Not through optimization. Not through min-maxing my extraction schedule or gaming the System's mechanics to squeeze another percentage point out of my stat growth. I survived because Naomi's Gold buff turned her into an aerial weapons platform that kept the team alive during the initial chaos. Because Belle's Silver detection guided the group through ravines full of mantis creatures to the core location. Because Jordan's shadows held the guardian long enough for me to reach its weak point. Because Hikaru moved through the darkness like she'd been born in it, covering gaps that should have been fatal. Because Blair Davenport, the woman who wanted me destroyed, channeled her Hellflame with surgical control through a crack I'd carved with stolen death mana.
Because Misato's clones bought seconds that became minutes that became survival.
