A little off the main bustle of the core market in the heart of Grey Haven, Rin's junkyard sat tucked away. Beneath a crude roof cobbled together from scrap, the cramped space was piled nearly to the ceiling with broken weapons, shattered armor, and unidentifiable metal fragments. The air was thick with the smell of oil and metal dust, and as if the faint phosphorescence of the baseboard lights wasn't enough, several homemade lanterns hung from above, casting an unnaturally bright glow over the workbench. Minato hesitated at the entrance. The place was as cluttered as ever—finding a spot to stand was a challenge. Beside him, Shigure gazed around with open curiosity, her eyes tracing the countless tools hanging across the wall. "Oi, you made it!" Rin's high, clear voice rang out from the back of the room. Her two-tone, semi-long hair was pushed back carelessly with her usual multi-function goggles. On the workbench sat a palm-sized metal box and a piece of black cloth cut into an odd shape. "That thing you asked for is done. Come here." Minato and Shigure picked their way carefully through the junk at their feet and approached the bench. Rin lifted the metal box, showing them its underside. Inside, fragments of circuit boards salvaged from scrap and fine copper wire wound in countless layers surrounded a tiny core shard fixed at the center. "Your blueprints are something else. The basic theory checks out. Resonating with the residual energy of a gate to amplify the backflow—most people would never even think of that." Shigure accepted the beacon without a word, turning it over carefully in her hands to observe it. Her silver right eye narrowed, as if inspecting every detail. "But there are two problems." Rin held up two fingers. "First, the resonance frequency calibration was imprecise. As it was, spatial distortion would've affected it, and the beacon wouldn't have been able to withstand its own amplification—it would've burned out. I recalibrated it to a two-point-eight ratio based on your observational data." She picked up a small driver and opened a tiny panel on the side of the beacon. With practiced ease, she turned a fine-tuning screw inside by the slightest angle. "The second problem is bigger. Once it's set up, you have to stay at least two meters away from the device. Any closer, and when the backflow starts, the energy will cause a resonance in a human core. Worst case, your own core shatters." "[serious]Two meters. I'll remember." Shigure's reply was brief. The fact that she didn't question Rin's corrections meant she trusted her technical judgment completely. Minato watched Rin as she immersed herself in the blueprints, a strange feeling settling over him. She was a low-rarity ★2. In the hierarchy of the Summoning Realm, she occupied the same absolute bottom as Minato himself. But the way her fingers handled the precision machinery before her—as if it were an extension of her own body—and the focus in her eyes existed in a dimension entirely separate from any measure of rarity. (*Rarity and skill are two different things, huh.*) The words Shigure had spoken back in Hidden Valley now settled into his chest with the weight of reality. Next, Rin picked up the black cloth. A light-blocking hood. It had undergone special treatment, its surface black as charcoal, swallowing light completely. "This is ready too. It should block the phosphorescence from your hair entirely. It's got a built-in baseboard light magnification adjuster. During a dimming phase, if you're five meters away, you won't be found." Shigure took the hood and gently pulled it over her head. Her waist-length emerald hair vanished completely beneath the black fabric. The violet phosphorescence of her left eye was blocked by the light-shielding film built into the hood's brim, rendering it completely invisible from the outside. "[gentle]Thank you, Rin. This exceeds all my expectations." "Of course it does! Who do you think I am?" Rin puffed out her chest, then suddenly turned to face Minato. "Come to think of it, you came by before to get your boots repaired, didn't you? You're that core-picker guy, right? Here, let me see your right hand for a sec." Startled, Minato instinctively tried to pull his right hand back. But Rin's hand was quick, catching his wrist. Her fingertips were covered in tiny scars, her fingerprints nearly worn away. He could see how years of repair work had made her skin hard and thick. "Ah, just as I thought. Your core output's a little weak. Wore yourself out on the way to Grey Haven, didn't you? You've been keeping core shards in the hidden pocket of your cloak, right? They've been resonating bit by bit, slowly chipping away at your core." Without even turning around, she pulled a small cloth pouch from a drawer in her workbench. Inside was a fine powder of crushed core fragments. "Hold still. I'll give you a repair treatment." Rin sprinkled a small amount of the core powder onto the back of Minato's right hand. The powder emitted a faint glow and then seemed to be absorbed beneath his skin. A gentle, spreading warmth radiated from the back of his hand toward the center of his chest. "That should do it. It'll take about half a day for your core to return to its original output, so don't push yourself." "Ah, th-thank you very much." Minato ducked his head in a quick bow. Rin watched his flustered reaction and laughed, clearly amused. "What's with the formal act? We're both ★2s here—relax a little." Minato sensed that beneath this engineer's cheerful exterior lay a firm, unwavering will. *We'll make this world better with our own hands*—that conviction was what moved Rin's fingertips and filled this junkyard to the brim. (*Even among ★2s, people can be this different.*) It wasn't frustration he felt. It was a small glimmer of hope. Shigure carefully placed the beacon into a leather pouch and gave Rin a short nod. "You're off, then. Be careful. The spatial distortions in the Gate Graveyard might affect the precision of my device. Get away from it as soon as it's set up. Absolutely no less than two meters." "[serious]Yes. I'll remember." The two of them left the junkyard behind. Rin's bright voice followed them from the back. "When you get back, let me know how the device held up! I'll use it to make improvements!" Minato looked back and bowed his head once more. This was, in practical terms, his first real interaction with Rin. At the time, he had no idea how deeply she would later become involved in this story. --- The outer edge of the Gate Graveyard lay submerged in the darkness at the tail end of the dimming phase. The phosphorescence of the baseboard lights was at its weakest; even the pebbles at their feet were little more than hazy shadows. Shigure, cloaked in the light-blocking hood, took the lead. Minato followed behind her, probing the surrounding presence. The Gate Reading observation pattern he'd learned during his last reconnaissance—waveforms spreading evenly, moving at fixed intervals. To avoid them, they would need to take a wide detour around the southern edge. "Shigure-san, this way." Minato kept his voice low and pointed toward the southwestern detour route. That area had more rocky outcroppings and offered better cover. It would take longer, but the chances of being spotted were lower. Shigure nodded immediately. She had likely calculated the time difference in an instant. She offered no words that might hinder a rational decision. The two advanced through the darkness. The air itself seemed distorted; their vision wavered even without any wind. The influence of the spatial distortions was growing stronger the deeper they went into the graveyard. Hundreds of dud gates flickered like ghosts, illuminating their path—and leading them astray. At the deepest part, Shigure stopped before the largest dud gate. A golden wreckage three meters in diameter. The place where she had recorded the back-suction waveform last time. She pulled the beacon from her leather pouch and, without a word, began securing it to the gate's rim. The metal pieces made faint sounds, but there was no other noise. Minato turned his back to her and devoted himself entirely to watching their surroundings. (*It's the same as last time. There's only one thing for me to do.*) His heart hammered against his ribs like a frantic drum. The air was heavy. A span of mere tens of seconds felt like hours. The beacon activated. A low, humming vibration traveled through the air. At the gate's rim, the light of the backflow began to pulse. Faint at first, then gradually stronger. Dust swirled into a vortex, drawn toward the gate's center. Shigure's measuring device emitted a faint electronic tone. She peered into the screen and, for just a moment, caught her breath. "[serious]The connection signal… it's here. The gate generation device in the second layer, Medialam, is beginning to recognize this dud gate as a connection point." Her voice carried a hint of suppressed elation beneath its bravado. After fourteen failures and a mountain of data, she was finally on the verge of reaching the system's backdoor. Minato felt every hair on his body stand on end. (*This really is…*) (*Something that could change the world.*) That was when it happened. From all directions, core output waves rose up simultaneously. As if in response to the beacon's backflow amplification, points of light began appearing one after another from the shadows of the rocky outcroppings surrounding the graveyard's edge. Two, three, five, ten—no, more. Minato's senses instantly counted the core reactions of over thirty entities. "[scared]Shigure-san…!" Shigure didn't look up from her measuring device's screen. But her back visibly stiffened. There wasn't even a few seconds' grace before the encirclement was complete. The first to step forward was a single man. A tall figure with silver hair. A crack of absorption scarring ran down his left eye. The guard of the longsword on his back gleamed coldly, reflecting the flickering light of the dud gates. His presence alone altered the quality of the surrounding air. It was as if space itself was parting to make way for him. Rect Orphas. The head of Vanagloria. A ★5 who had returned from three Limit Breaks—the most dangerous individual in the Summoning Realm. With just one step forward from him, the thirty-plus members all raised their weapons in unison. Swords, axes, chains—their equipment wasn't standardized, but their movements were perfectly coordinated. Every single one of them was a hunter seasoned in battle. Rect looked first at Shigure. His gaze held no hatred; it was the look of a terrifyingly calm observer. "[cold]Shigure. Fourteen-time gate arrival failure. You're suppressing the luminescence of your left eye. A light-blocking hood. Well made." His voice wasn't particularly loud, yet it rang with unnatural clarity through the distorted air of the Gate Graveyard. "[cold]I am fully aware of your research as of last night. The data carved into the archives of Hazel Hidden Valley. The hypothesis of a connection to the second layer, Medialam. And the backflow amplification experiment using the dud gates of the Gate Graveyard. All of it." Shigure's silver right eye widened, just for a fraction of a second. But she immediately regained her expressionless mask. "[cold]Interference with the system. That is taboo. We of Vanagloria have resisted the system that moves at the whim of the Players by monopolizing the gates. Securing an advantage in the Selection and sending as many of our brethren to the surface as possible—that is the sole order in this distorted world." He shook his head slowly. "[cold]What you are attempting is not a denial of order. It is the destruction of the system itself. An act that renders our very reason for existing—monopolizing the gates—utterly meaningless from its foundatio