A SAFE ROOM THAT IS NOT ENTIRELY SAFE
Vasena's safe room did not look like a prison, but the air made every chest feel tight. The walls were matte white, the table in the center was transparent, and six chairs were arranged too neatly to be called comfortable. On the far wall, a large panel displayed a schematic of the facility in pale blue lines, like a nervous system drawn open.
Aki sat in the chair closest to the door, both hands on his still dizzy head. Ratha stood with his back pressed against the wall, as if ready to run at any moment. Kallen stared at the panel with red, exhausted eyes. Vex focused on controlling his breathing, trying to restore his body's rhythm after being hunted and almost killed.
Ryu sat opposite Helvar Sorrin. The Head of Vasena watched them in silence. The only sound in the room was the soft, steady hum of the cooling units hidden somewhere behind the walls.
"First," Helvar said at last, "you are not to speak of what happened. Not to roommates. Not to instructors. Not even to your own mentors."
Aki raised his hand automatically. "Including cats if we ever get a cat?"
Helvar glanced at him for half a second. "Yes."
Aki lowered his hand slowly. "All right, this is officially serious."
Vex rubbed his face. "Those people who came into the arena earlier… they were infiltrators, correct?"
Helvar nodded once. "They are not part of Vasena. Not part of any module. Not ordinary evaluators from allied states. They were weapons sent in with one specific objective."
Ratha swallowed. "To kill Ryu."
"No." Helvar's gaze moved to Ryu. "To steal him."
Kallen frowned. "Steal… a person?"
"In our world," Helvar replied, "someone like Ryu is worth more than a missile, a reactor, or a classified database. There is something inside him that cannot be replicated. They do not want to destroy it. They want to bring it home."
Aki shivered. "Bro… you are like a walking drive."
"Not a drive," Vex corrected quietly. "More like… a prototype."
Ryu looked at the facility map on the wall. NV pulsed in his mind, calm but fully alert.
I know.
Helvar shifted his attention back to Ryu. "You bypassed a Level Zero sensor archive without tools. The core server recognized you as part of its own protocol. That does not happen by accident."
Ryu spoke softly. "Because of D 3."
Helvar inclined his head. "Your birth protocol is part of an old project. A project that involved your father and… someone else."
Ryu held his breath. "My mother."
"Yes." Helvar did not pretend otherwise. "Lyanna Verine Ardyn. She was not some minor staff member. She was not a 'stay at home mother with no records.' She was one of the lead engineers behind the cognitive frameworks for biological experiments. But there is one crucial point."
He locked eyes with Ryu. "You are not the result of that experiment."
Aki snapped his head up. "Huh?"
Vex's brow creased. "If he is not the result… then what is he?"
"Ryu never underwent any modification procedure," Helvar continued. "No surgical markers. No recorded gene edits. No neuro intervention on file. In other words, the abnormal structure in his brain appeared on its own."
Ratha repeated quietly, as if testing the words. "That means he is not a product. He is… a natural anomaly."
Kallen tugged at his own hair. "That is insane. The research world has been trying for decades to create a child like this, and one just shows up with no lab time?"
Aki turned to Ryu. "So from the very beginning you were… factory weird."
"I am not broken," Ryu said evenly. "I am simply not the same."
NV came in softly.
Helvar tapped a knuckle against the table. "From now on, your official status will shift. On paper, you are no longer a top threat in the basic module. You will appear as a strong candidate, but not a central one."
Aki yelped. "Hey, do not drop my bro's ranking like that."
Helvar continued as if he had not spoken. "If everyone knows what you can do, foreign leaders will not sleep. They will send more infiltrators. More killers. More weaponized children."
Vex nodded slowly. "So what you are doing is not just protecting Vasena. You are protecting Ryu."
"I am protecting balance," Helvar corrected. "If one nation owns something too far above the rest, the world stops being stable."
Ryu looked straight at him. "Then what am I supposed to become?"
A thin, ambiguous smile touched Helvar's lips. It was not warm, but it was not cruel either. It belonged somewhere in between.
"You continue to be a student of Vasena," he said. "Officially. A Level One genius with good performance, but not the main threat. Unofficially…"
He paused for a heartbeat.
"You will be given a second training path. A path that not even our seven 'god' mentors know exists."
Aki's jaw dropped. "Wait. You are telling me the seven gods are not the top?" Helvar exhaled once, almost tired. "Above the peak, there is always another sky."
NV vibrated against Ryu's thoughts.
Ryu held his breath for a moment.
He glanced at Aki, Ratha, Kallen, Vex.
Then he remembered his father's body hitting the floor. His mother's face flickering in stolen memory.
I will not let that happen again. Helvar waited for his answer. "I will accept," Ryu said. "On one condition." Helvar's eyebrow rose. "A condition?"
"I am not a tool. I am not a weapon that can be thrown away after use." His tone was calm, but there was a hard line hidden at the edge of each word.
Helvar studied him for a long moment. The Academy Head understood very clearly that the boy in front of him was no ordinary prodigy.
"…Very well," Helvar said at last. "As long as I live, I will not let them treat you as disposable."
Aki raised his hand hesitantly. "Um. What if you die first?"
"That will be your problem," Helvar replied.
Aki clutched his chest. "That hurts." Yet deep inside, Ryu knew this was more than theater. The promise drawn between them was not perfect, but it was still a line.
A thin line separating him from the fate of other child weapons. And lines that thin are always easy to cut.
THE HIERARCHY OF GENIUSES AND DRAGONS THAT HAVE NOT MOVED
A few hours later, the outside world seemed to resume its usual rhythm. Gifted children clustered around tables in the cafeteria, talking about modules, rankings, and rumors that spread like a virus through confined air.
"I heard the blackout was just a system bug."
"Instructor said not to panic. Everything is under control." "Did you see the lights go out? I thought there was a real assassin."
"It is probably just another test."
Aki sat at a corner table with Ryu, Ratha, Kallen, and Vex. Steam rose from their lunch trays. Broth, protein bread, and bland nutrient tablets sat side by side, like two worlds forced to share a table.
"Crazy," Aki muttered, staring into his soup. "After everything, the only thing that never changes is the food."
Ratha took a careful sip. "We need the energy. If Helvar is right, training from here will only get harsher."
Kallen's attention stayed on the small tablet showing the updated rankings for the day. "Look. Basic Module, Day Two rankings."
Names scrolled down the list. Ryu was still near the top, but the numbers beside his name were slightly adjusted. Just enough to make his performance seem impressive, without screaming anomaly.
Aki pointed at the screen. "Wait, did you not break another graph today? Why does your rating look… normal?"
"It is part of the cover," Vex reminded him. "You heard Helvar." Aki groaned. "Yeah, I know. But my heart is crying."
Ryu observed the list, then noticed a small collapsed section at the bottom. A new label.
"Genius Hierarchy." He tapped it open.
A diagram appeared.
Level 1: Surface geniuses. The well-known ones at the top of public rankings. Visible, admired, and often used as symbols. But not truly the highest tier.
Level 2: Deep geniuses. Those kept partially hidden, sometimes transferred from other facilities. They handled special missions, and occasionally became key players in operations that never reached any newsfeed.
Level 3: Dragons and tigers in hiding. No ranking. No public records. Only a handful of people even knew they existed.
Aki gaped. "So this whole time… we were playing on the surface layer?"
"Yes," Vex said quietly. "Even the Level Two kids who arrived earlier… may not be the peak."
Ratha stared at the Level Three section. "If they call them dragons and tigers, that means there are people we are not allowed to see. Or maybe we have seen them already… and assumed they were ordinary students."
Kallen shifted his gaze to Ryu. "Including you?" Ryu shook his head. "No. I am not a dragon. I am… a different problem."
NV commented.
A box?
Ryu kept his eyes on the chart. Deep down, he understood that this was not just about intelligence. It was a map of power. And a map of threats.
"If we are Level One," Aki said, "then Level Two is like those four transfer kids. And Level Three is…"
"The ones whose names we will never see," Ratha finished quietly. "And who might already be watching us," Vex added.
NV murmured inside Ryu's head.
Ryu did not turn his head, but his peripheral vision caught them. A few figures in the cafeteria who seemed too ordinary, too flat. So flat that they stood out once you knew where to look.
Aki rubbed his eyes. "Bro, my brain cannot handle any more hierarchy maps."
"Learn anyway," Kallen said firmly. "If we want to make it to sixteen here, we cannot be just module geniuses. We have to understand the map of enemies."
"Enemies?" Aki asked. "We are all in the same country, aren't we?"
Ratha sighed. "Same country does not mean one side." Ryu stared into his soup, which had already lost its warmth.
He remembered Helvar's words: children like him had only two options. Tool or target.
I will be neither, he thought.
Another voice surfaced, faint and warm at the bottom of his mind.
Not NV.
Not Helvar.
"You will not be a tool, Ryu…"
He stiffened.
Lyra.
Her actual voice came from the cafeteria entrance. She stepped in carrying a tray and a stack of medical files. Her hair was tied loosely back, her eyes focused, her strides as calm as ever.
But the air shifted.
From another table, a group of older boys and girls, around sixteen or seventeen, watched her with sharp eyes. Their looks were not admiring. Not sympathetic. They carried a mix of envy, desire, and resentment that had not found words yet.
Aki nudged Ryu. "Bro. Look. Lyra."
Ryu looked.
Lyra scanned the room for a brief second, then walked toward a quieter section of the cafeteria. Before she could reach a seat, one of the older boys stood up and stepped into her path.
"Lyra," he said, with a thin smile. "You still have not answered my message."
The atmosphere in the cafeteria fell a few degrees.
BULLYING THAT STARTS AT THE TABLE, AND THE SECOND VOICE
The boy blocking Lyra's way wore the same uniform, but the emblem on his chest marked him as part of the advanced medical track. Two other students sat behind him, radiating the easy confidence of people who had been praised their entire lives.
Lyra looked at him without flinching. "What message, Rian?"
"The one about dinner," Rian replied. "I said someone like you should not eat alone. The outside world might come for you, you know." He smiled wider. "You would be safer with a protector. Someone like… me."
A few at his table laughed softly. The sound was not friendly.
Lyra exhaled quietly. "I already answered. I am busy."
"Too busy to send a simple yes or no?" Rian tilted his head. "Or do you think you are too high for us?"
The boy beside him narrowed his eyes. "Know your place, Rian. She is 'Dr. Elara's special assistant.' Maybe she thinks she is more important than all of us combined."
The cafeteria's attention shifted in their direction. Whispered comments spread in a ripple.
"She is getting cornered again."
"Rian has been rejected three times, right?"
"I heard Lyra refuses to date anyone here."
"If she keeps turning people down, of course they get offended."
Aki half rose from his seat. "Bro… this feels bad. Do we step in?"
Ratha caught his sleeve. "Wait."
Vex watched the exchange, his eyes narrowing. "This is not just flirting. This is targeted. They have decided she is a problem."
Across the room, Lyra remained composed. She looked Rian straight in the eye.
"I do not have time for that right now," she said. "If that makes you angry, you are free to be angry. But do not block my way."
Her tone was soft, but the line beneath it was firm. Rian gave a short, humorless laugh. "Angry? I am not angry. I am just… stepping back." He lifted his voice a little, enough for nearby tables to hear.
"I only want everyone to know. We, the senior medical and tactical geniuses, offered Lyra Verine our support. She refused. So if she falls one day…"
His eyes sharpened.
"Do not blame us for not helping."
Soft laughter broke again. Some students looked away, uneasy but silent. Others pretended not to notice. No one moved.
Lyra did not step aside. The tray in her hands did not tremble, but her fingers tensed around its edges.
"I did not ask for help from people who demand something in return," she said quietly.
The smile vanished from Rian's face for a full second. Then he shifted out of her path, but as he did, he "accidentally" bumped the tray. Soup sloshed over the edge, splashing onto Lyra's shoe.
"Oops."
Laughter flared again.
Lyra looked down at her wet shoe, then back at Rian. "Thank you," she said flatly. "Now I have a reason to get a new pair."
She walked past him.
The looks that followed her were no longer neutral. Envy hung along with contempt and a twisted sort of interest.
Aki clenched his fists. "I really do not like him."
"Rian?" Ratha asked.
"Yes. And anyone who laughs with him." Aki ground his teeth. "They think this is funny."
Vex sighed. "In a place like this, people like Rian always have followers."
Ryu stood up.
"Bro?" Aki blinked at him. "Where are you going?"
"For a moment."
Ryu followed Lyra out of the cafeteria. He kept his distance, far enough not to crowd her, close enough not to lose sight.
NV spoke.
Because she said she does not want to be saved by people like Rian, Ryu thought. But that does not mean she should be completely alone.
The corridor to the Medical Unit was quiet. Lyra walked faster than usual, though not quite in a hurry.
"Lyra," Ryu called.
She stopped and turned. "Yes?"
Ryu closed the distance to a few steps. "I saw what happened."
Lyra gave him a tired smile. "You do not need to get involved. It is a small problem."
"A small problem that will grow," Ryu said. "Rian and his friends do not enjoy being rejected. They will make it worse."
Lyra studied him. For a moment, something like warmth and weariness flickered in her eyes together.
"You are one of the few who would say that out loud," she replied softly. "But are you sure you want to stand in this? You already have more than enough enemies without adding offended seniors."
Ryu thought for a moment.
I already have enough enemies, he told himself. But I also know what it feels like to face danger alone.
"I do not like unfairness," he said.
Lyra let out a humorless little laugh. "In Vasena, unfairness is a daily feature."
"I know."
They held each other's gaze for several long seconds. Then Lyra spoke again. "Thank you for wanting to help. But be careful. The target they are circling may not be just me."
Ryu opened his mouth to ask what she meant.
Before he could, NV cut in with sudden urgency.
A recording?
Ryu froze.
Lyra narrowed her eyes slightly. "What is wrong?"
Ryu glanced up toward the ceiling, as if he could see the server paths through the concrete and metal. A cold awareness circled his ribs.
If someone was pulling his data from age six, then they were digging at the very start of his anomaly.
"Lyra," he said quietly, "if one day you are shown a recording of me… do not believe what they show you immediately."
Lyra frowned. "What do you mean?"
"Even if it looks real," Ryu said.
She studied him. She knew this was not the tone of a boy fishing for drama. This was a warning born from something much deeper.
"All right," she answered after a moment. "If I ever have to choose between believing them and believing you…"
She exhaled. "For today at least, I will choose you." Ryu nodded once. When they went their separate ways, NV whispered again.
Who?
NV broke off. Its signal stuttered for the first time since Ryu had met it.
Matches who?
Ryu's breath caught in his throat.
A faint voice surfaced from far inside him. Not metallic. Not clinical. Not Helvar's, not his mother's recorded projection.
"Ryu. At last… we are getting close again."
He stopped walking in the middle of the corridor.
The world around him looked the same. White lights. Clean walls. Shining floors. The tame, steady order of Vasena.
But inside his head, something shifted.
Not NV.
Not Helvar.
Not the memory of his parents.
Something that had been waiting for years.
And somewhere in this facility, unseen hands had just pressed play.
The chapter ended there.
With Ryu's steps suspended, a buried voice stirring, and a childhood recording spinning to life in a room he could not see.
For the first time since arriving in Vasena, he understood that his worst enemy might not be the ones chasing him from outside.
It might be something that had always been inside.