I stood in the center of the hyper-minimalist villa, the tension thick enough to serve as a structural beam. Lin Yue was waiting for a god to reveal himself. Instead, I let out a long, weary sigh and slumped into a chair that probably cost more than my father's car.
"Fine," I said, rubbing my temples. "You caught me. I'm a Vibrationist."
Lin Yue blinked. The "Observer" intensity in her eyes faltered for a second. "A... what?"
"A Vibrationist," I repeated, leaning forward with an expression of intense, mock-seriousness. "It's a fringe branch of bio-mechanical engineering my grandfather taught me. It's not magic, Miss Lin. it's 'Resonance Negation.' I didn't make the bridge obey me; I just used my body as a grounding wire to cancel out the specific frequency the Zhaos were using to shake the bolts."
I held up my hands, making them tremble slightly. "It's incredibly taxing on the nervous system. That's why I have a 3.5 GPA—half my brain cells are dedicated to not vibrating myself into a puddle of jelly during a commute. It's a family curse, really. Very un-prestigious."
[DAO MESSAGE: HOST... THAT WAS MAGNIFICENT. THE SHEER BRAZENNESS OF REPLACING DIVINE AUTHORITY WITH 'BAD NERVES'. I AM UPLOADING A 5-STAR RATING TO YOUR LUCK MODULE.]
Lin Yue leaned back, her violet eyes narrowing. She looked at my "shaking" hands, then at my perfectly ordinary face. The logic was just plausible enough for someone raised in a world of science. To her, I wasn't a god; I was a high-functioning human "Glitch" with a very specialized, very weird hobby.
"A grounding wire," she whispered, a small, half-disappointed, half-impressed smile appearing. "Is that why you were looking at the Patek Philippe? You need a mechanical watch because a digital one would explode near your 'vibrations'?"
"Exactly!" I snapped my fingers. "See? You're a genius. It's a medical necessity. My insurance won't cover it."
While I was busy convincing the smartest girl in the city that I was a human tuning fork, the Zhao family was experiencing a different kind of "Vibration."
Master Zhao sat in his office, waiting for the GSB Audit to flash green on his screen. Instead, the display turned a deep, authoritative black. A single icon appeared: a stylized White Crane—the sigil of the Elder Council, the reclusive board of directors that sat even higher than the Lin-Gong Group.
"The Audit of Subject: Li Ren has been permanently redacted," a cold, synthetic voice announced. "All data pertaining to the bridge incident is now a Class-1 State Secret. Any further inquiry by the Zhao family will result in an immediate asset-freeze for 'Security Breaches'."
Zhao Feng, standing nearby with a bandaged forehead, turned pale. "Father? What... what is that? Who are they?"
Master Zhao's hand shook as he closed the file. "The Silent Board. They haven't intervened in a civil matter for fifty years. Why are they protecting a scholarship student from Sector 4?"
He looked at his son, his voice dropping to a terrified whisper. "Feng, stay away from that boy. We didn't hit a 'middle-tier' brat. We hit a tripwire for something ancient."
Lin Yue poured me a glass of juice—real orange juice, pulp and all. "The Audit was cancelled, Ren. My father's contacts said someone from the 'Higher Tiers' stepped in before he could even blink."
She sat across from me, her violet eyes still lingering on my hands. "You're a very expensive 'grounding wire' for the universe to protect so fiercely."
"Maybe the universe just likes a stable bridge," I said, taking a sip.
[DAO MESSAGE: ACTUALLY, I JUST SENT A HIGH-LEVEL 'SYSTEM OVERRIDE' TO THE BUREAU'S SERVERS POSING AS AN ANCIENT DIRECTIVE. I HOPE YOU APPRECIATE THE PAPERWORK I HAD TO FAKE.]
You're the best, System, I thought.
"Well, Mr. 3.5 GPA," Lin Yue said, standing up and smoothing her skirt. "Since the world isn't ending today, and you've saved my life, I suppose I should take you home. But don't think this is over. I still want to know why your 'vibrations' smell like jasmine and old starlight."
I stood up, adjusting my cheap backpack.
"That's just my laundry detergent, Miss Lin. It's the 'Celestial Breeze' scent. Very popular in Sector 4."
As we walked back to the 'Wraith', I felt a new quest ping in the back of my mind.
[NEW QUEST: THE SILENT BOARD'S CURIOSITY]
[OBJECTIVE: THE REAL 'HIGHER POWERS' HAVE NOTICED THE FAKED AUDIT. PREPARE FOR A FORMAL INVITATION.]
I sighed. The bluff had worked on the girl, but it seemed I had accidentally paged the management.