General Tianem stood on the bridge, hands clasped behind his back, posture steady.
On the outside, he looked calm.
Controlled.
A commander in full authority.
Inside?
Everything was shaking.
Five hours.
That was all it would take for the fleet to reach Earth orbit.
And yet, no one knew what they were flying into.
Reports were fragmented. Command structures on Earth had collapsed. Communications were inconsistent. Entire regions had gone silent.
Tianem kept his expression neutral.
"Maintain current formation," he said.
No one noticed the slight tightening of his jaw.
Because if the situation below was worse than expected…
This wouldn't be a reinforcement.
It would be a last stand.
---
Scene: White Base
Inside the White Base, Gary Lin stared at the system interface flooding his vision.
Warnings.
Updates.
Predictions.
All pointing to one thing:
Earth was on the brink.
He exhaled slowly.
"At least… Lelouch hasn't fully taken control yet."
That was the only good news.
And even that felt temporary.
Gary leaned back slightly.
"System… why am I the one dealing with this guy?"
The response came instantly.
System:
"Host tends to blame external variables when situations exceed control. Recommendation: stabilize mental state and analyze logically. Every scenario has a solution."
Gary frowned.
"…Do you even know who Lelouch is?"
A brief pause.
System:
"I am aware of his origin and achievements. He is classified as a high-threat strategic entity."
Gary let out a dry laugh.
"'High-threat' is an understatement."
He rubbed his face.
"Then what am I supposed to do? Buy abilities? Get blueprints? Summon someone?"
The system responded immediately.
System "You currently possess a limited summon function. Three summons available. All summons will originate from 'Slice of Life' category."
Gary froze.
"…Wait."
He blinked.
"Slice of life?"
"Correct."
Gary stared at nothing for a few seconds.
"You're telling me… I'm about to fight Lelouch… with people from slice-of-life settings?"
"Correct."
Gary leaned back, completely unconvinced.
"That's ..."
But then again he remember hikigaya, tomoya aki, and other from slice of life…
He started thinking.
Not all "daily life" characters were useless. Some had absurd intelligence. Some had ridiculous adaptability. Some…
…could actually match Lelouch mentally.
Gary narrowed his eyes.
"Okay… maybe there's a chance."
But nothing specific came to mind.
No guaranteed counter.
No perfect pick.
Just uncertainty.
He sighed.
"…Great. Gambling my life on RNG now."
The system remained silent.
Gary straightened slightly.
"Fine."
He raised his hand.
"Let's do it."
A brief pause.
"…System. Use one summon."
Light flickered across his interface.
Gary swallowed.
"Please… don't give me someone useless."
The summoning process began.
And for the first time since facing Lelouch—
Gary Lin was genuinely nervous about what would appear.
The summoning process began.
A circular pattern of light formed across Gary's vision, lines of data spinning faster and faster until they became impossible to follow.
He swallowed.
For a moment, he regretted everything.
Lelouch was reorganizing Zeon's remnants.
Earth was descending into chaos.
The Federation was barely holding itself together.
And his solution?
A random summon from the Slice of Life category.
"Please," Gary muttered. "No useless mascot character. No comic relief. No school idol. No—"
The system interrupted.
System:
"Summoning in progress."
"That's exactly what I'm afraid of."
The light intensified.
Gary watched the spinning symbols, trying to think positively.
Hikigaya came from a slice-of-life series.
Oreki too.
Tomoya Aki wasn't exactly a combat monster, yet he was surviving a war.
Maybe the category wasn't as restrictive as it sounded.
Still, that didn't stop him from imagining the worst possibilities.
A chef.
A musician.
A random student who had never seen combat.
Someone who would take one look at the Universal Century and immediately ask to go home.
"I'm fighting Lelouch," Gary whispered. "Please give me someone who can actually help."
The symbols suddenly stopped.
A notification appeared.
System:
"Summon complete."
Gary stared at the message.
Nothing happened.
No dramatic arrival.
No flash of lightning.
No mysterious figure stepping through a portal.
Just another notification.
His eye twitched.
"…That's it?"
A second window opened.
System:
"Summoned individual has been inserted naturally into the current world."
Gary blinked.
"Wait, what?"
System:
"To avoid suspicion, summoned individuals are integrated into existing circumstances. Host must locate the target manually."
"YOU MEAN I HAVE TO FIND THEM?"
Several mechanics nearby glanced in his direction.
Gary immediately lowered his voice.
"Of course. Of course that's how this works."
He rubbed his forehead.
"Fine. Who did I get?"
For a second, the system remained silent.
Then a name appeared.
Gary read it once.
Then again.
And a third time.
Slowly.
Very slowly.
His expression changed from confusion...
...to surprise.
Then to genuine disbelief.
"…You have got to be kidding me."
The system did not respond.
Gary stared at the name on the screen.
A character from a peaceful world.
A person who had never commanded an army.
Never piloted a mobile suit.
Never fought in a war.
And yet...
The more he thought about it...
The more dangerous the choice seemed.
A slow smile appeared on Gary's face.
For the first time since learning of Lelouch's offensive, he felt something resembling hope.
"Okay," he said quietly.
"Maybe this isn't RNG after all."
He stood from his seat.
The fleet would reach Earth in less than five hours.
Lelouch was making his move.
And somewhere in the Earth Sphere, Gary's first summoned ally was already waiting.
Gary Lin was still aboard White Base when the notification suddenly appeared before his eyes.
[System Notification]
Available Summon: Akiyama Shinichi
Suggested Reason: Strategic Support
Gary stared at the screen.
"...Akiyama?"
He immediately remembered the name.
Not a pilot.
Not a soldier.
Not a Newtype.
Just a terrifyingly intelligent man from Liar Game.
Gary rubbed his forehead.
"Why him?"
The system answered immediately.
[Current Situation Analysis]
Federation Strategic Capability: Insufficient
Enemy Strategic Capability: Lelouch vi Zehrtfeld
Recommended Countermeasure: Akiyama Shinichi
Gary thought for several seconds.
Then he sighed.
"Fine. Summon him."
The blue screen flashed.
[Summoning Complete]
Identity Established
Name: Akiyama Shinichi
Affiliation: Earth Federation
Cover Identity: Cadet Officer, Federation Military Academy
Current Location: Federation Headquarters
Gary blinked.
"That easy?"
The system did not answer.
Far away, at a Federation military academy on Earth, a young man opened his eyes inside a dormitory room.
Akiyama Shinichi quietly looked around.
A desk.
Military textbooks.
A Federation uniform.
An identification card.
Everything looked natural.
As if he had always lived there.
Akiyama picked up the identification card and read it.
Cadet Officer Akiyama Shinichi
He remained silent.
Then he walked toward the window.
Outside, military transports moved through the sky while emergency broadcasts reported the recent Zeon attacks.
The Federation was in chaos.
Akiyama listened for a few moments.
Then he smiled slightly.
"A war?"
His expression became thoughtful.
"I see."
Unlike most people, he did not panic.
Instead, he began gathering information.
Within an hour he had acquired reports concerning Luna II, A Baoa Qu, the Zeon offensive, and a mysterious strategist believed to be directing the enemy.
One name appeared repeatedly.
Lelouch vi Zehrtfeld.
Akiyama leaned back in his chair.
"A commander who sacrifices entire armies as bait..."
He tapped the table lightly.
"Interesting."
Most officers feared such an opponent.
Akiyama simply became curious.
Meanwhile, aboard White Base, Gary received another notification.
[Summon Successful]
Akiyama Shinichi has entered the battlefield.
Warning: Subject has begun investigating current political and military structures.
Gary smiled.
"Good."
For the first time in a long while, he felt slightly relieved.
Because while Amuro could fight mobile suits...
And Tianem could command fleets...
Akiyama Shinichi was the kind of man who fought monsters like Lelouch using nothing but logic, information, and human psychology.
Somewhere on Earth, two masterminds had just unknowingly entered the same game.
After look first one Gary then stared at the system screen.
"Give me another summon."
A blue window appeared.
[Random Summon Initiated.]
[Calculating...]
[Searching suitable individuals...]
Several silhouettes flashed across the screen.
Gary couldn't identify any of them.
"Can I at least know who is in the pool?"
[Negative.]
"Of course."
The wheel of light continued spinning.
After a few seconds, it stopped.
[Summon Complete.]
[Identity Integration in Progress...]
Gary blinked.
"Who did I get?"
The screen finally displayed a name.
Kiyotaka Ayanokoji
Gary nearly fell out of his chair.
"...Seriously?"
Even the system paused briefly.
[Subject Evaluation: Extremely high adaptability.]
[Recommended placement: Earth Federation Forces.]
[Searching suitable insertion point...]
A few seconds later another notification appeared.
[Identity Created.]
Name: Kiyotaka Ayanokoji
Affiliation: Earth Federation
Status: Candidate Pilot
Location: Augusta Cyber-Newtype Research Institute
Gary's expression immediately changed.
"Wait."
He stood up.
"Why there?"
[Subject psychological profile compatible with experimental observation programs.]
[High probability of surviving institutional pressure.]
Gary covered his face.
"Out of every place in the Federation..."
Augusta Research Institute.
A transport shuttle landed quietly.
A young man stepped out.
White facility buildings stretched across the compound.
Armed guards.
Researchers.
Military personnel.
The atmosphere immediately told him this was not a normal academy.
A researcher approached.
"Kiyotaka Ayanokoji?"
"Yes."
"Please follow me."
Ayanokoji complied without complaint.
As he walked through the facility, he silently observed everything.
Security routes.
Camera placements.
Research staff behavior.
Within minutes he already understood one thing.
This place is hiding something.
Several subjects he passed looked nervous.
Others looked broken.
One looked drugged.
Ayanokoji's expression didn't change.
Instead, he became interested.
Very interested.
He just wake up and suddenly arrive at this place, he wonder what happened now.
This place remind him from white room and he bet this place is hiding from public.
And he really interested in this situation.
Meanwhile, hundreds of kilometers away, Gary received the final notification.
[Summon successfully integrated.]
[Warning: Subject has begun analyzing his surroundings.]
Gary stared at the message.
"...How long has he been there?"
[Approximately twenty-three minutes.]
Gary sighed.
" help the people running that institute."
Because if there was one thing more dangerous than a Cyber-Newtype experiment...
It was a Cyber-Newtype institute that had just unknowingly recruited Kiyotaka Ayanokoji.
Gary Lin look at vast space and look at system already two summons had already arrived.
Akiyama Shinichi.
Kiyotaka Ayanokoji.
Both were useful.
Both were dangerous.
And both were somehow already causing trouble for the organizations they had joined.
Gary sighed.
"Okay, system. Third summon."
A blue wheel of light appeared.
[Random Summon Initiated.]
"Please give me someone normal."
[Spinning...]
"Just one normal person."
[Selecting Candidate...]
The wheel slowed.
Stopped.
Gary waited.
The name appeared.
Gotou Hitori
Gary stared.
"...Who?"
A second later he remembered.
"The Bocchi girl?"
[Affirmative.]
Gary blinked several times.
"The shy guitarist?"
[Affirmative.]
"The girl who nearly dies from social interaction?"
[Affirmative.]
Gary leaned back in disbelief.
"What exactly is she supposed to do in a war?"
The system remained silent.
Then another notification appeared.
[Identity Integration Complete.]
Gary looked at the details.
Then immediately sat upright.
"...What?"
Name: Gotou Hitori
Affiliation: Principality of Zeon
Position: Military Personnel
Current Assignment: Personal Secretary to Char Aznable
The room became completely silent.
Gary reread the screen.
Then reread it again.
Then a third time.
"...Char has a secretary?"
[Current records indicate yes.]
"Since when?"
[Since now.]
Gary rubbed his forehead.
"How does that even work?"
[Reality adjustment successful.]
"No, seriously."
[Everything is possible for me.]
Gary pointed accusingly at the floating blue screen.
"You casually gave Char Aznable a secretary."
[Correct.]
"And that secretary is Bocchi."
[Correct.]
"The socially anxious guitarist."
[Correct.]
"The one who can barely introduce herself."
[Correct.]
Gary looked toward the ceiling.
There had to be some higher power laughing at him.
Far away in Zeon-controlled territory, a pink-haired girl stood frozen in front of an office door.
Gotou Hitori stared at the nameplate.
Commander Char Aznable
Her face turned pale.
She checked the paper in her hands and think that she just fainted from social activity with band and she now in on this place and have memory she sure don't have.
Then she look at the door.
Then the paper again.
Then the door.
"Ah..."
A small sound escaped her mouth.
According to every official document, she was now Char Aznable's private secretary.
Unfortunately, nobody had informed her how to actually be a secretary.
Or a soldier.
Or a functioning adult.
The door suddenly opened.
Char stepped out.
Both froze.
Char looked at the nervous young woman holding several documents.
Gotou looked at the legendary Red Comet.
For three seconds neither spoke.
Then Gotou immediately saluted.
Too quickly.
The papers flew into the air.
Char watched dozens of reports scatter across the hallway.
Gotou's soul nearly left her body.
"Ah..."
"Ah..."
"Ah..."
Without another word she crouched down and began collecting the papers while internally wishing for death.
Char silently helped pick them up and think how did lelouch give him so careless secretary.
The nearby officers stared in disbelief.
The Red Comet helping a secretary gather paperwork was not something they expected to witness today.
Back on White Base, Gary received the final notification.
[Summon deployment successful.]
Gary stared at it.
Then looked at the system.
"You can alter reality."
[Correct.]
"You can summon people from other universes."
[Correct.]
"You can create identities."
[Correct.]
Gary pointed dramatically.
"Then give me a Turn A Gundam."
The system immediately replied.
[Rejected.]
Gary froze.
"What?"
[Acquire one from a marketplace or construct one yourself.]
"..."
[Host is advised to lower expectations.]
Gary sat silently.
The system had just told him to build a Turn A Gundam himself.
For the first time in days, he considered throwing a chair at a hologram.