[SYSTEM OVERRIDE INITIATED]
[CATALYST DETECTED: DECADRIVER]
[WARNING: DIMENSIONAL HARMONIZATION IN PROGRESS]
"Hey, Leo, are you okay?" Lumine asked, her hand pausing mid-air with a slice of Fisherman's Toast.
"You look like you just swallowed a Cryo Slime."
"Just... a small headache," Leo gritted out through his teeth, his vision swimming with barcodes and hexadecimal strings.
"Give me a minute."
In his mind's eye, the vast, empty void of his digital inventory was tearing itself apart.
The Decadriver, which he had drawn from the Roulette at the apex of the dragon fight, wasn't just a belt.
It was a nexus.
The power of the "Destroyer of Worlds" was fundamentally incompatible with the clunky, disjointed mechanics of carrying around physical Progrise Keys, massive Zecters, and heavy wooden drumsticks.
The Decadriver demanded uniformity. It demanded a deck.
[ANALYZING INVENTORY ASSETS...]
[ASSET: ZERO-ONE DRIVER & RISING HOPPER PROGRISE KEY]
[STATUS: REFORMATTING...]
Leo felt a bizarre sensation, like a phantom limb being amputated and replaced in the same microsecond.
The bulky, high-tech Zero-One Driver dissolved into streams of yellow binary code. The data swirled violently before compressing, flattening, and solidifying into a sleek, rectangular shape.
[REFORMAT COMPLETE. OBTAINED: KAMEN RIDE - ZERO-ONE]
[ASSET: KABUTO ZECTER & RIDER BELT]
[STATUS: REFORMATTING...]
The heavy silver belt and the mechanical crimson beetle met the same fate, shattering into tachyon particles before compressing into a plastic-coated card bearing the crested horn of Kabuto.
[REFORMAT COMPLETE. OBTAINED: KAMEN RIDE - KABUTO]
[ASSET: MEDAJALIBUR]
[STATUS: REFORMATTING...]
[REFORMAT COMPLETE. OBTAINED: ATTACK RIDE - MEDAJALIBUR]
[ASSET: ONGEKIBOU REKKA]
[STATUS: REFORMATTING...]
[REFORMAT COMPLETE. OBTAINED: ATTACK RIDE - ONGEKIBOU REKKA]
[ASSET: FLYING FALCON PROGRISE KEY]
[STATUS: REFORMATTING...]
[REFORMAT COMPLETE. OBTAINED: FORM RIDE - ZERO-ONE FLYING FALCON]
The pain behind Leo's eyes began to subside, replaced by a cool, humming efficiency.
He opened his eyes, the world snapping back into crystal-clear focus.
He reached his hand under his jacket and into his pocket.
Instead of the bulky array of toys, his fingers brushed against the smooth, hard plastic of the Ride Booker, now permanently attached to his belt line, filled with neatly stacked cards.
It was perfect. It was seamless.
If he needed to move fast, he didn't need to summon a belt and catch a mechanical beetle; he just needed to draw a card and slide it into the Decadriver.
But as the system finalized its reboot, a jagged, golden warning flashed across his HUD.
[ANOMALY DETECTED: BLANK RIDEWATCH]
[ATTEMPTING REFORMAT... FAILED.]
[ATTEMPTING REFORMAT... FAILED.]
[CRITICAL ERROR: TEMPORAL DENSITY EXCEEDS DECADRIVER PARAMETERS.]
[ASSET: BLANK RIDEWATCH REMAINS UNCHANGED.]
Leo's breath hitched.
He reached into his other pocket. His hand wrapped around the heavy, cold mass of the Blank Ridewatch.
It hadn't changed. The Decadriver—the tool of the Destroyer that could rewrite the laws of physics and reshape the powers of legendary heroes—couldn't even make a dent in the dormant power of Ohma Zi-O.
The Ridewatch sat there, heavy and silent, an immovable object in his newly organized system.
[SYSTEM UPDATE COMPLETE]
[NOTE: DUE TO THE DIMENSIONAL BLEED OF THE DECADRIVER, THE 'RIDER ROULETTE' HAS BEEN PERMANENTLY ALTERED.]
[THE ROULETTE POOL NOW INCLUDES: RIDER CARDS, WEAPON CARDS, SUPPORT ITEMS, MUNDANE TRASH, FOOD, AND DIMENSIONAL DEBRIS.]
[COST REMAINS: 400 RP PER SPIN]
"Trash?" Leo muttered aloud, staring blankly at his plate of food.
"I can spend 400 points and get a literal garbage bag?"
"Who's talking about garbage?!" Paimon mumbled, her mouth entirely stuffed with Sticky Honey Roast, sauce smeared across her cheeks.
"This is the best food Paimon has ever eaten! And we can eat it every day forever!"
Sara returned with three more plates of Sweet Madames, looking nervously at the chest.
"Will that be all for now, or...?"
Leo pulled a single Mora from his pocket and flicked it toward her.
"Keep the tab open. We're going to be here a while."