Ice: "Wonderful… what terrible luck! How is my entanglement level still at 100%? Minutes ago I used the Loom, reached the Loom intersection phase, and even got a glowing tattoo!"
System: [Sir, you experienced a massive and temporary hormonal surge that activated the threads for five minutes, as I previously informed you. However, at your core, your threads remain completely tangled.]
Ice looked toward the ground with a shattered, frustrated expression. His long white hair hung over his eyes, reflecting the surrounding light like ice shards.
He had dared to believe that after fighting with such ferocity, he would keep that power forever.
Then suddenly — the feeling of suffocation and grief vanished from his heart. The psychological pressure lifted and he returned to his normal state as if nothing had happened — though his expression remained grim.
The system screen appeared suddenly, assembling like shards of glass.
[Notification: Emotions absorbed via Frost Parasite.]
Ice raised his head to read the notification. The moment the screen disappeared, he rose and looked at Zis sitting on the snow. A faint smile crossed Ice's face from a distance as he asked:
"What are 'customization points'?"
Kily: [To change the system's color or any specific feature, you need a certain number of points. Premium customizations require a large number of points.]
Ice hummed, glancing left and right at the enormous number of open windows he hadn't yet closed. Then he began closing them one by one in a moment of sudden clarity.
At the last window — the one displaying his statistics — his eyes landed on the word: "CODE."
Ice stiffened.
"What… a code? Can you define what a 'code' is, Kily?"
Before the system could respond, a sound of shattering ice boomed through the atmosphere. Ice turned to see Zis — who had just kicked a chunk of crystalline ice into a frozen protrusion, causing part of it to crumble.
Ice ignored Zis and redirected his focus to the system. Zis sensed the direction of the conversation and adjusted his posture.
Zis: "Do you want to know about Codes?"
Ice: "Yes."
Zis stepped two paces forward, his hands clasped behind his back, waiting for a signal from Ice. Then he turned to face Ice from a distance of three steps.
He unclasp his fingers and began:
"The Code is a cipher that passes through—"
Ice cut him off, deliberately avoiding looking at him with complete indifference.
Zis stared at him in genuine shock.
Ice: "That's alright. Thank you for the thorough explanation. System — define the word 'code' for me."
The system screen exploded in a rich, saturated violet glow directly in front of Ice — having shifted from behind him.
System: [Understood, sir. I will provide a brief explanation through an interactive simulation.]
The system screen expanded into a glowing glass sphere, encircling Ice in a violet halo. The system's voice became immersive — overriding his surroundings until even the snow beneath him turned violet from the light.
Inside this sphere — smooth as polished glass — a deep synthetic voice rang from the central screen, the only screen that had turned pure white to stand out.
System: [Imagine yourself as Zis.]
Ice: "That's difficult."
System: [Fair enough. Imagine you're an advanced Loom user.]
Ice: "Other than myself — who else would I imagine?"
A moment of silence. Then the white screen expanded to encompass the sphere itself, and Ice felt as if he were falling inward — plunging from a smooth curved cliff. He found himself in a world of absolute white. The deep voice preceded a resounding echo as the violet screen reappeared.
System: [Let your imagination loose and drift with me. The "Code" in your world isn't simply a skill you choose — it is the essence of your biological state. Loom threads extend through your tendons and blood vessels, following the pathways of your nerves and blood. The blood and nerve network differs from person to person by 100%.]
An image of Zis appeared, showing prominently dark red veins.
System: [Do you see that vein in his hand? Not everyone has that exact vein — at that size, in that location, at that pressure. Even your fingerprint and the distribution of your capillaries are unique. Therefore, the vibration of these threads differs from person to person — producing a mathematical frequency that never repeats.]
[Result: You are not granted a Code. Your biological fingerprint is read and converted into an equation. The name of that equation is "the Code." This is why no two people can have the same Code, and no single person can possess two Codes — the overlap of two different frequencies within the same body would cause a hydraulic explosion that would tear your veins apart.]
[Additional Data: There is a market for "chips." They are simply models in which someone converted their Code into energy and compressed it into a silicon chip. These chips can be used once — as Zeus did with you. The Code is injected into your threads for a set period; the better the chip's quality, the longer the energy stabilizes. Once the period ends, the chip burns out and the energy dissipates. Everything has a price. A chip containing two Codes is harmful — it functions like a virus. Was this explanation sufficient?]
Ice: "Impressive… though some concepts are still somewhat unclear."
System: [Alert: Sharp decline in intelligence levels detected. Loading "Idiot's Guide" to Loom compression.]
Ice: "No, no! I understand! I do understand!"
Suddenly, the white world vanished — collapsing inward as if water were being sucked into a drain. The ice returned with its cold.
Zis: "So… did you understand?"
Ice: "Certainly. I'll understand any explanation that isn't yours."
Zis laughed.
"Thank you for the sarcasm. Now we need to wrap up these trivial matters and move on to the main mission."
Ice: "But I still have questions."
Zis: "You'll find the answers later. The Academy is only 5 kilometers away.