Raine took a deep breath, enjoying the wetland’s humid air. A wide smile pulled at his lips as his nostrils filled with interesting aromas. The buzzing of insects tickled his ears, and the rushing wind from their rapid pace was bliss on his skin. His boots thudding into the dirt road was the steady beating of a drum, bringing him ever closer to his next goal.

  He was alive, free, and the people running with him represented a bright future he would die to protect. In short, Raine was on top of the world.

  Mel, Celeste, and Rhino ran behind him, gasping for each breath. Sweat poured down their faces, drenching their clothes and sticking to their armor. The masses of ungainly weight dragged at them, pulling their exhausted muscles to the dirt with every miserable step.

  Raine alone knew how important it was to push their use of Discipline to such extremes. The lower the resource dipped, the more exhausted one became. Unlike the outside world, when fatigue set in, there was no actual drop in combat potential, meaning it was possible to fight at maximum capacity with only one point of Discipline; it merely didn’t feel like that should be the case. Rewiring the brain to understand that fact was no simple undertaking.

  Fizgore was the only one besides Raine who wasn’t on death’s door. His bare chest heaved, shining with perspiration. The once confident smirk he wore had faded over the last hour as the marsh gently transitioned to plains, sparsely populated by pine and birch trees.

  They ran until flatlands turned to gentle hills, seamlessly leading to the base of the steep mountains that vainly attempted to hide the rising moon. They had finally made it. After hours of pushing Discipline into the road to speed their stride, Mirror Lake was behind them, and The Recluse Mountains loomed large.

  When they reached the first pass—a wide trail between the base of two mountains—Raine signaled a halt. This wasn’t the first time he’d raised his fist abruptly. His four companions drunkenly drew their weapons, spinning with blurry vision to locate the threat. Nodding in approval at their efforts, Raine led them off the road to a hiding spot behind a wide rock outcropping.

  When they realized there wasn’t anything to fight, they collapsed to the ground, heaving. Raine glanced at each of them in turn, pushing down the bubbling, delighted laughter that wanted to escape his lungs: before him sat three future powerhouses. The meaning behind that statement wouldn’t be understood for years to come. A tier four powerhouse could destroy a city on their own, wipe out armies, even clear raids solo. It might take them a while, but they could get the job done.

  Rhino and Celeste were especially a cause for jubilation. In the past, they were famously deadly solo players beholden to none. They alone could propel his future guild to ridiculous heights. Fizgore never quite reached their level of renown, but he’d been shackled by CronGate’s incompetence; his future was no less dazzling.

  Mel was something else entirely. She was the only one in the group without a lick of previous martial training. Yet, she kept up with the rigorous exercises Raine put Celeste through the previous night. He’d seen Mel fight plenty of times in the past, and she never displayed that level of skill.

  Guess she just lacked the right motivation. The only one of them who had early access to ReGen was Celeste… No, that’s not right. She was exiled from her family before the acquisition of Soulgen. What kind of monsters will they be with early doses as strong as the one I got?

  Butterflies danced in his gut at what the five of them would achieve in this new, exciting timeline. Through his interface, Raine sent each a link to a personal alarm, “We’ll break here for three hours. I have a few errands to run.”

  “Wait, three hours, in real world time? That’s nine hours!” Rhino complained, “I could level twice. Not to mention how long we’ve spent traveling.”

  “Can’t be helped,” Raine’s voice held matching melancholy as he lifted his palms in a shrug. His eyes zipped left and right for threats. At the same time, his fingers danced, creating a private message in his interface to Celeste, “Did you look over those properties I won from Dimitrey?”

  While Raine waited for her reply, he addressed the group again: "The mountains will be more dangerous than any of you have seen. I want you well rested and completely focused. Take care of your needs, and we’ll meet here at eleven-thirty. Don’t log in early, I don’t want anyone dying before we get started.”

  Raine had the group bind in the last town they passed through, but that was four hours of grueling exertion ago. Through hazy thoughts, they each considered his meaning and quickly realized a death would result in not only a lost level but a long trip back to where they were. None disagreed with his reasonable demand for caution.

  With his Discipline recharging, Fizgore was once more brimming with vigor. He tilted his chin toward the pass, his voice dramatically deep, “I wish to know thy enemy. What foes does brother deem so deadly?”

  Expecting the question and his antics, Raine chuckled, “While Righteous and DyingNight were warring, another guild—Rising Endlessly—made Vile Peak Town their HQ. We'll likely have to kill our way through all three of their forces before we can bind again. I won’t be coming back or waiting for anyone who gets themselves killed. One slip-up, and you’ll have to make your own way to Silverlight City.”

  Mel timidly raised a hand, “How far away is that?”

  “About thirty hours beyond vile peak, through level fifteen beasts.”

  Rhino whistled, eyeing the nearby peaks that no longer appeared as safe and picturesque as they did a moment ago, “So, don’t die. Gotcha.” The others agreed with sounds of assent.

  “I’ve got a method to get us there a bit quicker. But the first step is getting everyone bound in vile peak.”

  Celeste responded to his message, so Raine lifted a finger to pause the verbal conversation, “I read through the property files while waiting for you earlier. What did you want to know?”

  Raine’s eyes flowed across a virtual keyboard only he could see, composing a reply, “Meet me at Galant’s Gym in thirty minutes. Make sure the mayor knows we’ll be there.” He continued with the rest of the group where he left off, “Exactly three hours from now. Don’t be early, don’t be late.” With those parting words, his consciousness zipped up through a tunnel full of speeding lights.

  Celeste Luu Rahn

  Celeste’s hair clung to her scalp as she peeled the thetadrive headset off. Her nose wrinkled as she caught a whiff of herself. Mel sat up at the same time. Neither were able to wipe away the massive grins plastered on their faces. No matter how hard Raine pushed them, growing stronger in ZionLine was crazy addictive on too many levels. Now that they'd had a taste, they would never be able to stop.

  Looking away from Mel’s blinding smile, Celeste was equally dazed by the bright morning light beaming through the nearby hotel window. “It’s really morning…” She mumbled, shaking her head and experiencing an intense bout of vertigo.

  Mel gingerly picked up the earrings Raine gifted her the previous day. After a night of adjusting to her biometrics and transferring the data from her now inert LinQ, they were ready for use. Sensing her touch, they released millions of minuscule electrical signals that traveled through her skin to populate an AR display directly onto her corneas.

  Through a barrage of welcome messages, she saw the only thing she cared about at the moment, “We logged in at midnight, and it's only nine AM! My brain says a whole day passed, but it's barely been nine hours. This is way too trippers. I’m so dizzy. Are you dizzy?”

  “Big time,” Celeste confirmed, wobbling on her feet as she made it to the bathroom first. She left the door open and climbed into the expansive shower.

  Mel entered a few minutes later after donning sportswear. Shuffling by the shower, she managed to only peep a few times as she relieved herself, “Are we going to talk about—”

  “Don’t say it. Don’t say anything. Supposedly, ZionLine is unhackable, so we can exchange messages there. Out here, nowhere is safe,” Celeste wrung the water from her hair. Looking over her shoulder, she pierced Mel with a warning glare.

  “R-right. Sorry.”

  If you discover this narrative on Amazon, be aware that it has been stolen. Please report the violation.

  The atmosphere grew strained, both their thoughts whirling with a mixture of excitement and fear. The revelation they could hear Raine’s thoughts in ZionLine had opened up a can of uncertainty neither of them knew how to deal with. Through the night, they distracted themselves by testing their mutual ability, discovering the distance and other parameters that allowed his inner words to trickle into their minds.

  Whatever was happening between the three of them, and they could only pray it was just the three of them, was somehow sight-based. It didn’t matter if they were looking at Raine, only that he was within an unbroken line of sight, regardless of distance. Even the thin cloth separator in the dry canyon auction house had been enough to break the link—a name they begrudgingly agreed on after Mel insisted on calling it ‘the coupling.’

  There were still tons of unanswered questions. They didn’t know how the link worked, if others had it, why they only heard Raine’s thoughts so far, or if it was even their ability and not his. Celeste knew Mel was having a hard time not warning him that others might be able to hear his thoughts. Some of what they gleaned through the night were truly disturbing—portents of a past that Raine was desperately attempting to remedy. To protect themselves and him, they mutually decided that one of them should always be near him to look out for anyone else who might be able to pick up the link.

  Ignoring Celeste’s warning, Mel couldn’t help but squeak out a comment, “It’s got to be him, not us.”

  Sighing, Celeste relented, swearing to beat the girl if she verbalized anything damning. Switching the shower to drying mode, she held her arms out as waves of delectable heat washed over her, “Why would you think that?”

  Hovering in front of the bathroom’s wide mirror, Mel pulled at her upper lip, caught in deep thought for a while before responding, “Us being new to this and weak, while he’s extra… strong, doesn’t make enough sense.”

  Celeste initially thought the link was a power all three of them shared, and the reason they heard Raine, and not the other way around, was because their powers were weak, while his were strong. Like a powerful broadcast tower that’s signal was only being picked up by the two LinQs in the area set to the right frequency.

  Mel refuted this idea with solid reasoning, “If he’s so strong, there would be others uh… attracted to him. Or he would be attracted to them. But it's only the three of us, and we’re the ones… attracted to him, and not the other way around.” Mel nodded firmly, agreeing with herself while gradually adopting a satisfied smile. “There’s more to it, something important we don't understand.”

  “Understatement of the decade,” Celeste grumbled.

  Ugh. How does she pull off being so cute without even showering first? So annoying.

  Celeste moved to the mirror and picked up the makeup pen she brought. She set it to a primer with a few clicks, then held it in front of her face so it could quickly release the gel-like substance that rapidly sunk into her skin.

  Suddenly, Mel gasped, eyes wide as she locked onto Celeste through the mirror, “What if it's actually based on attraction!”

  “What are you on about now?” Celeste finished her foundation, remembering not to apply it too thickly across her cheeks and nose so Raine wouldn’t call her ugly again.

  Mel’s voice brimmed with excitement as she leaned forward, “There’s something we have in common, something that he’s mentioned in his-ugh-so many times it can’t be a coincidence!” Celeste narrowed her eyes, her jaw jutting forward in warning. Instead of saying anything else, Mel bounced on her toes, pointing toward her cheeks.

  Celeste looked where she was pointing, unable to figure out what the bouncy girl was talking about. Returning to her own reflection to finish her mascara, she saw them; realization struck, and her pen slipped, dragging a dark line across her cheekbone. Flipping the pen to its eraser mode, she huffed at Mel, “That’s the most idiotic thing I’ve ever heard. How could our freckles have anything to do with it?! God, you’re worse than he is!”

  Mel giggled and spun full circle before prancing from the bathroom, “Got you! Seriously, though, my intuition is telling me I’m right. Attraction is the key. I know it.”

  Celeste’s eyes followed the girl out before flicking back to her body. She looked herself up and down slowly. Then, her nostrils flared, and she finished her makeup with jerky motions.

  Who cares what that asshole thinks about me! All I have to do is stay close to him and keep prying the secrets from his brain until I’m the wealthiest woman in the city. No, the entire territory! But first, I need to get the hell out of here. Knowing him, he’ll definitely charge me thousands of credits for showing up even ten seconds late.

  Tires squealed as an orange and yellow Masayan Mk. IV pulled up in front of Galant’s Gym. Celeste had ‘borrowed’ the car from her father. After he forced her to work with her uncle, who tried to frame her and have Raine killed, the car was a small consolation to earn her forgiveness. She still didn't know how to drive, but she did figure out how to override autopilot’s top speed, or she never would have made it on time.

  Raine was already there, walking with purposeful steps toward the building's front entrance. He wore casual shorts and a T-shirt, looking like a model straight from the cover of an AR advertisement. Celeste couldn’t help but pause to enjoy the view, her thoughts whirling.

  The only thing he didn’t think about last night was other psychics. He must not even realize he is one. Or, it really is mine and Mel's ability… Aaargh! This is so confusing!

  The mayor came out to meet Raine with a friendly wave. Another older man accompanied him, wearing dark shades and a stern frown. Celeste threw open her door, rushing after Raine with the grace of a martial despite wearing heels and a slim, dark skirt. Raine glanced back at her, then slowed so they would arrive together.

  The mayor bowed deeply, “Greetings, Expert KongRu! Thank you so much for coming! This is my uncle and the owner of the Galant chain, Bron Sockton.”

  Bron looked as bored as his voice sounded, “Greetings, Expert KongRu. Your visit today is a welcome disruption from my staff’s tedium.” The mayor cringed, fingers clenched nervously.

  Raine’s hands were in his pockets as he disinterestedly examined the building’s exterior, “No need to be so demure. I’m sure your staff is quite busy with how many high-class martials your establishments produce.”

  The mayor’s jaw dropped, and Celeste’s diaphragm squeezed tight enough to crack a marble as she held in a burst of laughter. While Galant’s Gym was the most expensive training facility in the city by a large margin, it had yet to produce even one class four martial, and its class three’s could be counted on one hand.

  Bron’s lips were white, and his nostrils flared, “My instructors are the pride of this city!”

  “You’re not wrong there,” Raine agreed readily enough, stunning the furious older man, “It’s not your fault Carter City is a martial slum. There’s little here to attract interest.” Noticing the mayor preparing to speak, Raine pinned the short, portly man with a brief glance that somehow had him leaking sweat, “I’ve got other places to be…”

  “R-right, right. Please, come inside, and we’ll begin the tour,” the mayor spun surprisingly quickly considering his stature. He opened the door with a dip of his head.

  Raine walked in first, “No need for a tour. I’ve seen enough. That said, I do need to register. You mentioned last night this gym has the requisite testing facilities.”

  Even Celeste was stunned inert by the statement. She recovered before either man, “Wait, you're saying you fought the previous champion without updating your class first?”

  Willfully attacking a higher rank martial wasn’t a crime unless it was an official match where bets were placed. Since there had been significant betting on their bout, the implications were a headache Celeste wasn’t prepared for.

  Raine shook his head, “No, I’ve never registered as a martial to begin with.”

  “What?!” Three voices shouted in unison.

  Talerra Tafell - Scion of the Everlasting Phoenix Clan

  Talerra waited patiently on a wood floor, her ankles tucked beneath her bottom. It had already been two hours, but that hardly mattered. When Tannis Taffel—Patriarch of the Everlasting Phoenix Clan—demanded an audience, even presidents and kings would endure with a smile.

  When the door behind her eventually slid open, she folded in half without looking, her head gently gracing the floor. Feather-soft footfalls traversed the small room, and the gentle shifting of fabric revealed he had taken a position opposite her. The mental pressure emanating from the man was palpable, a physical force pressing her knees into the floor.

  Even class five martials were known to exert mysterious mental forces as simply as breathing, and her grandfather was no mere class five. Beyond controlling the lives of over a billion citizens, he was one of the most deadly class sevens martials in the world.

  Tannis’s finger drummed on the squat table between them. His words carried warmth and scorn, “You have disappointed me, Granddaughter.” Talerra remained silent, not daring to lift her head. “Before determining your punishment, I would have your account of the transgression. You may speak.”

  “Thank you, Patriarch,” Talerra rose to a perfectly straight-backed posture. She met Tannis Tafell’s steely gaze head-on. Flinching now would destroy any chance of recovering from the dire situation. “I am unaware of the transgression I have committed. I thank you for the opportunity to correct it.”

  Warmth was replaced with disappointment. His finger descended again, leaving behind a slight furrow in the highly durable wood. Unfortunately, Talerra had no choice but to raise his ire by admitting ignorance. Her position would worsen if she confessed to the wrong mistake.

  Instead of answering, Tannis flicked a datastream her way. Her LinQ picked it up automatically, unable to stop messages or commands from her patriarch. She accessed the file with a thought, and a VRVod played across her retinas.

  In it, she saw a slowed recording of herself fighting inside a dark cavern. A boss called the Elite Shotgun Slime had her at death’s door. In her desperation, she set her feet in the stance to utilize the first ghost step: Harrowing Triumph. The VRVod skipped a few frames until after her attack, clearly having been edited by the original owner of the Vod. The playback ended, and she returned her focus to her grandfather.

  Tannis’s following words sent her heart galloping, “The secrets of our Ghost Step have been leaked. There is only one path forward that allows you to retain your inheritance. You will discover the identity of the man named Alaric, and you will kill him.”