The Aethelgard High-Council didn't give me a choice. In their eyes, I wasn't a student anymore; I was a "Strategic Asset." Before the dust had even settled on the mountain, I found myself whisked away to a campus that existed in a pocket dimension where the grass was a shade of green that felt legally trademarked.
[DAO MESSAGE: HOST, WELCOME TO 'THE FOLD'. IT'S LIKE SECTOR 4, BUT WITH 400% MORE ARROGANCE AND 0% INSTANT NOODLES. I ADVISE MAINTAINING THE 'VIBRATIONIST' COVER, EVEN IF THE ARCHITECTURE IS LITERALLY SCREAMING FOR A SOVEREIGN'S TOUCH.]
I was assigned to the S-Class Dorms, a floating pagoda that I had to share with my two favorite headaches.
"I've already moved my servers into the west wing," Lin Yue announced, pointing a gravity-glove at a fleet of automated moving bots. "As your primary benefactor and COO, I need to ensure your 'vibrations' are monitored 24/7. Also, the Wi-Fi here is terrible."
"This is an Academy of Power, not a corporate headquarters," Bai Ling interjected, leaning against a doorframe made of solid frozen light. She looked at me with a predatory chill. "Ren is here to hone his 'Field Prowess.' I've scheduled our first sparring session for 5:00 AM. Dress warmly. I don't like it when my targets shatter too easily."
I stood between them, holding a box of my "Normalcy" belongings—mostly cheap pens and a half-eaten bag of chips. "Can we at least agree on a bathroom schedule? Or do the 'Specially Gifted' not have basic biological needs?"
While the girls were busy marking their territory, Archivist Kael was miles—and dimensions—away, standing in a void-space that looked like the back-end of a broken universe.
He wasn't just a reincarnation; he was the Deity of Ruin attempting to "Hot-Fix" the world.
"The Sovereign thinks he can hide behind 'Subscription Services' and 'Average Grades'," Kael hissed, his fingers tapping on a console made of necro-data. "He has stabilized the surface, but the root-directory of this world is still written in my blood."
Kael wasn't building an army. He was building a Virus. He began to type a sequence of code that utilized the "Entropy" he had siphoned from the Bio-Humans.
[FILE NAME: GLOBAL_SYSTEM_RESTORE_V.0.0.1]
[COMMAND: DELETE_NORMALCY_FILTER]
[COMMAND: OVERWRITE_ANCHOR_LOGS]
"When this patch goes live," Kael grinned, "the people won't see buildings and cars.
They will see the jagged, bleeding truth of the old world. The 'Normalization' will crash, and the Sovereign will be forced to stand in the ruins of his own lie."
The next morning, the Aethelgard training grounds were buzzing. The entire "Elite Class" had gathered to see the "Vibrationist" who had supposedly retired a Primordial Serpent.
"Show me your best, Ren," Bai Ling said, her blue eyes glowing as a blizzard began to swirl around her. "If you can't survive my 'Absolute Zero' strike, you have no business being in this class."
[DAO MESSAGE: HOST, SHE IS CHANNELING A HIGH-LEVEL CRYOGENIC VEIN. IF YOU TAKE THIS HIT, YOUR TUXEDO WILL BECOME A STATUE. SHOULD I TRIGGER 'FRICTION-HEAT'?]
No, I thought, watching the ice-dragon form in her hands. If I use heat, she'll suspect a different element. Let's go with 'Resonant Shatter'.
As Bai Ling lunged, moving like a flash of winter light, I didn't move my feet. I simply hummed a low, sub-sonic note—the frequency of ice's internal structure.
The moment her ice-strike touched my "Stability Field," it didn't just break; it turned into a fine, harmless mist. Bai Ling stumbled through the cloud of vapor, looking confused, only to find me still standing there, checking my watch.
"It's 5:05 AM, Miss Bai," I said with a yawn.
"Technically, the 'Early Bird' discount for my services has ended. That'll be an extra 20 Yuan for the overtime."
Lin Yue, watching from the sidelines with a clipboard, burst out laughing. "Put it on her tab, Ren! I'll invoice the Aethelgard Council by noon!"
But as the laughter echoed, the sky above the Academy flickered for a brief, terrifying second—a flash of green "Matrix" code bleeding through the clouds.
[SYSTEM ALERT: THE 'RUIN PATCH' HAS COMMENCED.]
[ESTIMATED TIME TO REALITY CRASH: 48 HOURS.]
I looked up, my humor vanishing. Kael wasn't coming for me with a sword. He was coming for the world's "Terms of Service."