Infinite Genetic Evolution in a Game-like world

Mona led them through the dimly lit passageways in the Underhill space and into a smaller and quieter room. Her own office. She waited till every one of them entered before shutting the door firmly behind the three of them and turning around with her arms crossed.

"You didn’t think I’d hear about what you three went ahead to cause on your first entry into the Omnisphere," she said in a tone that hinted that it wasn’t a question.

No one answered right away.

"A citywide event. A strange disappearance. A standoff between a The Two-ringed bearer group headed by Marcus and a Genetic Beast faction," Mona continued.

Her voice was flat and even; somehow it felt more unsettling than if she’d been shouting at the top of her lungs.

"Care to explain why the three of you keep making the most reckless decisions possible every single time I turn my back?"

"We didn’t exactly plan any of it," Darlus muttered, arms crossed defensively.

Though he had always looked up to Mona as some sort of distant queen, he still felt the need to speak up in this scenario. To him, they were the victims.

"No, you didn’t, and that’s exactly the problem," Mona said.

Lisa opened her mouth to argue, but Mona’s sharp glance silenced her completely before she could get a single word out from her mouth.

"This is the second time," Mona continued.

’Second time of what?’ Ashton wondered.

"It was the same story the last time. You stumble into something dangerous, barely make it out, and somehow expect me to be surprised when I hear about it secondhand instead of from any of you directly."

"To be fair though, we were kind of busy surviving Lady Mona; it’s really difficult," Darlus said.

"That’s exactly my point," Mona snapped.

"You’re always busy surviving. None of you have learned how to avoid the situations that require surviving in the first place."

Morden stayed quiet; he just let the exhaustion of the night settle into his bones as Mona’s words washed over them.

He didn’t have the energy to argue, and it might be because some part of him agreed with her.

"I don’t have the patience for excuses tonight," Mona said finally, some of the sharpness fading from her voice, replaced by something closer to tired resignation.

"You two, go get some rest. We’ll discuss the rest of this later. There are more important things to talk about with this trouble maker."

Darlus and Lisa exchanged a glance, clearly unhappy about being dismissed so easily, but neither of them attempted to push back.

Lisa gave Morden a small, uncertain look before following Darlus out the door, leaving Morden alone with Mona.

The door clicked shut behind them.

"Morden," Mona said.

He straightened slightly, unsure whether to feel relieved or nervous about being singled out. Given everything that had happened in the Omnisphere, he suspected it wasn’t going to be a short conversation either way.

"I want to know everything you learned from the Flaming Lion," Mona said, settling into the chair across from him.

"Every word, and don’t leave anything out. I might not be able to read your mind fully, but I surely can tell if you are lying."

Morden hesitated for a moment, his thoughts slowly spiraling as he weighed how much of it he actually wanted to share.

Some of it felt too personal, but he was tired of holding everything close to his chest, and Mona had proven more than once that she already knew more than she let on anyway.

"It told me what Attributes actually are," he said finally.

"Defects. Errors in whatever Matrix runs the Omnisphere. The system doesn’t like things it can’t predict, so it tries to get rid of them."

Mona’s expression didn’t shift, though something in her eyes sharpened slightly.

Morden could remember her telling him that no one knows what attributes were not long ago, and he had actually believed her.

"Go on."

"Depending on how severe the flaw is, it either monitors people, redirects them, or removes them completely," Morden continued.

"Mine registers stronger than most, apparently. The Lion didn’t know why, or at least it wouldn’t tell me if it did."

"And the reaction of the Guardians of the Omnisphere when you guys were initially about to leave the City?" Mona asked.

Morden blinked.

"How did you know about that?"

"I know a lot of things that you can’t even phantom," Mona said simply, her tone giving nothing else away.

"Keep going."

He told her the rest of it, from the fight with the young Lion, the small warm stone he’d been given afterward.

He left out only one thing, the exact word the Lion had used to describe what happened to the ones the Matrix decided to remove completely.

He didn’t do it to avoid her worrying, but Something about saying it out loud, even to Mona, felt like giving it too much weight.

When he finished, Mona sat quietly for a long moment, processing everything he’d told her with the same unreadable expression she always wore.

"That’s more than I expected it to give you," she said finally.

"Is that a good thing or a bad thing?" Morden hurriedly asked.

"Neither," Mona said.

"It’s just information. What actually matters is what you do with it."

Morden studied her for a moment, weighing whether now was the right time to ask about the thing he’d been sitting on since the case file had first told him where to look.

"There’s something I need from you too," he said.

Mona raised an eyebrow slightly, waiting.

"The case file," Morden said. "It told me to report to a higher officer for further information on my family’s case, and since we left for the Omnisphere, I never did that. But with all the new info I have now, I want to know."

Mona’s expression finally shifted, though it just slightly, something unreadable flickering behind her eyes before she settled back into her usual composed stillness

.

"Do you?" she said, and this time again it wasn’t quite a question either.

"I do," Morden said, holding her gaze steadily despite the exhaustion still weighing on every part of him.

"I want to know everything that the case file didn’t tell me."

Visit and read more novel to help us update chapter quickly. Thank you so much!