The buzzing in my ear came from the smartwatch strapped to my wrist. Notifications, messages, news alerts—white noise I barely noticed as I stared up at the colossal gates before me.
Arkanis Academy.
The name alone carried weight. It was where science met sorcery, where students brewed potions on touchscreen cauldrons and cast spells through neural-linked wristbands. A place I'd only read about online—and more recently, in fiction.
Yet somehow, I was standing at its entrance.
The gates were impossibly tall, obsidian black, etched with glowing runes that pulsed like a heartbeat. Hovering security drones circled lazily overhead, their glowing eyes watching everything.
"Welcome, applicant. Please present identification and enrollment pass," said a disembodied voice from a nearby floating interface.
I tapped my phone, scanning the QR code that had mysteriously appeared in my inbox this morning. The gates slid open with no sound, revealing a campus that looked like someone had mashed up a cyberpunk city and a medieval fortress and made it work.
Glass towers stretched into the clouds, wired with glowing mana-conduits. Floating islands drifted lazily overhead. Students in uniforms or enchanted gear moved through the streets, some riding hoverboards, others walking with familiars at their heels or spellbooks hovering beside them.
It was a world straight out of The Hero's Design—a webnovel I had just finished reading.
And now, I was inside it.
---
The orientation hall looked like a cathedral of glass and chrome. Sunlight streamed through rune-etched crystal panes, scattering iridescent patterns across a floor of black marble. Hundreds of new students filed in, murmuring, whispering, some clearly trying to hide their nerves behind cocky smirks.
I stayed quiet, taking it all in. Watching. Calculating.
Above the stage, a massive floating crest pulsed with light—the sigil of Arkanis: an open eye surrounded by eight stars. It turned slowly, as if watching every student at once.
A voice filled the hall.
"Welcome to Arkanis Academy, future masters of magic and science. Here, you will learn to bend reality itself."
The crowd stilled. Even the smug ones shut up.
Then the voice continued, more focused this time:
> "Before we begin, we proudly present this year's top-ranked entrant. First in magical theory and combat trials. From House Valenhardt—Class A."
> "Aeris Valenhardt."
A figure stepped onto the stage. Tall, silver-blonde hair, sharp jawline, posture so perfect it felt sculpted. His uniform shimmered with golden threads, marking him as elite.
The room erupted in applause.
Aeris didn't smile. He didn't need to. His very presence said I'm already better than you.
I leaned back in my seat, eyes narrowing.
I remembered him. He wasn't the main character in The Hero's Design, but he was close. The genius rival, the prodigy. The kind of guy people cheered for… or got crushed by.
I kept my head down. No use being noticed.
Let Aeris enjoy the stage. Let them all play their parts.
---
After orientation, I slipped away from the crowd and found a quiet lounge—a modern space with floating screens, a few students chatting, most too busy exploring to care about others.
I opened the status app on my watch, the one every student used to track their progress.
A soft ping. The screen blinked.
Name: Kai Drenhaven
Class: C
Rank: 247 / 250
Magic Affinity: None Detected
Special Skills: None
I stared.
Class C?
Ranked almost dead last?
No affinity. No skills. Not even a beginner-level spell unlocked.
It was worse than bad.
I was a background character.
The kind who never mattered in stories like these. Just one of the faceless extras who filled the hallways and disappeared when the plot got serious.
My stomach twisted.
What the hell is this? Why am I here?
I remembered the last thing I'd done before waking up in this world—falling asleep reading The Hero's Design.
Was this some kind of punishment? A dream? A joke?
Heart pounding, I closed my eyes and gritted my teeth.
"Just stop," I whispered.
And the world listened.
---
Silence.
True, perfect silence.
The clock on the wall stopped mid-tick. A pair of students arguing in the corner froze, mouths open mid-word. A coffee cup suspended in mid-air, droplets frozen between sips.
Everything… stopped.
My breath caught.
No way.
I stood slowly, heart pounding, moving through the room as if underwater. No one reacted. Time was frozen.
I checked my pulse. Real. I touched a floating drop of coffee—it didn't move. My breath fogged in the air, but nothing else shifted.
I didn't have magic.
I had something else.
Time stop.
---
Time resumed with a breath. Noise returned like a crashing wave.
The lounge buzzed with idle chatter again. Nobody noticed I had even moved.
I sat there in silence, pulse still racing.
Time stop. That wasn't a skill listed in the novel. It wasn't anything I remembered the main cast having either.
That made it dangerous.
Not just because of what I could do with it—but because if anyone found out, I'd be dissected, targeted, or worse… rewritten out of the story altogether.
I glanced at my status screen again: bottom-tier, no magic affinity, nothing worth remembering.
And maybe that was a good thing.
In a world that revolves around heroes, villains, and war-torn prophecies…
The safest place might just be the background.
---
Let Aeris have his spotlight. Let the chosen ones fight their grand battles.
Me? I just want to survive.
I'm not trying to win the game. I'm trying to stay on the board.
Stay unnoticed. Stay alive. Stay out of the story.
Because I already know how it ends.
And I refuse to go down with it.