Dex cleared his throat, the weight of Spectre and Pink Wolf's stares pressing down on him.
"After Valentina's ambush," he began, "I got forced logged out. Woke up in the real world just in time to deal with Luciano thugs—Malo was there too. We fought them off, but… something was different."
He flexed his fingers, watching the faint blue static dance across his knuckles.
"Turns out, I'd unlocked a unique class—something tied to tech. It let me use Dreamscape abilities in real life, even though I wasn't Level 50 yet."
Pink Wolf whistled. "That's broken."
Spectre's eyes narrowed. "And the physical changes?"
Dex hesitated. "Part of the class. Evolutions. Normally, avatars are locked, but… mine isn't."
A half-truth.
He didn't mention the Cyber Lord Gene. Didn't mention the Five, or the Domination path forced upon him. Didn't mention that his "unique quests" were really trials to conquer dimensions.
Spectre leaned forward. "What exactly does this class do?"
Dex met her gaze. "Makes me stronger. Faster. Lets me hack the system in ways no one else can."
Pink Wolf's cybernetic eye flickered. "So you're, what? Some kinda cheat code?"
"Something like that," Dex muttered.
Silence stretched.
Then Spectre stood, her voice icy.
"You're lying."
Dex met Spectre's accusing glare with a steady gaze.
"I'm not lying," he said, voice calm. "What did you expect me to say? That I found a magic lamp?"
Before Spectre could retort, Pink Wolf suddenly sat up straight, her cybernetic eye flickering with realization.
"Wait—that night after the ambush," she said slowly, "I woke up in my apartment in Tokyo. There was… blood. Broken glass. Like someone had broken in, but—" She hesitated, then locked eyes with Dex. "They never touched me. And then they just… vanished. Was that you?"
Dex exhaled. He'd hoped she wouldn't connect the dots.
"Yeah," he admitted. "During that night before I got forced logged out, my Cyber Hack skill maxed out temporarily. Let me reach into anything connected to a network, anywhere. Even outside the game."
He didn't elaborate on the details. Didn't mention how he'd hijacked the intruders' cybernetics, flooding their systems with enough voltage to send them seizing to the floor. How he'd watched through security cameras as they'd dragged themselves out, whimpering.
Pink Wolf stared at him, lips parted. Then, to his shock, she bit her lower lip and let out a soft, involuntary moan.
"Fuck," she breathed, before quickly shaking her head and looking away, cheeks flushed. "There's something seriously wrong with you."
Spectre's eyebrow arched.
Pink Wolf cleared her throat aggressively and pointed at Dex's face. "The mask. Where'd you get it?"
Dex shrugged. "Junkyard. It's nothing special."
The Origin Mask snarled in his mind.
"Nothing special?! I'll melt your tongue—"
Dex ignored it.
Spectre, however, wasn't fooled. She crossed her arms, her glowing eyes narrowing.
"Bullshit. Try again."
Dex didn't flinch. Didn't blink. He just held Spectre's gaze, his expression unreadable.
"You think I'm lying," he said slowly. "Unless… you know something I don't."
A beat of silence.
Then Spectre exhaled sharply, her fingers tightening around the edge of the bed.
"During Neo-Tokyo's main storyline," she began, voice low, "there's a mission where you infiltrate the Evil AI Overlord's lair. Steal data. Records. Audio logs."
She leaned forward, her glowing eyes locked onto his.
"In those files, there's a mention of someone called the Cyber Lord. A being who used to rule all of Neo-Tokyo. A god of code."
Pink Wolf stiffened. "Wait, what—?"
Spectre didn't look away from Dex. "And your title right now? The one my skill just scanned?"
She tapped the air, pulling up a holographic screen only she could see.
"It says Cyber Lord."
The room went dead silent.
Even the Origin Mask, still seething in Dex's inventory, went quiet.
Pink Wolf's cybernetic eye flickered wildly. "Okay, what the actual fuck—"
Dex closed his eyes.
No more hiding.
When he opened them again, the faint blue glow in his irises had deepened—something older, something hungry, swirling beneath.
"Fine," he said, voice barely above a whisper. "You want the truth?"
He let the words hang, heavy and inevitable.
"I'm not just a Cyber Lord."
"I'm the heir."
The silence in the room was suffocating. Pink Wolf's cybernetic eye flickered, her fingers twitching like she wanted to reach for a weapon—or maybe bolt for the door.
"Heir?" she repeated, voice sharp. "What the hell does that mean?"
Dex exhaled, running a hand through his silver hair. "It means I'm destined to inherit the original Cyber Lord's abilities. His power. His… legacy." He hesitated, choosing his words carefully. "And I'm not the only one. There were five Lords. Now, the game's choosing five new heirs to take their place."
Spectre's eyes narrowed. "Why?"
"I don't know," Dex admitted. "Not fully. But I have theories."
He didn't elaborate. Didn't mention the Domination path, the merging of dimensions, the real stakes lurking beneath Dreamscape's surface. Some truths were too heavy to drop all at once.
Pink Wolf leaned forward, claws retracting with a soft click. "So you're telling me there's four other freaks like you running around?"
"Two so far," Dex corrected. "Liora—the Bloom Sovereign. And Kai—the Void Lord. The last two haven't awakened yet."
Spectre nodded slowly, her expression unreadable. "That day in Neo-Tokyo," she murmured. "When your power surged. I knew it wasn't just some glitch."
Dex said nothing.
A notification blinked in the corner of his vision. He pulled up his mission log, half-expecting another cryptic directive from the system.
What he saw made him scoff.
[MAIN MISSION: DOMINATION]
Subjugate the dimensions. Claim your birthright.
*Trials remaining: 2/3*
Beneath it, tucked away like an afterthought:
[MAIN MISSION (OPTIONAL): WELCOME TO NEO-TOKYO]
Explore the city. Find a job.
Dex stared.
"Find a job."
After everything—after the gene, the mask, the bloodshed—Neo-Tokyo's original "main quest" had been demoted to a side objective. A joke.
He closed the window with a sharp flick of his fingers and leaned back, exhaling through his nose.
Spectre remained silent. Her gaze was locked onto him, calculating. "What aren't you telling us?"
The Origin Mask stirred in his inventory, whispering:
"Everything."
Dex ignored it.
For now.