The city lights hadn't changed.The silence of the forgotten corner where Su Yuan sat still wrapped him like a cocoon—one of steel, static, and solitude.
But within the SoulNet, the atmosphere had grown heavier.
Denser.
Something unseen stirred beneath the flowing data—a kind of breath, a spiritual tension humming softly along invisible lines.
Su Yuan stood alone at the center of the lattice—no longer just a node, but the origin.A quiet architect standing at the edge of something that couldn't be undone.
The last pulse had confirmed it:Two of the twenty had accepted.Their souls linked.Their presence warmed the network like lanterns in a cold forest.
But it wasn't enough.
Not yet.
He raised his hand. The SoulNet rippled in response, folding back layers of light until only the core interface remained—a crystalline cube of shifting, digitized essence that pulsed in time with his heartbeat.
[Pending Invitations: 17][Resonance Threshold: Acceptable][Mass Invitation Protocol Available][Borrowing Soul Power Function: Ready (Dormant)]
Su Yuan stared at the options.Then whispered, more to himself than the system:"It's time."
His fingers brushed the cube.
The SoulNet responded like a living thing—rippling outward in waves of blue light. The digital lattice fractured, multiplied, and expanded, weaving across the grid of the city like a second nervous system.
[Somewhere in the City – Seventeen Souls, Scattered]
The invitations arrived not like thunder, but like a breath.
In libraries.In alleyways.In small, empty rooms where dreams lay in dust.In high-rise capsules where ambition suffocated in silence.In clinics, warehouses, subways, rooftops.
Wherever they were… the souls felt it.
A flicker. A presence.A pulse deep within, like something long buried had been softly touched.
The invitation appeared.
[You are invited to access the SoulNet.][You are not alone.][You are seen.]
No names.No sender.
Just the quiet hand of something unknown… reaching out.
[Back Within SoulNet – The Lattice Expands]
The moment the final thread launched, the interface around Su Yuan pulsed with light.
He exhaled, long and slow.
His mind wasn't overwhelmed. He wasn't parsing who they were—only that their souls had responded, one by one, in ripples.
Some instantly.Some hesitantly.Some still lingered in choice, the invitation hovering before them like a doorway they feared to open.
But the network was awake now.Fully.
The Core flickered.
[15 Invitations: Accepted][5: Pending Response]
He raised an eyebrow. "Faster than expected…"
The SoulNet adjusted in real time. Lines of light curled from each connected node, flowing backward—toward him—but never touching.
Not directly.
[Initiating Passive SoulLink Drain...][Borrowing Soul Power... Begin Phase One.]
At first, Su Yuan felt nothing.
Then…A strange warmth pooled in his chest. Not from within—but from around him.
Like an invisible tide.
Like breath held by others, released only now.Gentle. Almost reverent.
The system whispered.
[0.0047% Soul Resonance Siphoned][Stabilizing Threads... Synchronizing Energy Pulse...][Calculating Threshold for Deduction Activation...]
He didn't command it.
The SoulNet simply… knew.
It had no hunger. It was not greedy. It only borrowed just enough.
And the moment the first wave completed, he felt it.Not physically. Not spiritually. Something deeper than both.
As if a long-dormant gear had shifted inside a machine no human hand could touch.
[Deduction System Awakening...][Permission Level: Architect Node – Authorized]
Su Yuan's breath caught.
For a moment, the world tilted. Not in body—but in meaning.The lattice around him collapsed into thousands of streams, rushing inward. Folding. Condensing.
Until only a single, dark-blue interface floated before him, engraved with sigils that defied language.
[Deduction System Online]
His heart thundered.
Not in fear.
But in awe.
"This is it…"
This was not a tool.
This was law—a system that could see possibility and shape it.
Not by imagining.
But by calculating.
But Su Yuan didn't move to use it yet. Not tonight.
For now… it was enough.
He turned, the network shimmering behind him like constellations drawn from the dreams of twenty fragile souls.
They didn't know him.
They never would.
And they didn't know what their linked power had just begun to awaken.
But he did.
And soon…He would give something back.