The next morning, the bright sun shined through the windows of Harrington Academy.
Quinn Carter sat at an empty desk in the school library.
She held the heavy silver Cipher Coin in her hand.
She rubbed her thumb over the strange puzzle carved into the metal.
She used her new System skill, Eagle Eye.
Her eyes flashed with a faint blue light.
With the skill, she could see tiny scratches on the coin.
There was something hidden deep inside the metal.
But she needed good computer technology to figure it out.
She needed Elijah Cranston.
Quinn put the coin in her pocket and walked to the school’s computer lab.
Elijah was sitting alone at a big desk.
He typed very fast on three different laptop screens.
He wore a neat gray sweater and his thick glasses.
When he saw Quinn walk in, he jumped up so fast that he knocked his chair over.
“Crash!”
“Quinn!” Elijah said happily.
His face turned very red.
He quickly picked up his chair.
“Hi.
Hello.
Do you need me?
I mean, do you need help with something?
I can hack the school grades for you if you want.”
Quinn smiled a little bit.
Elijah was very smart, but he was also very silly.
“I do not need you to change my grades, Elijah.
I need you to scan something for me.
Can you keep a big secret?”
Elijah nodded his head very fast.
He looked extremely serious.
“I will never tell anyone.
I promise on my billionaire life.”
Quinn handed him the silver Cipher Coin.
Elijah looked at it closely.
He placed the heavy coin onto a special glass scanner attached to his computer.
His fingers flew across the keyboard.
“This is very weird,” Elijah said softly.
He pushed his glasses up his nose.
“This coin is not just old metal.
There is a tiny computer chip hidden inside it.
It is sending a very weak radio signal to a location in the South District.
It points to an old, abandoned video game arcade.”
“Perfect,” Quinn said.
She patted Elijah on the shoulder.
“You are a genius, Elijah.
Thank you.”
Elijah’s face turned bright red again.
“You touched my shoulder,” he whispered happily.
Suddenly, the computer lab door opened.
Noah Brooks walked inside.
He wore a dark blue suit and a shiny silver watch.
He always looked like a rich, evil lawyer.
Noah leaned against the door and smirked at Quinn.
“Well, well.
Look at this,” Noah said in his smooth, teasing voice.
“The scholarship girl is hanging out with the tech nerd.
Are you using him to do your homework, Quinn?”
“I am just talking to a friend, Noah,” Quinn said coldly.
She crossed her arms.
“You should try getting some friends.
Maybe then you would not be so annoying.”
Noah laughed a dark, handsome laugh.
He walked closer to her.
He was very tall, and he smelled like expensive cologne.
He looked right into her eyes.
“I do not want to be your friend, Quinn.
I want to figure you out.
You are hiding a very dangerous secret.
And I love dangerous things.”
Quinn did not step back.
She glared right at him.
“Stay out of my way, Noah.”
She grabbed the silver coin from Elijah’s desk and walked right past Noah.
Noah watched her leave with a hungry look in his eyes.
He loved how mean she was to him.
It just made him like her even more.
After school, Quinn did not go home.
She took the bus straight to the South District.
This part of the city was very dirty and loud.
The streets smelled like old trash.
She found the address Elijah gave her.
It was a giant, dusty building with a broken neon sign that said “GALAXY ARCADE.” The front windows were covered in dark paint.
Quinn pushed the heavy front door open.
Inside, it was completely dark.
Broken video game machines sat covered in dust.
“System,” Quinn whispered.
[Skill Activated: Eagle Eye (Lv.
1)]
Her eyes glowed blue.
Now, she could see perfectly in the dark.
She walked slowly past the broken game machines.
She heard loud music and yelling coming from the back of the huge building.
She walked toward a red metal door at the back.
But before she could reach it, four big men stepped out of the shadows.
They wore dirty tank tops and had thick muscles.
They were guards for The Gamemaster.
“Where do you think you are going, little girl?” the biggest guard asked.
He held a thick wooden baseball bat.
[System Alert: Combat Started!]
[Enemies: 4 Arcade Thugs (Level 5)]
[Threat Value: Medium-High]
Quinn cracked her knuckles.
She did not feel scared.
She felt excited.
She needed more EXP to level up.
“I am going through that door,” Quinn said bravely.
“You can step aside, or I can make you step aside.”
The guards laughed loudly.
The biggest man swung his wooden bat right at her head.
“Boom!”
Quinn moved like lightning.
She ducked under the heavy bat.
She pushed off her back foot and delivered a fast, hard jab to his stomach.
“Smack!” A visible shockwave exploded from her fist.
The big man coughed up spit and dropped his bat.
The second guard ran at her with a shiny knife.
He tried to stab her arm.
Quinn used a quick shoulder roll recovery.
She rolled smoothly across the dirty floor and popped back up to her feet.
As the man ran past her, she stuck her foot out and performed a fast spin sweep.
“Crack!” Her heavy shoe hit his knees.
He fell hard on his face and did not move.
The third guard was very angry.
He threw a wild, heavy punch at Quinn’s face.
Quinn blocked his punch with her left arm.
She planted her feet firm on the ground.
She twisted her hips and threw a massive uppercut with all her strength.
“Bam!”
Her fist collided right under the man’s chin.
The loud sound resonated like a sonic boom.
The enemy felt a huge force running completely through his bones.
He flew backward through the air and crashed into an old racing game machine.
The machine shattered into sharp plastic pieces.
The last guard looked terrified.
He started to run away toward the red door.
Quinn did not let him escape.
She ran fast toward the nearby brick wall.
She took three quick steps up the wall, doing a perfect wall run.
She pushed off hard, flipped upside down in the air, and did an amazing backflip kick.
Her heel struck the running guard right in the back of the head.
“Crash!” He hit the metal door face-first and slid to the ground.
He was completely knocked out.
The arcade was quiet again.
Quinn breathed heavily and wiped sweat from her cheek.
She smiled.
She loved the power of her father’s System.
[System Alert: Enemies Defeated!]
[EXP + 400]
[Total EXP: 450/500]
[Ding!
Skill Upgraded!]
[Basic MMA has reached Level 2.
Your punches and kicks are now 20% faster and stronger.]
“Awesome,” Quinn whispered happily.
She stepped over the sleeping guards and grabbed the handle of the red metal door.
She pushed it open.
A wave of loud noise, bright lights, and sweaty air hit her face.
The back room of the old arcade was huge.
It was not empty at all.
It was a secret underground fight club.
Hundreds of dangerous people stood in a big circle.
They were yelling, holding money, and cheering.
In the middle of the room, there was a giant metal fighting cage.
Quinn used her Eagle Eye skill to look inside the dirty cage.
Two fighters were in the ring.
One was a giant, scary man with a bald head.
The other was the mysterious boy in the dark black hoodie.
It was the exact same boy she saw watching her in the warehouse yesterday!
The giant man threw a heavy punch.
The hoodie boy dodged it easily.
With a blur of speed, the boy jumped up and delivered a spinning kick to the giant’s head.
The giant crashed to the floor, totally knocked out.
The crowd went completely crazy.
They cheered and threw money in the air.
The boy in the hoodie stood in the middle of the cage.
He was breathing easily.
He slowly reached up and pulled his dark hood down.
Quinn gasped slightly.
He was incredibly handsome, but in a very dangerous way.
He had messy dark hair, sharp jawlines, and a small, fresh cut on his lip.
His eyes were dark and very cold.
He did not look like the rich, clean boys at Harrington Academy.
He looked like the rough, scary streets.
Suddenly, the boy turned his head.
His dark eyes scanned the loud crowd.
He stopped moving.
He looked directly at the red metal door.
He looked directly at Quinn.
Even from far away, Quinn could feel his intense stare.
A cold shiver ran down her back.
The boy smiled a very small, dangerous smile.
He raised two fingers to his head and gave her that same lazy salute from the warehouse.
He knew exactly who she was.
[System Alert: New Character Discovered]
Name: Jax “The Ghost” Vance
Role: Underground Street Fighter
Threat Value: Extremely High
Quinn stood up very straight.
She pulled her father’s leather jacket tight around her shoulders.
She was not going to run away.
If this dangerous boy wanted to play a game, the Solo Queen was completely ready.
[Current Status]
Name: Quinn Carter
Level: 3
Class: Solo Fighter
HP: 140/140
EXP: 450/500
Strength: 14
Agility: 16
Perception: 12
Intelligence: 14
Skills: Basic MMA (Lv.
2), Eagle Eye (Lv.
1)
Active Quest: The Gamemaster’s Secret