Chapter 50: Alice & Logan

"Idea?" Logan looked at her, curious. "What is it?"

"First, use your Tier Points and increase your Player Tier. How much further can you go at once?"

Logan opened his status.

```

[ Status ]

Name: Logan Wolf

Class: Axiom Blade Grimlord (Mythic)

Talent: Boundless Genesis (X)

Level: 10 | Tier: 1

-- Stats --

HP: 1720/1720

MP: 2500/2500

Attack: 20

Speed: 15

Constitution: 17.2

Arcane: 21

```

"I want to increase my stats as well," Logan said it with involuntary longing, even as he opened the Player Tier tab. ’I managed to get all three Player Grace Fruits in the match. If I can find more such resources in all matches, that’d be the best.’

```

[ Player Tier: 1 -> Tier 2. Cost: 1,000 Tier Points. ]

```

Logan increased it right away.

```

[ Player Tier: 2 -> Tier 3. Cost: 5,000 Tier Points. ]

[ Player Tier: 3 -> Tier 4. Cost: 25,000 Tier Points. ]

[ Player Tier: 4 -> Tier 5. Cost: 50,000 Tier Points. ]

```

Logan stopped there. He didn’t have 50,000 Tier Points.

"Alright, I reached Tier-4."

"Tier-4? How much did you even earn..." Alice caught the resolve underneath his voice too. "Tier-4 means you spent 31,000 Tier Points. Pretty bold. Looks like you’re already sure about winning your next match. Floor 4’s got three types of games. One’s the usual Battle Royale, same as what we just did, except the map gets crazier and there’s more events packed into the match. The other two are short playthroughs, high loss, high reward. What are you planning?"

Logan grinned. "High loss, high reward. I’m playing Star Hunters next, on Floor 4. Lasts two days at most given how the gameplay progresses, and I get to build a Mega Spaceship out of it too. We can bring one outside if we hit the right score milestone and win, so that’d be awesome." He paused. "Anyway, what’s your idea?"

’I should be able to merge the spacecraft in Star Hunters too, right? They’re considered summon units in that game.’

Alice chuckled. "A spaceship? Sounds like you want to leave the planet entirely. It’s true, people have started exploring on their own thanks to the powers they’ve picked up playing Tower games, and we’ve made contact with other civilizations because of it. I want to see another world too, honestly. Sounds fun."

She paused a beat. "Coming to the main point. Since you want to play Star Hunters, my idea is you reveal yourself as Player L, but under a different, forged identity, and publicly join my parents’ Agency. This planet is flourishing more than it ever has, but it’s ruled by the powerful. Specifically, the Tier-9 Players, and a few of them are already pushing toward Tier-10. The Tier Point requirement to actually reach Tier-10 is brutal, so they need to win match after match, which means the ones who’ve made it that far have amassed serious power along the way."

Logan’s mind flashed back to Andrivida’s status. ’Tier-9 Mythic units.’

’No wonder they say a whole city comes under threat whenever two Tier-9 Players actually fight.’

Most battles stayed inside the Tower’s games, naturally.

"A forged identity." Logan’s eyes cleared as the shape of it settled into place. "So nobody goes looking for Logan and his family, because they already know exactly who Player L is."

"Bingo." Alice smiled.

"Why?" His face turned somber. "Why are you helping me? Why do you even want to do this?"

Alice studied his face. The doubt in it. The distrust. A thin edge of anxiety underneath both.

"You’re scared. I don’t know why yet."

Logan’s fists clenched.

Of course he was scared.

He had a Talent that could merge two units of the same rank into something a full rank higher. If the wrong person ever found out, they wouldn’t need much imagination to see the play, threaten his family, capture him, blackmail him into buying up low-rank summons with Tower Points and merging them over and over until anyone could walk into any match with Mythic units.

"I am scared." Logan let out a breath. "And I want to trust you. It’s just difficult."

Alice grabbed his hand without warning. "Chill out. I’ll be straight with you. I’m picky. Cold, usually. My brain and my heart only really turn on for people I actually take an interest in, people I like. Everyone else, screw them. It’s half the reason my parents and I are on bad terms with most of our relatives. They’re shitty people who act like walking turds, and I tell them that to their face, which they don’t exactly love."

"Of course, they can’t do anything to me. My parents are Tier-9, hehe."

"..." Logan.

Alice grinned. "What I’m saying is, I like you. And I like your family, after meeting them. And hey, I already know a lot about you. Like how you peed on a neighbour from the second floor when you were seven."

"Wha-" Logan’s ears went red, cheeks going faintly pink to match. "That woman was berating my parents. I had reasons."

"Ha, I know." Alice laughed, delighted. "You handled it about as well as anyone that age possibly could have."

Logan managed a smile despite himself, then dragged the conversation back on track. "So. Why?"

Alice looked at him, still smiling. "Because when we met, when we talked, when we fought, I felt good. And when I feel good about someone, I want to keep being around them. That’s the whole reason."

"Not because of the Mythic units?" He raised an eyebrow.

Alice laughed. "Sure, that’s part of why I felt good too."

"Player L’s Talent is Mythic-rank," Logan said slowly, eyes fixed on hers. "It temporarily transforms a unit up to Mythic-rank, with a quest attached to it. Complete the quest, and the transformation becomes permanent."

Alice’s eyebrows lifted, genuinely caught off guard. "That’s interesting."

"Ninety percent false, ten percent true. Give or take." She held his gaze the whole time she said it, then smiled.

Logan went completely still. ’How does she know I’m lying?!’

"Anyway, it’s fine. I’m not going to force the truth out of you. I’m curious about your Talent, sure, but it’s yours. I’m more interested in you than in it." She tilted her head. "So. Leon Flanke, as your new identity? Sounds about perfect, doesn’t it?"

Logan smiled wryly. "Leon Flanke it is."

Alice stood and grinned down at him. "Alright. Now let’s deepen the bond. Familiarity raises trust, right? Same as any game."

Logan blinked and got to his feet too. "What do you mean?"

"I mean we hang out. Get to know each other properly." She looked him over. "How many Tier Points have you got left right now?"

"A bit over ten thousand." He answered honestly. "Forty-one thousand, total, before I spent any of it."

Alice let out a low whistle, genuinely impressed.

"Let’s go to Nebula City." She pulled a small egg-shaped device out of thin air, a screen embedded in its curved surface, almost certainly drawn from the storage ring on her finger.

"Nebula City." Logan turned the name over. "One of the major player trading hubs. I wanted to buy some things there anyway."

The aircraft arrived in front of them a moment later and opened up.

Alice jumped in first, then glanced back at him with a smile. "Andi’s already there. The whole area’s under her control and surveillance. Your summons are there too. Everyone’s safe."

Logan nodded and climbed in after her.

"I figured you’d want to shop for materials the second I saw Synthia." Alice grinned. "You want her to craft things so you can sell them, right? That’s a solid way to earn Tier Points."

"Yep."

People who had production-type classes usually use their class to produce things, sell them, and earn Tier Points.

Alice let out an amazed sigh. "Four Mythic-rank units, two combat, two production, in your first match ever. People would die of envy."

"If they knew how I got them because of my talent, they’d kill me instead of themselves," Logan muttered. "Well, worse than kill, perhaps."

Alice laughed. "But you got them because of your Talent. That’s just fate. Nothing anyone can really do about it."

Logan looked at her.

Beautiful. Bold. Powerful.

His heart did something small and traitorous every time she looked at him and smiled, or grinned, or did anything at all with that face. She looked genuine the whole way through.

He felt like trusting her.

"Why are you staring at me?"

His cheeks flushed, and he looked straight ahead instead.

Alice laughed and threw up a V sign. "Am I beautiful?"

"You are. And you already know it." He rolled his eyes.

’I should tell her...’

She already knew he could pull a small army of Mythic units out of nowhere. Her parents were Tier-9 Players. She had a Tier-9 Mythic unit personally guarding her, and probably more safety gimmicks, guards, and whatnot. Tier-9 Players must have a lot of stuff and summons.

’If she wanted me dead, it wouldn’t take her a full second.’

’If she wanted the information, wanted to use me to build her own Mythic army, she could have already done it. My family was alone with her for two straight days. She had every opportunity.’

’But she didn’t. She erased my academy records instead. She’s actively protecting me. And all of that because...she felt good about me?’

She was the type that moved on instinct, but she stayed aware of her instincts the whole time, choosing to follow them deliberately instead of just drifting along.

He felt like he could fall for her any moment now.

But going against instinct was exactly what had let humans get this far in the first place.

Should he follow his, here? Or fight it, take the time to actually think this through, weigh it properly before deciding whether to tell her anything real at all?

Telling her now would raise the trust between them, no question. Trust never came with guarantees, but it did real work regardless.

Give trust, and trust tended to come back.

"You’re deep in thought, darling~" Alice poked one finger against his cheek.

"..." Logan.

She was making it genuinely hard not to follow his instincts!

"We have solid chemistry, honey. You just need to open up a bit." Alice grinned.