Jack returned to his quarters in the House, a stark, minimalist cell of glass and stone tucked into the outer wing.
The door sealed behind him with a quiet hiss, leaving a complete and heavy silence in its wake.
He sat on the edge of the bed and let out a slow, deliberate breath.
He doing it for couple times.
The Architect's wager still echoed in the back of his mind. Not the terror, not even the memory simulations.
It was that feeling of nothingness. The quiet moment just before the light returned, when he had nearly let go of everything that made him Jack.
He wasn't sure if the System recorded that moment. He wasn't sure if it could.
[System Notification: Trait Integration – "Dominion" (F+) Stable]
[Observation Log: Tier Adjustment Suspended – Awaiting Review]
Another prompt showed up.
[Message Request – From: Morgan Vale]
["We need to talk. Now."]
Jack hesitated for the first time since the Architect's game. He didn't like being told what to do, even less by someone whose urgency felt like a countdown.
But it was Morgan. The only person who had ever offered a warning before it was too late.
He opened the message.
The meeting place was an abandoned observation lounge, unlit and off-network.
The House called it a dead room. A place where no signals could reach inside, no logs were kept after the conversation ended, and no surveillance could exist. A place for ghosts.
Morgan Vale stood at the far end, his silver hair loose, his posture tighter than usual. The scar along his cheek looked deeper in the oppressive dark.
Jack closed the door quietly. "You always pick the dramatic spots."
Morgan didn't smile. "You're poking holes in something you don't understand."
"You think I don't understand?" Jack asked. "I think I'm the only one who does."
Morgan shook his head slowly. "You're climbing fast. Too fast. You're drawing attention from players who don't show up on System logs. Do you know what that means?"
"I'm being watched."
"You're being catalogued."
Jack leaned against the wall, folding his arms. "By who?"
"Players who've left the House, but not the System," Morgan said, his voice dropping to a near-whisper. "They exist outside the board. They don't wager traits. They wager entire timelines."
Jack went utterly still. "You're saying they're not bound by the same rules."
"I'm saying they write the rules," Morgan replied. "The Architect? He's a curator. A collector. But there are others who don't ask permission. They edit. Players like you Jack… they treat you like raw material."
Jack's voice was calm, a stark contrast to the tension in the room. "So, what do you want from me?"
Morgan walked closer. "I want you to slow down. You've already triggered protocols we haven't seen in years. The House won't eject you, but something else might."
"I'm not slowing down. Never."
Morgan stared hard, his gaze locking with Jack's. "Then you'd better start building alliances. Fast."
Jack raised an eyebrow. "You volunteering?"
Morgan exhaled, a quick, sharp sound. "No. I'm offering you names."
He slid a card across the polished obsidian table. On it, three aliases were listed:
[HOLLOW] – A Code Specialist. Bronze II. Tends to vanish between rounds. Former data broker, unconfirmed AI lineage. [SEAR] – A Combat Tier Player. Fire-based wager formats. Rumored unstable. Believes the House is a living entity. [LUCEN] – Unknown Rank. Blind. Wins by prediction alone. Possibly tied to a future-tier observer loop.
The silence that followed Morgan's words was heavier than the air in the dead room.
Jack processed the new reality. He had thought the House was a complex labyrinth of wagers and traits, but now he understood it was just a stage.
It was a petri dish for entities who operated on a scale he couldn't comprehend.
The Architect, with all his platinum rank and probability fields, was just a scout, a talent recruiter for a grander game.
The card on the table wasn't just an offer of help, it was an ultimatum. It was a choice between becoming one of Morgan's 'chess pieces' or risking being 'edited' out of existence entirely.
Jack picked up the card. "You trust them?"
"I don't trust anyone," Morgan said. "But they hate the same people watching you. The enemy of your enemy is your friend."
Jack flipped the card between his fingers, the names a faint promise of power. "You're not just handing me allies. You're giving me chess pieces."
Morgan's expression didn't change. "That's what the board is. We're all pieces. Until we aren't."
***
Back in his room, Jack sat on the floor, the cold stone a grounding presence.
He laid the card in front of him. Next to it, he placed his System Deck, a flat black tile that pulsed faintly with red lines. He stared at both objects, their silence a stark contrast to the chaos of the last hour.
The House wasn't just a ladder to climb. It was a map to decipher.
And he had just been handed a key.
[System Update: Group Wager Access Unlocked – Eligible for Team Format]
[New Format Added: Multi-Player Psychological Trials]
[Wager Types: Interference Wagers, Combined Trait Play, Synchronized Risk]
[Player Condition: Eligible for Team Anchor Role – Traits Support High Impact Coordination]
The System wasn't just adapting to him, it was offering him a new structure. Some new roles. New type of formats.
Possibilities for him.
Jack tapped the card again. The names glowed faintly under his touch, a silent invitation.
He didn't need followers. He needed leverage. He didn't need trust. He needed options.
And he was about to build a network inside the House that couldn't be tracked, only felt.
He opened a new menu.
[Create Temporary Team Shell?]
[Alias Team Tag: Input Requested]
He typed slowly, deliberately.
[Tag: Ghost Ledger]
[Shell Created. 0/3 Invites Sent. Mission Log Empty.]
Jack smiled. It wasn't about trust. It was about timing. Let them watch.
He had work to do.
[Chapter End – Alliances Introduced. Multi-Player Format Unlocked. Unknown Entities Closing In. Ghost Ledger Activated.]