In the living room, Fortune was chatting and laughing with her friends, while
Caitlin played hostess to Celeste in the den. The whole house, inside and out, felt alive with warmth and cheer.
Sylvester Gardens.
10 p.m.
Snow glided through the front door, each step as graceful as ever.
"Snow, come to Daddy!"
Gordon stretched out his arms.
"Meow!"
Snow leaped up, landing neatly in Gordon's embrace.
Gordon buried his face in Snow's fur and inhaled deeply.
Good.
That familiar scent was still there.
It was comforting-he loved it.
The longer Gordon hugged Snow, the tighter his arms became, until Snow could barely breathe. "Meow, meow, meow~"
Dad! My wonderful dad! You're going to squeeze the life out of me!
Snow's eyes started to roll back, and only then did Gordon realize he was holding
on too tightly. He quickly let go.
The moment he was free, Snow twisted and hopped to the floor.
Gordon opened a can of soft food. "Come eat, Snow."
As he watched Snow's increasingly plump little body, Gordon frowned in puzzlement. He'd specifically told the housekeeper to feed Snow less while he was away, so why did Snow look even chubbier than before?
Was it just his imagination?
Frowning, Gordon decided not to dwell on it. He walked over to his computer, sat down, and logged into Imperial Ascent, entering the world of Wonderhaven Estate.
He'd come online mainly to see whether Phyllis had managed to solve [Phantom]. After logging in, there were no system notifications.
Gordon narrowed his eyes. The difficulty rating for [Phantom] was already above five stars-only two days had passed, so it wasn't surprising Phyllis hadn't cracked it yet.
He was just about to log out when he noticed something new on the screen: a mysterious, androgynous character in black was standing beneath the blossoming peach tree, studying the chessboard at the stone table.
Above the avatar: Phyllis.
Seeing Phyllis online, Gordon immediately moved his own character closer, wanting to watch in real time-just how long would it take Phyllis to break [Phantom]?
He got up to pour himself a glass of water.
By the time he returned, the chessboard had transformed the pieces were in completely new positions!
The game had been overturned.
At that very moment, a system message popped up: [Hello, Mr. S. Your puzzle, "Phantom," has just been solved by player Phyllis.]
Gordon couldn't deny his shock.
He'd only been gone a minute, and Phyllis had cracked [Phantom] already? Unbelievable!
His curiosity about Phyllis peaked-who was this person, really? How strong was their game?
On the other side, Caitlin was feeling much the same.
She was dying to know what kind of person S was, to be able to create a puzzle as fiendish as [Phantom].
In the world of chess, there weren't many people who could push her to her limits.
S was the only one.
As Caitlin pondered, a message suddenly popped up on her screen-a direct chat from S.
She clicked on the chat box.
[How about we meet in person?]
Caitlin arched a brow. [???]
Seeing the reply, Gordon's fingers flew over the keyboard as he sent another message: [Why don't you pick the time and place? Let's play a real game, face-to- face.]