My practical training finally started, as Aaron couldn’t find any more excuses to make me read books.

It was much harder than I thought, and I wished more day by day that I had never found the ring.

There was at least one plus.

Aaron.

But no matter how much I tried to talk to him, when I wasn’t completely controlled by my nerves, he didn’t say anything that wasn’t about the training. After trying several times, I simply gave up, and just did what he told me to.

The conversation between Jiro and Aaron bothered me a lot. First of all because Aaron actually had said I was pretty. It could make me happy even when he got frustrated over me when I couldn’t fulfil the tasks he gave me, and loudly made me know how stupid I was. I had easily forgotten about the smile-too-much thing.

Second, because she had never been the object of someone’s erted thoughts before, and it made her dizzy and unwell. Of all people, erts were the ones she was most afraid of.

Of course Genie had joked a lot about it, and used to show mini-skirts whenever they went shopping, but she still really wished that she had never heard that part of the conversation.

“Please, Gui Gui, get it out of your head. No matter how pure and innocent your own thoughts are, you can’t expect everybody else to be just as clean-minded,” Genie sighed.

I kept silent. Jiro was in my mind a devil in human form.

It was one of those few times where Genie went with me to practise. I was really tired; it drained all my energy, and even my grades had gone worse.

It wasn’t just saying a spell, and then everything automatically happened. I had to use all my mind and concentration just to make the smallest things happen, like ripping off a flower leave. And Aaron was very impatient and often made me train three hours every day and six in the weekends.

Fortunately, I was already such an experienced ballet dancer, and had been dancing since I was four, so I didn’t have to train my body further.

Even though my parents didn’t care for what I did in my free time, as long as “it was legal, decent behaviour, fitting for a young woman of our society”, they cared a lot for my grades, and planned to send me to a doctor.

Alien was also worried and wanted to know where I spent all my time. I used to say that Genie and I had ballet training, but he didn’t seem to believe me, and I felt bad about lying.

“Actually, Gui Gui, I understand less and less why you like Aaron. It’s like he purposely torments you. I spoke to Jolin the other day, you know, X9, and she said she only trained twice a week. Aaron forces you to train daily.” Genie also sounded a bit worried. She looked at the dark circles around my eyes and shook her head.

“Maybe he just wants me to control the ring as fast as possible. You’ve seen how dangerous it can be,” I defended him while looking down.

“But you already do control it, don’t you? Nothing unnatural has happened around you for two weeks, unless you wanted it to happen.”

I knew she referred to a scene two days ago, where Jiro had wanted to tease me by laying his arm around me, which had resulted in a small explosion that had sent him five meters away. Aaron had actually looked a bit impressed, and after that, he had made my training a lot tougher.

“How would I know? George told me that only my trainer could decide when I was ready to be a Y Coder.”

Genie sighed.

“I can’t believe you keep defending Aaron. Open your eyes, Gui Gui, how many percent do you think the chance of him liking you counts?”

I knew it was less than one percent, but I didn’t manage to answer before someone broke in.

“Do you mean Aaron Yan?”

Genie and I turned around in shock. Show had obviously been walking right behind us all the time.

“You...?”

“Yes, me,” he smiled.

“For how long have you been there?” Genie asked.

“Oh, about ten minutes. Your conversation was very strange.”

“How much did you hear?”

“Enough to give me a lot of questions. The first one I just asked – Gui Gui, do you really like Aaron Yan? And what’s with the codes, training and rings?”

“It’s – it’s just an online game,” I excused desperately. We were only a hundred meters away from the head quarter.

“Sounds interesting,” Show laughed. “Then what about Aaron?”

“It isn’t any of your business,” Genie coldly said.

“Of course not. But I’m very curious since you rejected my best friend’s proposal,” he smiled.

Even though he looked happy, I could feel that he actually was very serious.

“What if she does like Aaron?” As usual, Genie had all the courage that I didn’t.

“Then nothing. I just find it interesting.”

“You won’t tell anybody?”

“Of course not.”

Genie looked at me. I hesitated.

“Oh come on, I’ve already figured it out. If you didn’t like him, you would have rejected it right away, so there’s nothing to admit, is there?” he rolled his eyes.

I smiled nervously.

“As long as you don’t tell anybody,” I finally said.

“But I have something else to talk to you about,” he said, and now he didn’t smile.

“What?”

“Alien is really worried about you. I think you should be a bit nicer to him.” He looked me straight in the eyes.

“I’m just... very busy.” I had bad conscience. I knew Alien really cared about me.

“Ballet training?” Show lifted his eyebrows in doubt.

“Yes,” Genie broke in, “we have to train a lot since we have a competition soon. The winners might get into a very good school overseas.”

It wasn’t all lie; we actually had a competition soon.

When we finally got rid of Show, we hurried to the head quarter.

The receptionist, Fiona, stopped us in the hall.

“Miss X32! Master Na wants to talk to you!”

“Right now?!” I was already too late for my training.

“Yes, Mr. Z9 has been informed, so you don’t have to worry.”

As Fiona had forbidden Genie to go with me (“It’s a private meeting!”), I nervously went to the big conference room where I had also met Jack the first time.

I was getting used to using the tunnels to get around in the building, but that didn’t mean I liked it. I would probably never be able to do it just as elegant as Rainie.

I landed at the rug, and ran over to the table.

To my surprise, Jack was not the only one there. Rainie sat next to him, and to his other side sat the three girls I had seen with Rainie a few weeks ago.

Next to Rainie sat Jolin and a guy I didn’t know.

Jack made a hand move that invited me to sit down next to the girl with medium short hair. She smiled to me.

“I think a presentation would be a good start,” Jack started.

“This is Miss Rainie Yang, Z10.”

Rainie kept being indifferent.

“And over here we have Ella, Hebe and Selina, also known as Z12, Z13 and Z14.”

The three girls at my side of the table smiled.

“Miss Jolin Tsai, X9,” he pointed at Jolin, “and Mr. Janosch Feng, X5.”

At last, he turned to me.

“And this is Miss Wu Ying Jie, X32. Any questions?”

The boy called Janosch raised his hand.

“I thought you had to be a top ten X Coder before you could graduate.” Janosch’s voice was smooth and arrogant. His hair was dyed in a golden colour, and he had a constant bored expression.

“In normal cases, yes, Mr. X5. But Miss Wu isn’t a normal case, as she isn’t Skilled from birth,” Jack smiled coldly.

Everybody seemed interested except for Rainie, and Janosch who tried to look as bored as possible.

Why was the room so dark? I loved light. It made everything less scary.

“Then how did you get Skills?” Janosch asked me.

“Because I found this,” I showed him the ring on my finger. He nodded approving.

While Jolin seemed surprised, Ella, Selina and Hebe already knew. Rainie had probably told them.

“We’ve been in bit of a hurry to train her, both for her own safety, but also because we know that at least one other organization is after the Silver Ring,” Jack explained. So that was why Aaron had trained me so intensely.

“...so self-defence is pretty important for her.”

There it was again! Was it really that dangerous to have the Silver Ring?

Aaron had said that it only could be passed on to a new owner if the previous owner died, but I had tried to forget that.

First of all Janosch, Jolin and I had to get our Skills examined.

Jack had some kind of bracelet, just much bigger than a normal one that he made us put on each after another. Jolin and Janosch seemed to have tried it before, but I got a shock when the bracelet immediately lit up, and a lot of numbers took form in it. Jack obviously understood what the numbers meant, and wrote them all down.

When he was done, he said:

“Not surprising, Miss Wu has the highest count of Skills, because of the ring. Miss Tsai is next, and Mr. Feng has the lowest count.”

Janosch ignored him.

“But now to the case. We will be sending you three out on your graduation mission tomorrow, so you better prepare yourselves. Miss Z9, Z12, Z13 and Z14 will go with you.”

“Excuse me?” I asked with a tiny voice. “What do you mean by graduation mission?”

Janosch smirked tauntingly.

“A graduation mission is a mission where one or several Z Coders has to approve of your graduation to a Y Coder,” Jack explained.

“What kind of mission?” It was the only thing I really hadn’t understood about all this; what Coders really did on missions.

“You seven have to find out who took Y10’s memory the last time he was on a mission, and afterwards get it back. There are two reasons; of course Y10 needs his memory back, as he now can’t recognize any of us, and it also contained some very important information.”

I nodded. And was scared to death.

***

Wow! Thanks for all the comments :D

<3 you guys!

Well, hope you liked this chapter :]

Gui Gui is going on her first mission... with Janosch the Jerk (xD).

I randomly got the name (Janosch) from a book about horse training that I’m reading right now. Lol

Please write a comment, I really want to know what you think about the story so far (: or just... what you think. Or something. I actually don’t care, I just love every single comment you write <3

- Blitz