By the time they stepped out of the Government Center, Neo still had the identification card in his pocket.
On the way down, he had checked twice without meaning to, just to make sure it was still there and had not somehow vanished the moment he stopped looking at it. A name in the system, a class on record, a place, however small, carved out for him inside the same world that had ignored him for years.
Richards noticed the way his hand kept drifting toward his pocket and snorted softly.
"Come on," he said, jerking his head toward the car. "We're not done yet."
Neo looked at him. "What now?"
"I'm buying you a weapon."
"What?"
Richards opened the car door and glanced back when Neo did not move right away. "If you want to keep moving forward, you need to be able to fight properly. This isn't me being generous. It's practical."
'Also I can't let you just die if I need you for later.'
Neo got into the passenger seat without arguing, though the thought stayed with him while Richards pulled back onto the road.
Why was he doing so much for him? It had not even been two days, and he had already given him a place to sleep, food, clothes, identification, and now this.
Neo did not trust people easily, and he trusted government men even less, even when one of them drove him around like some lost relative he had decided to collect out of pity. Still, he was not stupid enough to turn down help when he had nothing. Free advantages were still advantages.
The car moved through the city, cleaner streets giving way to a district filled with more specialized shops, better glass fronts, and signs made for people who actually had money to spend.
When they stopped this time, the building in front of them was not as enormous as the Government Center, but it still felt expensive in a way Neo recognized immediately. The display window held weapons arranged with care behind polished glass: blades, bows, spears, a few things he could not name on sight, and several objects that were clearly Soul Relics even before Richards said anything.
They stepped inside.
Racks lined the walls. Several weapons rested in display cases beneath muted lights. Nothing about it looked improvised. This was not a market stall or some back-alley seller trying to pass junk off as quality. This was the sort of shop awakened people used when weapons were just part of life.
Neo took the whole shop in with a single sweep.
'Some of this looked like the kind of stuff the baldy might have traded.'
Richards watched him for a moment, then spoke as they walked deeper inside. "Before you start looking at things you can't afford, understand this first. Soul Relics consume Soul Essence while they're invoked."
Neo glanced at him. "So you can't just keep them out forever."
"Pretty much." Richards stopped beside a display holding several simpler weapons and tapped the glass lightly with one finger. "A newly awakened person doesn't have much Essence to waste. If you buy something flashy or demanding, you'll exhaust yourself fast and end up worse off than someone with a common relic they can actually keep active."
Neo nodded slowly. Of course the stronger things would cost more than money.
Richards looked back at the weapons. "What do you prefer?"
Neo stared at the display for a second before answering. "I don't know."
Richards raised a brow.
Neo slipped his hands into his pockets. "I've always been close when things got ugly. Most fights I've been in were hand to hand."
Richards gave a short nod, taking that in without pushing him.
"A dagger would be easier to start with," he said. "Less weight. Faster to learn. But if a sword suits you better, that's fine too."
Neo's gaze shifted across the options again.
Daggers were practical, he knew that much. Fast, simple, dirty, easy to carry, easy to hide. But when he looked at them, none of them felt quite right in his hand even before he touched one. Too small. They put you too close in the wrong way.
Then his eyes settled on a sword.
Nothing grand. No absurd design. A common Soul Relic with a plain hilt and a clean line to the blade.
Richards noticed where he was looking. "That one?"
Neo nodded once. "Yeah."
"Why?"
Neo thought about it for half a second.
"It fits better."
That was the simplest truth he had.
The sword felt more direct, less awkward. If he had to cut his way through something, he wanted the weapon to answer clearly when he swung it.
Richards studied him for a moment, then gave a small shrug. "Fair enough."
A clerk came over. There were a few short words exchanged, none of which mattered much to Neo, and then the sword was brought out for inspection. When it finally rested in his hands, the sensation of holding it was strange enough to quiet him for a second.
It was not excitement exactly, but the unfamiliar weight of owning something that was his.
[You have received a Sword - Common]
Richards paid, and a few minutes later they stepped back out into the street. Neo looked down at the sword once more, then did what the clerk had shown him. He loosened his grip, focused, and felt the Soul Relic slip away from his hand and sink back into him, as if it had folded into a place behind his ribs. The absence of its weight felt almost stranger than the weapon itself.
Then the air split.
A crack tore through the street ahead, sharp enough to make people freeze before the screaming started. Space twisted in on itself above the pavement, light bending wrong around a widening fracture that looked like someone had taken a blade to the world and pried it open.
Merchants stumbled back from their stalls. Someone dropped a crate. Alarm runes flared to life along the nearby walls.
Richards changed at once.
"Back!" he barked, voice cutting through the noise hard enough to make people move. "Get away from the street! Now!"
A second later, a bow was in his hand.
Neo saw it appear in a flicker of light, and understood at once that this was not the same as watching Richards talk in a car or lean against a table. This was the version of him fighting.
The first creatures spilled out of the Breach soon after. Not many. Four, maybe five. Low-rank Soul Beasts, ugly things with twisted limbs and gray hides, enough to kill civilians and stir panic if left loose.
Richards drew and fired in one smooth motion.
One beast dropped before it even landed.
A second arrow followed, then a third.
Neo watched for half a heartbeat and understood one thing clearly.
The gap between them was still enormous.
Then Richards glanced his way. "Neo. Help me. These ones are manageable."
Neo's hand moved on instinct. The sword returned to his grip in a flash of light.
This time, when he ran forward, it was with steel in his hand.
The first Soul Beast lunged.
Neo cut it down.
By the time more government agents started arriving and barriers began going up around the street, the area was already being locked down around the Breach.
Awakened moved first, civilians second. Devices were planted into the pavement with practiced speed, and thin walls of light rose one after another until the area around the Breach was sealed off. Officers spread out, redirected foot traffic, and forced merchants farther from the danger zone. In less than a minute, the street stopped looking panicked and started looking organized.
Neo stood with the sword still in his hand, breathing a little harder than before, eyes fixed on the crack in space ahead.
His first kill had come and gone so fast he had barely had time to process it. What stayed with him was the blunt fact that the blade had gone in cleanly, and the thing had died because of him.
And beneath that, something even simpler.
The weapon had answered him.
It had felt right in his hand in the exact moment it mattered.
Richards lowered his bow and glanced at the forming perimeter. "This happens sometimes," he said. "If a Breach opens and the first assessment says it's manageable, the government claims the site instead of sealing it immediately."
Neo looked at him. "Claims it?"
Richards nodded. "Turns it into an opportunity. Newly awakened people or ones that are still in the first core get sent in. They gain experience, learn how to fight properly, and if they're capable enough, they come out with cores, progress, and maybe a future."
Neo's eyes shifted back to the Breach.
Neo understood the rest without help.
Monsters, Soul Cores, real combat, growth, a way forward.
Richards watched him for a moment and seemed to understand where his thoughts had gone. "You handled yourself well just now," he said. "If you want in once they organize access, I can help."
Neo did not even try to hide it this time.
"Hell yeah," he said. "Sign me up."