LunaWolve
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[ND] Chapter 167 - Verdict
🕑 Added 2026-01-22 20:00:10 +0000 UTC---------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------
------------------- Start of Pre-Chapter Author Note (Patreon-only) -------------------
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Hello everyone, LunaWolve here!
Chapter 162 - Cleaning has just released on RR with no major changes.
For the Fixers, this chapter is new.
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Do you agree with Miss K's verdict on the situation...? đ€
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For anyone interested in the stuff I linked to last week:
We got another FREE READING SAMPLE for Chapter 1 of Tabula Smaragdina (TS) today!
https://www.patreon.com/posts/148786437
The Reading Samples are intended to last around 3-5 Chapters, so they are quite a bit larger than your average TAS or ND ones, to make sure that I can cover all the bits I want to present in the sample.
Today's chapter is around 7.5k Words long, so about twice as long as a normal TAS/ND chapter.
Enjoy, and don't forget to provide feedback in the discord channel! (â other-novels -> Thread: â Put feedback for TS in here)
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I'm looking forward to hearing your first impressions and opinions on this chapter. \o/
I hope you will enjoy it!
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-------------------- End of Pre-Chapter Author Note (Patreon-only) ------------------- ---------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------
Here is the link to the chapter:
https://docs.google.com/document/d/1p-VWWkgiK8xpQBtmSOH-GmEHDgTPhd-D8fGWmrarmVg/edit?usp=sharing
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Chapter 167 - Verdict
My head was still swimming, most of my mental bandwidth dedicated to the very important task of not throwing up, so I barely registered anything around meâright up until a sharp, vicious stab hit my chest.
Liquid ice flooded through my veins, laced with fire, and my eyes flew open as my body snapped upright like it had been yanked by a wire.
The haze, the blur, the ringingâall of it shattered in a heartbeat.
I sucked in a deep, ragged breath, lungs burning as my vision scrambled to refocus.
Miss K knelt beside me, injector still in hand.
âEasy, Sera. Easy,â she said calmly, one hand bracing my shoulder as the other guided me back down. âSlow breaths. Deep ones. Donât fight it. Let the surge pass through youâdonât try to move yet. I know it feels wrong not to move, but trust me on this. Come on.â
So I did.
Trusting Miss K had stopped being a conscious decision a while ago. Given everything she already knew about meâthe System tidbits, the Anima, my reworked Bodyâit just made sense.
The fire-and-ice cocktail slowly burned itself out, just like she had pretty much said it would, the sensation ebbing into something far more manageable. I still felt extremely restless and wired. Like Iâd slammed thirty-five cans of my favorite energy drink back-to-back and my body hadnât quite decided whether to vibrate or sprint.
But it was definitely not the same kind of incessant need to move like my entire body had been suffused with overeager ants.
My heart was still hammering like it wanted out of my chest, no matter how much I focused on slowing my breathing, but honestly? That was a small price to pay for not actively fighting the urge to redecorate the mat with one of Mr. Shorisâ ramen bowls.
âWhat⊠what happened?â I finally asked, once I trusted my mouth to cooperate.
I wasnât asking because I didnât know what a concussion was, or because Iâd forgotten getting headbutted straight into the fucking astral plane.
I just needed to hear a voice. Needed some kind of proof that my brain was still capable of processing words without straight melting through my skullâwhatever was left of that one.
âI definitely owe you an apology, Sera,â Miss K said, and the genuine regret in her voice made my chest tighten a little. âI did not intend to hurt you like that. At all.â
That⊠actually made me feel worse. This whole situation was genuinely, squarely on meâno two ways about it.
But of course Miss K would feel bad about it anyway. She was the Grandmaster, and I was just a student. And she wasnât the kind of teacher who shrugged and blamed the student when something went wrong, even when it very clearly wasnât really her fault.
âYou put me in a very difficult position there,â she continued, then paused, a faint edge of pride slipping in. âWhichâcredit where itâs dueâwas extremely well done. That was clever. Sneaky. You nearly had me there...â
I smiled faintly and looked up at her.
She smiled backâthen her expression hardened.
âBut,â she continued flatly, âyou are also a complete and utter moron.â
My smile froze.
âYou took an absurdly dangerous gamble and hoped I wouldnât be willing to hurt you to stop it,â she went on. âThat is not what I teach here. Iâve told the same thing to the rest of the class today as well. Kenzie, Jin, Tom. Each one went for risky moves to try and take you down, and I chastised all of them. Yet you still decided to do the same exact moronic thing by risking it all, simply throwing something out there without thinking about potential consequences. A concussion is a very small price to pay for that lesson, I would say.â
She leaned in a little, her voice dropping into something quieter. âIf you had tried that on a âBorg, Sera. On someone who actually wanted you dead. You wouldnât be lying here embarrassed and dizzyâyou would have been dead.â
The quiet voice was honestly worse than if she had been yelling at me.
âThey wouldnât have held back like I did,â she continued evenly. âAnd their heads are a lot tougher than mine. Mine is just bone. Theirs are durasteel-reinforced titanium, with neck muscles built from triple-thickened synthweave and piston-hydraulics that make my head movement look like an old lady nodding off in a chair.â
Her gaze didnât leave mine.
âYouâve seen and felt what Jinâs arms can do. Theyâre clean, well-made, and suited for his bodyâbut theyâre still low-tier in the grand scheme of things. A similarly low-tier skull replacement and neck package would have completely shattered your entire head on impact and sent your brain splattering everywhere. Do you understand?â
She straightened slightly, backing off from the close, intense messaging of her words.
âDonât ever do that again, Sera.â
âYes, Miss K⊠Iâm sorry, Miss K,â I answered sheepishly, finally dropping my gaze because there was absolutely no way I was winning that staring contest.
âAlright,â she said, already shifting gears like a switch had flipped. âLetâs get you back on your feet and run a few basic checks to make sure the booster actually did what it was supposed to.â
The sudden return to calm, professional instructor mode gave me a bit of mental whiplash, but honestly? That was just Miss K.
She scolded hard, then fixed the problem just as fast.
I took her outstretched hand and got hauled up with embarrassing ease. Only then did I really look around and register the three sets of eyes on meâconcerned, curious, and just a little unsettled.
âHey⊠uh⊠sorry about that,â I offered awkwardly, rubbing the back of my neck. âI mightâve gone a bit overboard.â
âThat was fucking awesome,â Kenzie blurted out immediately.
Miss K shot her a look cold enough to flash-freeze the mat.
Kenzie flinched and backpedaled instantly. âAhhhâAssuming youâll be more careful in the future! Obviously! Donât ever do that again! Like the Grandmaster said. Definitely listen to herâŠ!â
The silence that followed was thick enough I could practically hear Miss K rolling her eyes.
Jin saved us all.
âCrazy move,â he said simply, giving me a short nod. The look on his face said more than the wordsâequal parts impressed and cautious. Not âsheâs utterly unhingedâ cautious, but âthereâs more going on here than I thoughtâ cautious.
Tom, meanwhile, just stared at me with narrowed eyes, jaw tight, brain clearly running at full tilt. Whatever conclusions he was drawing, he didnât look particularly thrilled about them.
And that made me not particularly thrilled eitherâI did not want to get on Tomâs bad side.
âAlright,â Miss K said, snapping my attention back to her. âLetâs get you sorted. Follow my lead.â
â
Five minutes laterâafter a frankly ridiculous assortment of stretches, balance checks, movements I didnât have names for, and something that felt suspiciously like a drunk-driver sobriety test, capped off with a bit of light sparring to make sure my limbs still listened to my brainâMiss K finally gave me the green light.
âIt looks like youâre back up and running,â she said, nodding once. âThatâs good. Very good.â
Then she raised her voice, shifting gears as she addressed the rest of the group.
âNow,â she continued, âletâs talk about the obvious question youâre all thinking about right now: Did Sera win the challenge?â
That immediately snapped everyoneâs attention to herâmine included.
âKenzie,â Miss K said, turning to the foxgirl. âYour take?â
Kenzieâs ears shot straight up as she blinked, clearly not expecting to be put on the spot first like this.
âUhâyeah, I think she probably deserves some recognition, at least?â she said after a beat. âI mean, she did technically get a hit in, Miss. Not one that actually did any damage, sure, but that wasnât part of the rules. A hitâs a hit⊠at least in my opinionâŠâ
Miss K nodded once, then shifted her gaze down the line. âJin?â
Jin folded his arms, the ever-present seriousness etched onto his face.
âGetting hit isnât the same as hitting, Master,â he said. âSera tried hardâcloser than any of us have ever gotten, as much as it pains to admitâbut you could have killed her for that. As you said yourself. That doesnât count as a hit to me. Otherwise, every time you block, parry, or redirect our strikes, those would count too. This was fist against fist. Not a clean hit.â
It might have been the longest Iâd ever heard him speak in one goâand I couldnât really argue with his logic.
I hadnât actually landed anything.
Iâd gone in for the headbutt, and sheâd simply⊠headbutted me back. Just like she always met our fists with palms or twisted away at the last second. It hadnât been a clean connection.
If anything, she had been the one doing the hitting.
Miss K nodded again, then turned to the last person. âThomas?â
Tom had his hand cupped under his chin, clearly having thought this through while the others spoke.
He straightened slightly before answering.
âNot a clean hit,â he said. âBut still a hit. Probably not enough to count as clearing the challenge outright. That saidââ He hesitated for a brief moment, then continued. âThe fact that she managed to catch you off-guard enough to make you use a combat-grade booster on her? No offense intended, Maâam, but that feels⊠significant enough to be mentioned. You broke from your usual intent. That definitely has to count for something.â
That finally drew the faintest hint of a smile from Miss K, who waved off his concern with a small, dismissive gesture.
Then she turned back to me, one eyebrow raised as she vaguely gestured my way.
âWell?â she asked. âWhat do you think, Sera? Did you get a hit on me?â
I blinked, a little caught off-guard by the question. I honestly hadnât expected to be asked, considering that this was a question about meâin a way.
Now, on one hand, Jin was absolutely right.
Iâd gotten my ass handed to me in record time, earned a concussion for my trouble, and then gotten very thoroughlyâand probably very deservedlyâchewed out for it. No amount of mental gymnastics was going to change that.
I hadnât landed a clean hit. Not even close.
On the other handâŠ
âTom and Kenzie arenât exactly wrong either now, are theyâŠ?â
I wasnât really a vain person, or at least I liked to think I wasnât, but Iâd be lying if I said there wasnât a tiny, smug little spark in my chest at the idea that Iâd managed to make Miss Kâthe Miss Kâdo something she hadnât initially planned nor wanted to do.
Even if it had been for only a fraction of a second.
Even if it had ended with her headbutting my damn soul out of me.
I took a slow breath, buying myself a bit of courage, then spoke.
âI think⊠I agree with Tom the most,â I said carefully. âIt wasnât a clean hit. And Iâm very aware now just how stupidly dangerous that was. But⊠I did manage to surprise you. That probably doesnât really count for anythingâbut I⊠Ehh⊠I just wanted to say it out loud, I guess.â
Miss K stared at me for a second, completely unimpressed with my answer.
Then she rolled her eyes and let out a long, tired sigh.
âUltimately,â she said, âI agree with all of you.â
She turned slightly toward Jin first. âPrimarily with Jin. That was not a hit as Iâd consider it for the challengeâs rules. Me headbutting you is not the same as you headbutting meâand I did have more momentum, better structure, and a stronger follow-through. That makes it my win on the contact and my headbutt, not yours. End of discussion on that front.â
Then her gaze flicked to Kenzie and Tom. âThat said⊠The two of you are not wrong either. Sera did surprise me.â
She crossed her arms, but not looking displeased in the slightest. âI donât approve of holding back during sparring. Not normally. But given the one-trick nature of what she was attempting⊠Iâm not particularly angry about it. Tricks, hidden techniques, and conditional plays are part of any real fight. You never truly know what an opponent is capable ofâand thatâs something I should have accounted for more thoroughly in this instance.â
Her eyes met mine again. âThat oneâs on me. I clearly underestimated my student.â
That sent a strange little jolt through my chest and I had to clamp down on my muscles to not have a full-body shudder.
âSo,â she continued, âyou do not get the reward for the challenge itself, Sera. No injector.â
She paused for a beat, letting the tension hang, then added, âBut I will have something else prepared for you by the next session. Seems fair to me. Call it recognition for the attemptâand for reminding me that even new students can still surprise an old lady like myself.â
One eyebrow lifted. âThat sound fair to all of you?â
I nodded enthusiastically. This was way more than I had hoped for, so no complaints here!
A quick glance around told me I wasnât alone eitherâeveryone else was nodding as well, each in their own way.
Kenzie looked downright ecstatic, practically vibrating in place as she nodded as well.
Tom accepted it with a measured dip of his head, already filing it away as data or whatever was happening inside that big brain of his.
Jin, meanwhile, wore the expression of someone whoâd just bitten into a lemonâclearly unhappy about the bending of the rules, but still giving a reluctant nod all the same.
âWonderful. Then thatâs settled,â Miss K declared, clapping her hands once, the sound echoing through the dojo and making all of us instinctively straighten up. âNow get yourselves dried off, rehydrate, and then get out of my dojo. Sessionâs over.â
A chorus of âYes, Miss K,â âYes, Maâam,â and âYes, Master,â rang out immediately, and we wasted no time doing exactly as toldâŠ
â
By the time we finally left the dojo, I was completely wiped.
Whatever injector Miss K had jabbed me with had very clearly run its course, and the ridiculous, crackling energy it had pumped into me was now calling in its debt with interest.
The crash hit hard.
My limbs felt heavy, my head fuzzy, and my thoughts a half-second behind where they shouldâve been. So out of it, in fact, that I completely missed Tom stopping just outside the entrance. Everyone else halted with himâand I walked straight into Kenzieâs back.
âHâHey! Watch where youâre walking, you oaf,â Kenzie protested, more startled than angry.
âAh, shitâsorry,â I blurted out immediately, stumbling back a step or two. âIâm a bit⊠yeah. Kind of woozy. Whatever Miss K hit me with is definitely wearing off. My bad...â
Kenzie waved it off with an exaggerated wink. âRelax, Sera. Iâm messing with you. No harm done.â
Then she tilted her head slightly. âYou need any help getting home?â
My first instinct was to brush it off, but I paused instead and actually thought about it.
âDo I need helpâŠ?â I didnât feel so exhausted that I couldnât walk, and I wasnât exactly in dangerâassuming Valeria was right about the whole corpo thing.
So no bodyguard needed necessarily.
But⊠just walking home with someone? Even part of the way?
That⊠Did sound kind of nice.
Kenzie probably couldnât access my floor anyway, but walking together to the elevator didnât seem like an impossibility at all.
âHonestly,â I said after a moment, giving her a slightly crooked smile, âthatâd be great. You probably canât come all the way, but at least to the nearest elevator? Iâd really appreciate it. Thanks, Kenzie.â
It felt⊠weirdly awkward to say out loud.
I really shouldâve been more comfortable with this than I was.
Between this life and my past one, I was probably almost twice her ageânot that I felt it at all in this body. But I probably shouldâve had this stuff down by nowâcasual conversations, easy friendships, someone offering to walk with me without it feeling like a big deal.
The truth was⊠Iâd never really had that before.
So yeah. In a way, this was kind of a first. And it felt awkward.
But definitely not in a bad way.
âI got you,â Kenzie said, scooting in closer and looping my arm around her shoulders to help me walk. I wasnât quite in that bad of a state, but I definitely didnât complain.
The support was appreciated more than I wanted to admit.
âWe should do that get-together,â Tom suddenly said and made both Kenzie and me look over at him in surprise. âLike we talked about. Extra training. Outside the dojo.â
âRight⊠we did talk about that,â I thought, dredging the memory up.
First day of the dojo.
Back when everything had still felt a lot⊠simpler.
Somehow that already felt like ages ago.
âWeâor, well, Sera at leastâgot really close to beating the challenge today,â Tom continued, meeting our eyes one by one. âNot that I think weâll get anywhere near that again anytime soon. But it makes me want to push harder. I canât be the only one, right?â
Jin didnât even hesitate. âYes. More training,â he said flatly. âI am in.â
Kenzie nodded immediately. âSame. Iâm down.â
I nodded along with them, still riding that lingering, fizzy high from earlier.
Iâd managed to catch Miss K off-guard. A Grandmaster.
That alone was going to keep my brain happily buzzing for weeks.
âYeah,â I added. âSame here.â
Tomâs gaze lingered on me a second longer than the others. âGood. Especially you, Sera. Itâs⊠confusing how fast youâve improved. Youâll be a great sparring partner for all of us.â
I could feel a whole mountain of unspoken meaning packed into that sentence, but I didnât have the timeâor the mental bandwidth, honestlyâto pick it apart before Jin jumped in.
âI am upset,â he said bluntly after stepping up to me. âYou did not take our fight seriously. You held backâwhatever you did to get that close to Master.â
I met his stare, unsure what the right response even was.
Thankfully, I didnât have to find one.
He looked away first.
âI am ashamed,â he went on, jaw tight. âThat I was not even worthy of seeing your full capabilities. I will not allow this humiliation to happen again. Mark my words, Seraphine.â
I almost flinched at the full name.
I wasnât even sure heâd ever actually said my name beforeâand definitely not the full version. He was dead serious.
So I met him where he stood.
âIâll hold you to that, Jin,â I said evenly. âAnd for what itâs worth, I wouldnât have used that technique on you anyway. Even if youâd pushed me harder. I was saving it for Miss K, no matter what. You donât get many chances to try and surprise herâand I wasnât giving that up for a normal bout.â
I rubbed at my arms and added with a crooked smile, âBesides, Iâll be feeling your punches tomorrow either way. You definitely left a markâor like twenty.â
That part was mostly to smooth things over.
The Rest Function was going to wipe those aches clean like theyâd never existed.
But Jin didnât need to know that.
And it seemed to work, because the tight edge in his expression eased a little at the idea that heâd managed to leave some lasting pain behindâwhich⊠Yeah. That probably shouldâve come with a therapist and a long talk. But this was Neo Avalis.
For a teenager like him, that was sadly considered healthy behavior.
âIâll message all of you soon, then,â Tom said, smoothly taking control of the conversation again. âOnce I clear it with my family. We can use our dojo for the extra trainingâit wonât be a problem. Give me a day or two, and Iâll send you the time and date. If anything comes up, let me know as soon as possible so we can adjust.â
We all agreed, more or less in unison, and then started peeling off in our own directions.
Jin and Tom headed out together, while Kenzie stayed with me and helped me toward the nearest elevator.
On the way, I noticed she was quieter than usual.
Less banter, less confidence, her ears flicking around uneasily instead of their usual energetic twitching. I didnât really know how to address itâwe werenât exactly close enough for me to start poking at whatever was going on in her headâand I also didnât want to make things awkward by forcing it.
âReally wish I was a bit more of a social savant here⊠How do you even approach a situation like this, damnit?!â
But apparently it was my lucky day, because Kenzie managed to work through it on her own and started opening up a few minutes into our walk.
At some point, she let out a slow breath and slowed us down a bit.
âI know you probably canât say much,â she started, glancing sideways at me, âbut your progress is⊠really, really crazy.â
I stayed quiet, letting her talk.
âIâif you have any pointers,â she continued, words coming a little faster now, âanything you can tell me at all, Iâd really appreciate it. Iâm not the best fighter, and even with all the time I put into this, it just feels like Iâm only falling further and further behindâŠâ
She hesitated, ears drooping just a bit. âMy next Gene-Session isnât for a few months, so Iâm not going to get any big boosts until then. And I just⊠I donât want to be dead weight, Sera.â
That hit harder than Iâd expected, mostly because it echoed exactly what Jade had hinted at yesterday and had clearly been wrestling with since⊠Well, basically since the moment Iâd met her.
Everyone around me seemed to be scrambling just to keep upâalways chasing the next step, the next upgrade, the next edge, being utterly terrified of falling behind.
âIf that isnât the distilled emotion of Cyberpunk, I donât know what is,â I thought, a tight knot forming in my chest. Especially knowing that, in my past life, Iâd consumed worlds and stories like this for pure entertainment.
Watched people struggle from a safe distance. Found it cool. Stylish.
Even funny, at times.
Now I was standing right in the middle of it, looking at real peopleâJade, Kenzieâdoing everything they could just to stay afloat. Trying not to get swept away by the current, only to still feel it dragging at their legs no matter how hard they kicked.
They were so very desperate.
And if I was being honest with myself⊠so was I.
âIâve been doing nothing but grinding the damn System since I got here,â I admitted inwardly, âand I still feel like Iâm fucking drowning the whole time.â
And the absolute worst part of it all, was that I didnât actually have any advice for Kenzie.
I couldnât tell her about the System. I couldnât even really tell her about Animaânot when I barely understood it myself. And just dropping that kind of knowledge on her, without any way to help her use it, wouldâve done nothing but paint a target on her back.
So I was just there, walking beside her, turning the problem over and over in my head.
What the hell was I even supposed to say to her�
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Comments
LunaWolve
â€ïžâ€ïžâ€ïž By siphoning energy from kind comments like yours!
Brian
Hmm, those arguments seem kinda familiar⊠almost as if comments were preserved in the story. Awesome!
Guardsman
Great chapter as usual. I have no clue how you are writing two stories, 2 chapters each a week. Its mind-boggling and impressive for a non writer like myself. Thanks for the great stories.
Gardor
Why? The stuff that's happened to her has been mostly random chance, paranoid to me implies like, fearing betrayal or being suspicious of people's intentions. Being paranoid wouldnt have stopped a corporation from SWATting their apartment. Jade i guess was a spy but she wasnt responsible for that gang run in, i dont think. I do think Sera should have cared more about Jade being fake, but thats a different conversation imo. Thats less about "she should change her personality to be less trusting" and more about "why would you want to be friends with this person? Why would you ever trust them?".
MyDarkness
Very good. Not as a criticism , I feel like sera should be a little more paranoid by now . Just a thought . Great chapter
LunaWolve
Double victory today, eh? https://i.imgur.com/qVE4wnK.png S E R A P O T A T
LunaWolve
Fixing it!
ID Dragnil
The google doc link is not the right one
tetrise
Thanks for the chapter!
