"Wait, wait! Stop! What's happening? Tell me!" Haruto shouted, his hands held high, his mind racing. "Did I do something wrong? Is there something inside me that—"
Daisy didn't answer. Her eyes were ice-cold as she stared through the railgun's sight.
"Three," she said, her voice dropping to a sharp, clinical tone.
Haruto's instincts flared. "Three?"
"Two."
Haruto didn't wait for 'one.' He dove to the right just as a deafening BOOM ripped through the air. A concentrated violet beam tore through the spot where he had been standing a second ago, carving a massive, smoking crater deep into the ground.
Before he could even catch his breath, Daisy was already tracking him.
"Three," she counted again, her aim locking back onto his chest.
"Two!"
Haruto rolled, scrambling across the obsidian dust as the second beam vaporized the ground right at his heels. He scrambled to his feet, panting, his eyes darting toward her. "How long is this going to go on?!"
"Until I'm satisfied, or until you're dead!" Daisy shouted, not breaking her rhythm.
"Three..."
Haruto gritted his teeth, his frustration beginning to bubble over into a cold, sharp rage. What the hell is this? he thought, his blood heating up.
"Two!"
He dodged again, his movements becoming more fluid, more desperate. The anger he'd been suppressing since unlocking his emotions began to manifest as a faint, dark pressure in his chest. If she wants to play games, Haruto thought, his gaze hardening as he prepared to dodge again, then I'm going to show her exactly what really am.
Haruto's breath hitched as he dodged another searing beam, his mind racing. Suddenly, Sirehtea's cold, calculated voice from the void echoed in his memory: "The most powerful beings don't react to provocation. They observe."
He forced himself to stop spiraling into rage. He took a sharp breath, intentionally suppressing the dark, chaotic energy rising within him. She's not trying to kill me, he realized, his eyes narrowing as he watched her movements. She counts to three, but her aim slightly shifts on the final second every single time. She's testing my reaction speed and my ability to stay calm under pressure—not my corpse.
"Three..." Daisy's voice rang out again.
Haruto didn't panic. He watched her stance. She was calculated, efficient, and bored.
"Two..."
Haruto stepped aside at the last possible moment, the beam narrowly missing his shoulder. He started counting the time. He had been dodging her for thirty minutes straight. The battlefield was now a nightmare of smoking, jagged craters, with the obsidian dust swirling around them like a storm.
He looked at Daisy. She didn't look tired; she looked expectant, as if she were waiting for him to finally snap or reveal a hidden skill.
She isn't getting bored, Haruto realized with a grim resolve. She's waiting for me to show my true colors. If I keep acting like a panicked Level 6, this won't end. I need to change the pace.
Haruto raised both hands, his expression dropping into a mask of defeat. "Times up, Commander. I give up. Just... finish it."
Daisy's eyes narrowed, a sharp, unreadable glint in them. "Nice choice."
She began the countdown, her voice echoing in the desolate wasteland. "Three."
Haruto stood perfectly still, his eyes fixed on the cold barrel of the railgun.
"Two."
Haruto closed his eyes, his breathing slowing.
"One."
BOOM.
The shot fired with a deafening roar. Haruto braced for the impact, but he felt only the searing heat of the energy beam as it whistled past his ear, missing him by mere inches. He opened his eyes, trembling slightly as the smoke cleared, revealing the charred ground behind him. He was unharmed.
Daisy didn't say a word. She released the railgun, and the weapon rippled, instantly transforming back into the metallic sphere, Retro, who floated silently by her side. Daisy turned her back on him, tapped her bracelet, and the matte-black vehicle materialized from the energy pulse, hovering low to the ground.
"Leave Gampid City," Daisy said, her back still turned to him. "Go back to wherever you came from."
Haruto stepped forward, his confusion boiling over.
"Wait! I told you, I don't know the way! I blacked out, remember? And first of all—what was the meaning of all this? The countdowns, the shooting?"
Daisy paused, her hand hovering over the vehicle's door. She looked back at him, her mask of military discipline finally slipping to reveal a hint of genuine frustration.
"My sensors were picking up two distinct, terrifyingly powerful auras coming from within you," she admitted, her voice low.
"I thought you were some kind of ancient, powerful entity pretending to be a pathetic, powerless civilian. I was trying to force you to reveal your true form."
She sighed, staring at him as if trying to solve a puzzle she didn't want to exist. "But after watching you for thirty minutes... the readings say you really are just a Level 6. There's nothing under the surface, just a boy who has no business being in a place like this."
She climbed into the driver's seat. "You're a liability, Haruto. Go. Get out of here before you get yourself killed for real."
Haruto stayed rooted to the spot. As Daisy began to turn the car, his mind raced. She doesn't want to kill me, but she's terrified of what I might be, he thought.
Daisy's expression shifted, the frustration replaced by a weary honesty. "I was returning from a mission on Layer 84. I only passed through this sector by sheer chance. My life-scanner picked up your signal, so I saved you—but for the last 30 days, I've been tearing myself apart wondering why I did it. I've found nothing on you, Haruto. Nothing that makes sense."
Haruto's heart skipped a beat. Wait a second. Did she just say Layer 84?
He felt a chill run down his spine. She had just admitted she was operating well beyond Level 84. In this world, such power at her age was statistically impossible—it was unnatural. Something was fundamentally wrong with her history.
"Wait!" Haruto called out, his voice cutting through the hum of the idling car. He stepped into her path, forcing her to look at him.
"Don't go. You can't just leave me here if I don't remember the way back. You said it yourself, the next ship isn't for forty days!"
Daisy glared at him, her eyes flashing with impatience.
"I don't waste time on the weak, Haruto. If you want to stay, you have to prove you're not just dead weight. I don't tolerate passengers who can't pull their own strings."
Haruto took a deep breath, deciding to take the biggest gamble of his life. He looked her straight in the eyes, lowering his voice to a whisper.
"You're a reincarnation, aren't you?"
Daisy froze.
The air around them seemed to grow heavy, the silence stretching until it was almost deafening. She slowly turned around, her gaze locking onto his with a terrifying, piercing intensity. She didn't deny it; she didn't even blink. She just stared at him with a look of dawning, shocked recognition.
Haruto's pulse surged—he had hit the mark. The way she looked at him told him everything: he wasn't the only one who didn't belong to this system.