The helicopter landed just before sunrise.
Bianca hated helicopters.
Not because they were dangerous.
Not because they were loud.
Because every time she got into one lately, her life somehow became worse.
The rotors slowed overhead.
Snow swirled around the landing pad.
And Horizon’s newest disaster waited somewhere ahead.
“Excited?” Ward asked.
Bianca stared at him.
“Do I look excited?”
“No.”
“Good.”
Ward nodded.
“You look concerned.”
“That’s because I’m learning.”
Maya snorted beside her.
Progress.
A few weeks ago Maya barely spoke.
Now she occasionally laughed at Bianca’s suffering.
Friendship truly was beautiful.
The three stepped off the helicopter.
Ahead stood a small Horizon outpost built into the side of a frozen mountain valley.
Unlike the main facility, this place looked temporary.
Emergency generators.
Portable structures.
Heavy security.
And entirely too many nervous scientists.
Bianca immediately noticed that.
Scientists were supposed to be excited.
Curious.
Sleep-deprived.
These ones looked scared.
That was never a good sign.
A woman in a thick winter coat approached quickly.
“Agent Ward.”
Ward nodded.
“Dr. Reeves.”
The woman looked exhausted.
Dark circles under her eyes.
Coffee in one hand.
Tablet in the other.
Bianca respected that combination.
It radiated academic panic.
Dr. Reeves glanced toward Bianca.
Then Maya.
Then back to Ward.
“These are the two?”
Ward nodded.
“Bianca and Maya.”
Dr. Reeves visibly relaxed.
Then immediately looked guilty for relaxing.
Bianca narrowed her eyes.
“Oh no.”
The scientist blinked.
“What?”
“You just looked relieved when you saw me.”
“That’s a bad thing?”
“Historically? Yes.”
Ward rubbed his forehead.
Already tired.
Excellent.
Dr. Reeves gestured toward the facility.
“We should move inside.”
Nobody argued.
The cold was awful.
The briefing room wasn’t much better.
A large digital screen covered one wall.
Maps.
Graphs.
Satellite images.
And several pictures of something Bianca didn’t like.
Blue cracks.
The same fractures she’d seen before.
The room fell silent.
Bianca’s humor disappeared instantly.
Those fractures felt different now.
Personal.
Like seeing an old enemy.
Dr. Reeves activated the screen.
The images shifted.
A map appeared.
Then another.
Then another.
Bianca frowned.
“What’s that?”
Dr. Reeves swallowed.
“The problem.”
Not encouraging.
The scientist pointed at the maps.
“These are fracture incidents.”
Dozens of markers appeared.
Then hundreds.
Bianca’s stomach tightened.
Because the pattern was obvious.
The incidents weren’t random.
They formed a path.
A trail.
Like something moving across the world.
Maya noticed too.
“That’s impossible.”
“No,” Dr. Reeves said quietly.
“Unfortunately, it’s not.”
The room grew still.
Ward crossed his arms.
“Show them.”
The scientist nodded.
The display changed again.
A timeline appeared.
Dates.
Locations.
Coordinates.
Years of records.
Then blinked.
Then stared again.
Because one location appeared repeatedly.
Over and over.
And over.
One city.
One area.
One point.
The same place.
Again and again.
Her pulse quickened.
“That’s…”
Dr. Reeves nodded.
“Yes.”
Bianca slowly stood.
“No way.”
Because she recognized it.
She knew that city.
She knew those streets.
She knew that place.
It was where she grew up.
Nobody spoke for several seconds.
The screen remained frozen.
Bianca couldn’t stop staring.
Her hometown.
The place she’d spent most of her childhood.
The place her mother disappeared from.
The place where everything began.
The room suddenly felt smaller.
“What are the odds?” Maya asked quietly.
Dr. Reeves answered immediately.
“Virtually zero.”
Not what Bianca wanted to hear.
At all.
The scientist pulled up additional files.
More records appeared.
Old reports.
Ancient photographs.
Incident logs.
Some dated back decades.
Bianca’s eyes widened.
“Wait.”
She pointed at one date.
“This happened before I was born.”
“Correct.”
“Then why is my hometown involved?”
Nobody answered immediately.
Which meant nobody knew.
Or worse— they did know.
Ward finally spoke.
“Your mother believed there was something beneath the city.”
Silence.
Bianca blinked.
“What?”
Dr. Reeves nodded slowly.
“That was her final research project.”
The room became very quiet.
Something beneath the city.
Not around.
Not near.
Beneath.
Bianca suddenly remembered all the weird stories she’d heard growing up.
Local legends.
Missing people.
Abandoned tunnels.
Strange lights.
Urban myths nobody took seriously.
The kind of stories every town had.
Except now…
Maybe they weren’t stories.
Maybe they were clues.
And Bianca hated that possibility.
A lot.
The System suddenly appeared.
A blue screen materialized before her eyes.
> [ Hidden Quest Discovered ]
> Origin Point
> Visit the First Fracture Site
> Reward: Unknown
> Warning: Elevated Risk
Bianca stared at it.
Then sighed.
“Of course.”
Ward frowned.
“What?”
“Nothing.”
Maya immediately pointed.
“System?”
Traitor.
Absolute traitor.
Bianca glared at her.
Maya looked pleased with herself.
Dr. Reeves blinked.
“System?”
Ward froze.
The scientist froze.
Several researchers froze.
Uh oh.
That wasn’t normal.
Bianca noticed immediately.
And suddenly felt nervous.
Which wasn’t encouraging.
Ward looked at her carefully.
“Bianca.”
“Oh no.”
“What system?”
“Oh definitely no.”
The room somehow became even quieter.
Ward stepped forward. New chapters come out on g.com first.
“What system?”
Bianca looked toward Maya.
Maya looked away.
Coward.
Bianca sighed dramatically.
“I really need better friends.”
Twenty minutes later— everyone was panicking.
Not externally.
Professionally.
Scientifically.
But definitely panicking.
Bianca sat at the conference table while five researchers argued around her.
“Impossible.”
“It isn’t impossible.”
“It violates every recorded model.”
“Everything violates every recorded model lately!”
Fair point.
Ward stood near the wall.
Watching.
Thinking.
Dr. Reeves looked especially disturbed.
“When did it begin?”
Bianca shrugged.
“After I died.”
The room froze.
Again.
Bianca groaned.
“Right. I forgot normal people react badly to that sentence.”
One researcher nearly dropped his tablet.
Ward looked exhausted.
Maya looked entertained.
This was becoming a pattern.
Bianca explained everything she could.
Which wasn’t much.
The quests.
The notifications.
The adaptation abilities.
The warnings.
Everything.
Nobody looked happier afterward.
Actually they looked worse.
Much worse.
Dr. Reeves finally sat down heavily.
“If this is true…”
“It is.”
“…then the System isn’t technology.”
Bianca pointed.
“See? That’s what I’ve been saying.”
The scientist ignored her.
Rude.
Hours later the meeting finally ended.
Sort of.
Nobody had answers.
Only more questions.
Which felt like Horizon’s entire business model.
Bianca stood outside afterward.
Snow drifted across the valley.
The sun was beginning to set.
Orange light reflected off endless white mountains.
Beautiful.
Cold.
Quiet.
For a few minutes she simply stood there.
Thinking.
Her hometown.
Her mother.
The fractures.
The System.
All of it connected somehow.
She could feel it.
Like pieces of a puzzle slowly locking together.
Then Maya walked up beside her.
Neither spoke immediately.
Sometimes silence was easier.
Eventually Maya asked:
“Are you scared?”
Bianca considered lying.
Instead she sighed.
“Yeah.”
Maya nodded.
“Me too.”
The honesty felt strangely comforting.
Bianca looked toward the mountains.
Toward the fading sunlight.
Toward the horizon.
Somewhere out there— the answers existed.
Somewhere out there— her mother might still be alive.
And somewhere out there— something was waiting beyond the fractures.
Watching.
Searching.
Getting closer.
The System flickered softly.
> [ Main Story Progress Increased ]
> New Arc Unlocked
> Return To The Beginning
Bianca stared at the notification.
Then groaned.
“Why are all my quests emotionally devastating?”
Maya looked confused.
“What did it say?”
Bianca sighed.
“It says we’re going home.”
And for the first time in years— the idea terrified her.
Sorry for the late upload of this chapter, as you may or may not know I’m writing my exams for 3 weeks so I can’t be uploading everyday as I have to read.
But don’t worry I’ll be done soon.
Read out my new novel, I’ll be uploading only one chap in each week it may be slow, as I’m putting more effort into writing this novel.