,000 Credits]
[Damages: Corporate Assets & Hazard Pay – 850,000 Credits]
[Penalty: Unregistered Entity Summoning – 5,000,000 Credits]
Julien’s breath stopped. The red numbers kept stacking, scrolling faster until a bold total stamped itself at the very bottom of his vision.
[Total Outstanding Debt: 7,550,000 Credits]
And then, right before his eyes, the last digit ticked up to a one.
Then a two.
Then a three.
"Is that..." Julien started, his voice cracking.
"Interest," Gina finished, her tone judging.
Julien stared at the red numbers hanging over him, not knowing it had already increased this much.
"I will clear it," Gina said.
Julien turned his head toward her.
"What?"
"I will clear it within today for you," she stated calmly.
Julien stood awestruck.
Wiping a deficit this massive ant the System would lift the physical penalties right away. He would regain his vision in the real world and could actually start from scratch without a death sentence chained to his ankle.
"But what do you want in return?" Julien asked, his voice barely a whisper.
Gina looked indifferent as the swirling lights of the four portals reflected in glasses.
"I want you to clear the Red Gate."
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