Quinn felt a cold dread as he saw the number "8" displayed on the boy's wristwatch.
'What do I do?' he thought. 'Should I make a run for it? But if I do, he might attack me right here and now. I had so much trouble just taking down a Level 4 while I was in the game. There's no way I can go up against a Level 8 right now. And he might be even higher than that!'
Although the watches displayed Ability Levels up to "8", there were rumors that some people, specifically, Originals, could go past that. After all, the watches were only based on the Levels of the Abilities that the Military to get a hold of. Meaning that the highest Ability Level that they could hand out was eight.
But even within their own ranks, and between other Originals, some Abilities exceeded that. Therefore, if a person's Mutant Cells exceeded that of a Level 8 Ability User, it would just display an "8".
"Hey," the boy shouted, snapping Quinn out of his musings. "You're not planning on running, are you? Because I haven't finished questioning you yet. I need to know how you broke my game!" The boy had a look of irritation on his face. "I could understand it if you had hacked the system, but this? This, I just don't understand! I need to understand!"
Quinn started to inch back as the small boy began approaching him like a madman.
'Why do I always seem to attract the strangest people?!' Quinn thought.
"If you don't want to answer me here, then you can come with me to my dorm room!" the boy replied. "There's plenty of room there, and no one will bother us!"
The boy grabbed Quinn's arm and began to pull. However, as he did, something strange happened.
A System message appeared in front of Quinn.
[An Ability is attempting to access the System. Attempt has been blocked.]
'Wait, what?' Quinn thought. This message was different from the one that normally appeared when a person with an Ability was trying to affect him, such as with Vorden.
This one had said that this boy had been trying to access his System.
However, unknown to Quinn, the same message had appeared in front of the boy.
Instantly, he let go of Quinn's hand. A sense of deja vu was flooding through him. He remembered this strange sensation. And he remembered the last time he had seen this message.
The two boys stared at each other for a moment.
Then, the boy spoke.
"Please…Please tell me you're a robot," he muttered in a deadpan tone.
Quinn stared at the small boy as if he had suddenly grown a second head.
"...What?!" Quinn asked incredulously.
"You…You have a System," the boy replied. "My Ability confirmed it. And for the first…" the boy coughed in his hand, and glanced away. "...second time, I have been rejected by a computer. Please tell me that you are a robot with a master who has an Ability that exceeds mine! Please tell me that's why your wristwatch says you're a Level 1! That you don't have any MC because you're a robot, and that those attacks were programmed into your artificial brain!"
The boy glanced away.
'There cannot be two people with Systems on thisbase,' he thought. 'Tsukuru would never let me hear the end of it! Especially with how vehemently I told him that people possessing Systems was out of the realm of possibilities!'
As the two boys continued staring at each other, unknown to Quinn, the zipper on his bag was beginning to MOVE. When the boy had suddenly pulled Quinn towards him, it had caused the contents of Quinn's bag to become jostled. And due to that, the edges of the Intermediate-Tier Gauntlets that Tsukuru had lent him in the Beast Weapons Hall had begun to protrude from a small gap between the two zippers. And now gravity was doing as gravity does.
The bottom zipper slid lower and lower until a metallic clang was heard.
Instantly, the two boys turned towards the source of the noise. As they did, they saw one of the Intermediate-Tier Knight Gauntlets bouncing along the floor before rolling to a stop.
The two boys stared at the gauntlet, wide-eyed.
There was a long pause.
"Where did you get that?" the boy asked, his tone now serious.
Quinn continued staring at the gauntlet. With everything that had happened today, he had forgotten to give the gauntlets back to Tsukuru.
However, the boy's reaction to seeing the Gauntlets somewhat confused Quinn. It was as if he recognized them. But that should be impossible. The only people who should be familiar with those gauntlets were those in their immediate friend group. Just himself, Tsukuru, Vorden, Layla, and Erin.
…Unless…
Quinn's eyes widened as he remembered all those times that Tsukuru had talked about his brother. Tsukuru's words began to ring in Quinn's head.
***
"'Heard about it'?" Tsukuru asked in amusement. "My brother invented the game when he was four!"
***
"After my mother died in the war, I was taken in by a close friend of hers," Tsukuru replied. "Does the 'Green Family'ring a bell?"
***
"And as for my brother, he's very good with machines."
***
Slowly, Quinn took a step back.
Seeing this, the boy's eyes narrowed slightly. Him perceiving this as Quinn trying to make a run for it.
"I told you that's a bad idea," he replied, taking a step forward.
Quinn put up his hands in surrender.
"J-Just let me make a phone call!" he replied.
The boy's face tightened. But he stepped back nonetheless.
Quinn let out a sigh and brought his wristwatch up to his chest. He then accessed the "Contacts List" and scrolled down until Tsukuru's name appeared.
He pressed it, sending out the call.
***
Back in the conference room, Tsukuru stared down at his wristwatch, eyes wide.
'Quinn?' he thought in both astonishment and confusion. 'What could he possibly need at this hour? Didn't he say he was going back to the dorm?'
Tsukuru looked over at Starrk, who had decided to lean back into his chair.
Turning his attention back to the screen of his wristwatch, Tsukuru pressed the "answer" button. Static crackled for a moment as the connection was stabilized.
"Uh, Quinn?" Tsukuru asked in a somewhat confused tone. "Did you need something?"
***
Back in the VR Room, Quinn let out a sigh of relief as he heard Tsukuru's voice.
The other boy, however, had his eyes widened as he heard Tsukuru's voice.
"Hey, Tsukuru, you remember that brother of yours?" Quinn asked.
***
Back in the conference room, Tsukuru raised an eyebrow.
"Logan?" he asked. "Yeah, what about him?"
***
Back in the VR Room, Quinn's eyes darted from the small boy back to his wristwatch.
"Well, um, do you think you could describe him to me?" Quinn asked.
***
Back in the conference room, Tsukuru's face scrunched up into a look of confusion.
"Uh, sure…" Tsukuru replied. "He's short, with green hair. Oh, and he's got these perpetual bags under his eyes from spending all his time working on his Inventions. Why?"
***
Back in the VR Room, Quinn's face snapped over at the short boy. He was a dead ringer for Tsukuru's description. Right down to the bags under his eyes.
"Because…I'm pretty sure that I'm looking at him right now," Quinn replied.
***
Back in the conference room, Tsukuru stared down at the screen of his wristwatch.
'Looks like Logan finally found him,' Tsukuru thought. 'Honestly, I'm surprised it took him this long.'
The second that Quinn told Tsukuru that he could use his Vampire Skills in the VR Game, Tsukuru knew that Logan would eventually come looking for him. After all, from his perspective, Quinn must look like some kind of hacker.
This is why he wasn't so concerned when Vorden mentioned taking Quinn to Logan to get his watch "fixed". He was sure that Logan would have found Quinn first.
Tsukuru let out a sigh.
"Quinn, where are you right now?" he asked.
There was a short pause on Quinn's end.
"In the VR Room," he replied.
Tsukuru's eyes narrowed.
'Of course you are,' he thought.
"Well, just wait there for a minute," Tsukuru replied. "I'll be right there."
Tsukuru then ended the call.
Tsukuru continued to stare at the screen of his wristwatch for a moment. Eventually, he let out another sigh.
He put his arm back down to his side and turned towards his five Summons behind him.
"Alright," he replied, causing all of them to raise their heads from their kneeling position. "All of you except Galina here dismiss yourselves!" he ordered, pointing at the Metal Slime Spawn that he was holding between his arm and his torso like a basketball.
Simultaneously, the five humanoid Summons all bowed their heads.
"Yes, my liege!" they replied in unison.
They all instantly broke apart into pixels.
Once they had fully disappeared, Tsukuru then snapped his head over towards Starrk.
"Starrk!" he replied, causing the man to lazily look towards him with one eye. "We're leaving!"