Chapter 119| Didn’t Know We Had A Guest Common Room

Chapter 119: Chapter 119| Didn’t Know We Had A Guest Common Room

Zane waved Sera goodbye at the cafeteria table at 1:40 PM.

She picked up her tray without ceremony. Gave a brief nod. The settled expression doing its standard exit. He watched her go then checked the time on his communicator.

Twenty minutes more to 2pm.

He headed straight to the training grounds.

Training grounds. 2:00 PM Saturday.

He arrived exactly on time.

Different from the 6:20 AM version.

The Saturday afternoon light coming through the facility windows at a completely different angle. No second years in the far arena. No ambient noise of a building running its weekday schedule. Just the specific quiet of a training space that wasn’t being asked to produce anything for anyone today.

Maren was already there when he arrived.

Not mid-stretch this time, sitting on the pad with her water bottle open and her communicator in her hand. The casual Saturday version of her. Hair tied back but looser than the training version.

Her slim petite frame sitting in the fitted training gear the way it always did, the material tracing her shape with the specific commitment that had been a recurring significant problem since the moment he’d stopped seeing her as just a training partner.

She looked up when he arrived. "You’re on time."

"You said 2PM." He dropped his bag at the edge of the pad.

"I said fine." She tilted her head slightly. "You said 2PM."

He looked at her. She looked back with the expression that sat somewhere between amusement and the flat version, the specific one that appeared when she was letting something be funny without fully admitting it.

"Semantics," he replied.

She stood up without further comment and moved to her drill position.

He almost smiled.

They trained.

No game. No competition. No favour debt on the line. Just clean reps. The Saturday afternoon version of what they did every morning at 6:20 AM except with better light and no urgency attached to it.

Zane ran his reps at the wall.

Impact Breaker — B-rank 20% full output. The shockwave rolling through the composite surface with the quality that still surprised him slightly at this tier. The daily quest running in the corner of his vision.

『 Daily Quest — Impact Breaker activation speed 』

『 Target: 0.70 seconds 』

『 Current: 0.71 seconds 』

『 ONE REP FROM MILESTONE 』

『 Milestone reward: HIDDEN — unlocks at 0.70 seconds 』

’One rep,’ he thought. ’One more rep and the milestone unlocks.’

He pressed his palm flat.

Focused.

Activation.

The shockwave rolled.

『 DAILY QUEST COMPLETE 』

『 Impact Breaker activation speed: 0.71 seconds → 0.70 seconds 』

『 MILESTONE REACHED 』

『 Processing milestone reward... 』

『 HIDDEN 』

『 ... 』

『 ... 』

『 Milestone reward: IMPACT BREAKER RANGE +0.5 METERS 』

『 New maximum range: 4.2m → 4.7 meters 』

『 System Note: Daily quest milestone complete. New daily quest threshold will be set for Impact Breaker when B-rank output ceiling increases. The system notes the host has been one rep away from this for two days. The system is relieved. 』

Zane stared at the notification.

’Range increased,’ he thought. ’4.7 meters now.’

’Not output,’ he thought. ’Range. So the shockwave reaches further without hitting harder.’

’That’s actually more useful than an output bump, although I usually employ it on smaller distances,’ he thought. ’Distance before contact. More options.’

The system surfaced.

『 The system is very pleased with this assessment. The host is learning to value range over raw output. Growth. 』

’Don’t get sentimental,’ he thought.

『 The system is simply noting growth. 』

He stepped back from the wall.

Looked at the contact point.

4.7 meters. The shockwave had already reached the storage rack in the corner that had been sitting comfortably outside his range since week one.

’Hello,’ he thought at the storage rack.

The rack rattled slightly from the impact.

Maren looked up from the pad. "Hmm. Zane, what was that."

He threw a smirk. "Nothing."

She looked at the rack. Then at him. Then back at the rack with the expression of someone filing something under pending investigation.

He laughed quietly and went back to his reps.

Zane was mid-rep on his twentieth when Maren called it.

"Water break."

He finished the rep. Stepped back from the wall. Walked back to the pad and sat beside her.

She was looking at her communicator. Something on the screen that had her expression doing the specific version of neutral it did when she was reading something she hadn’t decided how to feel about yet.

"Nil messaged," she said. Without looking up.

He looked at her.

"She watched the drill yesterday," Maren said. "Apparently she has thoughts."

"What kind of thoughts," he said.

Maren put her phone face down on the pad.

"The Nil kind," she said. Which answered nothing and somehow answered everything.

He looked at the facility.

’The Nil kind,’ he thought. ’Coming from someone who mouthed something at Maren from the gallery and made her face go pink.’

"She’s coming to the dormitory later," Maren said. "If you want to properly meet her."

He looked at her.

’Properly meet her,’ he thought. ’As in... not a corridor encounter. Not a cafeteria glimpse. An actual introduction.’

"Sure," he said. He could already feel his dick throbbing from her statement, what do you mean introduction to a baddie hero and she finds it normal.He looked at the training ground wall. ’Maren, what are you doing to me?.’

The system surfaced.

『 The system notes the host’s biological response to the word introduction. The system finds this entirely predictable given prior gallery observations. 』

’Don’t,’ he thought let me have my moments.

『 The system is simply logging. 』

Maren picked up her water bottle.

’She said it like it was a casual suggestion,’ he thought. ’It wasn’t a casual suggestion.’ 𝔣𝖗ⅇℯ

The system surfaced.

『 System Note: Nil Valkyrie — potential bond candidate — formal introduction incoming. The system notes the host has been at 7% familiarity since the corridor encounter. Today that changes. 』

’Probably,’ he thought.

Training ended at 3:45 PM.

They walked back toward the dormitory building together. The Saturday afternoon campus running its weekend quietly. A few students on the east courtyard benches. The practical complex closed.

At the dormitory junction Maren stopped.

"Give me twenty minutes," she said. "I need to shower before she gets here."

"I’ll do the same," he said.

She looked at him.

"Let’s meet at the dormitory common room," she said. "Ground floor. Twenty minutes."

She turned toward the girls dormitory path.

He watched her go.

Then he headed to room 714.

Dex was out.

Torre was on Dex’s bed. Eating. Gerald wheezed.

Zane showered. Pulled on a black hoodie and joggers — the casual rotation that required zero decision making. Checked the time.

3:58 PM.

Zane headed downstairs.

Reached the ground floor and stopped.

’She said in the common room,’ he thought. ’She didn’t say which one.’

His communicator beeped.

Maren.

Forgot to mention — guest common room. The one beside the building at the junction between the blocks.

He looked at the message.

Then at the corridor ahead.

’The guest common room,’ he thought. ’Neutral ground. Of course.’

He turned and headed toward the junction.