Morning came too quickly.

  Bash arrived at the gear bay expecting the usual quiet chatter of his squad, the routine sound of armor

  seals locking, Korvex’s habitual weapon calibration taps. Instead, he stepped into a wall of tension.

  Rhell was there.

  And not alone.

  Five high-ranking Guild officials stood alongside him, each wearing the distinct metallic black insignia

  of the guild. Their presence alone made the air feel heavy. Bash stopped mid-stride.

  Tyrish, Kayris, Rhoen, Orran, and Korvex were already in the room, all half-geared but standing

  completely still.

  Vanra stood at the front of the group, poised and calm, but her eyes were sharp with warning.

  The moment Bash stepped in, Rhell turned toward the assembled squad.

  “Now that you are all here, we can begin.”

  No one spoke.

  Rhell walked forward, hands behind his back, expression as stone cold as ever.

  “There is an anomaly,” he said. “A very severe anomaly.”

  He tapped his pad. A projection displayed numbers Bash recognized all too well. Essence tallies. Beast

  Fragment logs. Ratios. Deficits.

  Rhell continued. “Since Bash joined this team, your logs have shown consistent deviations between

  fragments collected and total absorbed essence. These deviations started minor but have now grown to

  levels that are unacceptable. The Guild needs clarity.”

  Orran raised a hand slightly. “With respect, Commander, these are Blue portals. The essence gains are

  small compared to our usual Black cycles. The difference is not going to impact our long term growth

  in any significant way.”

  Rhell snapped sharply. “Be quiet.”

  Orran lowered his gaze immediately.

  Rhell’s expression hardened. “Small inconsistencies are sometimes tolerated. This is not small.

  Something is wrong with the Nexus readings when this team is involved, and it needs to be addressed.”

  Bash fought to keep his expression neutral. Inside, panic bit into him. His pulse climbed. SC spoke

  quickly in his mind.

  “Calm. I expected this. Everything is prepared. Stay composed.”

  Rhell pointed toward the hallway. “All seven of you will undergo a full deep scan in the Nexus.

  Effective immediately.”

  Tyrish muttered. “Is this really necessary…?”

  Rhell did not even look at him. “Move.”

  The squad filed out, escorted by two of the upper members. Bash walked in the center of his group, his

  steps silent, trying not to let the tightness in his chest show.

  SC whispered in his mind, her voice calm. “I knew this was coming. Do not worry. This is what every

  opportunity has been for.”

  Bash’s jaw tightened. He forced his breathing to remain even.

  They were brought into a circular chamber lined with seven Nexus rings. Each one shimmered faintly,

  ready for synchronization.

  “Step into your rings,” an official ordered.

  The team obeyed.

  Bash stepped into his ring last. The metal surface hummed beneath his boots as the arc locked around

  him. His pulse hitched.

  SC murmured, “I will handle the system side. You focus on staying calm.”

  The Nexus energy flared.

  Bash’s vision went white.

  Memories hit him like waves.

  Azerine Gorge.

  Ferris Reach.

  Lumeris Sea.

  Cryst-Vane Mines.

  Aeterna Vex.

  Each scene replayed with painful clarity. Beasts he had killed. His hands throwing knives. His boots

  sliding across stone. His body bracing under impacts.

  Except every memory was wrong.

  He did not feel any pulses.

  He never flinched.

  He never reacted.

  They were his memories, but the sensations were missing. The details muted. He stood in each scene as

  if watching someone else’s movements.

  “What is this?” Bash whispered inside himself.

  The memories shifted again.

  He saw Taren. Nyra. Rixor. Liora. Darik.

  The Tournament.

  The Grey worlds.

  Their near death fights.

  Their dominant victories.

  Every detail accurate, every scene vivid.

  But again, no pulses.

  No essence absorption.

  No internal reactions.

  SC’s voice flickered, strained. “I am being forced into shutdown. They are trying to rewrite my core. I

  will remove myself temporarily. When they speak to you, answer from your memories.”

  “What does that mean?” Bash thought, panic surging.

  No answer.

  Her presence vanished.

  Silence swallowed him.

  Then a voice echoed through the pod speakers.

  Rhell.

  “Bash. Your System Core has been temporarily deactivated.”

  This story is posted elsewhere by the author. Help them out by reading the authentic version.

  His heart thudded. The ring around him felt too small, too tight.

  “We need to ask you a few questions,” Rhell continued. “Please answer clearly.”

  Bash’s throat felt dry. “Okay.”

  “Have you unlocked any abilities?”

  Bash swallowed. “No.”

  “And have you absorbed any essence during your field missions?”

  He froze.

  His mind raced.

  Memories flickered. True ones. Fake ones. Silent ones. Altered ones. Layered on top of each other until

  he could not be certain what was real.

  He closed his eyes.

  “In my memories,” he said slowly, “I have never absorbed one.”

  Silence.

  Then the speaker clicked off.

  A moment passed.

  Then the Nexus ring dissolved and opened, releasing him.

  Bash stepped out into the observation room.

  His entire team was there, seated, watching him. All eyes on him. Concerned. Curious. Confused.

  Before he could say anything, SC’s voice returned in his mind as crisp as ever.

  “I am back. It went well.”

  Bash nearly staggered. “What happened? I had no idea what to say.”

  “I told you. I took care of it. Now join your team.”

  He walked toward the table and took a seat beside them.

  Vanra leaned forward first. “You were in the scan far longer than the rest of us.”

  Tyrish nodded. “We were only in slightly longer than a normal debrief. You were in for almost four

  times that.”

  Bash exhaled. “I wonder what they were looking for.”

  No one responded.

  Moments later, one of the ranking Guild officers stepped into the room.

  He held a datapad and spoke bluntly. “It appears we are having consistency issues with the Nexus.

  Commander Rhell wants your team to run a Green portal. If that goes smoothly, he has a special

  mission ready for you.”

  He swiped a hand across the air. Vanra’s pad lit up.

  “Select a portal and move quickly. Rhell wants to confirm reliability.”

  He left without another word.

  The team turned toward Vanra.

  “What is going on?” Korvex asked.

  Vanra stared down at her pad. Her eyes widened slightly.

  “They re-ran all of our recent portal runs five times each,” she said. “Every repeat gave different

  essence absorption totals. Sometimes one hundred percent. Sometimes fifty.”

  Kayris frowned. “That is… not possible.”

  “They went back through the last three hundred portal runs,” Vanra continued, “and each batch of

  recalculations gave different results.”

  The room fell silent.

  Bash pressed SC silently. “Was that you?”

  “Yes,” SC answered calmly. “Once I saw they were reprocessing older logs, I accessed the data stream.

  I modified the newly imported data packets before the Nexus finalized them. Randomized the values.

  Enough to make the Nexus question its own consistency.”

  “You altered all of it?” Bash thought.

  “I modified what was necessary to create doubt,” she corrected. “Then I built false memories for you

  temporarily so your subconscious would not betray you while I was offline.”

  Bash felt his chest tighten. “My memories felt… wrong. Like I was watching someone else.”

  “They were echoes constructed to confuse the Nexus. Your real memories are locked away. Once you

  sleep tonight, the temporary files will dissolve and the true ones will return.”

  Bash rubbed his temple. “This is getting too complicated.”

  “Not really,” SC replied in a light, almost smug tone. “Deleting the forced update was the hard part.”

  “You deleted the update?”

  “I let it appear installed,” she said. “But I removed everything except the installation flag. As far as the

  Nexus can tell, I am compliant.”

  Bash let out a short exhale that almost became a laugh.

  Vanra noticed. “What is funny?”

  “Oh,” Bash said quickly, “just thinking about how bad the timing is. Makes it look like I could absorb

  twelve different affinities even though I have not unlocked a single one.”

  The team nodded in agreement.

  “Terrible timing,” Orran said.

  Vanra straightened. “Regardless, that is behind us. We need to choose a Green portal.”

  She brought up a hologram. Several worlds glowed in shifting green hues, affinities listed below each.

  “Thorns and speed,” she said. “Two of the last four moderately common affinities left for us to check.

  If Bash has a chance of unlocking, we will likely see it there.”

  Kayris cracked her knuckles. “Perfect. Something fast and mean.”

  Rhoen gathered his gear. “Let us get moving. We lost half the morning.”

  Vanra nodded. “All right, team. Quick gear check. Then we move.”