The morning after the Recruiter's Test was unlike any Ethan had experienced. As the sun rose over the city, casting warm gold over the glass towers, he lay in bed staring at the black card still clenched in his hand. It pulsed faintly—like it had a heartbeat of its own. Though exhaustion draped him like a thick blanket, he felt alert, aware, and alive in a way that was unfamiliar and thrilling.
He had passed something—something secret and ancient and buried beneath the university's polished exterior. And now, he was moving toward a world that had only revealed the tip of its iceberg.
The Atlas Building stood at the heart of the financial district, a beacon of steel and glass whose name had been whispered in corridors of both academia and corporate warfare. It was not just a building. It was a fortress of power, knowledge, and influence.
Ethan arrived at 8:52 A.M.—early. He stood at the massive lobby doors, surrounded by men in tailored suits and women who walked with purpose, each one potentially an agent of the Inner Gate. No one looked twice at him, though he wore plain jeans and a gray hoodie. The card in his hand granted him invisibility... or immunity.
The moment he stepped inside, his phone vibrated.
> [Welcome to Atlas. Proceed to Elevator 3. Floor 9. Room 912.]
He obeyed, weaving through the marble-and-glass lobby like a ghost. Elevator 3 opened before he could press the button. The floor numbers blinked rapidly and stopped at 9. A soft chime rang, and the doors slid open to reveal a hallway carpeted in midnight blue and lined with black-and-gold doors.
Room 912 waited at the end.
He knocked.
The door opened immediately, revealing a small but luxurious conference room. A woman in her early thirties stood by the far window, dressed in a crimson blazer and matching skirt, her black hair tied in a sleek bun. Her eyes were sharper than any blade Ethan had encountered.
"Ethan Cross," she said, not asking but affirming.
He nodded.
"I'm Lucienne. Level Two Liaison. Inner Gate. Have a seat."
He did.
Lucienne opened a folder on the table and spread out three sheets of paper.
"This," she said, pointing to the first page, "is your preliminary mission profile. You'll be embedded into the university's unofficial underworld as an observer. This includes illegal betting rings, exam fraud networks, contraband distribution, and even student-run tech smuggling."
She tapped the second sheet.
"This is your skill development roadmap. Based on the Recruiter's Test, you've shown affinity for logic, adaptive processing, and emotional suppression. You'll be guided toward the Analyst path—but the System will allow divergence if you unlock proper branching achievements."
Then the third page.
"This is your immediate task. There's a hacker on campus under the alias Crypt. They've accessed several Inner Gate nodes. We need them neutralized or recruited. Your objective is simple: find Crypt. Learn their purpose. Handle the situation."
Ethan stared at the file.
"I haven't even leveled once."
"And yet you're still here," Lucienne said with a faint smirk. "You're more dangerous than you realize. But you're right. You'll need tools. The Gate doesn't throw its recruits to the wolves empty-handed."
She handed him a sleek metal band.
"Put it on."
He slipped it over his wrist.
> [System Access Device Registered – Rank: Bronze Initiate] [Inventory, Skill Tree, Message Log, and Threat Scanner Unlocked]
Ethan's mind pulsed as new windows opened in his interface. His senses sharpened again.
> [Skill Tree: Analyst – Locked Skills Preview Available] [Branch: Data Manipulation / Social Engineering / Tactical Prediction]
Lucienne continued. "You won't be working alone. Your partner is a scout named Mei-Lin. She's been embedded for months. She'll make contact today. Trust her—but verify everything."
"When do I start?"
Lucienne stood and smoothed her skirt.
"You already did."
---
Ethan exited the Atlas Building with his mind racing. A mission, a role, a purpose—it all felt surreal, like the world had tilted on its axis. But deep inside, the sense of control he'd been yearning for all his life began to root itself.
His phone buzzed.
> [Mei-Lin: Blue Raven Café. Noon. Sit outside.]
The café was a cozy, artsy place just outside campus. Ethan arrived five minutes early, took a seat with his back to the wall, and scanned the crowd.
A girl sat down across from him without a word. She wore sunglasses, a University hoodie, and a scarf that hid most of her face. Her posture was relaxed, but her hands never stopped moving—fidgeting, scanning, signaling.
"You're loud," she said flatly.
"Loud?"
"Not literally. Your aura. You haven't learned to contain it. You're like a newborn System user flailing with a chainsaw."
Ethan smirked. "I'll get better."
"You'd better. Crypt is no joke. I've been tracking them for weeks. Whoever they are, they're either ex-Gate or something worse."
She slid him a flash drive.
"Start here. It's their trail. I found server fragments in the library basement, the engineering labs, and even the psychology department."
"What's their motive?"
"I don't know yet. But they've been gathering student profiles. Specifically, profiles of people who are 'statistically anomalous.' You and I fit the pattern."
Ethan leaned back, mind whirring.
"They're building something."
"Or hunting."
The tension between them was electric—not romantic, but tactical. Both of them knew this mission was far more dangerous than Lucienne let on.
"Let's hunt them first," Ethan said.
---
The trail began in the engineering labs. Ethan used his System interface to scan for anomalies. He found a node—a forgotten laptop left behind in a secured testing room. It took him thirty minutes to bypass the campus firewall and activate the hidden drive inside.
> [Encrypted Data Fragment Detected – Decryption Initiated] [Success Rate: 43%] [Attempt Decryption? Y/N]
He selected Y.
The room darkened as the System began its work.
> [Threat Detected – Countertrace Initiated] [Abort? Y/N]
Ethan's fingers hovered.
"Do it," Mei-Lin whispered over comms.
He confirmed.
The laptop exploded with a burst of static, but the System shield buffered it.
> [Data Recovered: 1.3%] [Keyword Detected: Project: Gatecrasher]
"What the hell is Gatecrasher?" Ethan muttered.
Mei-Lin was silent.
Then she said, "Something that was shut down years ago. Before my time. Before even Lucienne's."
"What kind of project?"
"A traitor program. Designed to bring down the Inner Gate from the inside."
Ethan felt his pulse quicken.
And the game changed again.
---
That night, Ethan sat alone in his dorm, staring at the flash drive, the black card, and the metal band. His world had expanded into something vast, dark, and endless.
He checked his stats.
> [Level: 0] [XP: 87/100] [Traits: Adaptive Mind] [Skills: Logic Tree Lv. 2, Data Fragmentation Lv. 1] [Title: Candidate – Bronze Initiate]
Still weak. Still small. But growing.
> [New Objective: Investigate Gatecrasher] [New Lead: Psychology Department – Thursday Night Lecture – Subject: Anomalous Cognition]
Ethan smiled faintly.
Let the games begin.