CHAPTER 30 — Theories Of The Insane
ELION — POV
After we stepped into the living area, everyone froze.
Meso's presence just did that to people.
She didn't act threatening. She didn't even need act interested. She simply existed—and that was enough to throw everyone's survival instinct into a screaming panic.
She glanced around the room, taking in their faces, their posture, their distance from her.
Then she clapped once.
"Let's gather around and sit," she ordered.
Everyone sat immediately.
Except me.
I sat because I wanted to.
Alexiy moved to my right, close enough her thigh brushed mine. Meso plopped down on my left, crossing her legs and pulling a notebook out of her hoodie pocket like this was a scheduled university lecture.
"Good," she said, flipping a page. "Time for orientation. Don't interrupt unless your life depends on it or you're bleeding out. Preferably both."
I sighed. Lily tried not to cry-laugh. Rea just stared with hollow acceptance.
Sarah had paused mid-stir at the stove, watching carefully. Aaron was at the edge of the couch with Shrek still paused behind him. Danny and Delilah had arrived and sat pressed together, wide-eyed and waiting.
Meso clicked her pen.
"Item One," she announced."The Rules of the Base."
Aaron raised his hand.
Meso's head rotated toward him so slowly he immediately put it back down.
"Smart," she nodded.
"Okay, ground rules. Listen carefully because I'm only saying this once."
She rattled them off like reading a grocery list:
"First: Don't touch my stuff. Rule two: Don't lie — I do notice. Rule three: Nobody goes upstairs unless I say so, it's for your own protection. Rule four: Anything labeled EXPERIMENTAL is off-limits unless you like losing limbs. Rule D: If something is screaming, don't open the door. Last rule: If the generator alarms 'Code Red,' everyone runs. Oh and If I tell you to hide, you hide. No questions."
Silence.
"Hi—uh—sorry," Sarah said gently. "Rule five? Or D?"
"Oh?" Meso blinked then shrugged. "Don't worry. You'll understand it when it happens."
Nobody relaxed.
Not even me.
Meso flipped to a different page filled with text, and clicked her pen twice.
"Next. We're going over some 'System Theory' because all of you are ignorant."
"Hey—" Lily began.
"Silence, peon."
Lily shut her mouth.
Meso uncapped a marker and snapped it once against her palm like she was about to teach a college lecture on human dissection.
Which, knowing her, was not metaphorical.
She turned to the giant whiteboard and wrote in messy, quick handwriting:
TYPES OF SKILLS OBSERVED(Preliminary Classification)
Racial / Bloodline Skills
Acquired Skills (Orb-Based)— Colors confirmed:Red, Orange, Yellow, Violet, White
Drop Rate? Variance? Special Conditions?
She underlined the last line so hard the marker squealed.
"This," she said, tapping the board, "is the problem. Not all skills are created equal, and not all of you are receiving them the same way."
Everyone quietly moved closer.
Rea leaned forward, eyes sharp. Sarah folded her arms protectively around Aaron. Danny and Delilah exchanged nervous glances. Lily mouthed "ooooh," fascinated. Alexiy slid her hand into mine.
Meso gestured to the board again.
"Let's start with what we know. Red orbs seem to grant basic combat skills. Orange are advanced utility or specialty skills. Yellow and violet appear to be rare — higher tier, more powerful, more dangerous. And white…"
She turned toward me.
"…white seems to be something else entirely. Elion's inventory skill came from an orb."
Everyone stiffened.
Danny whispered, "Wait… he didn't get that from a kill?"
"Yes." Meso pointed directly at me. "Elion received a white skill orb when he killed a regular zombie, or so he told me. And he receives far more skill orbs than statistically possible."
"Statistically?" Lily asked.
Meso wrote a number:
~10% drop rate (estimated)
"Based on my testing," she said casually, "only ten percent of kills drop skill orbs. That's a rough average. Yours may vary a bit."
Rea frowned. "I've killed plenty. I haven't seen anything but red."
"Exactly." Meso looked smug. "You're following the normal curve."
Then Meso pointed at me again.
"Elion? Does. Not."
A low murmur rippled through the group.
Sarah whispered, "…what does that mean?"
Meso turned back to the board and circled Racial/Bloodline Skills.
"It means something else is feeding him. Something that isn't standard. Something coded into him. My guess is maybe a parallel system running in the background? Or an unknown "Luck" stat affects the drops? I'm not sure but I have guesses."
She flicked the marker toward me.
"And then we have the bloodline. 'VRYKOLAKAS' I believe that's a Greek Legeand about a 'Vampire'. So maybe Elion isn't 'Human' and race effects skills. Honesty this all still new and a lot of what I'm saying is guesswork and theories. "
Everyone but Alexiy stared at me.
Aaron's eyes sparkled like I'd just grown dragon wings. Lily looked ready to cause chaos. Rea… just studied me. Quiet. Calculating.
Sarah looked uneasy. Danny and Delilah seemed uncertain — like they couldn't decide whether to trust me or back away.
Alexiy squeezed my arm and stepped forward.
"You didn't tell them," she said softly. Not judgmental. Just observing my reaction.
"It didn't come up yet," I said calmly. "They would've seen it sooner or later anyway" I wasn't mad at Meso for talking about it, she knew what the line was.
Meso stepped between us and the whiteboard, marker tapping rhythmically against her thigh.
"When Elion's bloodline awakened it gave him some non-orb skills. A skill like a passive enhancements, you know, physical boosts, regeneration. Hell apparently it unlocked a hidden 'Charm' stat, which I want to analyze because that shouldn't exist in a scientific sense and yet here we are."
"Charm?" Lily snorted. "Yeah, that tracks."
"Lily," Sarah warned.
"What? Look at him. He's like if handsome and feral had a baby."
I muttered, "Thank you…?"
Danny swallowed. "So… he's basically… above the system?"
Meso actually laughed. Sharp and bright.
"No. Not above." She shook her head. "Parallel. It's almost like there's the system all of you interact with… and then the one he interacts with."
A chill slid through the room.
Rea exhaled slowly. "So what does that mean for us?"
Meso shrugged.
Which, coming from her, was somehow the most ominous response of all.
"Right now?" she said. "It means Elion is outside the baseline rules. It's almost like he's being accelerated, he's been given the tools. Given a path, one that doesn't apply to anyone else. I can't tell if it's good or bad… yet."
"Could it be dangerous?" Sarah asked quietly.
Meso shrugged again. "Everything right now is dangerous. But Elion's growth… it's almost like it's not random."
"What do you mean? "Random"? " Rea echoed.
Meso's expression darkened, voice dropping.
"Look at the data. Look at the patterns. He died then he awakened a bloodline. With some insane skills. not to mention his first skill is already OP. His stat gains are practically multiplied. He's receiving orbs for every kill that shouldn't drop. He is changing faster than should be impossible."
My group grew silent.
Lily's eyes widened. "So he's like… chosen?"
"No," Meso corrected. "He's being built."
The room went still.
Even the humming vents seemed to hush.
Danny finally asked, voice trembling around the edges, "Built… for what?"
Meso's smile was soft and sharp.
"That," she said, "is what we're going to find out."
She turned to the board and added one last line:
THEORY: THE SYSTEM HAS FAVORITES.
Then she tossed the marker aside and dusted her hands.
"So. Here's the good news." She glanced at the others. "If the system likes him, and you're tied to him — socially, physically, emotionally, magically — you benefit too. You survive longer."
Rea's jaw tightened. "And the bad news?"
Meso's smile widened.
"The system doesn't give gifts without purpose. If it's building Elion, giving him toys and playing favorites... then we're all pieces on a board we haven't seen yet."
Her eyes slid to me.
"Which means our next step is figuring out what the hell you're meant to become."
The room fell into a deep, heavy silence.
Then I exhaled slowly.
"Good," I murmured. "Because I'm not letting it 'build' me." I gave a small, broken-lipped smile. "It's too late for that anyway. I came pre-broken."
For the first time, Meso's grin wasn't mocking—it was exhilarated, vicious, almost hungry.
"Oh, Elion," she whispered, delighted. "We're going to have so much fun together~"