“Project Simulacrum…?” Iris gazed around in wonder. “What is that?”

“Eh… ever played a bloody VR game before?” Jim asked, rubbing his chin.

Finn and Iris both nodded.

“Yeah, it’s kinda like that,” Jim explained. “Basically, ya enter one o’ these pods, n’ get sent in to a virtual simulation. There, ya can train in simulated missions, fight against other Hunters, use yer Angelicas n’ Abilities as much as ya want and go all out. Even killin’ is allowed in the simulation, since it won’t really kill ’em in real life.”

“Huh, interesting,” Finn muttered. “To sum it up… these ‘pods’ connect with our mana flow somehow, analyze it, and allow us to recreate Angelicas’ Abilities in a virtual world?”

“About right, yeah.” Jim shrugged, then smiled suggestively. “So, whaddya say? Wanna have a try at fightin’ an S-Class Hunter?”

Iris turned to Finn. “What do you think…?”

After some hesitation, Finn responded.

“… Sure.”

Fighting against those stronger than yourself was a good way to get stronger, and Finn also wanted to form a pact with this man, Jim Halifax. If he could gain an S-Class Ghost Hunter as an ally, that would be extremely helpful whenever he needed assistance. After all, Jim didn’t seem like a bad guy, minus his corny jokes.

Jim smirked and folded his arms. “Good! You got some bloody guts, kid, I’ll give ya that. Find an empty pod and lie inside it, then relax yer bloody muscles. We’re aboutta have one hell of a fight.”

After Finn lowered himself into an empty pod under Iris’s directions, the door immediately slid shut with the sound of machinery. Once this was over, however, all noise seemed to fade away, and there was nothing but utter silence.

That is — until four metal cuffs suddenly activated and locked onto Finn’s body, two on his wrists and two on his ankles. Finn tried fighting back, but they were too tight to resist. They also seemed to be mana-restricting, since Finn couldn’t feel the mana flow in his body anymore. The pod’s system, detecting his thrashing movements, gave a little friendly warning in the tone of a gentle female AI.

[Relax your body, Hunter. Stay still as best as you can to help with the system’s calibration process.]

Hearing this, Finn finally relaxed. He had originally thought he accidentally triggered some sort of emergency protocol, but he now realized it was just the normal procedure.

[Calibration complete. Initializing neuro-link: 3… 2… 1…]

[Neuro-link complete. Last-minute check-ups: Front entrance sealed. Subject locked. All systems functional. The simulation will now begin.]

Finn felt his surroundings turn a bright white, which didn’t make sense considering he shouldn’t even be able to see. After several seconds of this strong, blinding light, however, it slowly calmed down a bit, revealing a cubic white room. Around Finn were several holographic panels, ranging from ‘Director’ to ‘Roster’.

‘I can… see?’ Finn thought in his head, blinking several times to be sure.

This place definitely felt different to the reality rift where he spends time with Zelestria, but in a way, they were similar. Finn’s physical body wasn’t here in this virtual world, which obviously meant his physical deficiencies — blindness — were naturally not carried over either.

Before he could explore the panels any further, however, a short yet loud noise rang out from behind him. He spun around to see the Roster panel, where a little ‘1’ was labeled next to an icon with two human silhouettes. Hesitantly, he tapped on the icon, and the page switched.

[ Online Friends | Messages | Requests ]

He seemed to be on the Online Friends tab right now, which displayed nothing. The Requests tab was blinking, however, signaling there was something waiting for Finn there.

He tapped on it and saw that he had received a friend request from ‘Jim Halifax’. Beside the name was a portrait of said person, along with two buttons: one checkmark, and one X. He could also choose to expand the friend request to read the message that was sent, but there was no reason to do so. Without any hesitation, Finn pressed on the checkmark and accepted the request.

Immediately, a new pop-up appeared on the panel before him:

[You have been invited to join a fireteam.]

[From: Jim Halifax]

[Accept/Decline?]

“…” Finn, after experimenting a bit with trying to use his various Angelicas, realized all of them still worked here. He also still wore the same clothes he had on when he entered the pod, namely the black armor set with wings he had received from Mavrick. His gauntlets were also still on his hands, and he could activate them at will just like in the real world.

Finn also noticed that he was unable to contact Zelestria in here. Normally, he felt a connection between himself and her that was always active in his mind, but here, he felt nothing. This made sense, considering this place was a virtual world that didn’t actually exist in the reality that Zelestria governs.

With all this confirmed, he pressed on ‘Accept’. Instantly, his surroundings changed as he felt himself being teleported to a different white room.

“Aye, mate, there you are.”

Finn turned around to see Jim’s toothy grin, no different from real life.

“I gotta say, ya look… different with open eyes.”

Finn blinked his black eyes and ignore the remark. “Where is Ivis?”

“Just sent her an invite,” Jim replied. “Should be ‘ere any second now… ah, there.”

Finn followed his gaze to see Iris, who held an expression of surprise on her face as she saw Finn. Finn too was a bit shocked — mainly because of Iris’s eyes.

One was a deep, royal gradient purple, while the other was a magnificent turquoise that carried hints of blue. They were beautiful, to say to the least. He could finally see why Archon said Iris was quite the beauty, and why Storm and Octane both had a crush on her.

“Finn… you can see?” She asked excitedly.

Finn nodded. “And you can walk.”

“Wow… so this is what you looked like before you were blinded, huh?” Iris remarked, a smile on her face. “Hm, how do I say it, you look kind of like a… nerd?”

Jim cracked open with laughter. “HA! Ain’t that right?! I can already imagine the kid with glasses! No wonder he likes bloody libraries so much!”

“…” Finn sighed and turned away. “When are we going to fight?”

“Heh. So eager ta get yer asses handed to ya? Fine by me,” Jim chuckled and began operating the ‘Director’ panel which had a plethora of different clickable nodes, from ‘Containment’ to ‘Arena’ among various other training modes.

For the sake of today, Jim chose ‘Private Matches’. After fiddling with the settings a bit and setting Iris and Finn on the same team, he clicked his tongue and turned back to the two.

“Alright. Last chance to back out, kids. You sure ya want to do this?”

“How are we going to get stronger if we back out every time we’re faced with a challenging task?” Iris smiled confidently. “Even if we may lose to you, it’ll still be a learning experience.”

Jim’s lips curved up into a smile, as Iris met his with one of her own and taunted him with a wink.

“Bring it on, Tarot.”