The system had promised answers. Promised my old life back if I completed the quest. Promised power and ability and everything I'd need to survive in a world that wanted to lock me away and study me like a lab rat.
But the system had been quiet lately.
No notifications. No commentary. No percentage updates or affection meters or sarcastic observations about my life choices.
Just silence where there should have been noise.
I didn't like it.
Something was changing. Something fundamental about the rules I'd been operating under since waking up in this body.
The question was whether that change was good or very very bad.
Sleep came eventually. Not gently. Not peacefully. The kind of sleep that feels like falling into darkness without knowing when you'll hit bottom.
Dreams flickered through. Fragments that didn't connect.
A parking lot. Blood on concrete. The face of someone I couldn't quite remember.
Noel's violet hair spread across white sheets.
