Chapter 37: Chapter 37: Crossroads

My hands clamped tight on to the edge of my chair. I stared straight into Saber's eyes. In them danced the flicker of the lamps. I found no fear there. Confusion, perhaps, and certainly concern, but there was no fear.

"...Saber," was the only thing I managed to say.

"Two of them came to me today," she murmured. "They were friendly. But they asked me whether I went outside the city recently."

"What did you say?"

"I said yes. I told them I was out by the hills, picking herbs. They asked what I saw there, and I told them nothing much. They asked me who I was with. I told them, just friends. And they said there's been some security concerns outside of town. I received an order from the Headmaster of the Combat Division not to leave town until further notice."

I allowed myself a shallow exhale and looked around at our other teammates.

"The Expeditioners made it pretty obvious they own the cave," I said. "Don't you think?"

"It's only obvious to us because we already suspect them," Hei said. "It's the final nail in the coffin, in terms of evidence."

That was true. Banning Saber from leaving town was a case of the Streisand effect, where attempting to suppress knowledge only leads to the opposite effect. It was like how celebrities would try to remove unseemly photos from the internet, only to draw more attention to those photos because everyone noticed the Herculean efforts involved in their removal.

Mr. Atlas laid his forearm upon the table. "Do you think the guard at the cave recognized you?" he asked Saber.

She gave a shrug. "I think it has to be that."

The whole time, Jack merely listened. He just sat there, scarcely even moving.

"What are your thoughts?" I finally asked him. Partially because I wanted to help him be included in the discussion, and partially because his tacitness was beginning to bother me a little.

"There are too many unknowns at the moment," he said simply. "I know it's a big deal. I'd be lying if I said it wasn't." He turned to look at the Seekflower in the corner of the room. "Hey. Where's The Witch of Roses?"

The flower's petals folded close. The Witch wasn't in this plane of existence.

"Where's Sylvie, the Knight of Anomalies?" he asked once more. The flower did not respond.

"Where's Doublerift?" Hei checked. Once again, the flower remained closed.

"Looks like it's just 6E12 that's here," Jack said. "But that's all we know. We don't know if he's actually gonna free us, like the Truthseekers said."

I gave him a nod in agreement. "That's why we need more intel. Everything we've been working at, we've been working off assumptions. Challenges? We continue with them, because we assume we'll get home once we reach Diamond. But, I mean, who knows anymore if that's real?"

"I'd assume it is," Hei said.

"The Truthseekers would disagree."

"They have nothing to back up their claim."

And neither did we, I thought. We had no proof getting to Diamond would win us the game. But, really, if almost everyone in Silver agreed that it would, then surely no one had found evidence to the contrary, right?

"We're starting to go in circles," I admitted. "It's not much use speculating like this. How do we gather more intel?"

Mr. Atlas shut his eyes for a moment. He squared his jaws. "The risk is too high right now. We can't make any moves yet." He glanced to Saber. "Especially you, you'll have to be a goodie-two-shoe as far as the Institute is concerned."

Saber bit her lips. "OK."

"That goes for everyone else too," Atlas continued. "We've all just been at the cave. Their eyes are on us right now. Give it a week, or better, a month, and we'll worry about 6E12 then."

I could understand his rationale, and could even agree with him partially. But his approach felt too relaxed, too passive. We didn't know that much about the entire situation, but what we did know was already a game-changer. 6E12 was in Silver, that much we knew. He was the promised liberator, according to the Truthseekers. We knew exactly where to find him. We more or less knew he was being housed by the Expedition Division. And for one reason or another, the Expedition Division wanted to keep it all a secret.

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Even without all the answers, these were huge informational advantages we had. Did we really want to sit upon our knowledge, and do nothing at all? What we now knew could prove sufficient to alter the future of our entire team. Or even the future of this entire town, or even the future of the untold hundreds, thousands, of other players stuck in this game. Out of everything we could do, we were choosing inaction.

"There must be something for us to do right now," I finally said.

"Sure," Mr. Atlas said. "Go to work. Save up. Once the time comes to act, we'll likely need money."

I sighed quietly, deflating, acquiescing to Atlas' proposal. "What does everyone else think?" I asked.

"We have until the next challenge," Hei said. "I mean, before we're forced to risk our lives for anything. We can afford to wait."

So be it then.

"I'm worried something's gonna go wrong before then," I admitted. "Of course I see the dangers of getting too nosy right away. But opportunities come and go. What if 6E12 disappears next week? There's a risk of us wasting the opportunities we currently have. It feels like no one's accounting for that risk."

"I know," Mr. Atlas said. "Risk of opportunity cost. If it makes you feel any better, I'll draw out a risk-assessment chart. With probabilities, cost-benefit weights, all those fancy numbers. I'm not convinced it'll show us anything besides what I've already told you."

He sounded like he could be my dad.

I sank back into my chair and stared up into the ceiling. There had been no shouting, no blames, no accusation at all throughout our discussion. Even so, adrenaline had worn me out, made me breathless and sweaty by now.

"It's fine," I told Mr. Atlas. "I understand."

That more or less concluded our discussions. One by one, we awkwardly stood up, then headed out of our basement together.

Over the next few days, life returned to relative normalcy. I did my best not to overthink the matter regarding 6E12.

Soon, a week passed. I bumped into Tanin a couple times. We exchanged pleasantries, talked about our individual work, talked about our housemates and food. One morning, we chanced upon each other at the front gates of the Institute, and we exchanged tips on where to buy groceries. He mentioned that the farmers' market, which opened in Ring Three on weekends, often sold the freshest and cheapest produce.

"Tradeoff is, you gotta wake up early and walk all the way there." He chuckled, and his breath fogged in the cold morning air. "And that's just not for me."

It felt like our relationship was still the same as before, prior to me asking him about the cave, prior to our exchange in the empty classroom. I could rarely get a read on Tanin's intent, but this time I could sort of tell. He wanted to maintain the relationship we had. What else he thought, whether about 6E12 or about my potential endeavors around that, I wouldn't know. But I knew he wanted to continue being friends. And you know what? I'd be down for that as well.

"Anything on your schedule this afternoon?" I asked. "Hei's gonna fight in the 4th-level tournament. For the first time."

Tanin arched his brows. He rubbed his palms together excitedly. "Oh my. I'll make time for that. He was the strongest duelist among the level 3's, wasn't he? You two make me proud."

When the time for the tournament came, Tanin and I met up and walked over together to the courtyard of the Combat Division. You'd think the Combat Division would be the biggest and most important division of the, well, Combat Institute, but nope. It was the second largest. The Logistics Division beat it by a handful of members.

By the time we arrived, the first contestants (neither of them being Hei) were already getting their equipment ready. One of them was a girl with brass knuckles; she wore a white martial-arts robe. The other duelist wielded an assault rifle.

"I wonder how this is gonna go," I whispered to Tanin.

The audience stood around the perimeter of the courtyard, and we settled in a vacant spot among them. Many of them were from the Institute, although people from other guilds often came to watch these tournaments as well. The prize for first place was $500, so the fights usually got pretty intense and exciting, nothing like the usual, half-hearted sparring people around here did for practice. As I looked around for Hei, someone tapped me on the back.

I startled around, to find a teenage boy slightly younger than myself. He had jet-black bangs, black eyeliner, pale skin, and wore a black hoodie and ripped jeans. He had no expression on his face, except a blank one best described as totally-done-with-life.

"How's it going," he greeted me flatly.

Wait. It was him. Jayden.

That one cultist from the Guild of Truthseekers.

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