The diner sat at the edge of Zone Four, one of those aggressively cheerful burger joints that clearly existed to take advantage of first-years who wanted to feel normal for five minutes. Red vinyl booths, checkered floors, chrome fixtures everywhere. The smell of grease and meat hit me the second I walked in, and my stomach immediately staged a coup.

I spotted the squad already crammed into a corner booth. Jordan had claimed the window seat and was currently using it as a pillow, his face pressed against the glass like a sad puppy. Belle sat across from him with her blue hair pulled into a ponytail, examining the menu with the same intensity she usually reserved for calculating loot values. Misato occupied the aisle seat, scrolling through her phone with that particular frown that meant she was texting Blair and not enjoying it.

Naomi waved from beside Belle. Her arm was in a sling, freshly regenerated by the academy’s healers but still tender enough that she’d been ordered to keep it immobilized for forty-eight hours. Purple bruising peeked out from under the white medical wrap.

I slid in next to Jordan, who groaned without lifting his face from the glass.

"He’s been like this for ten minutes," Belle said. "I’m not sure he’s actually alive."

"I’m dead," Jordan confirmed into the window. "Leave my corpse here. Tell my family I died doing something cool, not fighting a horror movie reject in a cave."

"You held those shadows against a Silver-rank boss for almost a minute," I said. "That’s pretty cool."

"It was bullshit." He finally lifted his head enough to glare at me. "That thing should have ripped through my bind in five seconds. I’m like, what, B-rank at best with my ability? That Reaper was Silver. The math doesn’t math."

Misato set her phone down. "Adrenaline increases output temporarily. It’s documented."

"Yeah, temporarily. Not for a full minute." Jordan grabbed a menu and scanned it with zero actual focus. "I’m telling you, something was wrong with that gate. We got a Tier 2 bid, right? Tier 2 means specific difficulty parameters. That Reaper was not those parameters."

Belle leaned back against the booth. "He’s not wrong. I’ve been reading gate classifications since we got back. Silver-rank bosses show up in Tier 3 gates minimum. Sometimes Tier 2, but only if it’s the boss spawn alone with reduced adds. We had thirty Stalkers plus the Reaper."

"And an alpha," Naomi added quietly. "Don’t forget the alpha swarm in the entry tunnel."

"Right, the thing with the Stalkers." Belle tapped her nails against the table. "That should have been the boss. But instead we got Stalkers and then a Silver-rank nightmare creature that teleports."

I grabbed a menu. "Maybe we just got unlucky. Gates have random variance in difficulty within the tier brackets."

"Five percent variance." Jordan’s eyes had gone sharp now, the exhaustion falling away as his brain kicked into gear. "Gates generate within a five percent difficulty band of their classification. So a Tier 2 can be easier or harder, but never outside that band. A Silver-rank boss represents like a forty percent spike. That’s not variance, that’s a different gate."

"Are you suggesting the academy mislabeled the gate?" Misato asked.

"I’m suggesting something got fucked up somewhere between the scan and the deployment."

The waitress appeared, a third-year girl with Ruby trim who looked like she’d rather be literally anywhere else. "What can I get you?"

We ordered in rapid succession. Jordan wanted a double cheeseburger with fries and a chocolate shake. Belle asked for a chicken sandwich with sweet potato fries. Naomi requested a veggie burger despite being someone who definitely preferred meat. Misato ordered grilled chicken salad because of course she did. I went full degenerate and ordered the bacon burger with onion rings, regular fries, and a strawberry shake.

The waitress scribbled everything down without enthusiasm and left.

Belle kicked my shin under the table. "Onion rings and fries?"

"I burned like six thousand calories today. Don’t judge my choices."

"I’m not judging. I’m impressed by your complete lack of restraint."

Naomi’s foot found mine under the table and pressed against it gently. I glanced at her, and she smiled that soft smile that made my chest do stupid things.

My phone buzzed. Aurora had sent a message asking if I was dead or just ignoring her.

I typed back: Not dead. At diner with squad. Got brutalized by cave nightmare.

Her response came instantly: Oh good, you survived! I need you alive for Saturday 💋

I pocketed my phone before anyone could ask questions.

"So." Belle folded her hands on the table. "Let’s talk about the elephant in the room."

Jordan lifted his head. "Which elephant? We have like four."

"Credits." Belle pulled out her phone and opened her banking app. "We cleared the gate, collected cores, killed a Silver boss. How much did we actually make?"

Misato consulted her clipboard. "Twenty-three regular cores at two hundred each. Four thousand six hundred. Plus the alpha core from the entry tunnel, that’s another thousand. And the Reaper core was rated at five thousand base value, but because it was Silver tier in a Tier 2 gate, they bumped it to eight thousand."

"Thirteen thousand six hundred total," Belle said, already doing the math. "Split five ways is... two thousand seven hundred twenty each."

Jordan sat up straighter. "Wait. We each made almost three thousand credits?"

"Before deductions." Misato flipped to another page. "Academy takes forty percent for medical, equipment insurance, gate access fees, and emergency extraction coverage. That leaves eight thousand one hundred sixty. Split five ways, we each net one thousand six hundred thirty-two credits."

Silence descended on the table as everyone processed those numbers.

"That’s more than my monthly stipend," Naomi said quietly. "From one gate."

Belle’s eyes had gone distant. "If we run two Tier 2 gates per week, that’s three thousand credits per person weekly. Twelve thousand monthly. Plus our regular stipends." She looked at Misato. "You said Tier 3 gates pay even better?"

"Significantly. But you need B-rank minimum average stats to qualify." Misato gestured at our various injuries. "And none of us are there yet." 𝘧𝓇𝑒𝑒𝑤ℯ𝑏𝓃𝘰𝑣ℯ𝘭.𝘤ℴ𝘮

"Jace is close," Belle said. "His performance in that chamber was at least B-rank equivalent."

I shook my head. "That was Overclock. Temporary boost. Without it, I’m still D-rank at best."

"Still," Belle pressed. "With the right training schedule and... resource allocation... you could hit B-rank within a month. Maybe two."