Chapter Seventeen · Alliance of the Drifting
Section 1 · Shadow of the Drifter (Part One)
Moonlight fell coldly, illuminating the dappled and cracked stone bricks outside the teaching building, Like bleached bones abandoned in the ruins, silent and sorrowful.
Jason leaned alone against the handrail railing on the outside of the teaching building, his gaze half-lowered, His fingertips lightly tapped the metal railing, the rhythm steady as breathing.
[HEX64 Prompt: Peripheral node momentum instability rate increased to 21%.]
The system's calm analysis flowed in his mind.
The Greywings. This originally loose but somewhat influential peripheral small group had completely collapsed after a sudden conflict last week. The Greywing members, having lost their protection, were like small boats scattered by a flood, Drifting individually in the undercurrents of the school's ruins, seeking new dependencies.
And Jason—— He did not chase after any of them. He simply stood quietly on the inevitable path of the tide, waiting for them to flow towards him on their own.
On the other side of the teaching building, One of the remaining Greywing members, Jonathan Maxwell, hurried through the crowd with his head down, His expression anxious, his collar half-open, a faint trace of sweat on his back.
"Damn it..." he gritted his teeth, cursing in a low voice. He didn't know where to go. The former Greywing controller "Lyon" had been discarded, the remaining individuals fighting for themselves. The TRACE peripheral team had long watched with cold eyes, not intending to intervene. And that newly risen individual——Jason Carter, Became the only possibility in the eyes of those wanderers. But... was approaching him truly safe?
Jonathan hesitated, his gaze involuntarily drifting towards the edge of the sports field. Jason there, as if sensing something, slowly raised his head. Their gazes briefly intersected in the air.
Jonathan's heart clenched sharply. Not hostility. Not goodwill. But something colder, more distant, more profound. Like a hunter standing at the edge of a cliff, quietly overlooking the silent struggle of the drifters.
Jason did not move. He simply watched for a moment, then withdrew his gaze. As if telling Jonathan:
——The choice is yours, not mine.
At the other end of the sports field, Emily leaned in the shadow of the broken bleachers, watching all of this from afar. She saw Jonathan's hesitation, and also Jason's almost cruel silence.
"...He's waiting," Emily judged silently in her mind. Not hunting. Not trapping. He was waiting for the tide to change its course on its own.
This extreme restraint and layout, Gave Emily an unspeakable chill, And within the chill, a hint of almost instinctual reverence began to emerge.
In the night wind, a broken billboard swayed in the air, emitting a sharp, grating sound. Jason quietly turned and stepped into the shadow of the teaching building. His pace was steady, his silhouette stretched long and long under the streetlights.
No one saw—— His right hand was in his pocket, silently clenching a small folded piece of paper: ——That was this afternoon, A fragment of a list casually "picked up" from a remnant member of an unknown node. On it, a few names were faintly listed. Greywing remnants, the genuinely potential ones. They had not yet completely sunk. They were just, drifting.
And he would be the only faintly glowing lighthouse in that drifting sea. Not a summons. Not salvation. Only existence. Existence itself was enough to become a destination.
Section 2 · Observing with Cold Eyes (Part Two)
[Zhou Yi · Guan Hexagram]
Great contemplation is above, observing the people and establishing teachings. ——True rule is not in shouting, not in coercion, but in observing their self-inclination with cold eyes.
The next day, early morning.
The sunlight of the ruined city carried a hint of bitterness, casting fragmented light patches slantwise into the school's dilapidated teaching building, Reflected in the broken glass.
Jason stood behind the railing on the second floor, quietly overlooking the sports field. Below, scattered groups of people were slowly moving. Low-grade freshmen, fragmented small groups, Greywing remnant drifters... They were alert to each other, watching, like small schools of fish that had lost their guiding light, swimming aimlessly in the murky water.
Jason's gaze swept over the crowd, without a trace of emotional fluctuation. He did not make a move. Nor did he show favor. Nor did he issue any recruitment information.
[HEX64 Prompt: Momentum natural flow perception——Critical value stable. Current strategy assessment: Optimal.]
The system's prompts were as calm and precise as ever. Jason understood that the most taboo thing at this moment was to reveal any intention of being "eager to gather." Doing so would only cause wider panic and resistance. What he wanted was for the situation to collapse on its own—— And then, within the collapse, for new dependencies to naturally emerge. As Lao Zhuang said:
"Govern by not doing."
Downstairs.
Jonathan sat in the corner hugging his backpack, his eyes shifting restlessly as he observed the sports field. He was not the only one. There were others—— Small leaders of Greywing remnants, wanderers from peripheral nodes, and even members of some originally neutral small groups—— All were waiting, watching, probing. They were looking for a new banner.
But Jason revealed nothing. His calmness was like a transparent yet insurmountable high wall, Both silent and invisible. Suffocating, yet desirable.
At noon, in the cafeteria.
Jason sat alone at a worn table in the corner, Briefly eating lunch with a cup of black coffee and a cheap hot meal.
Around him, a natural zone of emptiness was always maintained. The crowd lingered in the distance, whispering, observing. But no one dared to easily cross the boundary.
Mark Cooper passed by with his drawing board, a hint of struggle flashing in his eyes, But ultimately did not stop, only quickened his pace as he left.
Jason imperceptibly made a mark in his mind.
——Cooper, wavering, but not yet to the point of self-committal.
[HEX64 Prompt: Peripheral node floating tracking——Cooper intention index +3%.]
Everything was under control. Control was not about issuing commands. It was about changing the flow of the environment through existence itself.
In the evening, at the school plaza.
TRACE peripheral scouts began to become subtly active. They did not take direct action, But with the posture of "harmless observation," they interspersed through the crowd, taking notes, making marks. To others, this was merely the usual information gathering team working within the school. But in Jason's eyes, these people's movements, contact frequency, and focus of observation were all laid bare.
He put away the last node observation note, stood up, His movements unhurried, his gaze sweeping over those pretending to be harmless figures in the distance.
Calm. Restrained. No response, no evasion, no provocation. Just watching their performance with cold eyes. Like a chess player, overlooking every piece slowly moving on the board.
The world, was quietly changing. Not a noisy explosion, not a bloody conflict. But the most terrible, most silent kind of change: ——The change in momentum.
When everyone unconsciously starts to cast their gaze towards you, When the脉络 (network/veins) of all situations spontaneously start to converge towards you, When all turmoil revolves around you without them knowing—— You, have already begun to control their destiny.
No need to announce. No need to shout. Just, exist.
Section 3 · Initial Weaving of Dark Lines (Part Three)
[Main Hexagram]: ☴ [Xùn for Wind] (Moving covertly, subtly and soundlessly)
Night, at the plaza outside the school cafeteria, the wind blew the damaged flag, making a dull flapping sound.
Jason sat on a rusty long bench, An old copy of "Introduction to Social Dynamics" spread open on his lap——its cover torn, corners stained with grease. By the old water dispenser nearby, a group of younger students surrounded plastic bags containing steaming small meal boxes, noisily exchanging food.
Dinner here was not uniformly provided by the school. Two years ago, the school's cafeteria system had ceased to exist in all but name. Logistics had long been divided among various factions, resources circulating like in a black market. Want to eat your fill? It depended on points, faction connections, node transactions, and even deliveries from covert scavenging teams.
Bottom-tier students were like scavengers, surviving in the ruins. The real food war began the first day they stepped into the school gates.
Jason knew all of this. But he was not in a hurry to participate. Instead, he chose to observe. To learn. To lay out.
[HEX64 Prompt]
[Current Situation Main Hexagram]: ☴ Xùn for Wind [Projection Conclusion]: Move covertly, moisten things soundlessly. Suitable for weaving a net in the dark, not suitable for high-profile gathering.
—
Jason flipped open the book, his finger pausing on a yellowed annotation:
"True order is not established by explicit rules. But quietly takes shape in the subtle expectations and fears people have of each other."
He lowered his head, thinking quietly.
At the edge of the plaza. Mark Cooper hesitated to approach yet again.
This time, he clutched an old sketchbook in his hand, and a small bag of steaming, cheap rice balls. He took a deep breath, gathering courage, and walked up to Jason.
"Jason..." His voice carried a slight tremor, "I... drew some things, and... got some food."
Jason looked up. His gaze swept over the sketchbook Mark offered. Inside, were black and white sketches: Ruins, shattered building clusters, crowds vaguely moving beneath collapsed overpasses—— These sketches were rough, but faintly revealed a strong sense of reality.
Not showing off skill. But recording. Real, naked, unavoidable fragments of the world.
Jason took the sketchbook, flipped through a few pages, and nodded. No praise. No compliments. Just quietly said:
"Keep drawing."
Just a simple sentence. Mark's face lit up as if ignited, showing a look of almost fanaticism.
He carefully placed the rice balls next to Jason, lowered his head, and quickly walked away, As if afraid his excitement would show too clearly.
[HEX64 Prompt]
Peripheral node M-04 (Mark Cooper) stability elevated. Potential loyalty node marked.
On the other side. Jonathan Maxwell watched this scene from a distance, his expression complex.
He remembered—— There had been similar moments with the "Greywings" he once followed. Lyon standing on the rooftop, Silently distributing survival resources and escape routes in his hands. At that time, he thought, that was reliance. Until the Greywings dispersed, Lyon betrayed his most loyal companions in a conflict, only to exchange it for an opportunity to secretly negotiate with TRACE periphery. The collapse of the Greywings was not due to external strikes. But the fragmentation of internal trust.
Jonathan bit his lip hard. He didn't want to be a discarded piece again. He needed new belonging. But this time, he wanted to choose for himself.
Jason sensed Jonathan's gaze from afar. He did not wave. Nor did he extend an invitation.
He simply picked up the rice balls Mark left behind and wrote a tiny symbol in the plastic bag's cracked transparent area:
"⟁"
A rotating triangle symbol. In the world of ruins, This was the most rudimentary small alliance secret mark——meaning "approachable, but not to be forced."
Jason put down the rice balls. Stood up, and left. Without looking at the result. Without waiting for a response. Because those who were truly qualified would naturally see, and naturally approach.
At the end of the corridor. Emily quietly watched all of this, a complex meaning in her brows.
She saw—— Jason did not directly recruit anyone. Yet in the most natural way, he began to weave his own first invisible net.
All of this, without smoke, without slogans, without contracts. Only the choice of the undercurrent. Only the subtle drifting of human hearts.
Emily raised her hand to brush a stray strand of hair from her ear, murmuring in her heart:
"Is this... the aura of empire?"
And she, on the edge of this silent empire, Step by step, was being pulled in.
Section 4 · Undercurrent Probing (Part Four)
[Main Hexagram]: ☶ [Gèn for Mountain] (Stopping and observing, examining and moving)
The night was like boundless silk, silently enveloping the school. The dilapidated teaching building, the fragmented sports field, the swaying abandoned lights—— Everything seemed frozen beneath a silent undercurrent.
Jason walked through the alleyway leading to the dormitory area. His footsteps left a series of faint echoes on the ground, Each sound precisely cutting into the rhythm of the plaza's wind direction changes.
[HEX64 Prompt]
[Current Situation Main Hexagram]: ☶ Gèn for Mountain [Projection Conclusion]: Stop and observe without moving, use defense as offense. The undercurrent is turbulent, suitable for stillness to control motion.
—
He had long since detected it. TRACE peripheral team scouts were intervening in an extremely covert manner. Not blatant surveillance. But——
Placing temporary listening devices in corners of the ruins.
Quietly making marks near water points.
Implanting anonymous messages of "Jason Carter's risk warning" in the low-frequency band of the campus forum.
Everything was very restrained, very calm. Not like direct suppression. More like observation, screening, testing.
The TRACE peripheral team was not foolishly reckless. They knew that Jason's unusual activity was part of the internal momentum change in the school, And rash intervention could easily disrupt the original balance, leading to uncontrollable consequences.
Therefore—— They chose to probe. Just like true hunters, Silently lurking and subtly testing when the prey has not yet exposed any weakness.
At the end of the corridor, around the corner. A boy in a regular uniform, holding a garbage bag he pretended to be about to throw away, Quietly pressed a fingernail-sized grey node onto the wall next to the trash can.
A slight electronic fluctuation rippled out, Spreading an information net soundlessly, like a spiderweb.
[HEX64 Prompt]
Detected weak electromagnetic anomaly. Presumption: TRACE peripheral miniature listening node (Model: BlackSwan-γ type). Activation rate: 13%. Current status: Passive listening.
Jason stopped one meter before the corner. His gaze motionless for an instant, As if just contemplating which way to go next. But his internal projection system had already completed its rapid operation.
[Projection Conclusion]: Do not clear. Do not directly destroy. Record node location. Induce misjudgment.
A few seconds later, Jason turned the corner as if nothing had happened, Disappearing into the darkness.
What remained was a TRACE listening node quietly recording his "harmless" movements. This was exactly the result he wanted. Guiding them to believe he was "not yet a threat." Guiding them to misjudge the progress of his expansion. Guiding them to miss the optimal window, Before they made their real move.
In the distance, at the corner of the school ruin wall. A TRACE peripheral observer watched from afar through a one-way dark mirror in the direction Jason had left, Reporting in a low voice into his earpiece:
"...Target's actions are normal, no signs of abnormal gathering. Node drift index has not reached interference threshold."
From the other end of the earpiece, a muffled command came:
"Continue observation. Do not alert the enemy. If necessary, induce diversion of peripheral nodes."
The observer nodded, put away the equipment, And blended into the darkness like a shadow.
—
Jason stopped at the exit of the alley in the distance, Listening with his ear to the almost inaudible echo in the night wind. At the corner of his mouth, a barely perceptible cold smile curved.
[HEX64 Prompt]
External forces intervention confirmed. Situation dynamically stable. Momentum guidance window open——Invisible dark line net construction can be initiated.
—
He knew: From this moment on, The nascent form of his empire, Finally, in the undercurrents of the ruins, Had its first truly secret脉络 (network/vein).
And those who still thought they were controlling the situation—— Were merely, Walking on the path he had laid out in advance.
Section 5 · Subtle Oath in the Wind (Part Five)
[Main Hexagram]: ☰ [Qián for Heaven] (The great trend is rising, the hidden dragon is about to fly)
Night was deep.
On the top floor of the abandoned library, In a small office that had long been out of repair, occupied by dust and rust, The faint emergency light illuminated Jason's calm and sharp profile.
On the desk, scattered across it were several simple node flow charts drawn on scraps of paper. Every small dot, Every arrow, Marked——
Mark Cooper: Potential for manipulating art circle leads in the periphery.
Seth Nova: Preliminary agent for low-level intelligence groups.
Small scavenging teams: Initial foundation for invisible network of black market resource circulation and food flow.
Not legions. Not organizations. Just the initial, fragile, almost invisible net.
But—— Jason's own net.
He lightly drew a small mark next to each name. Not a summons. Not a command. But guidance through existence. Like guiding stars into place, Unseen, yet inevitably converging.
[HEX64 Prompt]
[Current Situation Main Hexagram]: ☰ Qián for Heaven [Projection Conclusion]: The hidden dragon is not yet to be used, build momentum before acting. Suitable for internal cultivation and external restraint, expanding in the dark.
—
Jason sat back in the worn chair, slowly closing his eyes. The wind outside the window, stirred a corner of a broken billboard, emitting a grating but lonely wail.
And in his heart, On this unknown deep night, He silently made a second oath:
——"Not for light, not for the sword." ——"I, will become——the force that guides the tide in the darkness." ——"The empire is not born of blood, but of will." ——"From now on, every drop of flowing momentum, Every low whisper, Shall become my territory."
[HEX64 System Prompt]
Host Will Density Breakthrough Second Critical Point. Permissions slightly expanded:
[Node momentum perception sensitivity +8%.]
[Can mark temporary alliance relationships (Grey Net mode).]
[Peripheral node unconscious condensation probability elevated.]
—
A line of new dark golden light flow, slowly lit up at the bottom of the system interface. Faint, but enough to become the first crack that would tear apart the entire ruined world in the future.
Early morning broke. Jason walked out of the abandoned library, In the faint light, his shadow was stretched long and long, As if it traversed the ruins of this city, the undercurrents beneath the ruins, and the future that had not yet awakened beneath the undercurrents.
His pace was firm and quiet. Like the wind, like the night, like the pulsing heart of an invisible empire. And the world, centered around him, was slowly rotating.