The next day arrived fast.
Neo was on a bus heading toward the Breach site, one arm resting against the window while the city passed in pieces outside.
’I’m running out of money... at this rate I won’t be able to keep paying the rent. Argh. Seriously, why did I let that woman get under my skin? I wanted to shut her up so badly. Still... I won’t complain. It’s a good place.’
Right now he had a backpack on, and not for style. Food. Water. A few basic things. In Breaches, people did not all appear in one fixed point with their group waiting beside them. The mont you crossed over, the place scattered you wherever it wanted. That was normal. Most groups made plans in advance, picked so obvious landmark, or agreed on a direction before going in.
There were Soul Relics made for tracking and locating people too.
Neo was far too broke for sothing like that.
The bus finally slowed, and through the glass he could already see the crowd gathered near the secured area.
’Looks like we’re here. That’s a lot of people already waiting. What, around two hundred?’ His mouth flattened slightly. ’Not bad. Fewer than the last Breach, though.’
Once he stepped off the bus, the noise reached him properly. Officials. Awakened. Governnt workers checking docunts. People checking their Soul Relics. Bags. Nervous conversations that kept trying to sound casual and never quite managed it. Neo scanned the area out of habit.
He did not see anyone from his group but he did see Richards.
Richards noticed him almost at once and lifted a hand, motioning him over.
Neo went. Maybe the man wanted to give him sothing. That would have been nice.
By the ti he reached him, Richards already had that faintly tired expression of soone who had been working too long and sleeping too little.
"You wanted sothing?" Neo asked.
Richards looked at him for a beat. "A greeting would’ve been nice at the start, don’t you think? Sothing like ’How have you been lately?’ I’ve been buried in work because of what happened in Zone 0. Sorry I haven’t talked to you."
Neo shrugged. "Don’t worry about it. I’m used to being on my own. I don’t need a babysitter."
Richards let out a quiet breath through his nose. "I can see that. Good." He glanced toward the sealed entrance to the Breach. "You told you were going in with a group this ti. That’s good too. They’ve probably already told you the details, but this one doesn’t have a ti limit. The Breach is large enough that people can stay inside a long while before anything changes."
Neo stayed with that a mont before asking, "Why are Breaches different sizes anyway? What affects that?"
Richards looked at him, and the answer ca without decoration.
"No idea. State Soul Research has been digging into that for years and still hasn’t found a real explanation. No one knows how Breaches started, whether soone created them, whether they were always part of the world, or whether so higher existence dropped them on us." His tone turned drier. "A lot of theories. No answers worth much."
Neo said nothing after that.
It was strange when he thought about it. Breaches had shaped the world, classes, money, danger, entire cities, and yet no one could say with certainty where they ca from. Had they always been there? Why did each one wear a different face? Ruins, dead cities, forests, wastelands... He could have kept going with the thought.
He didn’t.
Movent off to the side caught his attention.
Snot had arrived with the others.
"There’s my group," Neo said. "I’ll see you later."
He had only taken a few steps before Richards called his na.
"Neo."
Neo turned back.
Richards held his gaze a second longer than before. "Be careful."
Neo answered with a small gesture of two fingers and kept walking.
Snot spotted him first, of course.
"Who were you talking to?"
"Soone who helped get settled in this city," Neo said. "He works for the governnt."
Snot made a face like he might have asked more on another day, then let it go. "Ah. Fine. Forget it, we’re all here."
Alice gave a small nod when Neo joined them. Marika was the one who picked up the practical part imdiately.
"We decided on a simple plan," she said. "Once we’re inside, we look for high ground. We don’t know what kind of layout this Breach has, so if there’s a tall structure, a hill, anything like that, we head there."
Neo nodded once. That made sense.
"Okay," Max said.
Snot spread his hands. "Hopefully we find each other fast so Max can carry all the luggage again."
Max turned toward him with a flat expression. "One day a monster’s going to hear you and decide you’re the easiest prey in the area."
Snot pointed at him. "That was a joke, Max. A simple joke. See?"
No one laughed.
Snot looked around at them, offended on principle. "Don’t do this to . Now I look like the bad one when Marika said it first."
Marika did not even bother answering that.
A governnt worker stepped forward not long after, voice loud enough to cut across the waiting crowd.
"You may now enter the Breach. Standard rules apply. Rember the ergency protocol. If you die inside, the governnt will not be held responsible." He paused briefly. "Though all of you already know that."
Neo’s attention shifted over the crowd as the line began to move.
No one stood out in any major way. No towering presence that dragged attention from the rest. He did not see Vivienne either, nor anyone from her group.
Snot caught the direction of his attention. "Looking for soone?"
Neo answered without much interest. "No. Just checking who’s going in."
"Well," Snot said, jerking his chin toward the advancing line, "it’s our turn. Let’s go."
They moved forward together.
One by one, people stepped into the Breach and vanished through the distortion in space. When Neo’s turn ca, the usual strange sensation passed through him again, like cold water without weight, like the world loosening for a single breath before snapping shut on the other side.
Neo ca out into sothing completely different.
He had entered his second Breach.
This one looked nothing like the first.
The air hit him first, warm, damp, thick with green life and the sll of wet earth. Jungle spread in every direction, lush and overgrown in a way that felt almost excessive, as if the place had been left alone for centuries and decided to grow over everything at once. Massive trees rose into a tangled canopy overhead, their roots breaking through old stone and swallowing sections of ruined ground. Here and there, half-buried buildings stood between the vegetation, white walls cracked apart and wrapped in vines so thick they looked like they had been stitched into the structures.
Neo stood still long enough to take it in.
’This is completely different from the last Breach. No question, this one’s bigger. And I don’t see anyone around either.’
Which ant the random placent had already done its job.
He was alone.
That did not bother him.
His attention lifted a mont later and fixed on sothing far in the distance.
A tower.
White once, perhaps, though much of it had been swallowed by green. Roots and vines coiled around its body from base to top, thick as serpents, turning the whole structure into sothing half-built and half-consud. Even from here it looked enormous.
Too enormous to miss.
Neo kept staring at it a second longer.
’I guess that’s where I’m heading.’
Then he started walking.
It was a long way there.
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