“How?”

  Cy stood completely healed in front of Max in the middle of the abandoned community. Had it really been a filter? Max should’ve seen the truth when he was up close. Did they use his blood? There were no more blue lines, so it shouldn’t have mattered. What about Elder-

  “Magic bones.”

  “…What?”

  Whilst Max was trying to piece together what happened, Cy merely frowned at his blood-stained, ruined clothes. Cy walked with purpose as he continued to talk, forcing Max to pick himself up off the floor and follow if he wanted any answers. “I used one of your magic bones.”

  “You had a magic bone?”

  “Yep.”

  “Where were you keeping it?” Max tried to recall, but only remembered the vials of blood in his hand.

  “Here.” Cy pointed to his mouth. The idea flabbergasted him. “I learned that trick from you when you fought Elder Edric.”

  “Which magic bone was it?” There were a few extra Max had handed to Cy when he fought against Lux. All of them were incomplete and unrelated to healing.

  “The healing one I stole from Bessie while you were busy with the mayor.” Cy stopped to give an exhausted Max a nonchalant look before continuing to the rickety bridge. The rotten stack of wood was once the glorious red bridge when the filter was on. “What? You know about my heart issue, right? So, when you said you made a thing that cured a fatally ill cow and changed her fate, of course I was going to nick it. It was going to be my backup plan in case Elder Charaka couldn’t cure me.”

  “You stole from Bessie?” Max frowned. There was harshness in his voice.

  “You gave the mayor a stroke.” Cy rebutted with his own sass. “And you got Elder Darius killed while trying to kill me.” He knew about Darius? Why did he call him- Cy began to walk again. “It wasn’t until you started teaching me about the runes that I pieced together what I needed to do to make it work.”

  Max tried to recall which runes he had carved into the bone. Unsure if the runes would even work in this world, there weren’t many precautionary procedures in place. There was definitely one for a cow though. “Right-”

  “So, I scratched out the rune for ‘cow’ and carved ‘human’ next to it. I also scratched out the one I thought meant illness.”

  Max couldn’t believe his ears. “And it worked?” Usually, it would take people years to master a singular rune with pen and paper. Never mind carving it into bone.

  “Well, I’m still here. Aren’t I?” Cy picked up one of the rocks beside the bridge and began digging. “But I tell you what, I’m not swallowing a bone like that again.”

  Max finally remembered the rest of the runes on that bone. “You swallowed it?”

  Cy grunted with his face showing displeasure. “Between the rune for ‘mouth’ and my fate fluctuations, I was able to piece together what I needed to do for it to work.”

  It was amazing. “Keeping me busy, using up the reserves, getting injured… distracting me, teleporting me back here, then using the bone… What incredible timing.”

  “It’s almost like I’m psychic… Oh, wait...”

  Max couldn’t help relieving some of the laughter, which had been building up since the moment he was back in the community. They managed to trick him. Fair play. “Dairus made one hell of a plan.”

  “Elder Darius?” Cy stopped digging for a moment to give him an offended look. “As if he could handle time management on this level. We’re talking about a man who can’t bake a plate of cookies without burning them. This was all my idea. I’m three for three against your kind.”

  “Three?”

  “Niv, twice, and you, once.” Cy began yanking at a bag, which was shallowly buried in the ground. Max began digging around the hole to help him. “My fate was changing all night long. It was a real 50-50 whether I could hold on long enough for the magic bone to work.”

  “If you were going to teleport me back here, why didn’t you do it before I injured you?”

  “Charon is unconscious right now, so his anti-teleport spell was going to collapse after one more person teleported. If I sent you back too early, you would’ve started carving some runes into things in desperation.”

  “So, I would’ve made it back in time?”

  “You would.” Cy finally pulled the bag out. It was the same one Bessie gave him. Without missing a beat, he began rummaging around. “Even if I mucked up the timing, seeing how badly you injured me would’ve made you less desperate and increased my odds of survival.”

  The bag was packed and ready to go with clothes, preserved food, and money poking out of the opening. “You had time to pack and bury this here while I was looking for you?”

  “No, I did this the day after I found out about the system.”

  The timeline didn’t make sense to him. “You buried this when you were a kid?”

  Cy shot Max a confused look before selecting his replacement shirt. “When I was a kid? No, Elder Darius let me in on the secret and my past while you were chatting to Elder Edric. I always knew there was something fishy with that guy. His timing and connections always seemed… too perfect.” Cy gave the bag a gentle kick causing Max to flinch. “I buried this after stealing your blood from Elder Charaka. You were busy with Elder Ji-min at the time.”

  The dots finally connected. No wonder Cy was so crabby that day. The more Max thought about it, the more it made sense to him.

  Cy learned the truth about Max and the system from Darius. Then, he couldn’t sleep much. They had their awkward breakfast. He went to his room to pack. After visiting Haiddeck, he got him to escort Max so Cy would have enough time to steal from Elder Charaka, grab Bessie’s bag, and bury it. He then waited for Max to come back. They got into a fight before going home, where Cy could have some isolated time to… plan? Relax? Come to terms? Whatever happened, Cy managed to get into the headspace to fool Max about things being normal between them.

  Since Niv already received the penalty years ago, Darius must have been free to tell Cy about it whenever he wanted. They had been planning for this for even longer than Max.

  He glanced back to the woods, where Darius’s home lay, while Cy changed. “… How many didn’t make it?” Darius was gone. That was a fact. What about the infected in the woods? Could Elder Charaka cure them all on his own?

  Stolen content alert: this content belongs on Royal Road. Report any occurrences.

  “What are you talking about? Only Elder Darius got killed.” He was using Darius’s title again. Perhaps this was his way of grieving? “The penalty from the system is currently set to die out without killing anyone else due to your mutation. Everyone will have a nasty cold for a day or so, including us. That being said, we are going to have some mild, long-term breathing issues cause of it.” Max didn’t show much of a reaction.

  Cy continued. “I wouldn’t get too worked up over Elder Darius’s death.” What the fuck? The words hit Max hard. What was with this cold and unconcerned attitude from Cy about his doting father? “He asked me to pass on a message to you.”

  “He did?”

  “Yeah, it was along the lines of watch your back, cause he’s going to get even with you next time.”

  … “Next time?”

  Cy gave a coy smile. ‘Weren’t you listening to the broadcast? He’s been giving you hints about that system of yours for a long time now.” Max could only reply with a confused look. “It persuades people, who remember being reincarnated, into doing its bidding for the sake of a ‘story.’”

  “… I don’t get it.”

  “I guess, you wouldn’t.” Seeing Max look puzzled and lost, Cy took pity. “You’re not the only one who reincarnates.” What? “You, me, Elder Darius; the system brings quite a few of us back. The only difference is you get to keep your memories and can start at any age, while we got to ride it out since birth with real amnesia. Now come on, we should get going or we’re going to miss BB.” Cy led the way as a confused Max followed.

  “What do you mean you get reincarnated too?”

  Cy gave out an exaggerated sigh despite clearly relishing every second of having the advantage through Darius’s passed down knowledge. “Have you never considered that there might be a ‘before?’ Like what happened before the system pulled you into this weird cycle?” Of course they wondered. Neither answers nor clues ever presented themselves. “Well, people like Elder Darius and I are part of the ‘before.’ You’re part of the ‘during.’ Elder Darius said that you were one of the later ones to get afflicted, so you must have had a few lifetimes before the first life you remember.”

  “My first life?” The words were lost on Max. Some bits and pieces had survived throughout the years, but most of his memories of then were gone to time.

  “And one day, we’re going to find ourselves randomly joining the ‘during.’”

  “You’re going to become like me?”

  “Eventually.” Cy seemed amused by his disbelief. “Honestly, what did you think was the reason why there is a difference between a fixed and flexible fate?”

  “… How involved they were with a story?”

  Cy paused for a moment while he thought over the theory. “Kinda, I guess. But the real answer is whether the person reincarnates or not. If they’re stuck in this cycle with the system, then their fate is fixed. If this is their only life, then it’s flexible. At least, that’s the trend Elder Darius and I noticed when we compared our findings.”

  Without considering Max, who was deep in thought, Cy began to move again. “Your fate is fixed, right?” Max called out while chasing after him. The idea wasn’t too unbelievable. After all, he said it himself.

  There will always be another Cy.

  So, what if it really was just a singular Cy all along?

  After spending a few minutes to chew on the idea, realisation of their situation dawned as he stopped in his tracks. What was he doing? Just a few minutes ago, they were enemies with Max hunting him down. “We’re going to BB?”

  “We told her we would meet up?” Cy stopped to give him a confused look.

  “I didn’t think you would be coming with me.”

  “… Have you checked your thing?”

  “My thing?”

  “Yeah, the whatchamacallit where it tells you the details of your story.”

  “The HUD?” Max began to interact with the overly familiar interface. It was upsetting to see it again after everything. Especially since… Oh?

  “Six-stars?” Max looked at the display, completely mystified. “There’s a six-stars?” A long-extinguished fire ignited in him. Despite being successful at a five-stars story, they ultimately failed in their main goal at uncovering what was happening to them. This story’s premise, goal, and difficulty all pointed at answers. The six months of resisting hadn’t been for nothing.

  Cy frowned at Max’s reaction. “I wouldn’t look too pleased.”

  Seeing his expression, Max immediately searched for the worst parts of every story: the sub-goals, requirements, and penalties.

  What the fuck? Why were most of them redacted? Sometimes the system would add sub-goals in accordance with the difficulty, but he never started with redactions on this screen before. At least the sub-goal explained why Cy was determined for him to reach BB. She would probably be willing to play along with the genre of her story being changed.

  … Starting simple for now. It was a bit of a relief.

  However, turning to the currently enforced penalties made his stomach drop.

  “You’ve got a blue fate,” Cy said matter-of-factly. The tone of his voice broke Max’s focus so he would look at him. “And you’re set to die in four days. If we’re not out of here within the hour, it’s going to reduce to a few hours. We need to get going.”

  “I don’t think you should come-”

  “I can see your fate and give you warnings, benefiting you. You can cure my heart issue since the prompt isn’t in the way anymore, benefiting me. Sticking together means Elder Darius will encounter one of us sooner in the next life and can see what a six-stars story is about, benefiting everyone.” Max still looked hesitant. “Darius told me a lot about your system.”

  “When?”

  “I can listen while filling in paperwork, you know.” Were they having conspiring meetings every time Max was working on the farm? No wonder Darius was so insistent on him finding a part-time job. “What you don’t know could fill a book.”

  “And you’re going to tell me?”

  “I’m going to help you complete the six-stars story, as requested by my mentor. Elder Darius wants to know more about ‘after.’”