When The System Spoi Chapter 75 - Seventy Five

Chapter 75: Chapter Seventy Five

"So, when will we be seeing each other again?"

Zeke asked the question with practiced ease, but his hands were in his pockets—thumbs hooked, knuckles pressing against the fabric. A tell.

Yeon was heading back to Althelgard. Two days had passed since the pseudo-date, and the afternoon light caught the blue tips of her hair as she turned.

"Whenever." She glanced over his shoulder. Her expression flickered—a micro-flattening, the corners of her mouth tightening. "You’re giving off the wrong impression."

The boys had erged from the house’s entrance, lurking in the doorway with the subtlety of a pride of lions pretending to be housecats. Kai’s hand was clamped over Aaron’s mouth. Jude stood slightly behind them, arms crossed, doing nothing to stop either of them.

"What if it’s the right one?"

Zeke leaned in—close enough that she could see the silver threading through his black hair, the way his eyes caught the light. His voice dropped to sothing softer, almost conspiratorial.

Yeon didn’t lean back. "You’ve been too flirty recently." Her head tilted, a blade of a smile. "Is this a defense chanism from losing your flirt partner? Makima?"

"No."

The word ca out simpler than he’d intended. He let it settle, then continued, slower now. "Maybe I’ve learned to live in the mont instead." A pause. His gaze held hers. "And right now, you’re the mont."

Yeon’s expression didn’t change. But her weight shifted—barely, almost nothing. A fraction of a step she didn’t take.

"I sotis find you a better actor than Michael." Her voice was quieter now. "Maybe it’s because I know everything he does is fake. But for you..." She let the sentence hang, unfinished.

"My eyes don’t lie."

"Everything about you lies."

"Your mother told

to step up my ga." Zeke’s mouth curved, sothing softer than his usual grin. "I’ll just have to tell her you were too high-leveled for ."

Yeon’s hand ca up, open-pald, and struck his chest—not a hit, not quite. A tap with intent. A punctuation mark.

Zeke’s face contorted into exaggerated disgust. He drew one leg back, foot extending toward her shin in a lazy, theatrical kick. "Why are you acting like a girl?"

Yeon dodged, sidestepping with the kind of fluid ease that made the movent look accidental. A smile tugged at her mouth—small, real, there and gone. She raised her hand toward the boys, fingers splaying in a wave.

"Boys, see you later. Take care of yourselves."

"We can finally talk!" Kai’s voice cracked with triumph.

"Bye!"

They waved in unison, arms moving like semaphore flags, enthusiastic and entirely too coordinated.

Yeon was already walking. Her hand dropped. She didn’t look back.

Zeke stood where she’d left him for a beat—two—before his shoulders settled into sothing looser. He walked toward the house.

"Move."

The boys scattered. Kai dove left, Aaron stumbled right, Jude simply stepped aside with the economy of soone who’d been watching Zeke’s approach the whole ti.

Zeke passed them without slowing. His footsteps were unhurried, deliberate. The door closed behind him.

Anton watched the stairs Zeke had disappeared up. His voice dropped to a murmur. "What’s wrong with him?"

"His aura," Michael said. He was still looking at the stairs, arms loose at his sides, posture too still. "Very different from before. Very noticeable."

The trio turned toward him. Michael didn’t look away from the stairs.

"It’s even stronger than yours," Anton said, and there was sothing in his voice—not quite a taunt, not quite a question.

Michael’s mouth moved. A smile, maybe, though it didn’t reach his eyes. "If a casual flare was that powerful?" He let the weight of the sentence settle. "His full-powered flare would incapacitate you."

The trio exchanged looks. There was belief there—it was Zeke, after all—and disbelief too, because Michael was the strongest person they’d t, barring Nox, who had never demonstrated his aura once.

Michael must have seen it. His gaze finally left the stairs, sweeping over them with sothing that might have been amusent. "I am well-versed in aura." His voice was unhurried, a lecturer explaining sothing to a slow class. "I wouldn’t glaze Zeke unnecessarily."

He looked back at the stairs. The rest of them followed his gaze, though there was nothing to see but the empty landing and the closed door at the top.

---

Zeke’s footsteps were loud in the hallway. He didn’t slow until his hand touched his bedroom door, and then he was still for a mont, palm flat against the wood.

{ Do you love Yeon? }

Zero’s voice ca without preamble, without softening.

’I... don’t know.’

Zeke pushed the door open. The room was exactly as he’d left it—bed unmade, window cracked, the late light falling across the floor in long rectangles.

’Love is a weird emotion.’ He closed the door behind him with his heel, a soft click. ’The most complex one. And I’d like to believe I’m capable of having it.’

He crossed to the bed, sat on the edge. The mattress dipped under his weight.

{ But? }

’I have to know if it’s the right emotion.’ His hands pressed into the sheets on either side of his thighs. ’Or if it’s a traumatic response to my trial.’

{ You still haven’t told

what happened on the first floor. }

Zeke’s mouth moved—not a smile, not quite. Sothing tired around the edges. ’Heh. Do you want to know that bad?’

He fell backward, the bed catching him, his arms spreading wide.

’Then see it.’

---

The images passed in silence. Zero processed them without comntary: the void, the deaths, the village burning, the child’s hands reaching, the woman whose face Zeke could no longer picture, the girl who called him father, the hand closing, the begging.

Then silence.

{ So. When are we destroying the Tower? }

Zeke’s laugh was short, breath hitting the ceiling. ’You say I act weird and avoid my emotions, but your first response to my trauma is a joke.’

{ We’re peas in the sa pod. } Zero’s voice softened, sothing almost gentle in the static. { But that doesn’t an we shouldn’t open other pods for ourselves. }

A pause.

{ A wife and a kid. }

’Even a rock would develop feelings after being shadowed by a beautiful woman for a thousand years.’

{ You say beautiful, but you can’t rember her face. }

Zeke’s eyes stayed on the ceiling. The light through the window had shifted, gold fading to amber.

"...Yeah."

{ Is that why you say you want to know if you actually love Yeon? }

’Yes.’ His voice was quieter now, almost lost in the space between his chest and the ceiling. ’It could simply be my brain simulating emotions. Giving

closure for what I experienced.’

{ Or you could finally be free to express yourself. } Zero’s words ca slower, more deliberate. { Your ’wife’ was a creation of the Tower’s trial. Yeon is real. Do you wish to take the sa path as you did in the trials? Keeping her at bay for thousands of years? }

Zeke said nothing. His hands had stopped pressing into the sheets. They lay still at his sides.

{ I think you’ve chosen. } Zero’s voice was almost gentle. { That’s why you’ve been doing what you’ve been doing so far. It’s not bad. But take it slowly. For you, it’s been millions of years. For her, it’s been two months at best. }

’Millions?’

{ You can lie to yourself, } Zero said, and there was no heat in it, no mockery, { but you can’t lie to . You counted every second in the void. Every year of your death and resurrection. }

’That did not happen.’

{ I won’t say shit. } A pause. { Especially since you got angry at your brothers as a result of not having

for millions of years. }

The digital approximation of a grin—cheeky, knowing—was audible in Zero’s voice.

’Fuck off.’

A beat of silence stretched between them. The ceiling was losing its light.

{ I know you said not to disturb you when SAGE sends a gift, however little it’s sent in a while. } Zero’s tone shifted, lighter. { But it just sent a gem. }

’Why would I care for a gem?’

{ Not a literal gem, you fool. }

---

[ Item: Convergence Crucible — EX Rank

An EX-ranked artifact that manifests an extradinsional training realm where the owner can equalize all occupants to any tier they have personally achieved, selectively disable any aspects of power, generate entities up to their own rank, and guarantee no permanent harm—with none of its functions drawing from the owner’s energy reserves. ]

’Dumb it down, please.’ Zeke sat up, the movent sharper than before. ’This is looking to be the highlight of my day.’

{ It does what it does, } Zero said, and there was a smile in his voice now, real warmth bleeding through the static. { Which is create a training dinsion where you can train your friends without fear of death, while setting limits however you please. }

{ It’s an aweso gift, seeing as you’ll be having students soon. } A pause. { Best way to teach them. }

Zeke’s feet hit the floor. His hand closed around the sphere—cool, seamless, impossibly light.

"I’m testing it right now."

---

The white expanse swallowed him whole.

It was not the void of the Tower’s trial—that had been absence, emptiness, a waiting darkness. This was light. Clean. Infinite. It pressed against him from all sides without weight, without judgnt.

’This brings back mories.’

{ You can shape it however you want. } Zero’s voice was close, present in a way it hadn’t been in the void. { I believe this is your default assumption of how it would look. The reason it took this form. }

"Thanks, Captain Obvious."

He closed his eyes. Thought of earth. Of ground beneath his feet, solid and real.

When he opened them, the white was gone.

The ground rose to et him—dirt, packed and ancient, stretching toward horizons that didn’t exist a mont ago. Mountains pushed up from the earth, slow and inevitable, their peaks scraping a sky that had decided to be blue. In the valley between them, a clearing opened, wide and flat, the kind of space built for violence.

Zeke stood at its center.

He thought of seats. Places to watch.

The mountains answered. The walls of the valley shuddered, stone folding and reforming, carving themselves into terraces, benches, levels of smooth rock rising in gentle arcs—an amphitheater carved from the bones of the world.

Zeke exhaled. The sound was small in the vastness.

He closed his eyes again. Thought of walls. Of a room that contained the sky, that held the infinite and made it manageable.

The world reshaped itself around him.

When he opened his eyes, he stood on a raised platform, a glass balustrade curving before him. Below, the floor dropped away into a white expanse—contained now, frad, finite. A training hall. Massive. Empty. Waiting.

He looked down at his hands. The sphere was gone, but he could feel it still, sowhere behind his ribs, humming.

"This would serve as a beautiful combat room."

{ So you had to do all that, } Zero’s voice was dry, { just to settle for this. }

"When you get the power to create whatever you want?" Zeke leaned against the balustrade, looking down at the empty floor below. "Then you can chat to ."

He pushed off, turning back toward the room.

"So. What else can I do?"

{ Create as many entities as you want. } Zero’s voice shifted into sothing almost clinical, the cadence of a manual. { Adjust their ranks to the rank you’re at, with the stat limit of your highest stat. You can also give them any of your aspects, or use the generic established templates of monsters. }

{ And the best part: whoever you’ve defeated before, whoever you’ve observed the status window of—you can create them. Higher stats. Additional aspects. Whatever you want. }

{ The only thing you can’t do is increase the rank of aspects. }

Zeke’s mouth curved. Slow. Sharp. "What’s life without fun?" He walked to the edge of the platform, looking down at the white floor below. "I can’t wait to get in on the action."

{ On what action? }

"I’ll lock my immortality." He ticked it off on his fingers. "My Pride trait. My innate ability." His hand dropped. "And I’ll create the perfect opponent."

He turned away from the railing, pacing the platform’s length.

"Wait. Can I create a stronger opponent? What about stronger teammates? What’s the limitation?"

{ Originally stronger persons can retain their strength here, if you decide to nerf them you can. } Zero’s explanation ca smooth, practiced. { The limitations of stats are for people weaker than you and entities you create without a stronger base. So if you go with your plan and create an opponent based on Michael’s perceived stats? You can. }

Zeke stopped pacing. "Michael’s fake stats are still too strong. How do you expect

to face that without immortality?"

He ran a hand through his hair, the silver streaks catching the room’s ambient light.

"And based on what I know about SSS-Rank..." His voice trailed off. "It’s stupid to face them with the level of authority they possess." He resud pacing, slower now. "Let’s put him at the peak of SS-Rank. All stats at 1599." A pause. "With Enel’s skillset."

{ You really don’t like Enel. }

"It’s normal."

{ You do know you’ll lose, right? }

Zeke’s hand dropped from his hair. He turned back toward the balustrade, looking out at the empty training floor below. The light caught his face, sothing unreadable in the set of his jaw.

"You underestimate my battle prowess."

---

"So." Anton’s voice was flat, disbelieving. "You just so happen to rember you have a magical artifact in your possession that is the perfect training material, and you want us to ’play’ with it before others?"

Zeke was sprawled across one of the armchairs, legs hooked over the armrest, one hand gesturing vaguely. "Hehe."

"I wouldn’t call it ’play.’" His grin widened. "It’s to set a hierarchy. One not based on our Awakened rank, but on combat ability." He let his gaze drift across the room. "I know you weaklings would gobble it up."

"Weaklings?" Aaron pressed a hand to his chest, staggered back half a step with the conviction of a stage actor receiving a mortal wound. "That hurts."

"So." The voice ca from the corner of the room, light and dry as old paper. "It was your artifact that caused chaos in my domain."

Every head turned.

Nox stood beside Zeke’s chair, hands clasped behind his back, smiling the smile of a man who had been there the whole ti and was only now choosing to be noticed.

Zeke’s chair tipped. He caught himself on the armrest, twisted, and ca up with his back to the wall, his hand already half-raised before his brain caught up with his body. "Ahh."

He lowered his hand. "It caused chaos?"

"Yes." Nox’s eyes didn’t leave him. "It’s not every day this world receives an EX-Ranked artifact."

"EX?" Anton’s voice was tight, sharp.

Nox’s smile deepened. "Hoho. You know of it."

Anton nodded. Slow. Careful.

’Okay.’ Zeke’s ntal voice was quiet, almost sheepish. ’I might have forgotten to ask what EX ans exactly.’

{ You don’t say. }

"I can see the questions on your face." Nox waved a hand. The world tilted—not the world, just Zeke’s perspective, the room rearranging itself around him until he was sitting, legs under him, chair solid, Nox settled across from the group in a chair that hadn’t been there a mont before.

"Without crossing lines that shouldn’t be crossed?" Nox folded his hands in his lap. "EX is a rank above SSS. In the rankings of aspects, items, and miscellaneous things. Just the ergence of an EX item causes a wave. It attracts powerful people."

His gaze moved to Zeke, and there was sothing in it—not warmth, not quite. Assessnt. Maybe approval.

"Lucky for you, I am the strongest person in this world. And also the administrator. I have helped you reduce the impact." A pause. "The causation that would have allowed anyone to track it to you."

He leaned back in his chair. "Not that it would have mattered. You are strong enough to protect it. For other floors, the artifact does not seem like one you would unnecessarily show off. So it won’t draw attention as much."

His voice dropped. "But still. Just the rank it carries has increased the risk you have to et them earlier."

"Them?" Anton’s brow furrowed.

"Yes." Nox’s hands unclasped, resting on the arms of his chair. "I might be the administrator of a lower floor, but I have a little hold on the upper echelon. However little that is, I know of everything that has happened to you and what may happen." His eyes swept the room. "Your world is alluring, after all."

"They would co for you another way." He paused. "But what would have happened years from now may happen earlier. One, because of the butterfly effect of your regression." His gaze settled on Anton, lingered, moved on. "And now, because you hold sothing you should not."

Zeke had leaned forward at so point, elbows on his knees. "By the logic of novels, shouldn’t EX-rank items be less important? There should be higher-ranked artifacts. Big organizations that would be after us shouldn’t be that interested."

"You read a lot of nonsense." Nox’s smile was almost fond. "EX-rank is not common street wear." He rose from his chair, movents unhurried. "The less I speak, the better it is for you."

He looked down at Zeke. "Do well to use that artifact to train the students of my academy." His voice lightened, almost teasing. "Or I might just take it as the academy’s prized possession. Hohoho."

Zeke’s head tilted. His mouth curved. "Too bad." His voice was light, almost pleasant. "You couldn’t, even if you tried."

The boys shifted. Their shoulders straightened. Aaron’s arms uncrossed. Kai’s weight settled. Jude’s expression didn’t change, but sothing in the room did—a quiet alignnt, a shared center of gravity.

Nox looked at them. One by one. His smile didn’t waver.

"Hohoho."

He was gone. The air where he’d been settled slowly, like water closing over a stone.

Zeke pushed himself out of the chair, rolling his shoulders. His grin was sharp, bright, the thing he wore when he was about to do sothing inadvisable.

"So." He spread his arms. "Who’s up for a training session?"