Lucas and Leo exchanged a look that Alex couldn't read.
"Alex," Lucas said carefully, "before the bond, before the sanctuary, before any of this—what did System tell you about where it came from?"
The answer was—nothing. System had never told him. System had always been there, had always been present, had always known what Alex needed to know when he needed to know it. But where it came from, what it was, why it had chosen him—those were questions Alex had never thought to ask.
"It was just... there," he said slowly. "When I fell into this world. It was there. It helped me understand the rules, the dangers, the artifacts. It told me about the factions. About the bonds. About everything I needed to survive."
"It told you what you needed to survive," Leo said, and there was something in his voice that Alex didn't like. "Not what you needed to know."
"Leo—"
"I'm not saying it lied to you. I'm saying it was selective. There's a difference."
