Chapter 62: Trust, Verify, Then Verify Again

Gene practically sprinted through the hotel lobby doors.

The moment he entered, he immediately spotted the real Selene.

She was exactly where Hank had said she would be.

Sitting comfortably in one of the lobby chairs.

Eating pie.

Not one slice.

Not two slices.

Three.

A fourth sat nearby waiting patiently for its turn.

Selene looked up as Gene entered.

“Hi.”

Gene stared.

Selene stared back.

Then she held up her fork.

“Pie?”

Gene walked over and hugged her.

The fork nearly fell.

Selene blinked in surprise.

“…Hello to you too.”

Gene let out a long breath.

“You have no idea how happy I am to see you.”

Now Selene looked concerned.

“What happened?”

“There was a fake you.”

“…What?”

“A fake you.”

“…What?”

The conversation might have continued forever had Athena not interrupted through Gene’s helmet.

ALERT.

MULTIPLE INDIVIDUALS HAVE GATHERED IN THE FLOOR MF LOBBY.

Gene looked around.

The entire group had apparently arrived.

Cassian.

Aurelia.

Moira.

Lyra.

Lilith.

The Caretaker.

Jesse Belle.

Mother Sarah.

The scientists.

The nurse.

The chef.

Even Hank had wandered away from the front desk.

Everyone looked around curiously.

Gene sighed.

“Good.”

He rubbed his forehead.

“We need to talk.”

⸻

Within minutes the entire lobby had become surprisingly crowded.

People sat on couches.

Chairs.

Tables.

A few townsfolk simply stood nearby.

Gene climbed onto a small platform normally used for announcements.

Athena projected a glowing blue screen behind him.

Everyone immediately looked interested.

Lilith raised her hand.

“Is this a meeting?”

“Yes.”

“Can I have snacks during the meeting?”

“…Yes.”

“Excellent.”

She immediately produced cookies.

Gene took a deep breath.

“Everyone.”

The room quieted.

“Today I discovered a cultist impersonating Selene.”

The silence that followed was immediate.

Several people nearly stood up.

Aurelia looked horrified.

Cassian’s expression darkened instantly.

Lyra went pale.

Selene blinked twice.

Then looked annoyed.

“They copied me?”

Gene nodded.

“Almost Perfectly.”

The room grew even quieter.

Mother Sarah folded her hands.

“That is concerning.”

“Very.”

Gene gestured toward Athena’s projection.

“Which is why we’re going to be upgrading security.”

The AI appeared as a glowing sphere.

GREETINGS.

Several people jumped.

The sphere rotated happily.

I HAVE IDENTIFIED MULTIPLE SECURITY WEAKNESSES.

“Thank you, Athena.”

YOU ARE WELCOME.

Gene pointed toward several nearby hallways.

“Everyone will be scanned.”

Silence.

Then Jesse Belle raised her hand.

“…Scanned?”

“Scanned.”

“What exactly does that mean?”

Athena answered.

A COMPREHENSIVE BIOLOGICAL, MAGICAL, PHYSICAL, MENTAL, AND IDENTIFICATION ANALYSIS.

Jesse Belle blinked.

“…That sounds extensive.”

“It is magnificent.”

The scientist couple nodded proudly.

“It is beautiful.”

“It is also very thorough!”

“Expensive too.”

⸻

The scanning process took nearly two hours.

Everyone was sent into separate rooms.

One at a time.

Athena gathered information.

Compared records.

Verified identities.

Cross-checked magical signatures.

Analyzed soul patterns.

Compared memories.

Compared mana structures.

Compared everything.

The results were enlightening.

And alarming.

Gene sat in the facility control room while the reports rolled in.

Most scans passed instantly.

Selene.

Cassian.

Aurelia.

Moira.

Lilith.

Lyra.

The summons.

All verified.

Then Athena spoke again.

ALERT.

Gene frowned.

“What now?”

SIXTEEN ANOMALIES DETECTED.

Gene straightened immediately.

The room went silent.

“…Sixteen?”

CONFIRMED.

A map appeared.

Sixteen glowing dots lit up.

Gene’s expression slowly darkened.

The dots weren’t inside the hotel.

They were inside the nearby towns.

Among the workers.

Gardeners.

Maintenance staff.

Store clerks.

Kitchen assistants.

School workers.

NPCs Gene himself had hired.

The realization struck hard.

The cult had already infiltrated his territory.

Far deeper than anyone realized.

Gene crossed his arms.

“Athena.”

YES?

“Can we take them quietly?”

A brief pause.

YES.

Gene nodded.

“Do it.”

⸻

The operation lasted eleven minutes.

The cultists never knew what happened.

Across the towns and hotel grounds, hidden vents activated simultaneously.

Specialized knockout gas flooded targeted areas.

Doors locked.

Security systems activated.

Automated drones deployed.

The disguised cultists collapsed where they stood.

Several attempted escape.

None succeeded.

One tried jumping through a window.

The window politely shocked him unconscious.

Another attempted a teleport spell.

Athena rerouted the spell.

He teleported directly into a holding cell.

Gene laughed so hard he nearly fell out of his chair.

By the time the scans finished—

Sixteen cultists sat unconscious in containment chambers.

⸻

Later that evening everyone gathered once more.

This time inside the main conference room.

Gene stood at the head of a large table.

Athena projected reports across the walls.

The atmosphere felt more serious now.

Everyone understood the situation.

The cult wasn’t simply attacking anymore.

They were infiltrating.

Spying.

Waiting.

Gene folded his hands.

“We need a better system.”

Cassian nodded.

“Agreed.”

Moira adjusted her glasses.

“Something harder to fake.”

Aurelia crossed her arms.

“Preferably something that doesn’t involve another test.”

“Exactly.”

Gene activated another projection.

Several devices appeared.

Bracelets.

Rings.

Necklaces.

Brooches.

Watches.

Pins.

Communication crystals.

Identity markers.

Athena highlighted them.

EACH DEVICE CAN VERIFY ITS OWNER.

BIOLOGICAL SIGNATURES.

SOUL PATTERNS.

MAGICAL IDENTIFIERS.

MEMORY CHECKS.

EMERGENCY DISTRESS SIGNALS.

Lilith immediately pointed.

“Ooooo”

Everyone turned.

She pointed at a bracelet shaped like a raven.

“I want the bird one please.”

“Of course you do.”

The selections began.

⸻

Lilith chose the raven bracelet.

Selene chose a silver moon necklace.

Cassian selected a signet ring.

Aurelia picked a haughty jeweled brooch.

Moira chose an enchanted pen.

Lyra selected a fox bracelet.

The nurse selected a silver watch.

The scientists both chose matching lanyards to hang their ids on.

Mother Sarah selected a black rosary.

Jesse Belle chose a Flower charm bracelet.

The Caretaker stared at the options.

Then pointed toward a simple black ring.

Gene nodded.

Athena immediately customized each device.

The room filled with flashes of light.

One by one the items bonded to their owners.

Security improved instantly.

But Gene wasn’t finished.

⸻

“We need another layer.”

Cassian looked interested.

“What kind?”

“Code words.”

Several people blinked.

Gene shrugged.

“If someone gets captured.”

“If someone is replaced.”

“If someone needs to communicate secretly.”

“We need a way to verify who they are.”

The idea immediately gained support.

Athena opened a new file.

CODE IDENTIFICATION SYSTEM INITIALIZED.

The brainstorming began.

It quickly became chaos.

Absolute chaos.

Lilith suggested:

“Cookies.”

Gene rejected it immediately.

“Too obvious.”

“What about extra cookies?”

“No.”

Cassian suggested:

“The sun rises over gold.”

Everyone hated it.

Moira suggested:

“The archivist forgot the index.”

Everyone liked that one.

Aurelia suggested:

“Blue roses bloom at midnight.”

Selene admitted that sounded surprisingly cool.

Jesse Belle suggested:

“The chickens escaped again.”

Gene couldn’t stop laughing.

Mother Sarah suggested:

“Class has begun.”

Which somehow sounded more threatening than anything else.

The final list eventually grew.

Dozens of phrases.

Secret responses.

Verification codes.

Emergency alerts.

Backup codes.

Athena recorded everything.

The system became surprisingly sophisticated.

⸻

Hours passed.

The meeting gradually shifted from security to something else.

The future.

Nobody really noticed when it happened.

One moment they were discussing cult infiltration.

The next they were discussing dreams.

Plans.

Goals.

Things they wanted to accomplish.

Selene spoke first.

“I want to see what our merged world can become.”

Moira smiled.

“I want to discover the truth behind the prophecy.”

Cassian looked thoughtful.

“I want to stop the cult.”

Aurelia nodded.

“Preferably before they destroy more worlds.”

Lyra sat quietly for several moments.

Then finally spoke.

“I want to… if I can… take my world back.”

The room fell silent.

Nobody laughed.

Nobody joked.

Everyone understood.

Gene nodded.

“We’ll all help with that one.”

Lyra smiled softly as I patted her shoulder.

A genuine smile this time.

⸻

Eventually everyone looked toward Gene.

The question remained unspoken.

What did he want?

Gene sat down and leaned back in his chair.

Thinking.

A year ago he had been arguing with strangers online.

Now he commanded monsters.

Owned a world.

Fought crazy cultists.

Collected prophecy gems.

And somehow managed a hotel.

Life had become strange.

Very strange.

Yet his answer came surprisingly easily.

“I want this place to survive.”

Everyone listened.

“The hotel.”

“The towns.”

“The people.”

“The summons.”

“Our world.”

Gene looked around the table.

At friends.

Family.

Allies.

Former rivals.

Children.

Monsters.

People who trusted him.

“I want all of this to still exist when the Hollow King finally shows up.”

Silence followed.

Then Selene smiled.

A small one.

The kind she reserved for moments she genuinely meant.

“I think that’s a good goal.”

The others nodded.

One by one.

Agreement spread throughout the room.

For a brief moment—

Despite cults.

Prophecies.

Ancient gods.

And growing dangers—

Everything felt hopeful.

Athena quietly projected a final message above the table.

SECURITY UPGRADED.

INFILTRATORS CAPTURED.

FRIENDS VERIFIED.

FUTURE UNCERTAIN.

A pause.

Then another line appeared.

ODDS OF SUCCESS: IMPROVING.

Lilith immediately raised her cookie.

“To improving odds!”

Everyone laughed.

Even Cassian.

And for the first time in days—

The Nightmare Hotel felt safe again.

At least for one night.