He brought it up at dinner with no buildup or warning. Just waited until everyone had food in front of them and said it like it was any other plan.
"There's a group working the outer trial zones," Arie said. "Five of them. Mid-tier. They've been stacking resources for a while now—gear, materials, rewards. If they keep going, they'll clear Simara before we do."
Rosh frowned. "Then we move faster. Run more trials, train harder—"
"That's not what I mean."
That was enough.
The table shifted.
Demi set her fork down slowly.
"Then say what you mean."
Arie didn't hesitate.
"I'm going out there tomorrow," he said. "I'll find them and I'll take what they have."
Rosh blinked. "Take…?"
Demi didn't look away from him.
"The people carrying those resources," she said, "what happens to them?"
Arie met her eyes.
"They won't be carrying them anymore."
Nobody spoke.
Rosh had gone still, hands flat against the table like he wasn't sure what to do with them. Keisha was staring at Arie, not shocked exactly—just trying to catch up. Spectre looked like he always did, which somehow made it worse.
Demi leaned back slightly.
"No," she said.
"I'm not asking."
"I know." Her voice tightened just a little. "That's exactly the problem. You've already decided."
"I want you to understand it," Arie said.
She gave a short, humorless breath. "Alright. Go on then. Convince me."
"There's something moving in this city," Arie said. "Something we can't deal with at our current level. When it becomes a problem—and it will—we won't have time to catch up."
He paused, just long enough.
"We need resources. Faster than the system is willing to give them to us."
"And your solution is to take them from someone else," Demi said.
"Yes."
"And kill them for it."
"Yes."
That landed harder than anything else he'd said. There was no justification or an attempt to soften it. Just yes.
Demi stared at him.
For a second, something slipped.
Not anger. It was something quieter.
Fear.
Not of the situation but of him.
She pulled it back almost immediately.
"You can't do this," she said. "Even if we ignore the ethics—this is stupid. Groups don't just disappear without people noticing. If our gear suddenly improves—"
"I can handle that," Arie said. "The scene won't point back to us."
She frowned. "Since when?"
"A while."
"And you didn't think to mention it?"
"It wasn't relevant before."
Demi looked at him like she didn't believe that.
She picked up her fork. Put it down again.
Tried to say something.
Didn't.
"I'm not part of this," she said finally.
"I know."
"If this comes back to the group—"
"It won't."
"You don't know that."
Arie held her gaze.
"I know more than I've said," he said. "About this place. About what's coming. You've known that for a while."
A small pause.
"I'm not asking you to agree with this. Just trust that it works."
The silence stretched.
Rosh shifted in his seat. "How much?" he asked. "How much do you know that you're not telling us?"
"Enough."
"That's not—"
"It's what I have."
Rosh looked away, jaw tight.
Keisha still hadn't said anything.
Arie glanced at her.
She looked… off balance.
Not exactly scared. Just caught between something she believed and something she'd just seen that didn't fit into it.
Like she was trying to decide which version of him was real.
She didn't speak.
Spectre had neither moved nor reacted
Which meant nothing or meant everything.
It was hard to tell with him.
Arie looked at all of them once, then picked up his fork again.
"I'm going tomorrow," he said. "That part isn't changing."
A small pause.
"I told you because you should know."
No one argued after that.
The conversation didn't pick back up.
Dinner just… continued.
Demi didn't look at him again.
Rosh ate like he wasn't tasting anything.
Keisha kept glancing at him and then away, like she wanted to say something and couldn't find a way to start.
Spectre finished first.Stood up and left like he always does.
For some reason, that felt worse than everything else.
He left at dawn.
The outer zones were quiet at that hour.
Creatures were active and the air was still.
Arie moved through it without thinking too much about the path.
Didn't need to.
He found them about an hour in.
Five of them, just like he expected. Working through a cluster cleanly. Their coordination was good with no wasted movements.
He recognized one among them
Ven. He had cleared Simara early in his first life and had built a strong set before moving on. He was a capable man
Arie watched for a bit.
They're good, he thought.
Then he stepped out.
Ven noticed immediately. Turned toward him, already on guard.
"This zone's taken," he said.
"I know."
Arie drew Genshi and chaos was unleashed.
It took longer than he expected.
Not because they were weak.
They moved well together and covered each other without calling out, adjusting quickly whenever something went wrong.
They didn't panic when situation got worse which made it harder than it should've been. Arie however was determined to erase them.
The ground shifted where he needed it to.
Angles broke where they shouldn't.
Positions stopped making sense to anyone except him.
One of them tried to flank him but didn't get far. Another adjusted quickly, trying to compensate for it. However, it didn't matter.
Ven held the longest. He kept control even when things started going wrong.
He landed two clean hits. Once, that would've been enough to matter. It wasn't anymore.
When it ended, the clearing was quiet again.
Arie stood there for a moment.
Then got to work.
He adjusted the scene.
Moved things slightly. Changed the way the ground told the story. Made it look like something else had happened here.
Something normal for this place.
He took what he needed.
He wasn't in a rush and made sure he didn't miss anything.
The morning hadn't changed when he left.
It was still grey and quiet.
Like nothing had happened.
He walked back toward the Capital with gear that wasn't his an hour ago.
Thought about the next group and the one after that.
He didn't feel anything about what was behind him.
That part had been gone for a while.
What was new was everything else. There was no hesitation anymore, no second-guessing—just decisions and whatever came after them.
He adjusted his pace slightly and started running through the numbers in his head.
Two groups in a day might be possible.
Probably.
He'd find out tomorrow.