Su Yan sat at a table in the courtyard of a small rented property, a dead-fish stare in his eyes as he methodically manifested another soul coin.
A small stack of silver soul coins sat in front of him.
Beside it was an even smaller stack of gold soul coins.
That was the result of an entire morning's work.
Pod hovered beside the table, silently recording every attempt.
2B stood just behind Su Yan and slightly to one side, close enough to react at the first sign of trouble. She had taken up that position almost naturally over the past few days, like a silent shadow.
Su Yan let out a long sigh.
How did I end up doing this?
It had already been two weeks since 2B's arrival.
After leaving the Soul Beast forest and reaching the nearest town, Su Yan had immediately rented a small property with a private courtyard. He needed space. He needed privacy. More importantly, he needed somewhere to test what had changed.
The first thing he tested was, naturally, his second Soul Skill.
Su Yan would not lie.
At first, he had been a little disappointed.
Considering the wolf alpha's mutations, he had imagined something more direct. Wind blades, a fire blast, maybe some kind of speed enhancement. Anything with obvious offensive value.
Instead, Gatekeeper had given him something else.
His second Soul Skill was Shift.
It was not a separate attack. It did not create fire, wind, or anything flashy. Instead, it connected directly to his first Soul Skill, Bastion, and changed how he could manipulate the barriers after creating them.
A small blue cube drifted past his vision in a lazy, unstable orbit.
Shift allowed him to alter the size and shape of a barrier within limits. A flat panel could be compressed into a thicker block, stretched into a wider screen, bent into a shallow curve, or angled into a ramp or wedge. But the total amount of barrier did not seem to change. If he stretched it too wide, it became thinner and weaker. If he compressed it, it became denser and harder, but also more difficult to stabilize.
When he tried to compress a barrier into a blade-thin edge, it shattered like brittle glass.
When he tried to expand one without restraint, it thinned out until it popped.
When he attempted anything too complicated, the shape destabilized almost immediately.
The cube orbiting him now was one of the training methods he had come up with on a whim.
Normally, his barriers needed time and distance to build momentum. That had been one of his biggest weaknesses during the fight with Tang San. Every time Su Yan tried to strike with a barrier, Tang San saw it coming from a mile away and slipped aside before the attack became threatening.
The problem was simple.
He was too slow.
So he had come up with another method. He compressed a barrier into a small cube and tried to keep it moving around him in a loose orbit. He had tried controlling two at first, but splitting his focus between both cubes made the movement too unstable, and the moment he tried to do anything else, his control began to slip. For now, one was the limit.
Compressing the barrier also reduced the Spirit Power needed to move it. Su Yan guessed it was similar enough to simple physics. A broad panel had to push through more air, cover more space, and maintain a larger surface while moving. A compact cube was easier to guide, easier to keep close, and much easier to redirect.
The main improvement, however, was that he now had a barrier already in motion.
Instead of forming a barrier, accelerating it, and hoping his opponent waited politely to be hit, Su Yan could keep a compressed cube circling him at speed. Then, at the right moment, he could redirect it and expand it just before impact.
In theory, that solved the problem.
In practice, he still had a long way to go.
The timing was difficult. Expanding the cube too early made it easier to dodge. Expanding it too late weakened the impact. Injecting too much Spirit Power caused the barrier to swell unevenly and rupture, while too little made the expansion sluggish.
Working out that much had taken him a little over a week.
After that, Su Yan moved on to testing whether Gatekeeper's item manifestation had improved as well.
It had.
Unfortunately, the first obvious success was a Master-class Rapture part.
Even calling it a part was generous. It was small, damaged, and misshapen, with warped seams and fracture lines that did not make much mechanical sense. But the moment it fully manifested, Nihilister's head snapped toward it.
Su Yan had barely lowered his hand before she crossed the courtyard, snatched it from his palm, and devoured it in a single crunch.
Even Pod seemed to pause.
Then Nihilister's eyes narrowed.
"Again."
Su Yan, foolishly, had tried.
That had been several days ago.
Since then, every attempt to repeat it had either collapsed outright or settled into Servant-class fragments at best. A few pieces were better than his old output, denser and less warped, but none of them crossed that line again.
The first Master-class fragment had been a fluke.
Nihilister did not appreciate that explanation.
By this morning, her patience had finally run out. After watching yet another half-formed fragment crumble into useless motes of light, Nihilister had clicked her tongue, grabbed his money pouch from him, and walked out.
When Su Yan asked where she was going, her answer had been simple.
"Going to get some food."
Then she left.
They had basically been eating out for the last couple of weeks, but Nihilister had left in a foul mood and taken the entire pouch with her. Su Yan had no idea how much restraint she intended to show, so he spent the rest of the morning manifesting more soul coins, just in case.
Pod 042 suddenly drifted closer to the table and began scanning the coins laid out in front of him. Then its attention shifted toward the half-manifested soul coin in Su Yan's hand.
"Query: how does this ability work?"
Su Yan glanced at it. "That is a very broad question."
"Clarification: why do some items manifest cleanly while others break down at the final stage?"
Su Yan finished manifesting the coin in his hand before answering.
"Well, as I understand it, I can choose a category of item, and Gatekeeper randomly manifests something based on that category. The success rate seems tied to the value of the object. Higher-value items are harder to manifest."
Pod turned toward the piles of soul coins again, then back to Su Yan.
"Negative. Successful manifestation does not appear to be primarily tied to item value."
Su Yan furrowed his brows.
"What do you mean?"
"Report: combining data from the past several days with today's currency manifestations, item value appears to be a secondary correlation rather than the governing factor."
"Pod, simplify that for me."
"Your previous theory is incomplete."
Su Yan's eyelid twitched.
"Okay, maybe a bit too simple."
"The ability appears to be affected by output fidelity. The more specific, complex, high-grade, or structurally demanding the requested item is, the higher the threshold required for stable manifestation."
Su Yan stared at the soul coin between his fingers.
"But when it fails, I still have plenty of Spirit Power left. So that does not completely make sense."
"Hypothesis: failed manifestations do not indicate total Spirit Power depletion. They indicate failure to meet the required stabilization threshold within the manifestation window."
Su Yan stopped.
He turned the idea over in his head.
"No… wait. That might actually make sense."
Pod remained silent.
Su Yan slowly leaned back in his chair.
"If I compare it to trying to lift a boulder, having energy left afterward does not mean I was strong enough to lift it. I could strain, fail, still be tired, and still have enough strength left to pick up smaller rocks."
"Analogy accepted."
"So it is not just whether I have Spirit Power left. It is whether I can push enough of it in the right way before the thing collapses."
"Affirmative."
Su Yan's expression shifted.
"And if I am barely at the edge of that threshold, sometimes it works and sometimes it does not."
"Affirmative. Output variance would explain low-probability successful manifestations."
"So the Master-class fragment was me barely lifting the boulder once."
"Acceptable simplification."
Su Yan looked down at the silver and gold soul coins on the table.
Then another thought occurred to him.
"Pod, you scanned everything I manifested today, right?"
"Affirmative."
"Then tell me something. Are all the coins here consistent copies, or are there flaws and randomness in each one?"
"Report: coins are not identical. Minor variations exist in mass, edge wear, stamp depth, impurity distribution, and surface abrasion. However, several patterns repeat at a statistically unusual rate."
Su Yan tapped one finger against the table.
"So to qualify as a specific item, it has to meet certain requirements. The more specific I am with what I want, the stricter those requirements become. If I keep things general, there's more room for variation. And if I add modifiers that make the item worse—damaged, old, low-quality, incomplete—it lowers the threshold for manifestation."
Pod bobbed once in the air.
"Report: the Commander's hypothesis has merit."
Su Yan smiled.
With the theory he and Pod had discussed in mind, he immediately began testing again. By choosing broader targets and using weaker modifiers more deliberately, his success rate did seem to improve somewhat, though some items still remained infuriatingly out of reach.
Then, without warning, a bright flash burst above the table.
Something pale dropped out of the light and landed with a wet splat.
Su Yan froze.
Pod froze.
Even 2B, standing behind him, shifted half a step closer.
On the table sat a pale block of jelly-like substance.
Su Yan stared at it.
Then he poked it once.
It jiggled.
"Report: small-scale D-WAVE event detected."
Su Yan's eyes sharpened.
"So that's what those flashes are."
"Query: Commander, what is this phenomenon?"
"That is something that sometimes happens when I try to manifest items," Su Yan said slowly. "I had theories before, but if you're confirming it as a D-WAVE event, then that gives me an answer."
Pod floated closer to the table and scanned the pale block.
"Report: composition is approximately ninety-five percent plant-like substance. Remaining material is consistent with food binders, stabilizers, and nutritional fillers."
"Well, I was thinking of food when it appeared."
Su Yan pinched off a small piece and tossed it into his mouth before either Pod or 2B had fully processed that he was actually going to eat it.
The texture was like firm jelly. Springy, smooth, and slightly resistant between his teeth.
He chewed.
He swallowed.
Then his expression went blank.
"It has no taste whatsoever."
A memory stirred.
Pale. Plant-based. Tasteless. Nutritionally complete.
Su Yan slowly looked down at the block again.
"…Splendamin?"
Then he froze.
He turned toward Pod.
"That was edible, right?"
Pod bobbed once.
"Affirmative. Substance is nutritionally viable and contains minerals required for continued human functionality."
2B's head turned slightly toward him.
"Consuming unknown substances before analysis is inadvisable."
Su Yan turned sheepish.
"In my defense, I was mostly sure it was food."
2B's expression did not change.
Su Yan coughed and looked away.
After a short silence, 2B returned to her previous position.
"Do not repeat it."
Even after 2B returned to her previous position, Su Yan could swear he still felt her stare boring a hole into the back of his head.
Though that might have just been the shame speaking.
His face, neck, and ears still felt warm.
Before he could spiral any further, he heard the front door open.
A moment later, Nihilister walked into the courtyard holding what looked like a three-layered bamboo food basket.
She crossed the courtyard, tossed his money pouch onto the table, then unceremoniously dumped the basket beside it.
Su Yan looked at the basket.
Then at her.
Then back at the basket.
"What is this, Nihilister?"
A small smile tugged at her lips.
"Food. I said I was going to get food. Here is food."
Su Yan stared at her.
"Since when do they pack food to take away?"
Nihilister had already started walking toward her room.
"Since today, apparently."
"Aren't you going to eat as well?" Su Yan called after her.
"I'm already full."
With that, she disappeared into her room.
Su Yan looked back at the basket and opened it.
Several dishes sat inside, still warm enough for steam to curl faintly into the air.
For a moment, he felt a slight warmth in his chest.
Then his eyes drifted to the money pouch.
The restaurant they usually went to did not, in fact, pack food to take away.
Which meant Nihilister had either frightened the proprietor into changing his policy, or spent enough money that the man had suddenly discovered rules were flexible
Slowly, Su Yan reached for the pouch.
The moment he picked it up, his heart sank.
It was light.
Far too light.
He opened it and was greeted by the sight of five lonely copper soul coins.
Su Yan stared at them.
Then he put his face in his hands.
He had suspected this might happen.
That did not make it hurt any less.