Noem grabbed the vial with Mona’s system chip and spun it open with a Qi-empowered thumb. The cap burst into pieces as Noem coated his middle and forefinger in thin, soft Qi so as not to taint the chip while he carefully removed it. He held it out to Mona, who didn’t hold out her hands for him to drop it into.

“Don’t worry about damaging it; it’s gotta reconfirm your biosignature.” He explained, then waggled it slightly. “Oh, and you’ve gotta make a choice on if you want your wrist or another thing to be your true link.”

Mona blinked lazily, then shook her head and lightly slapped her cheeks. “Okay. I don’t want anyone to steal what I’ve got, and there has to be good enough tech that I can make up for all the other stuff.” She held out her wrist with confidence. “Put it in my wrist thingy.”

Before she could change her mind, which the look on her face made seem very plausible, Noem pressed the chip down against her vital display. She gasped in surprise, then frowned and pouted, then gasped again as the system did its thing. Her entire body shook as the chip reconfirmed her biosignature and slowly sank into her vital display. A low red-white glow emanated from her wrist as the last of the chip disappeared inside the screen that was definitely not large enough to hold it, then beeped loudly and spewed out a holographic display the size of a napkin.

Noem leaned over a little to read what Mona was in the process of reading. And even though she turned away, a few taps on his own interface brought up the security camera footage of what she wanted to keep private.

Mona Crest: 18 year old Human.

Qi Realm: Mortal 1.

Qi Quality: Middling.

Active Bonds: N/A.

Maximum Bonds: 3.

Skills Known: 1.

Maximum Active Skills: 2.

Internalized Skills: 0.

A long list of stats that Noem had set to appear as a heptagon on his own interface. He looked over Mona’s stats as she fawned over her own holographic projection, and they were almost exactly what he expected. Her Qi quality had gone up significantly from constant use, but it hadn’t permeated her body, so her realm was still at mortal 1. The absolute lowest possible realm.

She had no active bonds, which was expected, and she could have a maximum of three bonds. Almost unheard of, but understandable for someone who’d been chosen by a goddess to ‘save the world’. His sister had only a single maximum bond, like ninety-nine percent of people, so having three would be a massive boon if Mona could handle the spirits she tried to bond.

Finally, there were the skills. One known, which was a lot less than Noem’s sister had known, and a maximum of two active skills. The absolute average. That number could easily go up as she trained, so Noem didn’t put too much stock in it. He turned to face Mona and pulled up his own stats for comparison.

Noem Crest: 26 year old Human.

Qi Realm: Mortal 9.

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Qi Quality: Grand.

Active Bonds: N/A.

Maximum Bonds: Only Me.

Skills Known: 74.

Maximum Active Skills: 4.

Internalized Skills: 0.

Noem frowned at the text he hadn’t been able to make sense of for all twenty-six years of his life. ‘Only me’. A theatrical way of saying he could make exactly zero bonds, which had only served to hurt every single opportunity he’d ever had. Bonds were the lifeblood of cultivators, since they let them shatter their limits and step into realms no mortals could tread.

Literally. It was impossible to step into the Cultivator realm without a bond, which came directly after Mortal 9. Every nine realms after that came with another evolution, but Noem hadn’t put them to memory. There was no point looking forward to the rest of the grand prix when he couldn’t even finish the first race.

With three bonds, Mona could be one of the strongest people the world had ever seen. With none, he wouldn’t live to see it. He closed his interface with another tap and put those thoughts out of his mind–he’d gotten further than anyone ever expected him to, and he wasn’t going to stop any time soon.

Mona leaned over the table and shoved her interface at Noem. Making his use of the security cameras completely pointless. “Are these stats any good?”

“Let me check.” Noem pretended to look over Mona’s stats while humming to himself. “Hmm… I’d say they’re about normal for someone who was just in an almost five-year long coma. Except for the number of bonds you can have. That’s dangerous and powerful.”

“Dangerous and powerful.” Mona repeated excitedly and without a hint of the warning Noem had put in his voice. She was almost bubbling with anticipation. Had she forgotten the goddess’ warning already? “I want to be dangerous and powerful. How do I get to be dangerous and powerful? Do I get a magic shelf like you have?”

“Magic… my inventory? It’s not magic. There’s a spatial contortion built into the shelves that connects to–”

“Like I said, magic.” Mona interrupted with a self-confident nod. “I don’t need to know how it works as long as it works. Where do I get one? And do I have to do anything special to connect my interface to it?”

Noem sighed and grabbed a head-sized box from the pile Mona had brought out. “This is one inventory node. They’re expensive, you have to sync each one to your interface, and I’m not giving you any of mine.”

“But you have so many.” Mona argued.

“Yes. I have so many.” Noem agreed, then tapped the inventory node. “You, however, have exactly one. And you’ll have to get used to pulling things from it before you can even think of adding more. Or altering it with something like a stasis field.”

He pressed the cube into Mona’s hands. “And no matter what you do, don’t teleport anything living. The digitization process makes sure nothing will grow, and that includes seeds, not just the plants themselves.”

“No teleporting plants or people, gotcha.” Mona confirmed with a thumbs-up. She fumbled with the cube for a second, then pressed a button on the side. One face hissed open, and she almost dropped it out of surprise. “I got it open! Now what?”

Noem tapped his interface. “Put your hand in it and activate your interface. It’ll ask you if you want to make the thing a part of your inventory. If you want to teleport something, you have to physically put it in your inventory first to sync it. You can’t just up and rob a bank by touching stuff.”

Mona finished reading her interface, then tilted her head to the side. “Did you try doing that?”

“Maybe.” Noem shrugged. “That’s not important. Take your acceptance letter–that’s the thing in the blue envelope–and put it in your inventory.”

Mona did exactly as Noem asked. Her letter sat perfectly flat on the bottom of the cube, and as she lifted her hand away, the smallest amount of her Qi trailed off her fingers and rested on the envelope. She swayed in surprise, then shot Noem a wide-eyed look of disbelief.

“I almost fainted.” She whispered as her gaze trailed toward Noem’s inventory. “And you had so much more stuff in your inventory. How much Qi do you need to sustain all of that?”

“More than you.” Noem said unhelpfully. “Like I said, you shouldn’t get another inventory node until you’re strong enough to fill that one. You can use your interface to get information on things around you, download and update a live map, and a whole bunch of other stuff I don’t feel like teaching you.”

Mona crossed her arms and frowned. “You’re already teaching me. Why not just teach me everything?”

“Because it’s more fun this way. Go grab a change of clothes from your room; we’re heading out.”

“For what?”

A real smile split Noem’s lips. “There are some spirits near here. Can’t give you the rundown without some real life examples, now can I?”