The fifth time she stepped into the fog of dreams, the sudden drowsiness ebbed, and Yvette opened her eyes. The first thing she saw was the familiar ceiling of that cramped rental room; even the mottled stains were unchanged.
She pushed herself up a little and looked around. Night weighed heavy outside the window, and she was still at the exact place and time where the last Forth River dream had ended—inside that same rental room on the East Coast of the Rustbone Free State. On the lower bunk of the double bed, Lianna lay there, apparently asleep.
Was it because Zero had been acting alone before, which made time and space shift every time she came in? Now that she had become Zero, did the initiative naturally fall into her hands?
With that question lingering, Yvette closed her eyes and allowed herself a relaxed sleep. When morning came and she opened them again, she found that at some point Lianna had climbed into her bed. The girl lay on her side, eyes wide, staring at her intently.
“What is it?” Yvette wasn’t startled; if anything, she found it a little cute.
“I’m afraid you’ll suddenly leave,” Lianna said.
Yvette remembered the last moments before leaving the dream, the instructions she’d left for Lianna and Firefly. She hadn’t said it outright, but it did sound strange—like entrusting someone with a child. No wonder the kid made that association.
“Heading out? Where to?”
“Jadeite Continent, the capital of Glenoak—Jarde.”
“Okay!” Lianna brightened—finally leaving Rustbone made her happy. Then she asked curiously, “Why are we going to the Jadeite Continent?”
“Huh?” Lianna blinked. That was very much something an older sister would say—Yvette would never propose something this “grown-up.”
But… school—she’d never gone before—and the thought made her yearn for it.
Ten days later, Jadeite Continent, Jarde Port.
A deep, lingering synthetic horn blast pierced the autumn morning fog, rolled across the sea, and finally poured into the grand customs hall.
A colossal freighter named Luminous Algae, guided by pale blue currents of magic light, eased into its berth. Immediately, swarms of shuttle drones converged, beginning cargo scans.
Kicking open the iron door of one container, Yvette stepped first onto the slick deck. She glanced up just in time to see the passing drones’ indicator lights flip red—on the verge of sounding an alarm—but the state lasted less than half a second before switching back to green.
That fast? Yvette arched a brow and looked behind her.
“(√)” Firefly emerged from the shadows, its screen flashing a smiling emoticon.
Once the master-control AI of an Abyss base, it was a born rune hacker. While it might not match Yvette in certain high-difficulty domains, in low-to-mid-tier intrusions its efficiency left her in the dust—so fast it wasn’t even close.
“Sis, are we just… walking out ?” Lianna clambered out of the container after her, craning her neck to peek at the distant customs guards and ship crew, a little scared.
“Relax. They can’t see us,” Yvette said.
After obtaining the foundational underpinnings of Light-and-Shadow Magic from the Mysterious Garden, she had spent the ten years traveling the Jadeite Continent studying the discipline in earnest and hunting for every possible application.
Over the long course of research, her results fell into three main branches.
First was the restoration of Shadowmeld—mastering the power to merge into darkness, and even granting it to others.
Second was simple light-and-shadow manipulation—put plainly, changing the color of things like hair and irises to make disguise and makeup far easier.
Third was Sunlight Magic—also called Holy Light Magic—meant specifically for dealing with the undead; not much use in daily life.
Later, by fusing color manipulation with Shadowmeld, she discovered a synergistic trick: she could conjure a patch of shadow right on the ground. In broad daylight, that meant she could use Shadowmeld to slip away.
The only thing that felt off would be that stray shadow on the ground. But as long as she exercised care and didn’t show off, most people wouldn’t notice an inexplicable patch of shade gliding past their feet.
Soon, under Shadowmeld’s effect, two people and one machine blended into the shadows along the ground, slipped with ease through the bustling customs gates, and finally re-formed within a dense greenbelt grove by the port.
“Where do we go next?” Lianna asked, taking in the surroundings with fresh curiosity.
“Old Town, for now. We’ll settle in first,” Yvette decided.
From her advance research, Jarde had six major districts. The most bustling was the Greenvine District—also the site of Lingman Corporation’s global headquarters. ʀᴇᴀᴅ ʟᴀᴛᴇsᴛ ᴄʜᴀᴘᴛᴇʀs ᴀᴛ ⓝovelFire.net
Next were the Academy, Commercial, Industrial, and Dock Districts, which together held the bulk of the middle class.
The roughest was “Old Town,” the so-called slums—a cesspool much like Ish City’s Blackwater Zone. Pickpockets, fugitives, gangs, junkies, and even more undocumented dreamers who’d come to Jarde to make it big and failed—this was their haunt.
Of course, for two undocumented people like them, Old Town was the only place to get a foothold.
“But first, the looks have to change,” Yvette added. A Rune Circle flowered at her fingertip, and in the next second their striking silver and blonde hair turned into sleek black, while crimson and azure eyes darkened into a deep, uniform black. At a glance, they really did look like a pair of long–black-haired sisters by blood.
That evening, once they’d settled into a rental in Old Town, life quieted down for Yvette, Lianna, and Firefly—at least for the moment.
A few days later, gray-channel paperwork got them legal identities. But with Old Town’s rudimentary surveillance and lousy law and order, two powerhouses like them felt even more in their element, so moving wasn’t on the table.
Then Yvette hired an “auntie” as a paid guardian, enrolled Lianna in Lingman Academy’s middle school, and—using Light-and-Shadow Magic to mask herself—began drifting through top universities like Lingman University and Jarde University. She not only stole professional materials on natural magic, she also audited classes illegally for the long haul—downright criminal, really.
A few days later, on an oddly sweltering afternoon despite late autumn, she returned to the rental after illicitly auditing a lecture at Lingman University. Using a newly purchased Magitech Terminal, Yvette contacted the Firebearer to ask about the “God of Machinery” and any deeper intel on the “Firestealer Program.”
She had been busy these past days: first stowing away by sea with no network, then securing new identities, renting a place, finally hiring a fake guardian to help enroll Lianna. She herself had to scout the elite campuses in the Academy District. Only after half a month did the first quiet window appear—enough to consult the Firebearer.
Of course, the intel wouldn’t come free. The Firebearer no longer charged money, but he did require deeper cooperation from her.
She had no idea what exactly he meant by “deeper cooperation.”
“Long time no see, Miss Nameless. You’ve been mysterious lately—I haven’t the faintest where you went,” the Firebearer greeted her cheerily.
“Jadeite Continent,” Yvette said, keeping it brief.
“I see,” the Firebearer replied. “About the intel you need, I do have some leads—only learned them recently—but the information’s value isn’t low. I trust you’re prepared.”
“What do you want?” Yvette asked. “Can I barter materials? I have some necromancy papers.”
“We already have cutting-edge necromancy materials,” the Firebearer said. “If you’re willing to do this for us, I can throw in some hidden information about the Holy Spirit Sect. Might not be useful to you, though.”
Yvette hesitated. She also possessed the foundational rune schema of Light-and-Shadow Magic—priceless to the Origin Civilization—and she wasn’t about to hand it over. So she asked, “State your request first.”
“Miss Nameless, I want a favor. Find out the truth behind a covert joint project between Lingman Corporation and the Gravity Group called ‘Codename: Life.’ Based on your own moral judgment of it, decide whether to sabotage their plan,” the Firebearer said.
Yvette was surprised. “My own judgment?”
“Yes,” said the Firebearer. “We don’t know the project’s true nature—only troubling whispers. But as our comrade, your character, capability, and judgment are trustworthy. You decide completely. All I want after you act is a detailed report.”
Yvette weighed it for a moment and then nodded. “Alright. I accept.”
The task involved Lingman Corporation, and she herself was in Jarde—its home base—so the investigation would be convenient. She also had broad discretion. If it turned out to be nothing alarming, she could slip away without a ripple.
“Thank you for your help, Miss Nameless. I’ll front you a piece of intel as a down payment.”
The Firebearer sounded pleased. “Here it is: we recently learned that the late Firestealer Program’s origin was actually a leak of the ‘Core’ held by Skyvault Technology. We don’t know what it is, only that it’s as precious as the Black Tower’s ‘Divine Shedding,’ Linshed’s ‘Corrosive Seed,’ and Black Tide’s ‘Abyss’—yet different—because those latter three share the same root.”