The glowing system window blinked in front of us like a floating slap to the face.
[System Rankings!]
Rank 1 = 1320 Points, Team B.
Rank 2 = 1150 Points, Team A.
Rank 3 = 760 Points, Team C.
Rank 4 = 0 Points, Team D.
No one breathed.
Not a damn soul.
"LET'S GOOO!" Ciel exploded all of a sudden, practically tackling Kael in a hug. "First place, baby!" He exclaid, almost too excited and happy.
Lucas didn't react much, he just brushed off so invisible dust from his jacket and gave the tiniest nod.
But no matter how much the guy tried to fake it, I knew that deep dowm, he was relieved as well.
"All that planning of yours paid off." Ren muttered to where team B was seated, still annoyed as well as shocked at their 0 points.
"Barely," Kael said. "If Noah's team had scored the boss, we would've been second."
"We wouldn't have," Maxin muttered, tossing his hair back. "Lucas would've still carried our sorry asses."
My team wasn't far behind, but that one line still stung. Erza looked away. Aurelia pouted looking at like I'd taken her husband away while Seraphina just quietly sat, her eyes flickering.
Then there was Team C.
Pixie's team.
They were third.
And boy, did that stir the pot.
Vayu clenched his jaw, fists tight. Lina looked like she was about to cry. Kane was straight-up pissed.
And Eren? The one who landed the final hit on that Tier 1 wolf boss, just scoffed and crossed his arms in resignation.
"Third? After killing the boss?" The guy hissed.
"Feels rigged," Kane added. "We should've gotten way more."
Pixie was oddly calm.
Quiet, but not surprised.
She just blinked at the numbers as if she was already expecting sothing like this.
Then ca the twist.
Venus stood up, the wood of his chair creaking, and raised a single hand.
"Silence," he said.
We obeyed.
Imdiately.
His tone didn't invite discussion.
The head of the family cleared his throat and then said sothing no one expected.
"It's ti to announce the winner of the hidden task."
Every head snapped up like puppets on strings.
"Hidden—what?" Isla said, narrowing her eyes.
"There wasn't supposed to be a hidden—" Kane started.
Venus glared at the lot of us. That was enough to shut every single mouth instantly so he could continue.
"The highest scorer of this simulation," he continued, his voice smooth like a blade in velvet, "is not one person...but two."
Another pause.
The kind of pause that gripped your spine and whispered, brace yourself.
"Lucas D. Roro."
No surprise.
"And…"
"Pixie!!"
The room broke.
"WHAAAAAAAT?!" Dario scread at our ears. .
"No way—what?" Even Erza gasped, everyone here knew that the girl had no powers of her own to kill a beast, much less defend herself.
"Wait, wait, wait," Lina choked, staring at Pixie like she was seeing a ghost. "Pixie?!"
Pixie just blinked again.
Almost too innocent.
Vayu stood up slowly as a glint passed my eyes.
If that guy did anything to Pixie—
The guy's face twisted with confusion first.
Then disbelief.
It was like so competitive rage he could not cool down no matter how mich ever he tried.
"Hold on," he said, repeating.
"Hold. On."
The boy pointed at Pixie.
"How did you tie with Lucas?! You didn't even fight! You didn't kill anything!"
"I… kind of didn't," Pixie said, rubbing the back of her head sheepishly.
"Exactly!" The guy barked. "So how the hell did you—?!"
"Let explain," Venus interrupted, rubbing his forehead like we were all hopeless children. "It seems that you brats weren't paying attention during setup."
Grandpa motioned toward Pixie, his face looking a little too proud.
"She, as the leader of Team C, selected 'Equal Share Mode' before the simulation began.
That ans every single monster kill by the team was distributed evenly among the mbers. Including the boss monster."
Vayu's eyes widened.
Eren's head snapped toward Pixie. "You did what?"
Pixie winced. "It was in the team settings nu… I thought it was fairer…"
Venus continued, "On top of that, per simulation rules, the team leader receives 5% more points than the rest. To reward strategy, coordination, and risk."
"And you're telling that's enough to tie with Lucas?!" Vayu blurted out.
"Yes," Venus replied flatly, continuing. "I an…Y'all did kill the boss monster—It's just that the one person who benefited from the situation was Pixie. Quite clever if I may say so myself."
Vayu trembled.
His fingers curled at his sides as if his competitive pride was breaking apart right in front of us.
Pixie turned to him and, very slowly and stuck out her tongue.
"Oops~" she said, with the tiniest smile.
The room froze again.
Vayu's eyes twitched.
His face turned red—not angry red. Embarrassed red.
"D-Don't pull that cute act on —" he growled, flustered. "Y-You did this on purpose!"
The girl giggled, surprising .
'Had they all beco so close because of being in the sa team?' I thought.
For the first ti since we started this whole thing, the tension lightened.
Just a little.
"I didn't think it'd work this well…" The girl whispered.
"Whatever," Vayu muttered, turning away and rubbing his face. "I'm still stronger than you."
"Sure you are," she said.
Honestly?
That was the funniest thing I'd seen all week.
Even Venus smirked a little.
Just a bit.
But then, he straightened.
"Enough fooling around. The simulation ends here. Prepare to log out."
The world around us began to glow. Our surroundings lted into golden particles, floating up like dust towards a rising sun.
The blue room, the thrones, the floating orb—all of it vanished.
[Logging Out…]
I blinked as I woke up in the pod. The soft blue lights blinked overhead.
My skin felt real again, and weight in my limbs returned.
Around , the others started rising as well.
Ciel was yawning like he'd woken from a nap.
Kael had already pulled out his wristband to check sothing.
Lucas stepped out of his pod like he'd never left.
Maxin was cursing at his boot for so reason.
Seraphina just stared at the ceiling, lost in her own world.
Erza stretched her neck while Aurelia yawned with a weirdly proud smile.
Pixie popped out, wobbling like a baby deer. Vayu ca out right after, stealing glances at her, still red in the face.
"You're lucky that was just a sim," he muttered, looking at her again.
"Luck's part of winning too," Pixie replied with a wink.
Isla and Lina exchanged looks.
Kane shook his head and muttered sothing about "damn loopholes."
Eren was silent, but his eyes were sharp.
Like he'd rember this loss.
For once, even I couldn't help but relax my body in front of these kiddos as I stretched my body and couldn't help but yawn.
Muttering sothing about how long these past 2 days have been and how he could have done so much instead of just sitting in a stupid VR machine that forced him to sleep.
Everyone turned to look at .
Like, all at once.
So had raised eyebrows. So were straight-up blinking in disbelief. Ciel looked like he was trying not to choke on his own spit. Vayu tilted his head like I'd grown a third eyeball. Even Seraphina had paused mid-stretch, her eyes a bit too big.
I blinked back at them, already resigning to my fate.
"…I've said sothing dumb again, haven't I?"
***
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