Chapter 16: The First Quest
The implant behind his ear was cooling down, but the itch remained. It wasn't a surface itch; it was deep in the mastoid bone, a phantom vibration where Wei had drilled the anchor points.
Su Yuan sat on the edge of his bunk in the dorms. The room was a concrete box, four by four meters, smelling of recycled air and the faint, sweet chemical scent of the floor cleaner the drones used.
**[ Logic-Core Status: 98% Efficiency. ]**
**[ Neural Load: Nominal. ]**
**[ Time until Lin's tracking cycle pings: 14 minutes. ]**
The data scrolled across his retinal display, superimposed over the cracked grey plaster of the opposite wall. It was clean. Orderly.
Before the surgery, the SoulNet had been a cacophony—a stadium filled with people screaming their dreams and fears at once. Now, the sphere of positronic silver in his skull acted as a mixing board. It took the screaming and turned it into a spreadsheet.
It was better. It was safer.
And it was starving him.
Su Yuan rubbed his face with his hands. The skin felt paper-thin. The Logic-Core consumed glucose at a rate that made his stomach cramp every two hours, but the real hunger was for data.
The purge of the fifty-three addicts had stabilized the network, but it had also shrunk his processing pool. Fourteen hundred souls. Most of them dormant, asleep, or idling in the haze of a day job. They were a trickle of power when he needed a flood.
Instructor Lin wasn't just watching him; she was dissecting him with her eyes every time he walked into a room. The "Black Tortoise Spy" lie was a paper shield in a rainstorm. It would dissolve. When it did, he needed to be strong enough to either kill an A-Rank cultivator or vanish into the smog.
Right now, he couldn't do either.
"System," Su Yuan said. His voice sounded flat in the small room. "Analyze current node activity."
**[ Active Nodes: 142. ]**
**[ Passive Nodes: 1,276. ]**
**[ Throughput: 14 Soul Units/Minute. ]**
Pathetic.
He was running a supercomputer on a watch battery.
The Genesis Protocol stirred in the back of his mind. It didn't speak with words anymore; the Logic-Core translated its intent into pure concepts. *Hunger. Expansion. Efficiency.*
Su Yuan closed his eyes and dropped into the Net.
The visualization appeared instantly—the dark ocean, the bioluminescent jellyfish drifting in the void. It was stagnant. The nodes were just floating, living their lives, unaware they were batteries for a god they didn't believe in.
He needed them to work. He needed them to *generate*.
But you can't force a human soul to output power. If you squeeze too hard, you get the "Spider Logic" of the junkies—stress, fear, corruption. He needed clean energy. He needed *Focus*.
Su Yuan looked at the drifting lights.
"Why do people work?" he asked the void.
**[ Analysis: Survival. Acquisition of resources. Dopamine response to achievement. ]**
"Dopamine," Su Yuan muttered.
He thought of the video games from his old world. Men would sit for sixteen hours, grinding the same repetitive task—killing boars, mining ore—just to see a progress bar fill up. Just to see a number go from 10 to 11.
They did it for the *ding*. The level up. The illusion of progress in a stagnant life.
And this world? This rusted, smog-choked reality? It was stagnation incarnate. The people in the slums, in the Phantom Market, they had no path up. They were born in the mud and they died in the mud.
Su Yuan opened his eyes in the physical world. A cold smile touched his lips. It wasn't a smile of humor; it was the expression of a mechanic finding the right wrench.
"Genesis," he said. "We're pushing a firmware update."
**[ Specify parameters. ]**
"We're not stealing their processing power anymore," Su Yuan said. "We're buying it."
**[ Currency? ]**
"Enlightenment."
***
**Sector 12: The Phantom Market.**
**Time: 20:42.**
The rain in Sector 12 was acidic enough to sting, but not enough to burn. It slicked the cobblestones with a greasy sheen that reflected the neon kanji of the brothels and noodle stalls.
Kao huddled under the awning of a closed pawn shop. He was seventeen, skinny as a rail, with a cybernetic eye that hadn't worked in three years. It just twitched, a dead lens of milky glass.
He was hungry. Not the "I could eat" kind of hungry, but the hollow, cramping void that made his hands shake. He had been rejected by the labor gangs again. *Too small,* the foreman had said. *Waste of a uniform.*
Kao wrapped his arms around his knees. He had two choices tonight: try to steal a nutrient bar from the vending kiosks (risk: broken fingers) or sleep and hope he didn't wake up.
He closed his good eye.
*Ding.*
The sound didn't come from the street. It didn't come from his ear.
It rang inside his skull. Clear as a bell.
Kao jerked his head up, looking around. The street was empty except for a drunk stumbling out of the *Red Lotus* bar.
*Ding.*
Text scrolled across his vision. Not on his dead cyber-eye, but directly into his mind.
**[ System Update Complete. ]**
**[ Welcome, User: Rat_King_12. ]**
Kao scrambled backward, hitting the metal shutter of the pawn shop. "Who's there? I don't have credits! I'm empty!"
The text remained, glowing a soft, inviting gold against the gloom of the alley.
**[ Daily Quest Available. ]**
**[ Task: The First Step. ]**
**[ Description: Throw 100 straight punches. ]**
**[ Reward: 10 Soul Points. ]**
**[ Bonus: Minor enlightenment on 'Basic Form'. ]**
Kao stared. He slapped the side of his head. The words didn't move.
"Am I glitching?" he whispered. "Did I breathe in the chem-fumes?"
He looked at the text again. *10 Soul Points.* He didn't know what a Soul Point was. He didn't care. But the word *Reward* triggered something ancient in his lizard brain.
Nobody gave rewards in Sector 12. You took, or you were taken from.
Kao stood up slowly. His legs were shaky.
"Just punches?" he muttered to the air.
He looked at the brick wall opposite the alley. He made a fist. It was a weak, amateurish thing, thumb tucked inside the fingers.
He threw a punch at the air.
**[ 1 / 100 ]**
A counter appeared in the corner of his vision.
Kao blinked. A tiny spark of dopamine hit his brain. It registered.
He threw another.
**[ 2 / 100 ]**
He threw a third.
It was stupid. It was hallucination. But it was *something to do*. It was a task with a defined end. In a life of endless, chaotic uncertainty, the counter was a solid fact.
Kao started to punch faster.
Ten. Twenty. Fifty.
His shoulder burned. His malnourished muscles protested. He was sweating despite the cold rain. A couple of passing laborers glanced at him, saw a skinny kid punching ghosts in an alley, and kept walking. Crazy was normal here.
Eighty. Ninety.
Kao was gasping now. His form was sloppy, flailing.
Ninety-nine. One hundred.
**[ Quest Complete. ]**
**[ Reward: 10 Soul Points. ]**
**[ Initiating Reward: Enlightenment (Tier F). ]**
Kao froze.
A sensation washed over him. It wasn't sound, and it wasn't light. It was information. Pure, distilled experience downloaded directly into his motor cortex.
For a split second, he wasn't Kao the street rat. He was a veteran pit fighter. He felt the correct alignment of the wrist. He felt how the hip needed to torque to drive power through the shoulder. He understood—not intellectually, but viscerally—why his thumb should never be tucked inside his fist.
He gasped, staggering back against the wall. The sensation faded, leaving him dizzy.
He looked at his hand. It looked different. It looked like a weapon he had been holding backwards his entire life.
He formed a fist again. This time, the thumb rested perfectly along the index finger. The wrist locked.
He threw a punch.
*Snap.*
The sound was sharper. The air displaced with a distinct *thwip*. It wasn't a master's blow, but it was cleaner than anything he had ever thrown before.
Kao stared at his hand. His heart hammered against his ribs like a trapped bird.
"More," he whispered.
He looked up at the neon sky.
"Give me more."
**[ New Quest Generated: The Runner's Lung. ]**
**[ Task: Run 5 Kilometers. ]**
**[ Reward: 20 Soul Points. ]**
Kao didn't wait. He tightened the rags around his feet and took off running into the rain. He forgot he was hungry.
***
**Azure Dragon Academy: Dorm Room 304.**
Su Yuan sat perfectly still.
The Logic-Core was humming. The numbers on his internal display were climbing.
**[ Throughput increasing. ]**
**[ 24 Soul Units/Minute... 35 Soul Units/Minute... ]**
It was working.
Across the city, in the slums, in the factories, in the dorms, lights were turning on. The 1,400 nodes were waking up.
Su Yuan had given them a game. He had gamified their misery.
Every time Kao threw a punch, Su Yuan's system recorded the bio-feedback. It analyzed the muscle contraction, the intent, the energy expenditure.
But more importantly, Su Yuan acted as the central bank. When Kao finished the quest, Su Yuan didn't create the "Enlightenment" out of thin air. He borrowed a fraction of a second of muscle memory from *another* node—maybe a sleeping soldier or a martial arts student—stripped it of context, and beamed it into Kao's brain.
He was redistributing talent. He was Robin Hood, if Robin Hood skimmed 40% off the top for administrative fees.
**[ Alert: User Engagement at 68%. ]**
**[ Energy Surplus Detected. ]**
**[ Allocate? ]**
"Allocate to me," Su Yuan ordered.
The rush hit him.
It wasn't the jagged, dirty electricity of the addicts. This was clean. It was the energy of *striving*. It was the collective will of a hundred people trying to be better than they were yesterday.
Su Yuan stood up. The room felt too small.
He moved to the center of the floor.
*Primary Shockwave Fighting Technique.*
He began the sequence.
The first move was a simple palm strike. Usually, Su Yuan had to focus his Qi, guide it through his blocked meridians, and force the air to vibrate. It was like pushing water uphill.
Now?
He didn't push. He was a conduit.
The energy from the SoulNet flooded his system. It was efficient, pre-processed by the Logic-Core. It bypassed his hesitation.
He struck.
*BOOM.*
The air in the room didn't just vibrate; it detonated.
A shockwave of compressed air slammed into the concrete wall. The plaster cracked in a spiderweb pattern. The sound was deafening in the confined space.
Su Yuan froze.
He looked at his hand. Smoke—actual steam from the friction of the air—was rising from his skin.
That wasn't an F-Rank technique anymore. The sheer volume of computational assistance and raw soul power behind it had pushed it closer to E-Rank.
**[ Shockwave Proficiency: +4% ]**
**[ Logic-Core Analysis: Force exerted exceeded structural safety limits of the room. Recommendation: Relocate. ]**
Su Yuan lowered his hand.
He felt powerful. But beneath the power, beneath the cold satisfaction of the Logic-Core, there was a quiet horror.
He was using them.
Kao, the kid in the slums—Su Yuan saw his name in the log. *User: Rat_King_12.*
Kao was running in the rain right now, chasing a digital number, thinking a god was blessing him. He didn't know he was just a GPU in Su Yuan's server farm.
"Does it matter?" Su Yuan asked the silence. "He gets stronger. I get stronger. Everyone wins."
**[ Transaction is equitable, ]** the Genesis Protocol agreed. **[ You provide hope. They provide fuel. Hope is a rare commodity. The exchange rate is favorable. ]**
"It feels like a lie."
**[ All systems are lies, Administrator. Governments. Religions. Academies. They are all narratives designed to organize biomass for efficient output. You have simply built a better narrative. ]**
Su Yuan looked at the cracked wall. He would have to explain that to maintenance.
"I need more," Su Yuan said, his voice hardening. The sentimentality was flagged by the Logic-Core and archived. "The Shockwave isn't enough. I need a weapon skill. And I need defense."
**[ Suggestion: Expand the Quest Log. Introduce 'Party Mode'. Encourage users to recruit others. ]**
Multi-level marketing. A pyramid scheme of souls.
"Do it," Su Yuan said. "Referral bonus. 50 Soul Points for every new active user brought into the network."
**[ Executing... ]**
Across the city, a hundred retinal displays pinged simultaneously.
***
**The Next Morning.**
The cafeteria was buzzing. The volume was higher than usual.
Su Yuan sat at his usual table, eating nutrient paste that tasted like wet cardboard. He monitored the feed.
The network had grown overnight.
**[ Total Active Nodes: 1,892. ]**
**[ New Users: 474. ]**
The referral program had spread through the slums like a virus. It made sense. If you found a magic voice in your head that taught you how to fight, you told your brother. You told your gang.
Su Yuan watched Chen Feng walk in.
The rich boy looked different today. He wasn't slouching. He walked with a purpose.
Chen Feng sat down two tables away. He pulled out a datapad, but he wasn't looking at it. He was staring into the middle distance, his fingers tapping a rhythm on the table.
*Tap. Tap. Tap.*
Su Yuan narrowed his eyes.
He checked the map.
**[ User: Azure_Prince_01 (Chen Feng). ]**
**[ Status: Active. ]**
**[ Current Quest: Rhythm of the Wind. Tap a 4/4 beat for 30 minutes to improve mental acuity. ]**
Su Yuan nearly choked on his spoon.
Chen Feng—the heir to the Chen Heavy Industries, the boy who had everything—had joined the quest system.
It seemed the boredom of the elite was just as exploitable as the desperation of the poor.
But there was a problem.
As Su Yuan watched, Chen Feng frowned. He missed a beat. He looked frustrated.
"Stupid thing," Chen muttered, loud enough to be heard. "Instructions are unclear."
Su Yuan felt a spike of irritation. Not his irritation. The *Architect's* irritation.
*The instructions are perfect,* Su Yuan thought. *You just have no rhythm.*
He reached out through the Net. He accessed Chen Feng's node.
He shouldn't interfere. The system should run on auto-pilot. But Chen was a high-value asset. His soul was powerful, fed on high-grade nutrients and cultivation elixirs. If Chen started grinding quests, the energy yield would be massive.
Su Yuan tapped the Logic-Core.
*Construct: Guidance Interface.*
He visualized a metronome in Chen Feng's mind. A simple, ticking pendulum of gold light.
In the cafeteria, Chen Feng's eyes widened. He fell into sync with the metronome.
*Tap. Tap. Tap.*
Perfect rhythm.
Chen Feng smiled. It was a genuine smile, the kind a child gives when they finally ride a bike without training wheels.
Su Yuan pulled back.
**[ Alert: Direct Intervention recorded. ]**
**[ User 'Azure_Prince_01' Faith Level increasing. ]**
*Faith Level?*
Su Yuan stared at the prompt.
**[ Analysis: When users receive direct assistance, they do not attribute it to a system error. They attribute it to a presence. ]**
**[ Designation shift: You are no longer viewed as 'System'. You are viewed as 'Patron'. ]**
Su Yuan put down his spoon. His appetite was gone.
He had wanted an army. He was accidentally building a cult.
A shadow fell over his table.
Su Yuan looked up. He expected Chen Feng. Or maybe Wei.
It was Instructor Lin.
She stood there, blocking the light. The silver calibrator on Su Yuan's neck felt suddenly heavy, despite the Faraday patch Wei had given him (which he had removed before entering the building to maintain the ruse).
Lin looked tired. But her eyes were still sharp.
"You're eating alone," she said.
"Focusing, Instructor," Su Yuan replied.
"Focus is good," Lin said. She pulled out a chair and sat down uninvited. "The maintenance drones reported structural damage in your dorm room. A cracked wall."
Su Yuan's pulse held steady. The Logic-Core clamped down on his adrenal glands.
"I tripped," Su Yuan said. "I fell into the wall."
"You fell," Lin repeated. "And cracked reinforced concrete."
"I have heavy bones."
It was a stupid lie. He knew it. She knew it.
Lin leaned forward. She lowered her voice. The audio jammer in Su Yuan's neck hummed, creating a static bubble around them.
"The Black Tortoise spy," she said. "We swept Sector 9. We found nothing. No thermal signatures. No residual Qi."
"He's good," Su Yuan said.
"Or he doesn't exist," Lin said.
She stared at him. She was waiting for him to crack. She was waiting for the nervous tic, the sweat, the glance away.
Su Yuan met her gaze. He didn't blink. The Logic-Core analyzed her micro-expressions. *Doubt. Frustration. Curiosity.*
"I drew what I saw," Su Yuan said. "Maybe he moved on. Maybe he knows you're looking."
Lin studied him for a long moment. Then, she reached into her pocket.
She pulled out a data chip.
"Tonight," she said, sliding the chip across the table. "At 0200 hours. There is a training simulation for the third-year elites. It's an open hunter-killer scenario in the urban ruins."
"I'm a first-year," Su Yuan said. "I'm not qualified."
"I'm qualifying you," Lin said. "I want to see you under pressure, Su Yuan. Real pressure. Not a static obstacle course. I want to see what happens when something tries to take your head off."
She stood up.
"If you are a lucky cripple, you'll fail, and I'll expel you for wasting my time. If you are... something else... then maybe you'll survive."
She walked away.
Su Yuan looked at the chip.
**[ Scenario: Urban War. ]**
**[ Difficulty: High. ]**
**[ Participants: Top 10 Ranked Students. ]**
They were going to hunt him. It was a sanctioned hazing, a way to force him to reveal his hand. If he used the *Flowing Mercury Steps*, he outed himself. If he used the *Shockwave* with too much power, he outed himself.
But if he didn't use them, the third-years would break his ribs. Or worse.
Su Yuan picked up the chip.
He checked the SoulNet.
**[ Active Users: 2,100. ]**
**[ Total Soul Power Available: Charging... ]**
He had twelve hours until the simulation.
"Genesis," Su Yuan projected.
**[ Listening. ]**
"New Quest for all users," Su Yuan ordered. "Triple XP event. Double rewards for all combat-related tasks for the next twelve hours."
**[ Reason? ]**
"We're going to war," Su Yuan said. "And I need my batteries fully charged."
**[ Acknowledged. Broadcasting 'Event: The Eve of Battle' to all nodes. ]**
Su Yuan stood up. He pocketed the chip.
Let Lin watch. Let the third-years come.
He wasn't going into the arena alone. He was bringing two thousand ghosts with him.
***
**Somewhere in the deep slums.**
Kao looked at the new message blinking in his mind.
**[ EVENT: THE EVE OF BATTLE ]**
**[ Time Limited. Rewards doubled. ]**
**[ Objective: Push your limits. ]**
Kao grinned. His teeth were bloody from a fight over a pair of boots, but he had won. He felt strong. He felt connected to something vast and golden.
"For the Architect," Kao whispered, though he didn't know where the name came from.
He started running again.
The city hummed. Not with electricity, but with intent. And in the center of the web, the spider checked his silk, sharpened his fangs, and waited for the flies.