The press conference took place at Silver Blade's main headquarters, in an auditorium designed to impress.
Crystal chandeliers. Marble floors. Stadium seating for three hundred journalists, all of them buzzing with speculation about the unprecedented announcement. The login user phenomenon had been whispered about for years, but never confirmed by credible sources.
Until now.
Ryu stood backstage, watching the crowd fill through a crack in the curtain. His heart rate was elevated, but his enhanced physiology kept it manageable. This was just another kind of battle — one fought with words instead of weapons.
"Nervous?" Nyx asked, adjusting the collar of the formal jacket they'd convinced him to wear.
"Terrified." Ryu's voice was steady despite the admission. "But I've been terrified every night for 455 days. At least this terror has a purpose."
"That's... actually profound." Nyx stepped back. "You look presentable. Like someone who might not destroy the world."
"High praise."
Kira Tanaka approached, her heels clicking on the marble. "We're ready to begin. The guild alliance representatives are seated, the Bureau sent observers — though not Director Hale himself — and we have international press from twelve countries."
"Anything I should know about the crowd?"
"About thirty percent are sympathetic — progressive outlets, awakener rights advocates, people who've been criticizing Bureau policies for years. About forty percent are hostile — fear-based coverage, Bureau-aligned media, anti-awakener sentiment. The remaining thirty percent are genuinely curious." Kira's expression was calculating. "Win the curious ones. Neutralize the hostile ones. Give the sympathetic ones ammunition."
"Simple."
"If it were simple, you wouldn't need me." Kira checked her watch. "Five minutes. The introductory remarks will take ten. When you take the stage, you'll have exactly twenty minutes before the Q&A begins."
Ryu nodded. They'd rehearsed this. They'd planned for every conceivable question. They'd prepared evidence, testimonials, and demonstrations.
It was still terrifying.
Sera appeared at his other side, her wounds healed but her eyes still carrying shadows. "Ready to change the world?"
"Ready to try."
The lights dimmed. Kira Tanaka walked onto the stage, and the murmur of the crowd faded into anticipatory silence.
"Ladies and gentlemen, thank you for joining us. I am Kira Tanaka, guild leader of the Silver Blade. Today, we are going to discuss something that has been whispered about for years but never publicly addressed: the login users."
The crowd shifted. Some leaned forward with interest. Others crossed their arms defensively.
"You have heard stories," Kira continued. "Tales of awakeners whose powers grow on their own schedule, independent of training or combat. Rumors of an ability type that defies classification. Speculation about individuals who become S-rank through discipline rather than danger." She paused. "Today, you will meet one of them. The longest active login streak in recorded history. Day 455."
She gestured toward the curtain.
"Ladies and gentlemen, Ryu Katsaros."
Ryu walked onto the stage.
The silence was complete. Three hundred pairs of eyes fixed on him, scanning, evaluating, judging. Cameras flashed. Sensors hummed as reporters with scanner equipment analyzed his power levels.
He heard the murmurs as the readings came back. The numbers were impossible by normal awakener standards. The growth curve made no sense.
"Good afternoon," Ryu said, his voice amplified by the hall's systems. "I understand you have questions. Let me start by answering the most common ones."
He pulled up a projection — a visual representation of his status screen, sanitized for public consumption.
"This is what a login user's power looks like after 455 consecutive days. Every number on this screen came from one action: logging in at midnight. No training. No dungeons. No combat experience. Just discipline."
He let that sink in.
"The login system is an ability type that approximately two hundred people worldwide received during the awakening. Most of us broke our streaks within the first month — life is unpredictable, and the requirement to confirm our login within a sixty-second window leaves no room for error."
"Those of us who survived became something unusual. Not because we're special or talented, but because we're consistent. The system rewards discipline above all else. Show up every night, and you grow stronger. Miss a single night..."
He paused.
"You lose everything. Every stat point. Every skill. Every reward you've ever received. It all disappears, and you're returned to baseline human parameters. We call this 'breaking,' and those who experience it are called 'the Broken.'"
The audience was rapt. Even the hostile faces showed morbid curiosity.
"You've heard about the Breakers — the organization that attacked Bureau facilities and guild outposts last week. What you may not know is why they exist." Ryu's voice hardened. "The Bureau of Awakened Affairs has been systematically breaking login users for years. They see our growth as a threat they can't control. So they control it the only way they know how: by destroying it."
He pulled up another projection — Operation Snooze Button's documentation, heavily redacted but clearly official.
"This is a Bureau operation file. It describes a program designed to identify login users, infiltrate their lives, and force them to miss their midnight window. Drugged coffee. Fake emergencies. Manipulated relationships. Seventeen confirmed login users have been broken through Bureau operations since the awakening."
The murmurs turned hostile — but the hostility was directed at the Bureau observers, not at Ryu.
"Maren Voss, the leader of the Breakers, was Day 312 when the Bureau broke him. He lost three hundred and twelve days of accumulated power because a woman he loved was paid to drug him. The psychological trauma of that loss — the hollow, we call it — drove him to desperate measures."
"I'm not defending his actions. The Breakers killed innocent people. That's inexcusable." Ryu met the eyes of the crowd. "But I am explaining the cause. The Bureau created the crisis they're now using to justify expanded powers. They're pointing at Maren Voss and saying 'see, login users are dangerous' — but they made him dangerous. Their fear, their control, their violation of his fundamental rights created the monster they now claim to be fighting."
He let the silence stretch.
"I'm here today to offer an alternative. Not control, but cooperation. Not containment, but integration. Login users don't want to be separate from society. We don't want to be threats or monsters or ticking time bombs. We want to use our abilities to help — the same way any other awakener does."
"The Silver Blade has agreed to partner with us. We'll clear dungeons, fight monsters, protect civilians. We'll demonstrate that login users are assets, not liabilities. And we'll work with any organization — government or private — that treats us as people rather than problems."
He stepped back from the podium.
"Questions?"
The room erupted.
---
The Q&A lasted an hour.
Ryu answered questions about the system's mechanics (general details only, nothing that would reveal vulnerabilities). He explained the evolution milestones (without mentioning his own plans for Day 500). He addressed concerns about power levels (emphasizing that high stats didn't make someone dangerous, just capable).
The hardest questions came from Bureau-aligned journalists, who pressed on Maren's crimes and the deaths during the attacks. Ryu didn't deflect — he acknowledged the tragedy, expressed genuine grief for the victims, and redirected to the systemic causes.
"Every death is a tragedy," he said when asked about the seventeen killed in the Breaker attacks. "But every death was also avoidable. If the Bureau had partnered with login users instead of trying to destroy us, Maren Voss would still be Day 312 — one of the strongest protectors we could have had. Instead, he's broken, insane, and responsible for atrocities. The Bureau didn't prevent a threat. They created one."
The sympathetic press loved it. The hostile press didn't have easy rebuttals. The curious press had enough material for weeks of coverage.
By the time the conference ended, Ryu was exhausted but cautiously optimistic.
"That went well," Nyx said as they retreated to a private room. "Better than I expected."
"The public response is already trending positive." Hiro was monitoring social media on his laptop. "Hashtag LoginUserRights is spreading. Multiple advocacy organizations are reaching out. And..." He blinked. "Three congressional representatives just called for an investigation into the Bureau's anti-login operations."
"Fast."
"We gave them ammunition." Sera had watched the conference from a side room, her own testimony held in reserve for future opportunities. "The Operation Snooze Button documents are irrefutable. The Bureau can't deny their own internal communications."
"Director Hale will try," Ryu said. "He'll claim the documents are fabricated, or that the operations were justified national security measures, or that login users are too dangerous to trust."
"And every time he makes that argument, he reinforces our narrative." Kira Tanaka entered the room, a satisfied smile on her face. "Today was a victory. Small, tactical, but real. The conversation has shifted. Login users are no longer just monsters in the shadows — they're people with a story."
"What happens next?"
"We build on the momentum. More interviews, more demonstrations, more evidence of positive contributions." Kira settled into a chair. "And we prepare for the backlash. The Bureau isn't going to take this lying down. Director Hale has survived worse crises. He'll have a counter-narrative within days."
"Then we stay ahead of him." Ryu stood up. "Day 456 is coming. Every day I grow stronger, every reward I receive is more evidence that the login system creates power through discipline, not danger. If Hale wants a war of narratives, we'll give him one."
Nyx shook her head slightly. "You've really changed, you know. The man who walked into the bookstore a week ago wouldn't recognize you."
"He's still here." Ryu looked at his hands — the same hands that had stocked warehouse shelves for years, now capable of cutting through space itself. "He's just learned that hiding doesn't work. That the only way out is through."
Grandmother Seo's words. Repeated unconsciously. But true nonetheless.
"Get some rest," Kira advised. "Tomorrow the real work begins."
Ryu nodded and headed for the quarters Silver Blade had provided.
Day 455 was almost over. In six hours, midnight would come, and with it, Day 456.
45 days to Day 500, and now the whole world knew.
