For the first time since Rex had woken in the House of Odds, the silence wasn't empty.
It throbbed — alive, vibrating, filled with something neither logic nor luck could explain.
Lia sat on the fractured chessboard, her eyes glowing like sunrise filtered through crystal. Code still shimmered around her, flickering between binary and breath.
Rex crouched next to her, spinning his coin lazily between his fingers. "So… what's the verdict? Am I dead, banned, or newly promoted to 'glorious anomaly'?"
Lia blinked, her lips parting slightly — her tone softer than ever before.
"You… changed the currency."
"Currency?"
"The House runs on luck, data, and probability. But after that gamble—" she hesitated, "—it's measuring something else now."
Rex leaned in, eyebrow raised. "And that would be?"
Her golden eyes lifted to meet his. "Emotion."
For a moment, they just looked at each other — and the space around them shifted.
[System Adjustment: Emotional Resonance Detected]
New Variable Registered: Affinity Points
Note: Affinity Points may influence fate outcomes, luck alignment, and divine interactions.
Caution: Emotional instability will attract the House's attention.
"Affinity Points," Rex repeated. "So feelings are… literally a stat now."
Lia almost smiled. "That's one way to describe it."
He leaned back on one hand, smirking. "So what's mine at?"
She blinked. "What?"
"My Affinity Points. I mean, I did save you from getting deleted — that's gotta count for something."
Lia's cheeks flushed — faint light flickering over her holographic skin. "It's not… quantified like that. At least, not yet."
"So you're saying it's undefined," Rex teased. "Which means I'm winning."
Lia crossed her arms, trying and failing to suppress a laugh. "You're insufferable."
"Correction," he said, standing and offering her a hand. "I'm statistically charming."
She took it.
And the moment their fingers touched, the Zero Table shifted.
The chessboard's black-and-white tiles exploded into color — gold, crimson, deep violet — forming a spiral staircase of light that rose endlessly into the void.
"New path unlocked," Lia whispered in awe. "This… this shouldn't exist."
Rex grinned. "Then we're exactly where we belong."
Far above, the Dealer watched from his throne, resting his chin on one gloved hand. Cards spun lazily around him — every single one showing Rex and Lia, their data rewritten into new probabilities.
"Affinity Points, hmm? How deliciously inefficient."
"Perhaps it's time the House learned how fragile mortals truly are…"
He flicked a card — it spun downward through the cosmos, its image changing mid-fall: Rex and Lia standing back-to-back, surrounded by both flame and starlight.
"Let's see how long they last before love turns to loss."
[System Prompt]
New Sub-Quest Unlocked: The Heart's Gambit
Objective: Reach 100 Affinity Points.
Reward: Unlock "Dual Fate Link."
Failure: Emotional Desync — permanent loss of bond.
Rex looked at the glowing text above them and laughed. "You've gotta be kidding me."
Lia, for once, didn't scold him. She just looked up at the message, then back at him — her voice steady.
"Then we'd better not lose."