I have faced celestial tribulations that could crack continents. I have stood before the literal Will of the Universe and told it to blink. But nothing—absolutely nothing—prepared me for the sheer, suffocating pressure of three hundred jealous engineering students staring at the back of my head.
As we walked out of the lecture hall, the "Observer" Lin Yue was at my side, her presence acting like a gravitational anomaly that pulled every eye in the corridor toward us.
[SYSTEM LOG: LAMENTATION MODULE ACTIVE]
[DAO MESSAGE: HOST, YOUR LUCK IS CURRENTLY SITTING AT A STATISTICAL NEGATIVE. MY PREDICTIONS FOR A 'QUIET LIFE' HAVE BEEN OVERWRITTEN BY 'CATASTROPHIC DRAMA'. PERHAPS WE SHOULD HAVE JUST LET THE LAST REALITY-SINKHOLE SWALLOW THIS SECTOR.]
Shut up, I thought, adjusting my backpack. I'm trying to blend in.
[DAO MESSAGE: YOU ARE CURRENTLY WALKING NEXT TO A GIRL WHOSE FAMILY OWNS THE AIR WE ARE BREATHING. BLENDING IN IS NO LONGER AN OPTION. YOU ARE NOW A GLOWING TARGET IN A SEA OF HORMONAL PREDATORS.]
We hadn't even reached the campus gates when the first "Undercurrent" broke the surface.
"Li Ren! Heading to lunch so early?"
The voice belonged to Zhao Feng, the captain of the Institute's Combat-Tech team and a scion of a "Stable Tier" family that manufactured police drones. He was handsome in that sharp, aggressive way that usually meant he spent his weekends practicing "Self-Defense" on people smaller than him. Behind him stood two of his cronies, looking like human barricades.
Zhao Feng ignored me entirely, his eyes locking onto Lin Yue with a rehearsed, dazzling smile. "Miss Lin, I'm Zhao Feng. My father works closely with your uncle at the Ministry of Stability. I was hoping to offer you a tour of our new 'Aegis' lab. It's far more interesting than the... dusty archives of Sector 4."
Lin Yue didn't even slow her pace. She didn't even look at him. She just tilted her head toward me. "Is he a friend of yours, Ren? He's very loud."
I felt the temperature in the hallway drop by ten degrees. Zhao Feng's smile didn't disappear—it just became a weapon. He finally looked at me, and if looks could trigger a System Quest, I'd be fighting a boss right now.
"Li Ren is a scholar," Zhao said, his voice dripping with condescension. "He spends his time with dirt and foundations. He wouldn't know anything about high-level security or... social etiquette."
"Well, he's my consultant for the day," Lin Yue said, reaching the curb where a car was waiting.
It wasn't just a car. It was a Lin-Gong 'Wraith'—a matte-black, hover-capable limousine that utilized localized gravity-defiance. It didn't have tires; it sat three inches above the pavement on a cushion of stabilized air.
The granite-faced assistant, whom I now knew as Chen-Bo, opened the door. The interior looked like a private lounge in a five-star hotel, complete with a refrigerated bar and seats made of genuine, non-synthetic leather.
"Get in, Ren," Lin Yue said.
I looked back at the crowd of students. Zhao Feng looked like he was about to combust. Fatty Bo was waving at me with a look that said, 'If you survive, I want your autograph; if you don't, I'm taking your gaming console.'
I climbed in, the door sealing with a sound that was far too final.
As the 'Wraith' pulled away—completely silent, moving through the chaotic traffic of Sector 4 like a ghost through a wall—Lin Yue poured two glasses of sparkling water.
"So," she said, leaning back and watching me through narrowed eyes. "Zhao Feng thinks you're a nobody. My father's database thinks you're a glitch. And my 'Observer' sense tells me that you're currently trying very hard not to notice that the gravity inside this car is set to exactly 0.98G to compensate for the hover-drift."
I took a sip of the water. It was crisp, clean, and probably cost more than my tuition. "I just have a good inner ear, Miss Lin."
[DAO MESSAGE: HOST, SHE IS LITERALLY WATCHING YOUR PUPIL DILATION. WOULD YOU LIKE ME TO TRIGGER A 'MILD DIARRHEA' PROTOCOL TO GIVE YOU AN EXCUSE TO LEAVE?]
No! That's the opposite of being cool!
"Tell me about the watches, Ren," she said suddenly, a playful spark in her violet eyes. "I saw you looking at that Patek catalog during the lecture. A man who wants to be 'Average' doesn't lust after a piece of engineering that keeps time via a manual tourbillon. You like things that are perfect, don't you? Things that are... stable."
She leaned in, her face inches from mine.
"Just like the foundations of this city."