"So this is Yangyang's place? It's really nice!"
"It is. Feels very... her."
After finishing their first dinner since arriving in this world, Rover and his companion followed the original plan and headed to Yangyang's home.
Yangyang was a bundle of nerves. This was her first time having friends stay overnight. Chixia and Baizhi were friends too, but the opportunity had never come up before.
So while the two of them had been at Jinzhou City Hall, she'd thrown herself into tidying up, terrified of any overlooked imperfection.
"This place feels... peaceful," Rover said, taking in the room.
Yangyang was the second daughter of a distinguished family, yet she'd chosen to come to Jinzhou on the frontier and enlist as an Outrider. Her home wasn't lavish, but her touch made it warm in a way no amount of money could buy.
The more he thought about it, the more Yangyang struck him as one of those effortless overachievers. To put it more precisely, she seemed to embody every lovely quality anyone could dream up in a girl.
Gentle, kind, thoughtful, well-read, equally talented with a blade or a book, beautiful, considerate. A flawless paragon of everything good and pure.
So how the hell did she end up as a background love interest 2.0 for the old Resonator system, and the "mysterious letter girl" in every player meme?
"Hm? Is something wrong?" Yangyang asked.
"No, it's great. Too great, honestly. You've gone overboard. Rover and I don't need all this fuss."
He shook his head at the sight of two fully prepared bedrooms.
Beside him, she nodded with perfect seriousness.
"He's right. One room is plenty for us."
"Huh? But... but..."
Yangyang froze, not quite processing what they meant. Her gaze bounced between him and her, and then something clicked. Color bloomed across her cheeks.
"Oh... oh, I see! I understand. Then you two can share a bedroom. Don't worry, the bed is quite spacious."
"I feel like you've jumped to the wrong conclusion here..."
"We're just more comfortable staying close."
Both Rovers spoke with matching exasperation.
One was a transmigrator who'd arrived in this world mere hours ago.
The other was an amnesiac with a mind wiped clean.
They were two castaways dumped onto the same raft, adrift on storm-torn seas. The similarities between them, the shared Resonance, had made each the other's harbor. In this strange world, they were the only people either could lean on completely.
It had nothing to do with romance or attraction.
They were survivors huddled together for warmth in a valley after an avalanche. Nothing more.
"Anyway, get some rest, Yangyang. It's been a long day."
"You two are the ones who should rest! Oh, right. Baizhi said she's already prepared the examination protocol. You'll need to visit her tomorrow."
"Got it," they said in unison.
...
Later, as the night deepened, Yangyang did not take their advice. Instead of sleeping, she sat alone in her study, rifling through old records. At the same time, across the city, Baizhi was searching through archives of her own.
"There. Found it."
Two women, two locations, the same words at the same moment.
First, the Huaxu Research Institute. Baizhi stared at an entry buried in the classified database, a record dating back roughly a century.
Its title: The Siege Incident.
Over a hundred years ago, before Pangu Terminals had become widespread, soldiers who defeated Tacet Discords had no way to process the lingering frequencies left behind. They couldn't convert them into Echoes the way people did now.
During that era, an Elite Class Tacet Discord breached the walls of Jinzhou.
The general of the Midnight Rangers struck it down in time.
But the residual frequencies couldn't be neutralized.
Left unchecked, the dissipating energy might have spawned an entire Tacet Field inside the city itself.
Then a golden-eyed stranger appeared. They absorbed the lingering frequencies directly into their body, averting the disaster. When the general searched for them afterward, the stranger had vanished without a trace.
"It matches. It matches them perfectly."
Baizhi drew a long breath to steady herself. A mysterious hero from a century ago, reappearing now with a face that hadn't aged a single day.
Powerful Resonators could live extended lives, yes. But those two seemed to have transcended even that, reaching something closer to eternity.
Because...
Archive: Jinzhou's First Resonator Report.
Baizhi's throat tightened. From the deepest, oldest layer of the archive, she'd unearthed a document dated to the founding era of Jinzhou itself. The contents left her reeling.
The exact date was impossible to pin down. This wasn't digital data stored on a server. It was handwritten, and despite the exceptional quality of the paper, centuries of wear had taken their toll.
Much of the text had faded beyond recognition.
But the title alone told her everything she needed to know. This was a Forte assessment report for the very first Resonator documented in Jinzhou's history.
The legible portions read: The subject's Tacet Mark is located on the back of the right hand. No significant physical changes observed post-Resonance. When the subject's Forte is active, both the Tacet Mark and pupils display a golden luminous halo.
Subject demonstrates exceptional stability. No risk of Overclock.
"Tacet Mark on the back of the hand. Golden light from the eyes and Mark during Forte activation. Resonators matching that description are rare but not unheard of," she murmured. "But when every single detail lines up with those two... coincidence stops being a viable explanation."
A chill ran through her. Not because the institute's climate control had dipped too low. The sheer weight of what she'd uncovered raised goosebumps across her skin.
A Resonator who'd existed since Jinzhou's founding.
A Resonator so stable that Overclock was a physical impossibility.
A Resonator who could absorb Tacet Discord frequencies with nothing but their bare body.
Two people the Magistrate herself called honored guests, deemed vital to all of Jinzhou.
Their existence spanned centuries of history.
Baizhi recalled what Rover had said earlier that day: Jinzhou is a city we built alongside the Sentinel, long ago. And the Sentinel calls us "Arbiter."
"That wasn't... that can't have been true." She bit her lip and looked at the final report, her hands trembling.
Across the city, Yangyang was reading the same story.
...
The Battle of the Gorges of Spirits. The Founding of Jinzhou.
Centuries ago, the proliferation of Tacet Fields spawned a Tacet Discord Tide of terrifying scale, ravaging the lands beyond the frontier until nothing remained but ruin. After months of war, the border garrison buckled under the endless onslaught.
The army retreated to the Gorges of Spirits and established a final defensive line. The last stand dragged on for days. Soldiers fought to the death, positions changed hands again and again, and the outcome came to decide the fate of all Huanglong.
Then, at the battle's turning point, a nightmarish Tacet Discord was born, shattering the fragile stalemate in an instant.
Purple wings sprouted from its back. Its body wore pale armor like bleached bone. A skull for a head, a lance of violet-black in its grip. It could speak in human tongues and fought with devastating skill.
This single creature crippled the combined forces of six cities.
Huanglong designated it: Crownless.
Estimated threat level: Calamity Class.
The highest danger rating beneath the immortal, unkillable Threnodians.
"Those features... there's no mistake!" Yangyang gasped. "That's the Tacet Discord they defeated today! So that was the legendary Crownless. We encountered a Calamity Class..."
She turned the pages of Jinzhou's founding history with shaking hands. What she didn't know was that the Crownless they'd faced that afternoon possessed less than a hundredth of the original's power.
The true Crownless had been slain centuries ago.
Today's creature was nothing more than a phantom born of its residual frequencies.
She steadied herself and read on.
According to the records, when Crownless descended, storm clouds swallowed the sky. Darkness fell over the fields. Blood ran like rivers. The soldiers clung to the line by sheer will alone, trading their lives for time, holding the defense together by refusing to let it break.
And then, just as the line was about to collapse, a deep draconic cry echoed from the depths of the Gorges.
Every soldier heard it reverberating through the canyon walls, growing louder, more thunderous, until a great azure dragon erupted from the earth and tore through the Tacet Discord horde surging toward the pass.
The Sentinel of Jinzhou. Jue.
But Jue did not arrive alone. Alongside the Sentinel came a figure with golden eyes and dark hair. At the moment of annihilation, this stranger and the Sentinel together caught the crumbling edifice before it fell, driving back the Tacet Discord Tide and engaging Crownless in battle.
By the time reinforcements from across Huanglong finally arrived, this is what they saw:
The golden-eyed figure standing atop a field of shattered remains.
Alone, that single warrior had cut down Tacet Discords beyond counting.
And in the end, a blade pierced the Whisperin Core of the terrifying Calamity Class Crownless, and together with Jue, the stranger crushed and sealed it.
"After this victory, morale soared," Yangyang read aloud, her voice barely above a whisper. "The soldiers rallied as one and drove back every last Tacet Discord. Soon after, Jinzhou was founded, and under Jue's guidance, the people rebuilt their home. As for the golden-eyed stranger... they vanished without a trace."