The signal didn’t disappear. It stayed there on the screen like it wanted to be seen, like it wasn’t afraid of being noticed anymore. That alone made it different from everything else they had encountered so far. Before now, everything had been hidden, layered, indirect. This… this was deliberate. Dean didn’t move for a few seconds. He just watched it, his eyes steady, his mind already working through what it meant and what it didn’t. Clarice stood beside him, her tablet angled slightly upward, her fingers hovering but not touching the screen yet. Philip was closer now, his usual relaxed confidence replaced with something sharper, more alert. Even the person they had pulled in earlier seemed more tense, like they understood the weight of what had just appeared. “…That’s not random,” Clarice said quietly. Dean nodded once. “…No.” Philip leaned in slightly. “…It’s not an attack either.” A pause. “…Feels like… an invitation.” The word sat in the air longer than expected. Invitation. Not

The screen didn’t just change—it reacted. That was the only way to describe it. Not like a machine processing input, not like code executing commands, but like something aware had just turned its attention directly toward them. The structure twisted, realigned, and then stabilized into something new, something deeper than before. The clean pathways were gone. What remained was layered, complex, almost alive in the way it adjusted itself in real time. Clarice didn’t move for a few seconds, her fingers frozen above the tablet as her eyes scanned what had just formed. “…That’s not a standard response,” she said quietly. Philip stepped closer, his gaze locked on the display. “…No. That’s engagement.” The person behind them inhaled slowly. “…You didn’t just get their attention.” A pause. “…You forced interaction.” Dean didn’t say anything. He was watching the structure the same way he had watched everything else up until now—not with surprise, not with hesitation, but with intent. Because

The silence that followed the confirmation wasn’t empty. It was loaded. The kind of silence that came after a line had been crossed and everyone present understood that nothing would go back to how it was before. The words on the screen—Position acknowledged. Response accepted.—remained steady, not fading, not shifting, like they were meant to sit there long enough for it to sink in. Dean didn’t move. Clarice didn’t touch her tablet. Even Philip, who usually had something to say in moments like this, stayed quiet. The person behind them watched the screen like they were waiting for something else, something deeper, something that hadn’t revealed itself yet.And then—it happened.The structure pulsed again. Stronger this time. Not just reacting, not just adjusting, but pushing outward. The layered pattern expanded, new sections unfolding with a speed that made Clarice instinctively tighten her grip on the tablet. “…That’s new,” she said under her breath. Philip stepped forward slightly

The words didn’t just sit there—they pressed in.‘Engagement escalated.’It wasn’t a notification. It wasn’t a warning either. It felt like a shift in rules that had already taken effect before anyone in the room could react to it. The interface no longer looked like something they were interacting with—it looked like something that had stepped forward.Dean stood unmoving in front of it, his reflection now fully aligned with the structure, as if the system had adjusted itself to match him rather than the other way around. Clarice noticed it first, her voice tight. “…It’s syncing.” Philip frowned. “…Syncing with what?” She didn’t look away from the screen. “…With him.”That one line made the air heavier.Dean didn’t react outwardly, but he felt it. Not physically—not something he could touch—but something sharper, like pressure behind his thoughts. Not pain. Not discomfort. Just… presence. The system wasn’t just looking anymore.It was matching.“…Dean,” Clarice said quietly, “…someth

The moment the system made its choice—The room changed.Not in sound. Not in light.But in weight.Clarice didn’t blink as the highlighted section pulsed brighter than the rest, her fingers hovering over the tablet as if even the slightest wrong move would make things worse. “…It locked onto it,” she said quietly. Philip leaned in, his jaw tight. “…That’s not a test anymore.” The person behind them added in a low voice, “…No… that’s commitment.”Dean didn’t speak immediately.His eyes stayed fixed on the screen, watching how the system didn’t hesitate this time. No flicker. No recalibration. Just a clean, direct focus on one target while the rest dimmed slightly in priority.“…It chose the real core,” Clarice said after a second, her voice tightening. Philip cursed under his breath. “…So much for the decoy.” Clarice shook her head quickly. “…No—it worked.” A pause. “…It just wasn’t enough.”Dean finally spoke.“…No,” he said calmly. “…It was enough.”Both of them looked at him.“…It