Nothing.

"Nothing!"

The system didn’t even react. Total rejection.

On the other side, Genius could already begin to read through the tears... Small excerpt. Critical information.

And his body outside the book began to move, his hand unconsciously trying to pull Tacty.

Haru remembered. "The goal is to get Tacty!"

"I got lost in the obsession with getting information from the book... when the important thing was just to get the ruby!"

When Genius tried to forcibly remove Tacty while it was still half-connected...

The stone shone intensely and...

A magical explosion, a wave of energy expanding, launching Haru and Genius against the shelf behind, knocking down more shelves in a domino effect.

Books flying, dust rising, magical alarms activating.

Haru coughed, stirring up debris.

Genius next to him also coughed, his eyes returning to normal.

Murmurs began, people in trances waking up confused.

"Damn it, what happened!?" Genius shouted. "I was about to get it!"

"I couldn’t..." Haru admitted, frustrated.

Guards and priests began to rush in.

"What happened here!?"

"Explosion in ward seven!"

Lilithine emerging from The room also heard the explosion.

He stopped, looking back. "Haru... is that you?"

Priests and officials rushed past her.

"It’s in ward seven!" they shouted.

And then he saw Custodians beginning to appear, black and gold uniforms, silver masks, an aura of absolute authority.

"Damn, you have Custodians!?" Genius exclaimed in surprise as they arrived. "I guess we failed!?"

"No." Haru said, looking around, observing the trance-ridden readers who hadn’t yet woken up.

He saw a woman holding a book, Tacty on the cover, easy to remove.

"I know how to get Tacty without entering it..."

He lifted Genius by the arm. "Come!"

He ran to the woman still in a trance. "Excuse me!"

He ripped Tacty from the cover, the stone came out clean, without an explosion.

"There’s no way to enter the Tacty of a book one at a time... When someone is reading you can..." "Touch the Tacty on the book and nothing happens... so you can rip it off without entering the book!"

He ran to another reader. He took off with the second Tacty.

Genius understood. "Genius!"

He ran to the third. He ripped off the last Tacty.

"THERE!" Guard shouted, pointing at them. "THE INVADERS!"

Custodians turned, three of them, silver masks gleaming, hands raised, channeling magic.

"RUN!" Haru shouted, stuffing the Tacty into his pocket.

They dashed down the corridor, Custodians behind, casting spells.

A fireball grazed past. An ice spear embedded itself in the wall beside them.

Lilithine saw them running. "He’s in danger..."

Without thinking, he discreetly extended his hand.

A white magic circle appeared on the floor in front of the Custodians, a barrier of light blocking their path for three seconds.

Enough time for Haru and Genius to turn around. Corner.

"Stairs!" Genius pointed.

They descended three steps at a time.

The custodians broke through the barrier, continuing the pursuit.

"STOP IN THE NAME OF ORDER!"

They reached the outer garden.

Wall ahead.

"JUMP!" Haru shouted, channeling mana into his legs.

They jumped together, five meters high, landing on the other side of the street.

The custodians reached the wall but stopped; they couldn’t leave the Cathedral grounds without superior authorization.

They watched them escape.

One pulled out a communication crystal: "Father Elias... Intruders escaped. Two individuals." "One of them... we sensed anomalous energy."

Haru and Genius ran five blocks before stopping in a dark alley, breathing heavily.

Genius leaned against the wall. "Holy shit... we almost got caught!..."

Haru checked his pocket. Three Tacty devices, red, blue, green.

"But we made it."

Genius smiled wearily. "You’re crazy, Tokyo."

"And you cry reading books." Haru retorted.

Silence.

Genius wiped his face. "...She was my mother. I heard her... from the other side," he said sadly.

"From the other world?"

"Yeah... she was... crying. Thinking I’m going to die."

He paused.

"And maybe I will. Technically my body is in a coma there."

Haru processed this.

"So you can’t die here." "Or there too?"

"Exactly." Genius looked at his own hands. "That’s why I need to be strong and brilliant. To go back. To see her again."

He looked at Haru.

"And you? What motivation do you have?"

Haru thought.

"Well... I see all this as a second chance to live."

He remembered himself, isolated in his room playing games, masturbating, an empty routine, absolute solitude.

"And doing things I never imagined I could do. I don’t know if this ends when someone finishes the game... I don’t even know how it works properly. But I wanted to grow old, you know? With the harem I’m building..."

"Don’t tell me you died in the other world..." Genius exclaimed in admiration.

"Yeah... I died. My invention fried my dick until I was dead. I don’t know where my body is or what it’s like. The neighbors probably already noticed the bad smell."

"And your parents!?"

Haru was quiet for a second.

"I was alone there. My parents were the only ones left that I knew. They passed away a long time ago..."

Haru’s story was so surprising to Genius that he said without thinking: "Je suis désolé..."

"What did you say?" Haru lifted his head.

"I’m sorry... in French. You know, my language..."

Haru started laughing, not a sad laugh, but a liberating one.

"Fuck! Who would have thought your name was Eiffel Tower!"

"What!?" Genius was confused. Then he understood. "So what, Tokyo!"

Haru threw the Tacty to him. "Put this in your inventory, Baguette. We’re going to Null Horizon. You pulled me into the Squad? I’ll pull you into the guild."

Genius docked the Tacty, descending from the roof with Haru.

"Hey, Wasabi..." Genius called, "...by the way, what was your name before you were... were... were a Gamer?"

"It was Haru Mizuki. Like I said, I came all in. There’s no other me here. Just me. I just don’t know why I didn’t show up toasted, since I died toasted. But I am me."

He paused. "And what was yours, Croissant?"

"Marcell..."

Haru burst into loud laughter, a genuine guffaw.

"Holy shit, what a French name! My God! Marcell!"

"Shut up, Takamura-san!"

"Marcell!" Haru repeated with a forced accent. "Marceeeeellss!"

"I’m going to punch you!"

"Anyway..." Haru controlled her laughter, "...let’s go to the guild to register you, eat, and come back tonight to see this Veritas."

<Null Horizon in the afternoon:>

Haru pushing Genius inside. "Guys, this is Genius!"

Drunken adventurers raised their mugs. "WELCOME!"

"He’s French!" Haru announced.

"BOOOO!" Half of them teased him even without knowing what a Frenchman was. The other half laughed.

"I hate you guys..." Genius muttered.

<Receptionist Registration:>

"Name?"

"Genius Genials."

"Rank?"

"Inferior/Lower Maestro Tier I."

She looked suspicious. "Seriously?"

Genius showed his Genials house ID.

"...Approved. Next!"

<Improvised Poker Table:>

"All in!" Haru pushed chips in.

"You don’t even know how to play!" Genius protested.

"That’s why I’m winning!"

"That doesn’t make sense!" 𝐟𝕣𝕖𝐞𝐰𝕖𝚋𝐧𝗼𝚟𝐞𝕝.𝗰𝐨𝐦

Haru won. "HAHA! Beginner’s luck!"

Genius slammed his fist on the table. "Damn it!"

<Drink:>

"Try this." Adventurer offered a bright green drink.

Genius drank. His eyes widened. "WHAT THE HELL IS THIS!?"

"Fermented dragon venom!"

"WHY DO YOU DRINK THIS!?"

Haru, already on his third glass. "Because it’s good!"

Genius fell off his chair, dizzy.

<Silly Mission:>

"Shall we accept this one?" Genius pointed: Retrieve a cat stuck in a tree - 2 silver coins.

"No. We accept THIS one." Haru pointed: Exterminate giant rats in the sewers - 15 silver coins*.

"Rats!?"

"Tradition!"

<Farewell:>

"See you later, everyone!" Haru waved, leaving.

"Come back alive!" They shouted back.

"Or dead! That works too!"

Genius looked at Haru. "Your friends are strange..."

"That’s why I like them."

...

They returned to the rooftop, which offered a complete view of the Cathedral, wearing comfortable, flexible black clothes with hoods.

"Comfortable clothes the guild gave us..." Genius commented, adjusting them.

"Yeah... that’s what happens when you have drunken friendships." Haru smiled.

They observed the Cathedral, now sparsely populated, with night approaching, guards making their final rounds.

Magic lanterns lit in the towers. Silent bell. Deceptive peace.

Genius opened the map through the system...

"Hey, how do you do that?!" Haru exclaimed.

"Fourth basement..." Genius explained, tracing routes in the air, "...we descend through the east wing, avoid the 11 PM patrol, enter through the ventilation duct here, fall directly into the antechamber, deactivate the magic barrier with a sequence I memorized, and..."

"And we pray there are no Custodians." Haru finished, putting on a black mask covering half his face.

"The part that worries me..." Haru continued, "...is that we won’t be the only Gamers. And that this might have been a well-laid trap. But it’s always worth peeking and coming back."

Genius put on his hood. "Consider that every Gamer came to peek."

At that moment...

A white signal was launched from another rooftop, a magical flare rising to the sky.

They both saw it.

Then another. And another. And more. And more...

All around the Cathedral, ten, twenty, thirty white signals illuminating the night.

"Unless..." Haru murmured, "...all the Gamers want a little peace in this..."

Genius completed the thought: "...and are lining up a safe zone."

The Gamers were communicating, coordinated signals, simultaneous invasion.

"It seems the Cathedral might fall today..." Genius said, impressed.

Haru thought of Lilithine. "She’s in there..."

On the other side, high up in his office in the Cathedral’s main tower.

Father Elias stood at the window observing the white signals appearing one by one around.

He smiled, not a joyful smile, but the smile of someone who sees a plan working perfectly.

"Rats..." he murmured.

He turned to his subordinate. "Let’s go to the fourth basement level. Prepare the trap."

"Yes, Father."

He looked back at the signs.

"Twenty-seven... twenty-eight... twenty-nine..."

Counting each Gamer who fell for the bait.

"Perfect."

"Let’s go!" Genius said, jumping off the roof.

Haru followed, both using mana to cushion their fall, landing silently in the outer garden of the Cathedral.

And around them, shadows descended from all sides:

Gamers jumping across rooftops.

Gamers climbing walls.

Gamers teleporting.

Gamers summoning magical wings.

A continent of Gamers converging on the same point, all wanting the Eye of Veritas for the same reasons: survival, security, eliminating the threat.