The first real ripple of their collective action came three hours later.
The Ghost Ledger's quiet debut in the Mirror Labyrinth didn't make the top-tier leaderboards, but the reaction rippled through the House faster than the System could contain.
Players didn't whisper about Jack, or even 'Dead Silence.' They whispered about the name: 'Ghost Ledger.'
It wasn't just a group, it was a form of statement. In a House built on singularity and self-interest, someone had chosen 'we.'
In a hidden forum where wagers were theorized and plotted before they were ever made, a thread was pinned to the top:
[ALERT] Ghost Ledger: Experimental Synchronization Format Confirmed
Null Tier
This isn't just a collective. It's a new structure. Watch it. If they complete one more layered trial together, the House will have to respond. It has to be.
A rapid-fire series of replies followed, expanding the thread in moments.
Someone posted schematics of possible sync interactions. Another broke down Jack's quiet usage of Dominion. A few suggested Ghost Ledger was a new ploy by The Architect.
One reply. Only one, standing alone. Simply read:
They stayed in the trial. Together. That's enough to change things.
In Jack's chamber, his System window blinked to life with a fresh prompt.
[Ghost Ledger Team Sync Request: Tactical Simulation Opportunity]
[Format: 2v2 Rotational Engagement | Trait Interaction Enhanced]
[Participants: Dead Silence + Hollow vs. Unknown Pair]
[Risk: Trait Feedback Surge (Temporary Overlap)]
Jack accepted without a doubt.
A moment later, Hollow's voice buzzed in over the communication link, a nervous excitement in his tone. "Are you ready for this?"
Jack nodded to no one. "I'm always ready."
The System didn't wait for them.
The simulation zone resembled a chessboard fused with a memory field.
They navigated through eight segmented zones, each interaction shaped by four core operational platforms.
Movement was dictated by emotional alignment: anger moved them diagonally, calm kept them moving straight, guilt locked them down, and hope expanded their radius.
Jack landed on the first square, and his entire field of vision filtered to a pale, steady blue. Calm registered.
Hollow, two steps behind him, registered curiosity, a wildcard vector.
[Opponents Identified: Alias "Flick" and Alias "Mirr"]
Flick was a blur. Her trait let her bend visual expectations, she flickered just as she attacked creating feints from false gestures.
It was noise by design, a thousand movements per minute meant to overwhelm.
Jack didn't blink.
He didn't need to.
His analysis activated, a slow burn that absorbed not just their position, but their raw intent. [Calm Speech + Analytical Eye] synced mid-fight. He waited, let her overcommit, then struck. His punch landed. Not strong but precise.
Mirr was harder to read. His suppression field silenced system pings for five seconds at a time, which meant Hollow had to work without interface cues.
But Hollow was an adaptable, quick-thinking force.
Within two seconds, he activated a mimic burst.
The deck flickered, rerouting sensory data back into Jack's neural thread.
[Sync Confirmed – Dual Read Mode Active for 20s]
The world turned sharp.
Jack saw everything. The thread angles, echo frequencies, trait timing. He danced between Flick's false images and hit Mirr with a psychic lock.
Hollow looped around her and baited her into walking through her own flicker.
[Match Outcome: Ghost Ledger Victory – 2/2 Captures]
[Bonus XP: +60]
[Unlock: Team Trait Memory Slot (Shared Passive Slot #1)]
Back in the lounge, Sear watched the stream playback, a grim satisfaction depicted on her face.
Lucen sat beside her with eyes closed, breathing rhythmically and listening to the latency of the stream, a rhythm that only she could perceive.
"They'll come for them now," Sear muttered, the smoke from her exhalation curling into the air.
Lucen nodded, her eyes still closed. "That's why we move first."
Sear turned to her. "What do you hear?"
Lucen opened her eyes, and they were piercing in the low light.
"Feedback loops. The System is already rewriting weight classes. They're trying to account for things they don't understand." She paused. "Jack is writing a form that doesn't obey timing. And Hollow... he's destabilizing expectations without even realizing it."
Sear raised an eyebrow. "That's dangerous."
Lucen nodded. "Exactly."
The System sent a pulse across all House ranks.
A wave of data that was more of a warning than an announcement.
[New Format Trend Detected – Ghost Ledger: Synchronization Variant Recognized]
[Wager Pattern Shift Forecast: 13% in next cycle]
[Advisory: Containment or Integration Required]
Somewhere in the upper levels, a faceless observer tagged the file with a chilling new designation: [Dead Silence – Escalation Risk: High]
They didn't erase the file.
They watched it pulse, a live wire of new data.
And pulsing meant the House was listening.
Elsewhere, old allies began taking notice.
One message scrolled across the top of a vault server: "They're syncing outside of structure. Monitor them. If they breach Tier II with cohesion intact, trigger Watchtower."
Even The Architect fragments took note. [ARCH_LOG_337B]: "This wasn't built to handle ghosts."
In the Simulation Index, a recompiler attempted to project Ghost Ledger's next trial performance.
The results came back flawed. Too many variables.
[Error: Predictive Model Broken | Emotion Curve Inconsistent]
An AI whisper inside the system added: "They're not playing to win. They're playing to stay."
In the deepest network strata, the Observer Table lit up, a digital alarm blaring for the first time in six cycles.
[Subject: Ghost Ledger – Review Scheduled | Deviation Flag Level 2 Raised]
A single note was appended by a nameless seat: "Do not interfere. Not yet."
And in Jack's room, the first encrypted message arrived. There was no sender name written there. No visible trail in the system. Just five words:
You are not alone anymore.
He stared at the message long after it faded. Not because he doubted it. But because it felt like a beginning of something he didn't know.
And in a House built on isolation, beginnings were the greatest threat of all.
[Chapter End – House Response Initiated. Ghost Ledger Moves to Tier II Threat Watch. Decryption Layer One Active.]