Day 107 Post-Impact
The research lab had transformed into a war room.
Three screens displayed tracking data, energy signatures, and probability models. Jade, Yuki, and Dr. Sari worked in focused silence, their fingers flying across keyboards and tablets. The collaborative dynamic had solidified quickly, three brilliant minds united by existential necessity.
"It's not moving conventionally," Jade said, highlighting a section of the southern approach. "Watch this pattern."
The display showed a blip of energy appearing, holding position for several hours, then vanishing. Reappearing kilometers away. Vanishing again.
"Phasing," Dr. Sari confirmed. "The Indonesian entity exhibited similar behavior before it disappeared entirely. It's moving through shadows, folding space somehow."
"Elena's domain," Sarnav said grimly.
"Exactly the problem." Yuki adjusted her glasses, pulling up comparative data. "Your shadow wife can sense it, but the entity is fluent in shadow manipulation. Perhaps more fluent than her. It's like trying to track a native speaker using a language you only partially understand."
Elena stood in the corner, arms crossed, expression unreadable. "I felt it last night. Probing the perimeter. When my shadows touched it..." She paused. "It laughed. I could feel its amusement."
The room fell silent at that.
"We need another approach," Jade said. "Something the entity won't expect. Something outside its domain."
"Illusions," Dr. Sari suggested. "If we could create false energy signatures, decoy targets..."
"Minji." Sarnav spoke the name before fully processing the thought. "Her VR abilities. She can project illusions, create false images. If she could replicate energy signatures..."
"Her current rank is insufficient," Jade said flatly. "D-rank illusions would be transparent to something this powerful. She'd need to advance significantly to produce convincing decoys."
The implication hung in the air.
"Then we help her advance," Sarnav said.
The gaming lounge was Minji's territory.
She'd claimed a corner of the recreation area within days of arriving at Harmony, transforming it into a shrine to her former life. LED strips lined the walls, cycling through purple and blue. Posters of anime characters and esports teams covered every surface. Multiple monitors displayed idle game menus, waiting for players who rarely came.
Sarnav found her there, but she wasn't playing. She sat cross-legged on a beanbag chair, staring at nothing, controller forgotten in her lap.
"Minji?"
She startled, then forced a grin. "Oh, oppa! Just AFK for a sec. Farming mental XP, you know?"
He sat across from her, not buying the deflection. "You've been avoiding me."
"What? No way. You've been busy with, like, entity stuff and Indonesian refugees and seal research. Important main quest content. I'm just..." She gestured vaguely. "Side quest."
"You overheard the meeting."
Her grin flickered. "Maybe. Little bit." She hugged the controller to her chest. "They need illusion support and I'm still D-rank. Everyone else is breaking through left and right. Nisha, Sana, Ishani, Zara. And I'm stuck at the same level I was a month ago."
"That's not your fault."
"Isn't it?" Her voice cracked slightly beneath the forced cheerfulness. "Everyone else has cool combat abilities. Elena literally controls shadows. Zara summons infinite weapons. Sana can heal the freaking seal with her holy light. And what do I do? Make pretty holograms." She laughed bitterly. "Support class energy, oppa. Zero DPS."
Sarnav moved to sit beside her on the beanbag, the furniture groaning under their combined weight. "Your holograms could save everyone if we use them right."
"Could. If I was stronger. If I wasn't the weakest link in the party."
"You're not a link. You're a wife."
She looked at him then, really looked, and for a moment the gamer persona dropped. Just a twenty-two-year-old woman, scared and frustrated and desperate to matter.
"In games," she said quietly, "if you can't keep up with the raid, you get benched. Nobody wants to carry dead weight."
"This isn't a game."
"I know. That's what makes it worse." She leaned against him, controller falling from her grasp. "I want to help, oppa. I want to be useful. I just don't know how."
He wrapped an arm around her. "Then let me show you."
The strategy room was smaller than the main command center, designed for intimate discussions rather than full briefings.
Sarnav had gathered only the relevant personnel: Jade, Yuki, Serena, and Minji herself. The Korean woman stood awkwardly at the center of attention, unused to being the focus of strategic planning.
"Her illusion framework is actually elegant," Jade said, displaying Minji's ability signature on the holographic projector. "The mathematical structure underlying her constructs is sophisticated. With more power, she could produce illusions indistinguishable from reality."
"The entity tracks energy signatures," Yuki added. "It senses the seal, senses the bond network, senses individual awakened. If Minji could replicate those signatures..."
"Decoys," Serena finished. "False targets to confuse its approach. My probability models suggest her advancement would significantly improve our defensive options. By approximately 23%."
Minji stared at the data, overwhelmed. "You guys actually think I can help? Like, for real? Not just cheerleader stuff?"
"You've always been able to help," Jade said, and there was no mockery in her voice. "You just needed the opportunity to prove it."
"Plus the power boost," Minji added with a shaky laugh. "Can't forget the power boost."
Sarnav touched her shoulder. "We believe in you. Now you need to believe in yourself."
She took a deep breath, squared her shoulders, and nodded. "Okay. Let's do this. Speedrun to breakthrough. Ready when you are, oppa."
Minji's quarters were aggressively her.
LED strips cycled through colors along the ceiling. Gaming posters covered every wall, anime characters sharing space with esports team logos. Multiple monitors displayed screensavers of digital landscapes. A figurine collection lined one shelf, carefully arranged despite the apocalypse. Even her bedsheets were printed with game controller patterns.
"Welcome to my gamer den," she said, spreading her arms with forced casualness. "Respawn point. Safe zone. Whatever you want to call it."
Sarnav took it in, smiling. "It's very you."
"Is that good or bad?"
"It's perfect."
She fidgeted, suddenly nervous despite all her bravado. "So, um. We're really doing this? Achievement unlocked: cultivation session with hot oppa?"
"We're doing this." He stepped closer. "But not just for the breakthrough. I want you to understand that."
"What do you mean?"
"I mean I've been neglecting you. Getting caught up in crises and new arrivals and emergencies. Forgetting that you matter too. Not as a strategic asset. As Minji." He cupped her face in his hands. "My wife. My partner. Someone I care about."
The gamer facade cracked completely. Her eyes glistened, lower lip trembling.
"Oppa..." The word came out small. Vulnerable. "You really mean that?"
"I really mean it."
She kissed him.
It started tentative, almost shy, so different from her usual brash confidence. Then it deepened, weeks of loneliness and self-doubt pouring out as her arms wrapped around his neck and she pressed herself against him like she was afraid he'd disappear.
[WIFE: MINJI - EMOTIONAL STATE: RECEPTIVE]
[AFFECTION CONFIRMED: GENUINE]
They made their way to her gaming-themed bed, clothes disappearing between kisses. Minji kept up a running commentary even as she undressed, her coping mechanism refusing to fully disengage.
"Achievement unlocked: shirt removed. Pants eliminated. Oh, that's... that's the good stuff, oppa."
He silenced her with his mouth on her neck, and she gasped, words dissolving into sounds.
She was beautiful beneath the gamer aesthetic. Soft curves and smooth skin, her body trembling with anticipation. The purple streaks in her hair spread across the pillow like paint strokes. Her eyes, usually sharp with competitive focus, had gone hazy with desire.
"Stop thinking," he murmured against her collarbone. "Just feel."
"I don't know how to stop thinking. My brain is always running commentary. It's like, okay, his hand is there, that feels amazing, why does that feel so amazing, is this normal, should I be doing something, am I doing this right..."
He slid his hand between her thighs, and her rambling cut off with a strangled moan.
"Better?"
"Critical... critical hit, oppa. Holy shit."
[WIFE: MINJI - AROUSAL ELEVATED]
[VERBAL FILTER: DISENGAGING]
He explored her with patience he rarely got to exercise. The frantic energy of recent cultivations, the desperate urgency of wives long neglected, gave way to something more playful. Minji responded to teasing, to build-up, to the game of approach and retreat.
"More," she whimpered. "Oppa, please, deo..."
"Deo what?"
"More everything. More touching. More you." She grabbed his shoulders, trying to pull him closer. "I watched tutorials for this. Research. I wanted to be good for you. Let me show you what I learned?"
She pushed him onto his back with surprising strength, sliding down his body with determined focus. When her mouth found him, he understood what she meant by tutorials. She was earnest, enthusiastic, treating this like a skill to be mastered.
"Minji..."
She pulled back just enough to speak. "Good? I practiced on... nevermind, that's weird. Is it good?"
"It's good. But you don't have to perform."
"I want to." Her eyes met his, suddenly serious. "I want to make you feel as good as you make me feel. That's not performing. That's... caring."
She returned to her task, and he let her, enjoying her dedication, her eagerness to please. But when he felt himself getting close, he stopped her.
"My turn," he said, pulling her up and reversing their positions.
"But I wasn't done farming that achievement..."
"New objective." He positioned himself between her thighs, teasing her entrance. "Making you lose control."
"I never lose control. I'm always aware of my... oh fuck, oppa, that's..."
He entered her slowly, watching her face transform. The commentary stopped. The gamer persona evaporated. She was just Minji, gasping and clutching at him, overwhelmed by sensation.
[DUAL CULTIVATION: ACTIVE]
[BOND RESONANCE: INTENSIFYING]
[ILLUSION ABILITY: STIRRING]
He found a rhythm that made her cry out, Korean and English mixing in ways that might not have been actual words. Her VR ability began flickering without her conscious control, the LED lights in the room shifting colors in sync with her pleasure.
"Oppa... oppa, something's happening..."
"Let it happen."
The room shimmered. Holographic images flickered into existence around them, fragments of her imagination made manifest. Game characters and anime figures, abstract patterns and pure light. Her ability expressing itself through sensation rather than intention.
"I can't... I'm going to..."
"Come for me, Minji."
She shattered with a scream that might have been his name, or might have been Korean, or might have been nothing but pure release. The illusions exploded outward in a cascade of light and color, filling the room with beautiful chaos.
He followed her over the edge, the dual cultivation reaching its peak, their essences mingling in the shared space of the bond.
[DUAL CULTIVATION COMPLETE]
[ESSENCE GAINED: +3,000]
[MINJI ESSENCE: +2,100]
[MINJI: D → D+ (ADVANCEMENT)]
[VR/ILLUSION: ENHANCED - MULTI-PROJECTION CAPABLE]
The system notes that gaming terminology during intimate moments is statistically unusual. The system does not judge.
The holographic chaos slowly faded as Minji came down from her peak. She lay beneath him, breathing hard, a wondering expression on her face.
"GG," she whispered. "That was... oppa, that was..."
"Good game?"
She laughed, a genuine sound without her usual defensive edge. "The best. I felt something change. Level up notification pending."
"D+. Your illusions should be significantly stronger now."
"Only one way to test." She held up her hand, concentrating.
Five perfect copies of Sarnav appeared around the bed, each one indistinguishable from the original. They moved, breathed, even seemed to radiate energy signatures.
"Holy shit," Minji breathed. "I've never been able to do more than two before."
"And the energy signatures?"
She focused harder. The copies' auras shifted, each one taking on a slightly different pattern. "I can... I can feel how to fake it now. Like the breakthrough came with an instruction manual."
"This could actually work."
"MVP status achieved." She grinned, then pulled him down for another kiss. "Thanks, oppa. For believing in me. For seeing me as more than comic relief."
"You were never just comic relief."
"I know. But it's nice to hear." She snuggled against him, the copies fading as her concentration relaxed. "Can we stay here for a bit? Before we go back to saving the world?"
"We can stay as long as you need."
The command center hummed with activity when they returned.
Jade immediately began testing Minji's new capabilities, running her illusions through sensor arrays and energy detection systems. The results were impressive. With concentration, Minji could create decoys that fooled everything except direct visual confirmation.
"Deploy them around the seal perimeter," Jade ordered. "Overlapping fields of false signatures. If the entity is tracking energy, it'll have dozens of false targets to investigate."
Minji saluted with exaggerated formality. "On it, boss. Spawning decoys like a tower defense game."
But as she moved to implement the strategy, Imam Malik approached Sarnav. The Indonesian spiritual leader had been quiet since his arrival, observing more than participating. His eyes carried weight that had nothing to do with physical age.
"Sovereign. A word, if you please."
Sarnav stepped aside with him. "What is it?"
"There is something I must tell you. About what I sensed from the entity when it emerged in Indonesia." The Imam's voice was low, troubled. "When it first manifested, before it vanished into shadows, I felt its consciousness brush against mine. I told you it felt satisfaction. Hunger. Purpose."
"I remember."
"There was something else. Something I did not mention because I was not certain of its meaning." He met Sarnav's eyes with unsettling intensity. "Recognition."
"Recognition?"
"The entity knows you. Not Harmony. Not the seal. You specifically." The Imam's hand gripped Sarnav's arm. "When it oriented toward this place, it was not seeking the weakest seal. It was seeking you. You are connected to these entities somehow. Perhaps you have always been."
The words hung in the air like a curse.
"How is that possible?"
"I do not know. But I felt its attention fix on you like a predator sighting prey." The Imam released his arm. "Or perhaps like a piece finding its whole. Be careful, Sovereign. Whatever is coming for us, it is coming for you most of all."
[DAY 107]
[SARNAV: S-RANK (HARMONY SOVEREIGN - FIRST STAGE)][PROGRESS TO SECOND STAGE: 15%]
[WIFE CULTIVATION STATUS][1. NISHA - C | 2. ISHANI - C | 3. ANANYA - D+][4. MINJI - D+ (ADVANCEMENT) | 5. JADE - C | 6. SANA - C+][7. JIYEON - C | 8. SERENA - C+ | 9. ZARA - C+][10. ELENA - S]
[HARMONY SAFE ZONE: 1,335 SURVIVORS | 3 SECTORS]
[SEAL INTEGRITY: 92.7% (STABLE)]
[FREED ENTITY: APPROACHING - TRACKING SARNAV SPECIFICALLY]
[NEW DEFENSE: MINJI'S ILLUSION DECOYS DEPLOYED]
[WARNING: ENTITY-SOVEREIGN CONNECTION DETECTED]
[WIVES BONDED: 10/32]