Back in Logan's room, the two went to work. Following Logan's instructions, Quinn did as he was asked and got in the strange, large glass tube.
Once he was inside, the glass lowered, trapping him in the small space.
At the same time, Logan ran back over to his computer and started typing away.
"Can you hear me alright, Quinn?" Logan asked.
"Yeah," Quinn replied, his voice sounding somewhat muffled by the glass of the tube. "But I'm a little nervous that this is going to hurt."
Logan rolled his eyes.
"Oh, relax, you big baby," he replied. "Now, all you need to do is slowly start to use your Ability."
Quinn then proceeded to begin using his Shadow Skills in the tube. He started by activating his Shadow Control Skill, causing it to rise up from the bottom of the tube and make it move around.
In front of Logan, numbers began to appear on the computer screen, scrolling like crazy. However, as Quinn looked over, Logan's hands weren't even on the keyboard. In fact, Logan was just sitting there in front of the computer with his eyes closed and his hand resting on the corner of the monitor.
'Is that his Ability?' Quinn thought.
He thought back to some of the strange things that Logan had said yesterday when they had first met.
After touching Quinn's VR Pod, he had confidently said that the pod wasn't hacked. Then, there was the fact that when they had touched hands, Logan had said that he could see Quinn's System screen.
The test continued onward.
Next, Quinn activated his Shadow Cloak Skill, his body being enveloped in a shroud of shadowy mist.
Then, he used his Shadow Equip Skill. The same shadowy mist enveloped his hands up to his elbows, his whole upper torso, as well as his legs up to his calves. When the shadows dissipated, he was wearing his Intermediate-Tier Best Standard Gauntlets, the Intermediate-Tier Cave Spider Chestpiece, and his Intermediate-Tier Black-Horned Wolf Boots.
Quinn decided not to use his Shadow Storage Skill for a few reasons. First of all, it would be useless in the VR Game, similar to how his Blood Bank Skill was. Additionally, it seemed to be his only Skill that lacked a Level in his System. By that logic, he was likely unable to level it up. And a large reason why Quinn had even agreed to this in the first place was to Level Up his existing Shadow Skills so he could get enough Skill Points to unlock the Shadow Void Skill.
"...And we're done," Logan replied, rubbing his eyes.
He got up to walk to his bed, but as he did, he saw something out of the corner of his eye.
"Hmm?" Logan asked in curiosity.
He was a mass of metallic-silver liquid with the same consistency as slime began to appear from under his door crack.
The liquid seemed to be almost alive, as it pushed itself under the door.
As the liquid began to emerge on the other side, it congealed together into the shape of a large, basketball-sized blob.
Once the blob was fully formed, a pair of large, white eyes appeared on the front of the blob, blinking a few times.
The blob's body then twisted and contorted as it turned back to the door.
"Master,"the blob replied in a squeaky, high-pitched voice that made Logan jump back slightly. "Galina had made it through."
'The slime ball…talks?' Logan thought in surprise.
A moment later, Galina's body began to change.
Her body turned light-blue and began producing blue light, illuminating the space around her. Then, her body began to physically glitch.
Logan had to rub his eyes, just to make sure that he wasn't seeing things.
A moment later, Galina glitched out of existence.
Then, a group of glitching pixels began to appear in the space that Galina had just been in a moment ago. The pixels were clustered together into a humanoid shape roughly the same height as Logan.
After a second, Tsukuruglitched into existence inside the room.
As Tsukuru appeared, a System message appeared in front of him.
[Skill Video Exchange has been activated. -40 Energy
Energy: 60/180
Skill Video Exchange is now on cooldown. Time Remaining: 24 Hours]
Logan just stared at Tsukuru for a moment.
"I see you've adopted Shizuka's style of breaking and entering," he replied in a deadpan tone.
Tsukuru shrugged his shoulders with an amused smirk on his face.
"Well, actually, I didn't break anything," he replied. "So it's technically just 'Entering'."
Logan gave Tsukuru a hard look that told him that he didn't find Tsukuru's joke very amusing.
BehindLogan, the large tube began to open.
As Quinn emerged from the tube, he saw the same thing Logan had seen. Galina once again slipping under the door.
She hardened her body, taking on the shape of a ball, and rolled her way over to Tsukuru's feet.
It was then that light banging could be heard on the door, causing all three of the boys to turn to it.
"Hey!" Starrk replied in slight annoyance on the other side. "What about me?"
Tsukuru turned back around and opened the door.
Quinn and Logan then watched as Starrk walked through the doorway.
Logan sat down on the bed and let out a yawn.
"Well, I'm going to take a nap. I'm beat," he replied. "Quinn, all of the data has been transferred to that VR Pod over there. If you want to practice, go right ahead."
With that, Logan then laid down flat on his bed.
Almost instantly, Tsukuru swung around to face Logan.
"Hey, what the Hell?!" he complained. "I just got here! And since when do you sleep, Mr. 'I stay up all hours of the night working on inventions'?!"
However, it seemed that Logan was already fast asleep, which only seemed to make Tsukuru madder.
"Hey, I'm talking to you!" he yelled. "Logan?! LOGAN!!"
Eventually, Tsukuru let out a heavy sigh, and his shoulders slumped.
"Pain in the ass," he muttered under his breath.
"Huh, he's quite trusting to be able to fall asleep with you still in the room," the voice of the blond-haired man replied in Quinn's head. "If only he knew what you really were. I wonder if he would still feel as safe."
Quinn glanced back.
'Looks like you're starting to talk to me more now,' Quinn noted. 'Even when I don't ask you a question.'
Quinn then placed his hand on Tsukuru's shoulder.
Feeling the sudden weight, Tsukuru turned back to him.
"So, I'm gonna go use the VR Pod," he replied, jabbing his thumb back at the pod next to the computer.
Tsukuru looked at him for a moment before he then let out another sigh.
"Yeah, go ahead," he replied in an almost defeated tone. "It'll give me a chance to check on the other things in my System that were changed in the 'recalibration'."
Tsukuru slammed down onto the end of Logan's bed. The whole bed shook for a moment.
"Well, that's awfully rude," Reiju chided.
'He's a fucking midget,' Tsukuru retorted. 'He doesn't need a full bed anyway.'
Quinn walked back to the back of the room and placed his hand on the front of the VR Pod. Like with the pods in the VR Room, the lid of the pod opened with a hiss.
Quinn then got in and laid down on the bed.
The lid of the VR Pod then began to close.
After entering the game, like usual, Quinn was transported to the white room.
However, as Quinn tried to access the game's mainframe to try to select a match, nothing happened. Just like Logan had said, Quinn was completely isolated from the game. It was as if he were in some form of a Beta Version.
Additionally, when Quinn brought up the screen to select an Ability, only one option was available. The Shadow Ability.
After selecting the Ability, Quinn decided to test a few things.
Much like how his Blood Skills didn't use up his HP while in the game, using his Shadow Ability didn't cause his MC to go down.
As Quinn began trying out his Shadow Skills, he wanted to find out if there were ways to combine his two types of Skills, his Shadow Skills and his Vampire Blood Skills, together.
Meanwhile, back in the room, Tsukuru opened up his System UI.
"Now, where did I leave off?" he asked.
He pressed the bar for his "profile tab", and the three sub-tabs appeared. He then pressed the bar for his "Skills Tab," causing it to open.