As the diagnostic exercise concluded and the group severed their physical connections to the crystal brain, the ancient network's hierarchy became glaringly obvious.
Aside from Luna, who possessed her own unique, systemic bypass, the Tamers bonded to the spore-fungus had received a noticeably higher volume of data, delivered with much sharper clarity than the rest of the vanguard.
And among them, Wei stood at the absolute apex.
His fungus was currently the most developed of the entire group, sitting proudly at the high Silver rank. The moment Wei pulled his ink-stained hands away from the glowing facets of the supercomputer, his eyes were wide, practically vibrating with a manic, scholarly euphoria.
He hadn't possessed the administrative privileges to download the entire, unadulterated truth. But his enhanced connection had granted him just enough highly useful fragments to deeply suspect exactly how much Ren was getting.
