Chapter 150: Eva's Executor Reward
The moment Majestic Star Dragon defeated the Wicked God in the sky above the mid-district, the scene became something more than a duel victory. In the middle of collapsing infrastructure and citywide confusion, that single blazing image of a star dragon cutting down a god became the first anchor point of returning order.
Every eye was fixed on the dragon.
And then, gradually, people began to notice that the starlight particles radiating outward from Majestic Star Dragon were not dissipating. They were staying in the sky. Spreading. Settling.
The false night sky, which should have remained dark given that the Eva Network was still crashing, began to quietly restore itself. Familiar constellations blinked back into place one cluster at a time.
The paralyzed network resumed operations. The crowded, gridlocked streets, which had lost all signal support moments ago, found their traffic flow restored within a matter of minutes.
The Wicked God battle, for all its apocalyptic scale, seemed to leave no permanent damage behind. The terror had swept through the crowd like a wave, and now it receded at the same speed.
What it left in its wake was a single entry at the very top of the Eva Network trending charts, crushing every other topic in the rankings by an enormous margin: the urban legend titled "Synchro Saves the World."
Some people speculated it was an elaborate marketing campaign by a large corporation.
Others called it the single biggest bug in Eva Network history.
A smaller contingent theorized that someone with antisocial intentions had used a god card as a viral carrier to breach the mainframe Eva's systems, and that Majestic Star Dragon had been the physical manifestation of Eva's own antivirus program at work.
The speculation multiplied endlessly across every forum and channel.
Meanwhile, Amano Rei, still present in the deepest layer of the Eva Network, was having a genuinely first-time experience: a face-to-face encounter with the mainframe Eva herself.
Or more precisely, a face-to-face encounter with the reward she was handing him.
GOD ELIMINATED. HERESY PURGED.
DISPENSING EXECUTOR REWARD.
He hadn't expected the mainframe Eva to be this generous. She had already printed him a card mid-duel for free. Now that the duel was won, she was also paying out bonuses to her proxy executors.
Like a genuinely good employer who looks after her staff.
Two cards drifted down from the network space in front of Amano and the miniature Rin Seiya, glowing with a light that felt recognizable. One for each of them.
The same warm glow as Majestic Dragon from earlier in the duel.
Amano reached out and caught his. But it wasn't Majestic Dragon.
It was Convergence Dragon.
CONVERGENCE DRAGON
LIGHT / Level 1
Dragon / Tuner / Effect
ATK: 0 / DEF: 0
This card's name is treated as "Majestic Dragon" while on the field or in the graveyard. When you draw this card, you can reveal it to Special Summon it from your hand. If you control a Level 8 or higher Dragon-Type Synchro Monster, you can also Special Summon 1 Level 1 Dragon-Type monster from your Deck.
Functionally an enhanced version of Majestic Dragon. It shared the same restriction of only being usable for Majestic Synchro Summons, but added the ability to Special Summon itself directly from the hand and recruit a second Level 1 Dragon from the deck. In practical terms, it made assembling the Majestic Synchro requirements significantly easier.
The miniature Rin Seiya's card was identical.
"I get one too!" She lit up immediately.
Both of them had been designated proxies, technically speaking. Though her contribution to the operation had consisted entirely of typing a line of code whose meaning was, as she had noted herself, extremely self-explanatory.
If the mainframe Eva's rewards weren't soul-bound, she would have felt embarrassed accepting it.
"I really did just ride your coattails there, didn't I. Getting the same reward as you."
And then, just as she said that, another card drifted down in front of Amano.
This one was his alone.
The mainframe Eva really was an exemplary employer. Employees who contributed more received proportionally greater rewards.
But when Amano picked up the second card, his brow furrowed slightly.
This card?
WORLD LEGACY - "STAR"
DARK / Level 6
Machine / Effect
ATK: 0 / DEF: 3000
Eve: "Three thousand DEF! That's enough to block Blue-Eyes White Dragon's attack! Does this mean my title as the deck's defensive wall is under threat?!"
Since when did you have the title of "deck's defensive wall," Amano thought. He was the deck's owner and this was the first he'd heard of it. Also, Blue-Eyes White Dragon's ATK was three thousand exactly, which was higher than Eve's DEF of two thousand one hundred, so the comparison didn't even hold up.
What caught his attention was something else. World Legacy - "Star" was clearly connected to Eve.
You couldn't see it from the ordinary Level 2 Priestess Who Receives the Star Chalice card. But the connection became obvious the moment you looked at the evolved form, Star Chalice Divine Child Eve.
Star Chalice Divine Child Eve's first effect read: When this card is Synchro Summoned, add 1 "World Legacy" card from your deck to your hand.
Up until now, Amano had never owned a single World Legacy card. That effect had existed in his deck as dead text for as long as Eve's Synchro form had been available. He had simply treated it as though it wasn't there.
Having World Legacy - "Star" now genuinely completed a missing piece of Eve's card ecosystem.
Though calling it an "ecosystem" might be generous given that it was essentially two cards.
Eve: "I'm telling you, I absolutely was the key to this victory! Amano, put your hand on your heart and tell me honestly. Who blocked the god's attack for you?"
That was a fair point.
And the comment brought something back to him. The Soulswindler's words during the Dark Game, the strange thing she had said when the space around them went haywire. Something to the effect that the mainframe Eva had been drawn to this location specifically because Eve was summoned. That summoning Eve, even in the deepest layer of the network, had acted as a signal.
The Soulswindler's claims were not things Amano had any strong inclination to trust. But her panic in that moment had not looked like a performance.
So was Eve actually connected to the mainframe Eva in some way?
He cursed his past self a little for spending his transmigrated life watching anime and not reading enough card lore.
The thought about the Soulswindler pulled his attention back to the present.
"Right, the Soulswindler."
He had gotten so accustomed to Dark Game opponents collapsing unconscious after losing that he hadn't even thought to check on her. Standard Dark Game protocol: you lose, you go down, you stop causing problems. It was a reassuringly orderly system.
But when he looked toward the spot where the Soulswindler had been standing, what he found was not the face she had been wearing during the duel. The full-sized version of Rin Seiya's appearance was gone. What lay there now was a small, shrunken figure, the same child-sized proportions as the miniature Rin Seiya standing beside him, but with black hair instead of white. The same face. The same build. Just the opposite coloring.
Amano's instincts told him this was the real thing. Not the Soulswindler's costume, but the genuine dark side that had been separated from Rin Seiya's soul, the thing that had existed before the Soulswindler puppeted it into a full-sized imitation.
So had the Soulswindler itself escaped after losing, the same way the Puppeteer always did?
While Amano was still turning that over, he noticed something on the ground beside the dark-haired miniature: a mask. Familiar. He crouched down and picked it up, and confirmed it was the same mask depicted on the identity card the Soulswindler had thrown to him before the duel started.
The moment he touched it, the system chimed. The mask dissolved in his hand.
IDENTITY DETECTED. REGISTERING.
IDENTITY: "SOULSWINDLER"
THE ULTIMATE DECEPTION IS DECEIVING THE ENTIRE WORLD.
"Try telling the Eva system you have a god card in your hand."
The brief and baffling system description gave Amano absolutely no clear picture of what new function had just been added to his already inexplicable romance-management system.
But it seemed the Soulswindler had been absorbed into his system.
Since when did you eat people, he thought at the system. Aren't you supposed to be a relationship tracker?
He decided he was too tired to process that right now.
"Nom nom nom." A strange, small sound. Coming from the direction of the dark-haired miniature on the ground, apparently made while still unconscious.
"Watch out, Amano!" The white miniature Rin Seiya jumped forward immediately. "The Soulswindler is waking up!"
"Senpai, I don't think that's the Soulswindler anymore."
The dark-haired miniature's eyes opened. The black star-shaped pupils, the complete inverse of normal Rin Seiya's appearance, stared up at Amano with what could only be described as disbelief. There was even a trace of fear in them.
"Amano. Why... why are you here?"
Even the dark version reacted the same way as the real one, not with the coy suggestiveness the Soulswindler had performed, but with genuine startlement. Honestly kind of endearing.
"Are you here to kill me?"
That reaction was completely unlike the real one.
Senpai, what exactly happened to you that your dark side developed this particular worldview?
"I'll never lose to you, Jack Atlas! Cursed Dragon Birthmark holder!"
Ah. So the dark side had decided Amano was Jack Atlas and had cast itself as a Dark Signer. Or possibly was very committed to a roleplay scenario.
After the divine battle, Amano was exhausted in a way that went beyond tired. He had no capacity left to engage with any of this at the level it apparently required.
"Sure, sure. Dark Signer Rin Seiya. Come along quietly."
He reached down, tucked the small struggling figure under one arm like a wayward cat, and started walking.
The tiny body thrashed with genuine fury and could not escape at all.
Eventually the dark-haired miniature gave up on escaping and settled for verbal protests.
"Unforgivable! I won't forget this, Jack Atlas!"
"Sure, sure. Hold onto that grudge, Dark Signer Rin Seiya."
The goal was straightforward. Take both small Rin Seiyas back through the mirror passage to the original soul room. Once the white and dark halves were back in their proper space together, they should be able to reintegrate.
Though the lingering question remained: why was Rin Seiya's soul room connected to the deepest layer of the Eva Network? Why had the Soulswindler called her body special? Neither Amano nor Rin Seiya herself seemed to have any answer to that, and her reaction throughout had suggested she was just as confused as he was.
He carried both miniatures back through the mirror corridor and dropped them into the soul room.
Exactly as he had guessed. Once they were back in the proper space, the two miniature Rin Seiyas rejoined without incident, and the restored single full-sized Rin Seiya materialized in front of him.
That explained the real-world symptoms. The Soulswindler had split Rin Seiya's soul in half, and an incomplete soul had caused the body to produce physical symptoms in response. Persistent high fever. Continued deterioration. The soul made whole, the body would follow.
"Finally back to normal!"
The first thing restored Rin Seiya did was check herself over.
"Good. Nothing actually shrank."
She ran her own assessment in the methodical way of someone who had apparently established certain personal benchmarks, and confirmed that familiar reference points were intact, the kind one would know from, say, bathing.
Wait. Why would she know from bathing?
Rin Seiya noticed immediately that something was off.
After her split soul reintegrated, she seemed to be missing something rather important.
Amano felt obliged to note, once again for the record, that he had not been hoping for this outcome.
Soul exchange.
With Rin Seiya's soul restored to wholeness, the Hacker Invasion skill completed its handover, and Amano found himself in possession of Rin Seiya's body with full motor control.
He pushed himself up from the sofa. The body still ran slightly warm to the touch, but nothing like the dangerous fever from before. Visibly recovering, fast.
Rin Seiya: "I know you did this to save me, but I still think you owe me something for it."
Amano: "Sure, sure."
Rin Seiya: "Don't brush me off."
Amano: "Sure, sure~"
These situations were genuinely beyond anyone's ability to plan around.
Senpai, you'll get used to it eventually.
The Soulswindler's purpose in using Rin Seiya's soul to break into the deepest network layer was still entirely unclear. But if Amano hadn't used Hacker Invasion, Mana's assessment would likely have proven accurate: the condition would have become genuinely dangerous. At minimum.
He checked the time. Only one hour had passed since the Hacker Invasion began.
Which meant one more hour remained before the skill's two-hour duration expired and his soul would return to his own body automatically.
The two-hour timer had always struck him as unreasonably long for a skill like this. What conceivable emergency would require two full hours of operating from inside someone else's body? He had located the problem, navigated a soul room, identified a new antagonist, survived a two-god Dark Game, and defeated the Soulswindler all in one hour. What was the second hour for?
He stretched Rin Seiya's legs out idly and found himself noting, with some objectivity, that her feet were genuinely elegant. Very fair. Well-proportioned.
He was still working out how to constructively spend the remaining hour when the front door's intercom chimed.
Someone was at the door. At 9:30 at night.
Amano: "Senpai, is it your parents?"
Rin Seiya: "My parents wouldn't ring. They'd just come straight in."
Right. And Rin Seiya's parents returning mid-visit was currently his worst-case scenario. Under normal circumstances he could claim to be visiting her as a classmate checking in on a sick friend. Under current circumstances, his own body was unconscious on the sofa and he was operating hers. If her parents walked in right now, the situation would be genuinely indefensible.
His first instinct was to simply stay quiet and let the intercom ring out.
But whoever was outside was remarkably persistent. Ten minutes passed. The ringing did not stop.
At this rate the building's security staff would notice.
He ran through the possibilities. A friend visiting to check on her? At this hour, pressing the bell continuously for ten minutes without getting a response? That level of determination at 9:30 PM suggested someone closer to a dedicated admirer than a casual acquaintance. Rin Seiya was the top-ranked student at the academy and widely considered its standout female duelist. A passionate pursuer or two was not implausible.
Rin Seiya: "There's a security camera at the door. You can see who it is."
Amano: "Oh, right, that's convenient."
Forgive him. He had grown up in a building that did not have those.
He pulled up the door camera feed from inside to see which of Rin Seiya's admirers had chosen tonight of all nights to make a dramatic entrance.
Well. They were good-looking, he'd give them that.
Soft, pale crimson hair that stood out clearly even through a security camera feed.
He had said moments ago that Rin Seiya's parents returning was the worst-case scenario.
On reflection, that analysis had been incomplete.
There was a worse case.
Finesse was standing outside the door.
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