SSS-Rank Corporate Predator System

The air in the prep room was thick with unspoken questions.

Miles stood before Clara, his gaze a physical weight.

The high from their victory had evaporated, leaving behind a cold, sharp-edged suspicion.

He had asked the question.

And he wasn't going to let it go.

Leo, ever the master of social graces, tried to defuse the situation with all the subtlety of a flashbang grenade.

"Whoa, hey now," he said, holding his hands up in a gesture of peace. "Let's all take a breath, okay?"

"She helped us win."

"Let's not start interrogating our own MVP, alright?"

"Maybe she's just, you know, a really, really good guesser."

"Like, supernaturally good."

"Maybe her secret power is being amazing at strategy games."

Miles didn't even look at him.

His eyes were locked on Clara.

He wasn't angry. He was something far more dangerous.

He was confused. And he hated being confused.

Clara let out a long, slow sigh.

She looked from Miles's intense, demanding face to Leo's nervous, pleading one.

She ran a hand through her hair, a gesture of quiet resignation.

She knew this moment was coming.

She just hadn't expected it to be so soon.

"He's right, Leo," she said softly, her voice barely a whisper. "It wasn't a guess."

She finally looked up, meeting Miles's gaze directly.

The playful, academic spark in her eyes was gone, replaced by a deep, profound seriousness that he had never seen before.

"I can't tell you everything," she said, her voice quiet but firm. "Not here. Not now."

"But you deserve to know something."

She took a deep breath.

"I'm not like you, Miles," she began. "I don't have a… a ghost in my head. I don't have an SSS-Rank system that can bend reality."

"And I'm not like them," she said, gesturing vaguely towards the arena outside. "I don't have a system that was bought, or stolen, or handed to me by a corporation."

She paused, choosing her next words with the careful precision of a bomb disposal expert.

"My family," she said, the word hanging in the air with a weight he didn't understand. "We're different."

"We're from a… a community."

"A clan."

"We live outside the system. The corporate system, the government system. All of it."

Miles just stared at her, his mind struggling to process the information. A clan? A hidden community? It sounded like something out of one of the fantasy novels he used to read.

"Our way is different," Clara continued, her voice gaining a quiet confidence, the passion of a true believer. "We don't see systems as weapons. We see them as… an art form. A science."

"We study them. We analyze them. We break them down to their most fundamental code."

"We believe that true power doesn't come from having the strongest system. It comes from understanding how all systems work."

"That sniper's rifle," she said, a flicker of the analytical glint returning to her eyes. "It's a standard issue, third-generation plasma caster. They all have a design flaw in the energy regulation node. It's common knowledge… if you know where to look."

"And the leader's cooldown?" she added with a faint smile. "That's just sloppy programming. A rookie mistake."

The puzzle pieces were slamming into place in Miles's mind with a dizzying speed.

Her impossible knowledge.

Her unnatural calm in the face of his system overload.

Her complete lack of fear.

She wasn't just a brilliant student.

She was a trained expert.

She had been raised in a world he never even knew existed.

"So, you're not just a super-genius," he thought, a wave of stunned, almost hysterical humor washing over him. "You're from a secret society of super-geniuses."

"Great."

"No pressure."

He finally understood.

She was his anchor not just because she was brave, but because she understood the storm inside him better than he did.

Leo was just staring at her, his mouth hanging open, his screwdriver completely forgotten on the floor.

"A clan?" he finally managed to say. "Like, a secret ninja clan?"

"Are there secret handshakes? Do you have a cool hideout in a volcano?"

Clara just gave him a small, sad smile. "It's not as exciting as it sounds, Leo."

Miles finally found his voice.

"Thank you," he said, the words quiet but full of a genuine, unforced sincerity. "For telling me."

It was a new level of trust between them, a shared secret that went deeper than just his own.

He felt a little less alone in the universe.

He realized he wasn't the only one hiding a secret world behind a normal face.

Leo, finally recovering from his shock, scooped his screwdriver off the floor.

"Okay, that's great," he said, his voice a little shaky. "Secret clans. Hidden knowledge. Very cool."

"Can you two, like, get a room or something later?"

"Because I think we're about to have a slightly more pressing problem."

He pointed to the large screen on the wall.

The announcement for their next match had just appeared.

Team Revenant versus… The Ruthless Survivors.

The system in Miles's head flared with a new, urgent warning.

[ANALYZING OPPONENT DATA. TEAM 'RUTHLESS SURVIVORS'. KNOWN FOR USING EXCESSIVE, PERMANENTLY CRIPPLING FORCE.]

[THREAT LEVEL: SEVERE.]

But it was Leo's reaction that truly set off the alarm bells in Miles's mind.

The lanky, easy-going tech genius had gone completely rigid.

The playful grin was gone, replaced by a mask of pure, cold hatred.

His eyes were locked on the name of the opposing team's leader.

A name that meant nothing to Miles, but clearly meant the world to Leo.

"Him," Leo whispered, his voice a low, venomous hiss that Miles had never heard from him before.

Clara put a hand on Leo's shoulder, her face a mixture of concern and a deep, shared sadness. "Leo, you don't have to do this," she said softly.

"Yes," Leo said, his eyes never leaving the screen. "I do."

He turned to look at Miles, and the look in his eyes was chilling.

It was the same look Miles saw in his own reflection every morning.

The look of a boy with a ghost to avenge.

The buzzer for the match sounded, a harsh, demanding cry.

The door to the arena slid open, revealing a dark, waiting tunnel.

Miles looked at Clara, who was watching Leo with a worried expression.

He looked at Leo, who was walking toward the door with the slow, deliberate steps of a man walking to his own execution.

He had just uncovered one secret, only to be confronted with a brand new, and much more dangerous, mystery.

He had no idea what demons Leo was about to face.

He only knew one thing for sure.

This next fight wasn't going to be about winning a tournament.

It was going to be about survival.