Ivy glanced at him briefly and gave a small nod. "If the conditions are right," she replied.
Before she could continue, Silas suddenly stepped forward, a confident grin spreading across his face.
He casually placed a hand on Jade’s shoulder, giving it a firm pat. "I can teach you," he said, his tone almost playful but laced with certainty.
Jade did not respond imdiately.
He neither nodded nor refused. Instead, he simply remained silent, his expression unreadable.
Ivy noticed it instantly. Her brows furrowed slightly as she looked at him.
"Jade," she said softly, "if you’re hesitating about sothing, you should say it now. Don’t force yourself into sothing you’re unsure about."
Jade’s lips curved into a faint, bitter smile. He let out a slow breath before speaking. "I understand," he said quietly.
He turned his head away slightly and leaned back into his chair, his gaze drifting toward the distance where a few people moved about peacefully.
Silas watched him, clearly surprised.
’I thought he’d push back... compete... or at least react...’ he thought, a flicker of confusion passing through his eyes.
Instead, Jade remained calm. Too calm.
Silas frowned slightly before asking, "So... you’ve given up?"
Jade looked back at him, his expression steady, almost detached. "Yes," he replied without hesitation.
The answer hung in the air.
"For a long ti," Jade continued, his voice quiet yet clear, "I was... obsessed. She would appear in my dreams every night... it felt real, like sothing I couldn’t escape."
His fingers tightened slightly on the armrest before relaxing again.
"But when that connection was severed..." he added, his tone growing distant, "everything disappeared."
He looked down at his hands, as if searching for sothing that was no longer there.
"It wasn’t painful," he admitted. "Just... empty."
A faint, almost ironic smile appeared on his lips.
"Now, when I look at her... it feels like looking at a stranger."
Silas stared at him for a mont before a small smile tugged at his lips. "If that’s the case," he said, "then I’ll teach you properly."
Jade shot him a brief glare, but said nothing in return.
anwhile, far from the calm within Ivy’s base, chaos had taken root elsewhere.
Ronak and Drake stood inside what used to be a grocery store, now packed beyond capacity.
Outside, floodwaters roared violently, slamming against structures and seeping relentlessly into every crack and opening.
At first, when the flooding had begun, they had assud it would pass.
But they had been wrong. The water kept rising. And rising.
By the ti they realized the severity, it was already too late.
With no other choice, everyone had rushed into the grocery store. Strangely enough, the building itself seed to possess so kind of protective barrier.
The water stopped at its entrance, as though blocked by an invisible wall.
When Ronak and Drake discovered this, they imdiately began organizing people, trying to create so sense of order within the chaos. But even then, regret lingered heavily in their hearts.
’If only we had a way to communicate with Silas and Ivy...’ Ronak thought bitterly. ’We could have saved more people...’
A man pushed his way through the crowd, his movents slow and strained due to the lack of space. Sweat dripped down his face as he finally reached them.
"There are still people outside," he said grimly, his voice hoarse. "More than half... and there’s no space left here."
Drake pressed his fingers against his temples, massaging them as a headache began to build.
Ronak clenched his fists tightly. "If we had a communication thod..." he muttered, frustration evident in his voice. "We could’ve contacted Ivy or Silas. Maybe they would’ve found a solution..."
At those words, Drake suddenly froze. Then his eyes lit up.
"Wait..." he said slowly, straightening. "There might be a way."
Everyone nearby turned to look at him.
Drake took a deep breath before continuing. "There’s a board... rember? The one where rules sotis appear?"
A few people nodded uncertainly.
"I’ve seen it change on its own," Drake said. "It’s like soone updates it... from sowhere else."
Ronak frowned. "What are you getting at?"
Drake’s gaze sharpened. "If soone is controlling the main board... then all the others are just extensions," he explained. "That ans... if we write sothing here... it might be seen there."
A murmur spread through the crowd.
"It’s worth trying," Ronak said firmly.
Without wasting ti, Drake approached the board. His fingers trembled slightly as he picked up a marker.
Taking a deep breath, he wrote: Help .
For a mont, nothing happened. But the next day, the words flickered.
And vanished. A wave of disappointnt spread among them.
Still, they did not give up.
Day after day, they tried different approaches, their minds racing, desperation growing as the situation worsened. Families remained separated, voices crying out for loved ones who could not enter.
Just when they were on the verge of losing hope...sothing changed.
Far away, in Ivy’s base, a clerk paused mid-step as his eyes caught sothing unusual on a board.
The words Help appeared briefly... and then disappeared.
He blinked, rubbing his eyes. "Did I just imagine that...?" he muttered under his breath.
He chose not to ntion it. But the next day, curiosity got the better of him.
Standing before the board again, he hesitated for a mont before picking up a marker.
"Is anyone there?" he wrote.
Back at the flooded store, Ronak and Drake were busy discussing yet another failed plan when a child suddenly tugged at Ronak’s sleeve.
"Look!" the child said, pointing excitedly.
Both of them turned instinctively toward the board.
And froze. There, written clearly was a reply.
A wave of relief and excitent spread through the crowded grocery store the mont they realized the truth.
They were not alone.
"There’s... soone there," Ronak whispered, his voice trembling slightly as hope flickered in his eyes.
Drake let out a sharp breath, his chest rising and falling rapidly. "’We’re not cut off... we’re not abandoned...’" he thought, his hands tightening into fists.
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