Reality Quest: Questism

The USB sat in my palm, small and weightless, yet it felt like it carried the weight of the past six weeks. The weight of everything.

I slipped it into my laptop and exhaled as the file opened.

Play.

The footage was grainy, dark, clearly taken from a security camera at a distance. But it was clear enough.

A figure, moving toward my father's car. Their head was lowered, their hands moving with a deliberate slowness as they worked on the underside of the vehicle.

They knew what they were doing.

Their jacket was thick, the material familiar. The Sunshine Foundation.

I paused the video, my fingers tightening around the mouse.

A member. Someone from that place. Just as expected from my knowledge.

I moved my cursor back to the video, rewinding it again, this time focusing on how the jacket itself fit around the figure's body.

Clothing stretched. Folded. Shifted with movement. But its size didn't change.

If I could determine the exact size of that jacket, then I could narrow down who had been issued one in that range.

I zoomed in on the moment their arm extended, watching how the fabric pulled taut at the seams. Jackets had standard sizing. Small, medium, large, extra-large. The Sunshine Foundation was an organization. They wouldn't have custom-fit jackets for every individual… they would use bulk orders, meaning I just needed to determine the manufacturer.

I opened another program, running a shape analysis on the jacket's proportions compared to the wearer's body. It wasn't just about the shoulder width anymore, it was about how much extra space the jacket had.

Was it tight around the torso? Did the sleeves hang loose or fit snugly? How far did it extend past the waist?

I examined how the fabric folded at the elbows when they bent, how it shifted when they knelt. Compression folds versus excess fabric, another clue to the jacket's size.

I rewound again. Froze the frame. Ran a pixel scan against the measurements of my father's car, adjusting for perspective once more.

The length of the jacket from collar to hem.

The width from shoulder seam to shoulder seam.

The sleeve length relative to their wrist.

Numbers filled my notepad, calculations being painfully and slowly solved as I did my best not to make a single error. In the end, I leaned back, looking at my results.

It was a medium.

My fingers twitched.

Now I only needed the records which showed what size jacket had been given to whom.

And where would those be… I scowled as I remembered from my foreknowledge that the building was being taken down for demolition. So there were no physical records… but surely there would have been something digital?

I paused. Did Jihan ever take classes in hacking?

I suppose I could always ask him tomorrow. Something told me the answer was yes. Because honestly… how on earth did one even obtain the time to learn all that? If the bodies could become superhuman then I'm guessing the mind could too.

The brain is a muscle as well I guess.

The faint chime of the Quest window pulled me out of my thoughts.

You have 3 rewards you have not yet claimed.

Ah, right. The Cards. I'd been so focused on getting the video that I'd completely forgotten about the Quest.

"Claim Platinum card."

The last platinum card I'd gotten, Fatal Wound, completely prevented an opponent's stamina recovery after a successful hit. It's what I'd used to stop Seokyoung from getting up… my equivalent of the Critical hit.

Now for this platinum card… I was hoping for something just as good, Copy Cloud maybe? Or was that a Diamond card?

The card materialised in front of me, condensing from shining particles in that same sea-like aura every card came with.

Normal Card

Chain of Indoctrination

Bind up to 10 targets with the Chain of Indoctrination, inflicting them with the brainwash status condition.

You can only use this on those you have defeated in a fight. When one person is released from the chain, other targets are also cleared of the Brainwashed status condition.

I stopped breathing.

I stared at the card, my mind grinding to a halt.

Brainwash?

I swallowed. The words swam in front of me, but the meaning was clear. This wasn't just some passive buff, some skill that gave me an edge in a fight. This was control.

I exhaled slowly.

Okay. Okay, no need to freak out. It wasn't like I was suddenly going to turn into some power-hungry villain, right?

Right?

I turned the card over in my hands, the shimmering blue glow reflecting in my eyes. Up to 10 targets. That was a lot.

And only those I'd already defeated in a fight…

So, technically, Seokyoung.

And Sehun.

…And maybe a few others I didn't really care to count right now.

I let out a slow breath.

This was dangerous.

This was really dangerous.

I could see the usefulness immediately… forcing opponents to stand down, getting information, maybe even making people forget things…but that last part of the description…

When one person is released, other targets are also cleared of the Brainwashed status condition.

That meant keeping even one person under this effect would mean keeping all of them under it. And if I ever let go of one… the whole thing would come crashing down.

I rubbed a hand down my face.

It was too much. Too risky. Too… tempting.

I should never use this. Ever.

I should probably just ignore the fact that it even existed.

…

But if I were to use it…

I groaned. No. Stop. Bad train of thought.

I shut the card window with a sharp exhale, dragging a hand down my face.

Brainwashing.

Brainwashing.

No matter how many times I repeated it in my head, it still didn't feel real.

This wasn't just a skill that made me stronger in a fight. This was control. Actual control. Over real people.

I had expected something like a strength buff, maybe even a technique card. But this… this wasn't a tool. This was a line.

And I wasn't sure which side of it I stood on.

I forced myself to my feet, barely noticing how stiff my muscles were. I needed to sleep. I needed to stop thinking about this before my brain started spiraling down a road I wasn't ready to walk.

The room was dim, the only light coming from my laptop screen. I shut it, plunging everything into near-darkness before pulling off my hoodie and tossing it somewhere in the corner. I didn't even bother with the blankets, just dropped onto the mattress and exhaled, staring up at the ceiling.

It wasn't my first time getting a card I didn't like.

But it was the first time I got one I was afraid of.

I rolled onto my side, shutting my eyes.

I wouldn't use it. I didn't have to use it. I could always just Card Master it away into something else but…

The worst part wasn't even that I had it.

It was that some part of me already knew exactly how useful it could be.

I forced my thoughts away from it, pressing my face into the pillow. I'd deal with it later. Right now, I needed sleep. 

But even as exhaustion weighed me down, I still wasn't sure if I meant it.

***

Jihan buried his head in his arms, groaning.

"Dowan."

"Jihan."

"You want me to hack into the records of your dad's foundation."

"Yes."

"To find out who was given a size medium Sunshine Foundation jacket."

"Precisely."

Jihan threw his hands up. "Do you ever just be normal?"

I blinked. "Not really."

He let out a slow, suffering sigh, rubbing his temples. "You fought a Representative, won, and the first thing you're doing today isn't resting or celebrating, but cybercrime."

"Alleged cybercrime," I corrected. "We haven't broken any laws yet."

Jihan gave me a deadpan look. "I hate you."

"You say that, but you're already thinking about how to do it, aren't you?"

Silence.

Then, he groaned again and slumped over his desk. "Goddamn it."

I smiled.

We were sitting at the back of the classroom, the early morning chatter of our classmates filling the air. The teacher hadn't arrived yet, which meant we had time.

Jihan peeked over his arm, side-eyeing me. "Why the jacket size, though?"

I leaned back in my chair. "The security footage only showed the guy's upper body. No face, no clear features. The only thing I could measure was the jacket's proportions against the car's known size. And after adjusting for camera warping and angle distortion, I figured out it was a medium."

Jihan raised a brow. "And you just did that?"

"Yeah?"

He muttered something under his breath that I was pretty sure was an insult.

I grinned. "So, can you do it?"

Jihan drummed his fingers against his desk. "I mean… probably. The foundation's records shouldn't be super secure, since it's just donation and distribution logs, but I need time." He sighed. "Also, I can't exactly pull out my laptop in the middle of class and start hacking. That's how you get put on a watchlist."

"Then you can do it after and send me the names afterschool." I said easily.

Jihan rolled his eyes. "Sure, sure. You know most people would charge for these services."

"Yeah but you love me." 

Jihan rolled his eyes again, with the amount of times he'd done it, I was surprised they hadn't fallen out yet.

"How do you even know how to do all that?" I asked after a moment.

Jihan didn't look away from his notebook which he was scribbling some lesson prep into. "I took some classes when I was younger."

Again with the classes, what did this guy not know?

The classroom door slid open, and our homeroom teacher walked in. Jihan straightened, pulling out his books, and I did the same.

As the lesson started, I glanced at him from the corner of my eye.

We were one step closer to finding out who was responsible.

And when we did…

I clenched my pen a little tighter.

***

Jihan had gone to visit his mother. He'd be sending me the names after having dinner with her, which gave me some time… some time to think.

My reward for beating Seokyoung wasn't just a platinum card. There'd been two Gold cards as well.

The first one was just another height growth card that I'd instantly used, finally becoming a part of the six-foot-whilst-in-shoes gang.

The second card?

One-time-use Card

Fateful meeting

A Challenger card, the highest ranking card available, wishes to meet you!

This card will disappear once used!

I stared at the card in my hand, its golden glow pulsing faintly, like a heartbeat. The highest-ranking card available.

I knew some of what that meant, not enough.

But I was about to find out.

"Use card."

The world stopped.

Everything around me froze… not just in the way a paused video does, but in a way that felt fundamentally wrong.

The clock on my wall halted mid-tick. The glow of my phone screen dimmed, like even the light itself had been caught in some invisible grip. The air felt heavier, thick with something that was not quite silence but not sound either, like an absence of something.

Then, the world fractured.

Light splintered across my vision, not like a flashbang, but like the ceiling itself had cracked. The edges of my room bled away into a sea of gold.

No, not gold.

Something deeper. Something endless.

A vast expanse stretched before me, gears interlocking over an ocean of light, shifting and twisting in a pattern too perfect, too calculated to be natural.

And at the center of it all, towering above me, was the Challenger Card.

It wasn't like the others.

A monolith of golden mechanisms, massive and unyielding, its surface shifting with an endless cascade of symbols... names I couldn't read, languages that didn't exist, calculations that stretched into infinity. The massive exclamation mark in the center pulsed, as if breathing, its glow not static but something deeper. Something watching.

Then… 

A voice.

Not one. Many.

A thousand voices speaking at once, layered over each other, an unearthly harmony that felt like it shouldn't exist.

"Welcome. This is our first meeting."

A chill ran down my spine.

The words didn't just reach my ears… they settled into my bones, reverberating inside me like a sound too vast for mortal understanding. The gears in the distance shifted, the entire expanse moving in tandem with its voice.

This thing wasn't just a card.

It was something greater.

And it was looking at me.

"I'm sure you have many questions…"

The exclamation mark flared, the golden light pulsing in sync with its words. The sheer weight of its attention pressed against my mind, like the universe itself was waiting for my response.

The gears turned, shifting the endless mechanisms behind it, and something deep in my gut whispered that this moment, this conversation, was more than just a simple reward.

This wasn't just a system event.

This was something older. Something that had been watching long before I arrived.

"I shall give you the answers you desire."

The golden gears turned, and I knew…

Something beyond me was listening.

.

.

.

.

Okay I may have slightly increased the majesty of the Challenger card... just a tad bit...

Sorry I just really like writing Gods.

Reviewwwsssss Stonnneeessss