The hub felt louder than Ash remembered. Not because anything had changed. Because he had.

  Players moved through the plaza in comfortable loops: crafting, trading, spamming emotes. The dungeon portals hummed cheerfully. NPC vendors barked their pre-recorded lines at exact five-second intervals.

  Darius stood half a step behind Ash, trying not to look like someone who had almost dissolved into system error forty-eight hours ago.

  “Are they here?” Darius said.

  “They said they would be,” Ash said.

  The dragon shifted on Ash’s shoulder, tail curling around the back of his collar. It had been quiet on the walk over.

  “They are already observing,” it said.

  Ash didn’t love that phrasing.

  He spotted Ravenous first.

  Hard to miss: heavy armor, broad silhouette, posture permanently set to “ready to tank something.” He was standing near the western portal, arms crossed, staring at nothing in particular.

  Dove leaned against a fountain nearby, pretending not to stare in their direction.

  HealerDad stood between them, fiddling with his inventory in a way that suggested he was absolutely not pretending.

  Ravenous noticed Ash first. His gaze lifted. Held. Then dropped to the dragon. Then shifted to Darius.

  He didn’t move. He didn’t wave. He just waited.

  Ash felt the hum like a thread pulling slightly taut as he stepped closer.

  “Hey,” Ash said.

  Ravenous exhaled slowly. “You brought it.”

  The dragon blinked. “I was already here.”

  Dove nearly choked on air. “It still talks.”

  “Yes,” Ash said. “It didn’t forget.”

  Dove stepped forward, circling slightly. “It’s… more solid.”

  The dragon’s wings flexed once. They looked smooth, crisp, and fully rendered.

  “You are perceptive,” it said.

  Dove grinned. “I try.”

  Ravenous’s eyes shifted to Darius.

  “And you,” he said. “You’re the other one.”

  Darius straightened instinctively. “Uh. Yeah. Darius.”

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  Ravenous studied him in silence for a moment too long.

  “Level?”

  “Thirty-six.”

  “Presence?”

  Darius hesitated.

  “Seven,” Ash said.

  Ravenous’s gaze snapped to Ash. “You’re monitoring him?”

  “Yes.”

  HealerDad finally spoke up. “Okay, before this turns into an interrogation, can we just acknowledge that we’re all standing in one piece?”

  Dove pointed. “So far.”

  Ash felt a flicker across his HUD.

  Party UI:

  Ravenous

  Dove

  HealerDad

  Ash

  Darius

  The frames locked.

  For half a second.

  Then a sixth frame tried to render. It went blank, glitched and then flickered out.

  Dove squinted. “Did anyone else just—”

  “Yeah,” HealerDad said.

  Ravenous’s jaw tightened. “We’re not grouped yet.”

  “I know,” Ash said.

  The dragon tilted its head, observing the party as if cataloguing them.

  “You carry structural integrity,” it said to Ravenous.

  Ravenous blinked. “I carry armor.”

  “Related,” the dragon said.

  Dove laughed. Then stopped.

  The ambient music in the plaza hiccupped; it looped the same three notes twice before resuming normally.

  Everyone heard it.

  No one commented.

  Darius shifted uncomfortably. “So. This is weird.”

  “Yeah,” Ash said.

  Ravenous finally uncrossed his arms and stepped closer.

  “Let’s do this properly,” he said. “We haven’t seen you in person since the dungeon spit us out.”

  Ash nodded once.

  “I know.”

  “And now you’ve got… backup.”

  Darius winced slightly at that word.

  “I didn’t ask for this,” he said. “I just—”

  “You almost erased yourself,” Ash said. “He tried to copy me.”

  Dove’s eyes lit up. “Copy you how?”

  “Lowering Presence without locking the floor,” Ash said.

  HealerDad grimaced. “That sounds unhealthy.”

  Ravenous studied Darius again.

  “You’re sure this isn’t an exploit?”

  Darius met his gaze. “If it is, it’s the worst one ever.”

  Ravenous barked a short laugh despite himself. “Fair.”

  The dragon leaned forward slightly.

  “He did not attempt rebellion,” it said. “He attempted understanding.”

  Ravenous looked at it carefully.

  “And what are you attempting?” he said.

  The dragon’s eyes narrowed faintly.

  “Continuation.”

  The word landed heavier than it should have.

  Dove clapped once. “Okay, that’s ominous. Love that.”

  Ash rubbed his face.

  “This isn’t about overthrowing anything,” he said. “It’s about… learning how the cracks in the game work.”

  “And if the cracks break the party?” Ravenous said.

  Ash didn’t answer immediately. The hum tightened slightly around them, like the system was leaning in.

  “I’m not trying to isolate,” Ash said. “But it reacts when we cluster.”

  “Cluster,” Dove said. “That’s new.”

  Darius swallowed. “We saw a message about that.”

  Ravenous’s eyes sharpened. “You saw a message.”

  Ash nodded once.

  “Interference detected.”

  HealerDad exhaled slowly. “Fantastic.”

  Another micro-hitch ran through the plaza. This time, a nearby player’s idle animation froze for half a second before snapping forward. The fountain water briefly flowed upward then corrected.

  Dove stared. “Okay. That’s not subtle.”

  The dragon’s claws tightened.

  “The system is measuring load,” it said.

  Ravenous turned to Ash. “So what’s the play?”

  Ash hesitated.

  This was the moment.

  He could say: “We don’t group.” He could protect them. Or he could test it.

  “We test,” he said.

  Ravenous nodded immediately. “Controlled.”

  He stepped toward the dungeon portal.

  “No Presence drops, no stat dumping, and no hero moments,” he said.

  Darius raised a hand. “Can I at least be mildly dramatic?”

  “No,” Ash and Ravenous said in unison.

  Dove snorted. The dragon’s tail flicked.

  As they gathered near the portal, Ash felt the hum deepen again. It was less erratic now, more focused.

  The party UI flickered. For a moment, seven frames tried to render: Ash’s, Darius’s, the dragon’s, and three overlapping ghost frames that didn’t belong to anyone. Then they vanished.

  Ravenous noticed.

  “We’re doing this now,” he said.

  Ash nodded.

  The portal shimmered. Bright, stable, and almost eager.

  Ash reached for it.

  For a split second, he felt the seam beneath the hub, the same kind of low-attention pressure he’d felt in the hollow, like something below the surface was aware of what they were about to do.

  Ravenous stepped forward.

  “On three.”

  The portal light intensified. The dragon’s outline sharpened further. The hum rose—

  And the system waited.