My Infinite Investment System

At eleven forty the next morning, Northstar arrived at the observed gate wearing three different shades of black and one strip of silver tape.

Mika had placed the tape over a tear in Ryan’s suit sleeve during the bus ride, then written **Route Guy** across it with a permanent marker.

Nia wore a sleeveless armored coat over her forge clothes, with the restored tower shield locked across her back.

The new core pulsed blue beneath its hand-built frame with every measured step.

"We look coordinated," she said, stepping over a broadcast cable outside the containment dome.

He inspected the tape on his sleeve beneath the gray daylight and said, "We look like a group project assembled during lunch."

"That is a kind of coordination."

The shieldsmith rolled one shoulder beneath the heavy harness while its buckles settled around her and said, "The tape is peeling."

She pressed it back down with her thumb, nodded, and said, "Crisis resolved."

’I spent six point eight million dollars yesterday,’ Ryan thought as a cold breeze lifted the edge again, ’today I am losing a fight with adhesive.’

Across the staging ground, Apex emerged from two black transport vans in identical guild jackets.

Silver piping followed every shoulder and waist, while each hunter’s surname appeared beneath the crest, plus matching buckles gleamed across their combat boots.

Luca walked at the center with his dark hair swept neatly from his forehead.

On his right came Bianca Sato, a lean A-rank striker with a blunt black bob, narrow amber glasses, and twin mana blades folded along her forearms.

On his left stood Darius Cole, a broad barrier specialist whose fitted jacket stretched across shoulders nearly as wide as Nia’s shield.

Their scout, Emil Rojas, completed the formation in flexible gray armor with a silver sensor rig wrapped around his throat.

Every broadcast camera moved toward their formation as though pulled by the same wire.

She watched the synchronized entrance, looked down at her regulator and scuffed boots, then said, "They have opening credits."

"Do not admire the jackets," he said, tracking the distance each hunter kept from the others.

"I admire tailoring, not character."

"Your distinction lacks visual evidence."

One of the public commentators spoke from the raised broadcast booth while officials inspected both teams.

"Apex enters with four licensed combatants, including two at A, while Northstar fields a C, a D, and an F-rank route analyst."

His cohost leaned toward the glass until his headset nearly touched the booth window and said, "You forgot Mystery Suit."

"I included the F-rank."

"The internet will be normal about that."

The live comment wall filled an outdoor screen with silver shields, orange stationery, and arguments about whether an analyst counted as a hunter.

Ryan ignored the moving comments and kept his attention on the four hunters across the staging ground.

Bianca tested each folded mana blade without once looking toward the containment gate.

Darius checked Luca’s left flank twice while leaving the barrier leader’s right side unguarded.

Emil studied the circling broadcast drones more often than the unstable containment field behind them.

’Their scout wants the camera,’ he thought as another silver drone passed overhead, ’their barrier expects commands from one side, and their striker is already bored.’

Nia planted the restored shield on the concrete before an official wearing a blue city vest.

The Aegis Heart answered with a controlled pulse that spread through the old frame without rattling a single ceramic layer.

"Calibration?" the official asked, holding a scanner over its center.

"Ninety-eight point nine under load," she replied, flexing her gloved hand around the grip, "thermal drift below one percent."

"Any unregistered functions?"

She glanced toward him before returning her attention to the scanner and said, "Not until I build them."

The official stamped her equipment approval and moved to Mika.

Spark Sense opened around the shield in threads of deep gold, but those threads no longer ended at Nia’s planted boots.

They spread in arcs across the staging ground, predicting lateral steps, rotating cover, and sudden advances that the old core would have collapsed under.

[Growth path available]

[Recipient has not completed growth]

He lowered his gaze before the system made him miss something physical.

Mika offered both wrists for inspection while the city worker checked her regulator seals.

"Discharge ceiling?"

"Forty percent inside ten meters, sixty beyond it, emergency override only if somebody is actively becoming lunch."

The scanner chirped green.

"Technical phrasing is not legally binding."

"It should be."

At the next station, an official clipped a small orange camera to Ryan’s lapel.

"This records your location, speech, and field decisions," she explained, tugging twice on the clip, "tampering disqualifies Northstar."

He glanced at Luca’s identical camera before asking, "Does accidental monster damage count as tampering?"

"Only if the monster demonstrates intent to alter broadcast evidence."

She leaned around him and said, "I like her."

The official did not smile, though the corner of her mouth considered it.

Sirens sounded once across the staging ground, and the containment dome opened a narrow white seam.

Cold air poured through carrying pine resin, wet soil, and smoke from a fire that did not exist in their city.

The chief observer raised one blue-gloved hand between both teams until every inspection worker stepped back.

"This is a shared survival zone with independent resident constructs," he announced as six clustered buildings appeared overhead.

He enlarged four scoring columns with one sweep of his raised hand across the projection.

"Points reward resident survival, monster suppression, resource preservation, and team extraction."

Luca adjusted the fitted glove around his right wrist without studying any civilian marker and asked, "Boss value?"

"Undisclosed," the observer replied without lowering his hand.

"Location?" Luca asked, narrowing his eyes at the projected forest.

"Discover it."

Nobody moved.

Ryan looked at the displayed settlement rather than the observer.

Six buildings stood inside a wooden palisade, with a river to the east and two forest approaches.

Smoke marked the southern road, but the wind on the live environment feed blew from the north.

Something had lit the southern fire to pull both teams away from the quiet north wind.

"Any civilian who crosses the extraction marker counts as saved," the observer continued as red lines appeared around the palisade.

His hand closed over the projection as he said, "Civilian deaths remain permanent for scoring, while interference with another team triggers an automatic review."

Bianca rolled her neck beside the gate until two quiet pops reached the nearest microphone and said, "So we race."

She checked the upper shield strap by pulling her armored elbow hard against the buckle and said, "He said survival."

"Same thing if you are faster."

She stepped closer with an expression bright enough for the cameras and said only to Northstar, "I already dislike Bob One."

"Bianca," he said, watching the A-rank test her right blade again.

"I said what I said."

’The analyst is looking at my feet,’ Bianca thought as she noticed him, ’cheap suit, stupid tape, why are his eyes irritating me?’

Luca called his team into a clean diamond formation, then faced Northstar across the gate seam.

"Equal terrain," he said, spreading one hand toward the white opening.

Ryan studied the embroidered jackets, polished armor, and four lapel cameras aligned at exactly the same height.

"Equal weather," he replied.

The first siren became two.

Both teams entered.

The city vanished behind them, replaced by a muddy road beneath dark pines and a sky crowded with low gray clouds.

Northstar landed three meters apart inside the gate, while Apex appeared twenty meters ahead in perfect formation without needing to adjust.

The wooden settlement waited downhill through the trees beneath a widening column of dirty smoke.

A bell rang inside its palisade with frantic, uneven strikes that never completed a rhythm.

Five civilian constructs ran along the wall carrying buckets, while an older man shouted at two children to leave a burning wagon near the southern gate.

Beyond the northern trees, something heavy cracked a trunk and sent birds scattering across the gray sky.

Emil raised his silver sensor rig until its narrow antenna pointed north through the trees and said, "Boss signature, eight hundred meters."

Luca never looked toward the burning wagon or the children beside it before ordering, "Apex, move."

The black-and-silver formation cut into the forest at a practiced run.

Ryan remained on the road long enough to watch which tracks they ignored.

Small three-toed prints covered the mud around the settlement, dozens of them, but every set pointed inward.

"Ryan," she called from five steps downhill, electricity crawling softly over her knuckles.

He crouched and pressed two fingers beside the nearest print.

Fresh edges remained around the print because rainwater had not filled its narrow center yet.

"The little ones entered less than a minute ago," he said, standing as another bell strike broke in half, "the boss is making noise north so its pack can feed south."

Nia swung the restored shield from her back while releasing both harness catches in one movement.

Blue light filled the old frame without a tremor or complaint from its repaired ceramic layers.

"Then we go south."

They ran downhill while Apex disappeared in the opposite direction, and the first civilian scream rose from behind the wooden wall.