The silence that followed Evelyn Thorne's revelation was not the peaceful quiet of the winter gardens. It was a charged, brittle stillness, broken only by the distant hum of campus infrastructure and the too-loud rhythm of Leo's own heartbeat. The obsidian stone in her palm seemed to drink the amber lamplight, its silver etchings moving like trapped mercury.
Corrupted Nexus Artifact.
Parasitic potential: HIGH.
Link attempts logged: 3... 4... 5...
The system's alerts scrolled through his peripheral vision in stark, crimson text. Each attempt felt like a psychic tap-tap-tapping at the edges of his consciousness, a cold probe seeking entry points. His mental firewall—a new, instinctive barrier he hadn't known he possessed—held, but it trembled under the assault.
Evelyn watched him, her expression a masterpiece of controlled intensity. She had seen his momentary flinch, the dilation of his pupils. She knew she'd struck a nerve buried deep beneath the surface of normal human interaction.
"Do you feel it?" she whispered, her voice dropping to an intimate, dangerous register. "The pull? My little compass has been pointing to you for weeks. It grows warm when you're near. It grows hungry when you're with one of them."
Them. Aria. Chloe. Maya. Lin. She had them cataloged, analyzed. Reduced to entries in a dossier.
"They're not data points," Leo said, forcing his voice to remain level. The warmth from Lin's resonance was still there in his chest, a tiny blue sun radiating calm against this cold new threat. It gave him anchor. "They're people. My friends."
"A distinction without a difference to the right observer," Evelyn countered, her gaze never leaving his face. "Friendship, love, loyalty—they're all patterns of energy exchange, of vulnerability given and trust earned. Your pattern is... accelerated. Optimized. Almost artificial in its efficiency. You solved Aria Vance's creative block in a single, pointed conversation. You aligned Chloe Chen's chaotic ambition into a viable partnership within days. You've become Maya Santos's emotional pillar during her most stressful season. And Lin Yao..." A faint, knowing smile touched her lips. "You just performed what appears to be a profound emotional reintegration with a deeply isolated individual. In the middle of winter. In a deserted garden. The outcomes are admirable, Leo. The process is anomalous."
She was reconstructing his actions with terrifying accuracy. The system had guided him, yes, but he'd made the choices. He'd felt the genuine connections. To hear them framed as clinical optimization felt like a violation.
"What do you want, Vice-Chancellor?" he asked, cutting to the chase. Playing naive was impossible now.
"I want to understand," she said, her fingers curling around the black stone, hiding it from view. The violet streaks in her white aura flared as she made contact with it. "I've carried this... burden, this gift, for a decade. It gives me glimpses. Of potential. Of fracture lines in people. Of convergences. But it's silent, mute. It shows me the 'what,' never the 'how' or 'why.' It showed me you were a nexus. A living focal point. But it doesn't tell me what that means." She took a half-step closer. The air grew colder. "You know. I can see it in you. There's a structure to your understanding. A... system. Tell me."
WARNING: DIRECT INTERROGATION ON CORE SECRET.
THREAT LEVEL ELEVATED: SUBJECT POSSESSES METACOGNITIVE TOOLS AND ADMINISTRATIVE AUTHORITY.
RECOMMENDED RESPONSE: PLausible Deniability with Seeded Misdirection.
Suggestion: Acknowledge unusual empathy, attribute to past trauma/observation skills. Do NOT confirm systemic nature.
The system's advice was sound, but looking into Evelyn Thorne's eyes—sharp, intelligent, and burning with a hunger that was both intellectual and deeply personal—Leo knew simple denial wouldn't end this. She would keep digging. She had the power to make his life, and the lives of the girls around him, administratively difficult.
He needed a different play. A gambit.
"You're right," he said, his voice softening, letting a flicker of vulnerability show. "It's not... normal."
Her eyes sharpened. The violet in her aura pulsed with anticipation.
"I don't have a stone," he continued, holding her gaze. "But after my parents died... something changed." This was true, in a way. The Nexus had activated in the aftermath of that void. "The world didn't just get quieter. It got... clearer. Like I could see the strings. The loneliness in someone's smile. The fear behind ambition. The quiet desperation in perfection." He was paraphrasing the system's insights, but they had become his own observations. "It's not a guide. It's a curse, most days. Seeing how fractured everyone is. And sometimes... an impulse. A compulsion to try and fix one of those fractures if I can. Because I know what it's like to be broken and have no one see it."
It was a performance, but it was woven with threads of truth. He did feel that impulse. The system provided the roadmap, but the drive to connect was his own.
Evelyn studied him, her head tilted. The system read her aura: [Analysis: 70% Intrigued, 20% Skeptical, 10%... Empathetic Resonance?]
"The wounded healer," she murmured. "A classic archetype. But your healing is remarkably targeted and effective. You don't scatter your efforts. You focus on specific, high-potential individuals. Why them?"
Another dangerous question. "Chance," he lied smoothly. "Proximity. Aria is my cousin. Chloe was my assigned partner. Maya reached out to me. Lin... is a ghost from my past who needed an anchor. It's not a strategy. It's just... who's in front of me."
He saw her jaw tighten slightly. She wasn't fully buying it. Her artifact was likely whispering to her, contradicting his story of randomness.
"My compass disagrees," she said flatly. "It indicates selection. Purpose. Are you telling me you feel no... external influence? No voice? No interface?"
The directness was breathtaking. She was asking him if he had a system.
Leo let a frown of genuine confusion crease his brow. "A voice? Like... schizophrenia? No, Vice-Chancellor. Just a really depressing superpower of seeing how sad everyone is." He injected a note of weary bitterness. "It's why I keep to myself. It's exhausting."
He was walking a razor's edge. Denying the systemic nature while admitting to an anomalous ability. It was the only plausible middle ground.
Evelyn was silent for a long moment. The wind picked up, rustling the bare branches above them. The violet in her aura churned, conflicted. Her artifact was pushing her toward belief in a greater structure, but Leo's performance of weary, lonely empathy was compelling.
"Perhaps," she finally said, her tone shifting from interrogator to something more calculating, more transactional. "Perhaps we can help each other, Leo."
Here it was. The offer.
"My... compass," she said, glancing at her closed fist. "It is a burden. But it has also given me vision. It has helped me steer this university, identify promising students, avert crises. I believe it is a tool for shaping optimal outcomes. But it is incomplete. It shows me the destination but not the path." Her eyes locked back onto his. "You seem to intuitively find the path. The precise word, the exact gesture, to mend a fracture. What if we combined our perspectives?"
A chill that had nothing to do with the wind went through him. "Combined how?"
"I would... point you," she said, a disturbing eagerness entering her voice. "My artifact reacts to potential. To fractures that, if mended, could create powerful, stable individuals—assets to the university, to society. You could be my agent. My therapist, of a sort. You would engage with these individuals, and in return, I would ensure your path here is smooth. Scholarships. Recommendations. Protection from... inconveniences."
She was proposing a partnership. She would use her corrupted artifact to identify "targets," and he would use the Nexus to "fix" them, creating a network of powerful, indebted people under her influence. The cynicism of it was staggering. She was viewing human connection as a resource extraction and social engineering project.
The system boiled in silent outrage.
ALERT: PROPOSED CO-OPTATION OF NEXUS FUNCTIONS.
OBJECTIVE MISALIGNMENT: NEXUS FOR SELF-ACTUALIZATION AND GENUINE CONNECTION vs. UTILITARIAN SOCIAL ENGINEERING.
WARNING: AGREEMENT LIKELY TO CORRUPT NEXUS INTEGRITY AND SUBJECT'S MORAL FRAMEWORK.
RECOMMENDATION: REJECT. CONTAIN. BUT DO NOT MAKE AN ENEMY.
"I'm not a therapist," Leo said, his voice colder now. "And people aren't projects. What you're describing... it sounds like manipulation. Building a network of loyalists."
"Semantics," Evelyn waved a dismissive hand, though her aura flashed with irritation. "All relationships involve mutual benefit and influence. I am merely proposing we make the process more efficient, more impactful. Think of the good you could do on a larger scale!"
"The good you could take credit for," Leo countered.
A flash of true anger, cold and sharp, crossed her features. The violet in her aura surged, momentarily overwhelming the white. "You have a gift, boy. A responsibility to use it beyond your little circle of friends. The world is fracturing. I see it every day. Anomie. Anxiety. Weakness. You could be a force for stabilization. With my guidance."
"I'll pass," Leo said, taking a deliberate step back, creating physical and symbolic distance. "My 'gift,' as you call it, works fine without turning people into assets on a spreadsheet."
The dismissal hung in the air. Evelyn Thorne was not a woman accustomed to being refused, especially not by a twenty-year-old undergraduate. Her posture straightened, the friendly pretense evaporating entirely, replaced by the steel of institutional authority.
"A pity," she said, her voice regaining its vice-chancellor crispness. "That is a short-sighted and selfish position." She opened her hand, revealing the obsidian stone again. It was glowing now with a faint, sickly violet light from within. "My compass is rarely wrong, Leo Vance. It identifies you as a nexus. A convergence point. That makes you a person of interest. And persons of interest at this university fall under my purview."
This was the threat.
"You will be watched," she stated, each word a dropped piece of ice. "Your associations will be noted. Your academic performance will be scrutinized. Any irregularities—any too-perfect patterns of success or influence—will be investigated. And your little friends..." She let the sentence hang. "Young women, especially gifted ones, are often fragile. Prone to stress, to emotional crises. It would be a shame if any administrative pressures or... revelations about your past interactions... were to contribute to such crises."
It was a masterful threat. She wouldn't attack him directly. She would pressure the ecosystem around him. Use her power to strain the bonds he was building. See if they would hold under pressure. And her mention of "past interactions" was a clear hint she might dig into his childhood with Lin, or frame his closeness with Aria or his partnership with Chloe as something inappropriate.
Rage, hot and pure, surged through him. It was one thing to threaten him. It was another to threaten Lin, Chloe, Maya, Aria. The blue star in his Heartforge Space pulsed with a protective ferocity he'd never felt before.
EMOTIONAL SPIKE DETECTED: PROTECTIVE FURY.
NEXUS BOND REACTION: LIN YAO'S 'ANCHOR' EFFECT RESONATES. STABILITY CONFIRMED.
ADVICE: DO NOT REACT WITH THREATS. REACT WITH WARNING.
He took a breath, forcing the anger down into a cold, hard knot in his stomach. When he spoke, his voice was quiet, devoid of fear, and carried a weight that made Evelyn's eyes narrow.
"Watch me if you must," he said. "Scrutinize. Dig. But understand this, Vice-Chancellor Thorne." He met her gaze without flinching. "You see fractures and assets. I see people. And the people around me are stronger than you think. They're not puppets on your strings, or mine. They're becoming anchors for each other, whether you see it or not. And if you try to use your power to hurt them, to pressure them..." He paused, letting the implication hang. "You might find that a nexus isn't just a point where things converge. It's also a point from which things radiate. And you have no idea what you'd be poking."
He wasn't sure where the words came from. They felt true. The Nexus was about connection, and connection created networks, support structures. He wasn't a lone operator. He was becoming the center of a web. A web that could, potentially, push back.
Evelyn's aura flickered with surprise, then calculation. The violet dimmed slightly, the white reasserting itself in a more cautious, analytical pattern. He had surprised her. He had not cowered. He had issued a counter-warning.
"A fascinating perspective," she said after a moment, her tone once again unreadable. She slipped the stone back into her pocket. The psychic tapping against his firewall ceased abruptly, leaving an eerie silence. "We shall see, Mr. Vance. We shall see what radiates, and what withers under light. Enjoy the rest of your evening."
With a final, inscrutable look, she turned and walked away, her heels clicking a precise retreat into the darkness, leaving Leo standing alone under the lamp post, his breath pluming in the cold air, the aftermath of the confrontation crashing down on him.
He had just made an enemy of one of the most powerful people on campus. An enemy with a corrupted piece of the old world and a hunger to control the new.
But he had also drawn a line. He had protected the sanctity of his connections. The Nexus hummed within him, its purpose clarified by the threat: it was not a tool for control, but for genuine, resilient bonding.
He needed to think. To plan.
He started walking, not toward his dorm, but on a long, looping path around the campus perimeter. The night was clear and bitterly cold, helping to clear the adrenaline from his system.
SYSTEM ANALYSIS COMPLETE.
EVALUATION OF CONFRONTATION: SUCCESSFUL CONTAINMENT.
SUBJECT THORNE'S PARADIGM IDENTIFIED: 'UTILITARIAN CONVERGENCE.' SEEKS TO HARVEST NEXUS-GENERATED SOCIAL CAPITAL FOR INSTITUTIONAL/PERSONAL POWER.
CORRUPTED ARTIFACT ANALYSIS: FRAGMENT OF A 'COLLECTIVE CONSCIOUSNESS' OR 'SOCIAL ENGINEERING' NEXUS VARIANT FROM A PREVIOUS CYCLE. DEGRADED, POSSESSING RESIDUAL SCANNING AND PATTERN-RECOGNITION FUNCTIONS, BUT LACKING TRUE CONNECTION MECHANICS. EXHIBITS PARASITIC TENDENCIES, LIKELY SEEKING TO DRAIN ENERGY FROM STABLE BONDS TO SUSTAIN ITSELF.
NEW LONG-TERM OBJECTIVE: NEUTRALIZE THORNE THREAT. METHODS: 1) STRENGTHEN NEXUS NETWORK RESILIENCE. 2) UNCOVER ARTIFACT'S WEAKNESSES/VULNERABILITIES. 3) SEEK POTENTIAL ALLIES OR COUNTER-MEASURES WITHIN NEXUS FRAMEWORK.
IMMEDIATE ACTION: SECURE EXISTING BONDS. WARNING OF SURVEILLANCE MAY BE PRUDENT IN SOME CASES.
The system was right. His first priority was his network. Lin was safe, Nexus-Bound, her anchor effect already providing subconscious stability. But the others...
He pulled out his phone. It was late, but he needed to act.
First, he texted Lin, a simple check-in to reinforce the new bond: "Back at my dorm. The warmth hasn't faded. Sleep well, Quiet Star."
Her reply was almost instant: "It hasn't. You too, Nexus." Nexus. She'd used the word unconsciously, a product of their resonance. It sent a shiver down his spine, but a good one.
Next, he considered Chloe. Her node, 'The Gambit,' was at 98%. She was on the cusp of a major breakthrough in their partnership and her own self-worth. Thorne's interference could destabilize that. He couldn't warn her directly without sounding paranoid or revealing too much. Instead, he opted for reinforcement.
Leo: "Had a weird admin meeting tonight. Reminded me how rare a good partnership is. Our project proposal is solid. Let's own this."
A moment later: Chloe: "Weird how? Everything ok? And hell yes we will own it. Got a 3am coding session planned to crush the next module. The gambit waits for no one!" Her energy was undimmed. Good.
Maya was more delicate. Her node, 'The Undefeated Streak,' was about external pressure and internal validation. Thorne could apply pressure—academic scrutiny, athletic department queries. He needed to be a stable outlet, not another source of stress.
Leo: "Heard the track finals were brutal. You're made of tougher stuff than any admin or coach. Remember, the streak is yours, not theirs. Coffee tomorrow? My treat, your vent."
Her reply was slower, tired but appreciative: Maya: "So brutal. But yeah. Coffee sounds perfect. 2pm? Need to sleep for a century first."
Aria was trickiest. She was family, but her node was complete. She was stable, but she was also under the Vance family spotlight. Thorne might dig there. He decided on a vague, cousinly check-in.
Leo: "Hey. Random thought: glad we're in the same city. This place can get... complicated. Let's have dinner this weekend. Your pick."
Aria: "Complicated is a Vance specialty. Dinner is a yes. I'll find someplace suitably dramatic for our lineage."
The messages sent, he felt slightly better. The lines were open. The connections were active.
He finally arrived back at his dorm room. It was dark and quiet. He didn't turn on the main light, just his desk lamp, casting a warm pool of light in the darkness.
He closed his eyes and willed himself into the Heartforge Space.
The familiar, dream-like expanse greeted him. The soft nebula swirled. And there, shining brighter than all others, was Lin Yao's blue star—no longer a tether, but a permanent, radiant celestial body. The other tethers—Chloe's vibrant gold, Maya's pulsating green, Aria's deep crimson—all glowed steadily. But his attention was dragged to the new anomaly.
Evelyn Thorne's seed. It was no longer a seed. It had transformed into a jagged, obsidian shard, hovering menacingly at the edge of his space. Violet energy crackled around it like malicious lightning, and thin, seeking tendrils of the same violet light periodically lashed out, trying to snag the other tethers. Each time, a faint, shimmering gold barrier—his firewall—repelled them. The shard pulsed with a hungry, frustrated rhythm.
So that's what we're dealing with, he thought. A parasitic fragment. It wanted to latch onto his bonds and drain them, perhaps to fuel itself, or to feed its wielder's ambitions.
He focused on Lin's star. Immediately, a new option presented itself, glowing with soft, protective light.
[Guardian Protocol - Available for Nexus-Bound Bonds]
[Effect: Allows the Nexus to expend Resonance Points to passively shield a bound individual from external psychic/emotional predation, subtle coercion, and fortune-altering negative luck. Does not protect from physical harm or overt direct action.]
[Cost: 50 RP per week, per Guardian.]
[Current RP: 340]
A guardian protocol. The system was evolving, offering defensive measures. Without hesitation, he willed the protocol onto Lin's star. 50 RP drained away, and a barely perceptible golden nimbus formed around the blue star, solidifying like a transparent shield. The violet tendrils from Thorne's shard recoiled sharply when they next touched it, as if burned.
One guardian active. He had 290 RP left. He could afford one more, maybe two if he was careful. But who to choose? Chloe was under direct academic scrutiny with him. Maya faced athletic pressure. Aria had family complications.
He made a decision. He activated the protocol on Chloe's golden tether. Another 50 RP vanished. Her tether now gleamed with a protective sheen.
He would need to earn more RP, and quickly. Thorne's threat meant he could no longer afford to be passive. He needed to actively deepen bonds, create more moments of genuine connection, not just to grow his network, but to fuel its defense.
As he pondered this, a new, gentle chime echoed in the Heartforge Space. It didn't come from his existing tethers or the hostile shard. It came from a distant, uncharted region of the nebula.
A new star was beginning to form. Not from a tether he had consciously cultivated, but from a connection already in progress, one that had just reached a critical density of potential all on its own.
He focused on it. Faint, intricate silver light coalesced, forming delicate, geometric patterns that shimmered with intellectual beauty and profound isolation.
[New Significant Bond Detected: Formation In Progress.]
[Identity: Subject #8 - 'The Solitary Architect']
[Core Tags: Genius-Level Intellect, Profound Social Anxiety, Hidden Yearning, Digital Sanctuary.]
[Current Proximity: Near. Dormitory Building B, Room 414.]
[Node Identified: 'The Firewall of Flesh'. Progress: 25%]
[Description: Subject has constructed immense psychic and digital barriers to ward off the overwhelming chaos of human interaction. However, she has observed User's interactions from a distance (digitally and physically) and identified User as a 'stable node in a noisy algorithm.' A passive, non-threatening observational interest has begun. Potential for deep, intellectually-rooted bond is HIGH.]
The eighth core女主. The社恐天才程序員. She was here, in his dorm complex. And she had been watching him. Not with Thorne's predatory hunger, but with the analytical curiosity of a fellow system trying to understand a beneficial anomaly.
A potential ally. Or at least, someone outside Thorne's immediate sphere of influence.
Leo opened his eyes, back in his dark dorm room. The confrontation with Thorne had been a trial by fire. It had clarified the stakes. It had forced the Nexus to reveal defensive capabilities. And it had accelerated the emergence of a new, potentially crucial bond.
He was no longer just a student collecting connections. He was the guardian of a nascent network, under siege from a corrupted power from the past.
He looked at his hands in the lamplight. They were just a young man's hands. But they held the threads of something beautiful and fragile.
"Okay," he whispered to the quiet room, to the system within, to the stars taking shape in the space behind his eyes. "Let's see what radiates."
(Chapter 10 End)
--- System Status Snapshot ---
User:Leo Vance
Resonance Points:240 (340 - 100 for 2x Guardian Protocols)
Active Buffs:
· 'Soul Resonance' (Permanent, Passive – Lin Yao)
· 'Guardian Protocol' (Active on Lin Yao & Chloe Chen. Duration: 7 days each.)
Nexus Collection:1/???
·The Quiet Star (Lin Yao): Nexus-Bound. Status: Serene, Anchored. [GUARDIAN PROTECTION ACTIVE]
Significant Bonds (Priority Order):
1. Lin Yao: NEXUS-BOUND. Relationship: Soul-Deep Confidante & Resonant Partner.
2. Chloe Chen: Trusted Project Partner / Friend (Node: 'The Gambit' – 98%). [GUARDIAN PROTECTION ACTIVE]
3. Maya Santos: Respected Supporter / Friend (Node: 'The Undefeated Streak' – 72%).
4. Aria Vance: Indebted Ally & Confidante (Node: COMPLETE).
5. Evelyn Thorne: EXTERNAL NEXUS AGENT (THREAT LEVEL: CRITICAL). Status: ACTIVE HOSTILITY. In possession of Corrupted Nexus Artifact ('The Utilitarian Compass').
6. Subject #8 - 'The Solitary Architect': NEW. Status: Passive Observation -> Active Interest (Node: 'The Firewall of Flesh' – 25%).
Heartforge Space:
· Lin Yao: Blue Star with Golden Guardian Nimbus.
· Chloe Chen: Gold Tether with Golden Guardian Nimbus.
· Other Tethers: Stable.
· Evelyn Thorne: Jagged Obsidian Shard, emitting hostile violet scan/predation tendrils.
· New Formation: Silver Geometric Light (Subject #8) coalescing.
System Directives:
· PRIMARY: DEFEND NEXUS NETWORK. Maintain Guardian Protocols. Earn RP.
· SECONDARY: EXPLORE POTENTIAL OF SUBJECT #8. An intellect of her caliber could be invaluable for understanding/combating Thorne's artifact.
· TERTIARY: CONTINUE NATURAL PROGRESSION WITH MAYA, ARIA. Strengthen network density.
· WARNING: Expect increased administrative scrutiny. All academic/social activities must appear normal, organic. Thorne is watching for "too-perfect" patterns.
· NEW RESEARCH UNLOCKED: 'Nexus Artifact Lore' branch available. Spending RP (100 per research session) may yield historical data on previous system cycles, corruption events, and potential weaknesses.