Wide-eyed, Max stared at Cy. What did he mean Darius knew what the system was? The whole time? Why didn’t he say anything? Darius dropped enough clues and threats about his previous lives that there was no doubt he knew exactly how much finding out about the system would mean to Max and people like him. Darius didn’t say anything explicitly. Finally, Max forced a few words out while keeping his cool. “What are you talking about?”

  From Max’s tone alone, it was clear Cy knew he was in a sensitive area. He never showed his awareness of it though. “Come on now. Couldn’t you have guessed Dad would know more? One look at you, and he knew several of your past names. Hell, he was even the one distinguishing and categorising before, during, and after people.”

  “What else did he say about the system?” Max clarified his question. Cy gave him a little shrug, which just made it so much harder to keep his temper. “You know the goal of the story I’m trapped in is to learn what the system is. I can potentially by-pass the whole thing if you tell me what Darius knew.”

  Cy thought for a moment while staring in Max’s direction without particularly looking at him. Was he trying to make a judgement call based on his fate? Eventually, Cy sighed. “He didn’t tell me a lot.” Max’s face darkened when met with refusal again, but Cy showed no fear. “He said we should figure it out for ourselves. Apparently, we’d have a ‘bad time’ if he were to just tell us.”

  “And you believed that?”

  “Why wouldn’t I? I’ve had to live with a penalty my whole life because of people talking about the system.” Max suddenly looked away, feeling slightly ashamed. “But he did keep bringing up that weird riddle you told Delrid. What exactly was the wording again?”

  Max took a deep breath, relieving some of the tension between them. “She figured it was ‘Rebel Against The System.’ There were a few other words hidden in the descriptions where the message showed.”

  “Which were?”

  “Revolt… Swap… Star… Locate… Break logic…” He recalled from when he told Delrid.

  “Revolt?”

  “It’s one that I missed. I noticed it when I checked the HUD earlier.”

  “Did you miss anything else?”

  Max groaned as he pulled up the log. It was going to take a long time to look through the entries. “It’s going to take a while to check them.” At least one of the benefits of having a HUD was they could be thorough. “Why?”

  “You focus on finding them,” Cy ordered, causing Max to frown, but he complied without complaining.

  “I think that’s all of them. Delrid thought they were instructions on how to rebel.” Cy didn’t reply. “We’ve been swapping genres of incomplete stories,” Max toyed with the idea. “Do you think that counts?”

  Although he wasn’t being serious, the flow of words from Cy’s mouth surprised him. This idea had clearly been thought through before. Was Cy paying close attention when Max listed them off in front of Delrid?

  “You revolted against the system already by not complying with choosing a story. We know you’re doing a theoretically impossible six-star story. In the past, you’ve located during people with that cult of yours, and now you’ve met a few before ones who you can recognise and remember.” There was a slight pause while Cy showed a complicated expression. “I think your runes break the system’s logic, and that’s why you can change fixed fates with ease.”

  “So, I’m all set?” Max was suddenly feeling pretty good about his situation. The more he thought about it, the more he felt confused. “Wait, how is this rebelling? The system has been making us do most of those things through the sub-goals.” Cy suddenly looked like a deer in headlights. “It created the six-star story. We weren’t the ones to come up with changing genres, and sub-goals have been pushing us to meet people.”

  “But the system didn’t like you trying to avoid the story prompts,” Cy argued back. “And it recently banned you from writing.”

  “Well, maybe it wants me to be an after without messing up everyone’s fixed fates?” It still didn’t make much sense. The instructions within the prompts were cryptic and suggested fighting the system. On the other hand, the system seemed to semi-support the suggested ways of rebelling. “What was Dairus’s thoughts on all this?”

  Lost in confusion, Cy seemed more willing to spill secrets. “He had mixed feelings about the system, but he wanted you to help me understand how someone becomes an after in exchange for me helping you complete the six-star story.”

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  “What’s the point of completing it if he already knows what the system is? Does something happen when we finish it?”

  “Was,” Cy corrected, without thinking. “And how should I know?”

  “Was?”

  “Dad sees the past, remember? It might be different now.”

  “So, Darius wants us to figure out how someone can become an after person while learning how the system has changed? And rebelling is his suggested way?”

  “I don’t know,” Cy said in a huff before finally sitting down. All of this thinking was making him drained. Max could tell throughout the whole conversation; Cy had been frequently changing their fates. “Are sub-goals mandatory?” It felt like Cy’s question came out of nowhere. “I know there’s a time limit, but can we skip them since they’re helping you rebel?”

  “It depends. Technically yes, all sub-goals are not mandatory. But it’s a terrible idea. There will always be some kind of penalty which comes with failure to complete it, and it’ll make reaching the end goal significantly harder. With a goal as vague as mine, sub-goals become even more crucial. When I was trying to do five-star, failure meant it would be better to restart than trying to salvage it.”

  “Then you were awfully calm when that sub-goal appeared,” Cy noted with a raised eyebrow.

  “Probably because I’m used to failure at this point,” Max openly admitted. “It’s just part of the course with five-star stories. I don’t expect to be able to live until the end of this one either… Maybe I should just cut this life short?” Max suggested. He couldn’t understand the face Cy was making, but it was clear he didn’t agree with his idea. It took him a moment to remember he almost killed Cy just to elongate this life. Flustered, Max began rambling. “OrNot. ItWouldBeSuch AWaste Of an opportunity.” His speech began to slow when he realised Cy hadn’t taken offence. “Maybe we should reduce rebelling against it as much as possible.”

  “No, we should ignore the idea completely and keep focused on trying to reach this story’s end goal. Whatever happens, happens,” Cy finally declared.

  “Okay, I trust you.” Max couldn’t say anything against his plan. Cy knew more than him about the situation. Besides, he had already outsmarted him before, who else was better to trust in this scenario? There was a complicated expression on Cy’s face, causing Max to poke around for a bit more information. “What else did Darius say about becoming an after person.”

  “Not much,” Cy admitted. “He never went further with his explanations. The only thing he made clear was joining the next group was never a good thing. It was the main reason why he chose to step off your blue lines in Tsujuma.” Max frowned. He didn’t like what Cy was saying. “There was a potential outcome where we both could have survived your attack. The odds were significantly slimmer, but it was possible. He didn’t want that though. Dad didn’t even consider it when I brought up the idea because if he lived much longer in this life, he could’ve become like you.”

  Max didn’t believe the explanation for even a second, although it was clear Cy did. To avoid stirring up trouble, he decided to keep the conversation going and play along with Darius’s decisions with his own death. “Why? What triggers people into remembering their reincarnations?”

  “He never said.”

  “What about you? Are you at risk of remembering?” Cy didn’t say anything. “Maybe we should our separate ways if you’re-”

  The door slammed open to show a sweatier and drunker Nik. He barked at them, “SHUT YOUR GOBS! I can’t think a thing with all this yapping.”

  Max and Cy exchanged looks before Cy replied calmly. “Sorry, Nik. We’ll stop talking.” Nik gave Cy an unconvinced look, but he left without any fuss.

  Max pressed his lips together while he thought to himself. They couldn’t talk anymore. Max couldn’t write little notes to him either with the requirement blocking him. In desperation, Max tried to desperately gesture for Cy to answer his earlier question.

  Cy gave him a confused look before shrugging while shaking his head. Whether or not he understood Max’s frantic hand movements remained a mystery.

  “Morning,” Cy yawned, as he watched Max take a break from smacking down on the scarlet metal. “How long have you been working for?”

  Max gave him an envious look. The morning had been rough. At five in the morning, on the dot, Nik came bargaining into their room and dragged Max out by his collar while Cy gave excuses to stay in bed. After the rude awakening, Max was thrown a list of things to make before having to shamefully admit he couldn’t read. In anger, Nik shouted at him for at least an hour as he showed similar things to make with the little adjustments he wanted. Then, it was straight to work. Bessie was a slave driver, Farmer Bell was relaxed, but Nik… Thank goodness this was just a temporary set up.

  “Have you had breakfast yet?” Cy asked, before beginning to rummage through Nik’s cupboards.

  “No. We’re not supposed to touch that.”

  Cy let out a sigh before pulling out a money bag from his pocket. “Should I go out and get us something to eat? I’m sure you can manage everything until I get back.”

  “Get something to eat and start scanning the town for during people,” Max instructed before picking up the hammer again. “If you can, find Kurt and check out the estate. Teleport away if you feel like you’re in trouble.” The king was already hunting Max down, there was no reason why they should keep up his decree of hiding magic. “I don’t want to stay here for any longer than we have to.”

  Cy gave him a sympathetic smile. “This is why we threw him out of the community.”

  Max didn’t say anything. Darius’s secrets can wait, and the system can keep toying with him through cryptic messages. It was just a matter of time until he got the answers he wanted. After all, he had many lifetimes to get an explanation. The clangs of metal provided relief to his irritated mind. During their short conversation, the echoing snores of Nik had been driving his head in. It made him feel so on edge; he was beginning to feel physical pain near his jaw. Maybe he had been grinding his teeth in frustration?