Welcome one and all to yet another episode of season 1.
Hope y'all enjoy it.
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The classroom was still frozen in that eerie, time stasis.
A fly was suspended mid-air near the window; a drop of sweat hung off Fatty Wei's chin like a crystal bead.
Han Jin ignored them all, his eyes fixed on the bleeding red text of the Universal Ascension System.
To any other mortal, this would be a holy invitation, a gift from the heavens.
To Han Jin, it was like being handed a crayon drawing of a sword and told to go slay a dragon.
"Maxing out the Charm stat was a bit petty," Han Jin mused, stroking his chin. "But if I have to look at this face in the mirror every morning, I'd prefer it didn't look like 'tired trash'."
He reached into the flickering code again. His fingers moved with the grace of a master weaver, plucking at the invisible strings of the System's logic.
[WARNING! User is attempting unauthorized 'Attribute Allocation'!]
[System Error: Logic Loop detected. Strength cannot be lower than Charm by a factor of... wait...]
[System Note: User, please stop. You're going to crash the local server.]
"Then give me a real challenge," Han Jin whispered, his eyes flashing with a spark of his old, terrifying power.
"If Earth is a testing ground, then the testers should at least provide a decent UI."
He didn't just stop at Charm.
He tweaked the Perception filter, increasing his ability to see hidden mana flows and silenced the annoying "Bing!" sound, replacing it with a soft, melodic chime that didn't grate on his nerves and added some taylor swift and adele songs.
"There, Serviceable."
He snapped his fingers.
Time slammed back into motion.
The fly buzzed toward the ceiling.
The drop of sweat fell from Fatty Wei's chin. And Mrs. Zhang, who had been mid-scold, suddenly stopped.
She blinked.
Then she blinked again, her mouth hanging open.
The chalk in her hand snapped in two.
It wasn't just her.
Every student in the room, from the bullies in the back to the quietest nerds in the front turned their heads as if pulled by a magnetic force.
Han Jin hadn't changed his clothes.
He hadn't grown taller.
But his skin seemed to hold a faint, moonlight glow, and his eyes... they were no longer the eyes of a stressed teenager.
They were deep, ancient pools of starlight that made anyone who looked at them feel like they were standing before a primordial mountain.
"U-uh... Mr. Han," Mrs. Zhang stammered, her face flushing a deep crimson. "I... what was I saying? Right.
The equation. You, uh, you're quite right. The curvature. Yes. Very insightful."
Fatty Wei leaned over, his eyes wide enough to pop. "Jin bro... what did you just do? Did you put on a face mask or something during the three seconds I looked away? You look like... like you're filtered. In real life."
"It's called getting enough sleep, Wei," Han Jin lied smoothly, though his voice now had a resonant quality that made several girls in the front row audibly gasp.
Han Jin's attention, however, was on the Class President.
Lin Xi hadn't turned around immediately like the others.
She had waited a beat...a fraction of a second too long for a human and when she did look at him, her eyes weren't filled with the dizzy infatuation of the others.
They were narrow, sharp, and cold.
Behind her, Han Jin saw it: a shadow that didn't belong to her.
It was a multi-limbed, ghostly silhouette that rippled like a glitch in a video game.
An Observer, Han Jin thought.
And a high-ranking one.
She's not just a student; she's a Recording Spirit from the Void Council.
[BING! New Quest Triggered!]
[Quest: The First Impression]
[Objective: Impress the Class President, Lin Xi.]
[Reward: 100 System Points, 1 'Novice' Loot Box.]
[Failure Penalty: Your 'Charm' stat will be reset to 0 (Horrendous) for 24 hours.]
Han Jin's eyebrow arched. "Impress her? Little toy, you have no idea who you're talking to."
He stood up, the chair scraping against the floor.
The sound, which usually would have annoyed the teacher, now seemed to command absolute silence.
He walked toward the front of the room, his movements effortless.
He stopped at Lin Xi's desk.
Up close, the distortion around her was even more obvious.
She smelled like ozone and ancient parchment, definitely not the perfume of an eighteen-year-old.
"The seal on your left wrist," Han Jin said, leaning down so only she could hear. "It's leaking.
If you don't tighten the third node of the array, your 'Human Mask' is going to dissolve by lunch. And honestly? The Ice Beauty persona is a bit cliche, don't you think?"
Lin Xi's pen snapped.
For the first time, her icy composure shattered, replaced by a look of pure, unadulterated shock.
"You..." she whispered, her voice trembling...not with romance, but with the realization that a Mortal ant had just seen through a 10th-Rank Cloaking Array. "Who are you?"
Han Jin leaned back, a small, smug smile playing on his lips.
"Just a man trying to enjoy his retirement," he said loudly enough for the class to hear. "And Class President? You have a bit of ink on your hand."
[QUEST COMPLETE!]
[Calculating Reward...]
[System Note: Error. User did not 'Impress' the target; User 'Terrified' the target. Evaluation: Task Failed Successfully?]
Before the System could finish its calculation, the school's emergency siren began to wail.
It wasn't a fire drill.
It was the low, rhythmic thrum of the Dimensional Incursion Warning.
The sky outside the window turned a bruised purple.
"Attention all students," a voice boomed over the intercom, but it wasn't the principal. It was a cold, synthesized voice. "The Testing Ground has been initialized.
Please remain in your seats.
The first wave of Cleanup will begin in three minutes. Survival is encouraged, but not required."
The classroom erupted into a panicked scream.
Students scrambled for the door, but the door had vanished, replaced by a wall of shimmering blue energy.
Han Jin sighed, looking at the purple sky. "Three minutes? I haven't even had lunch yet."
He turned to the blue screen floating in his peripheral vision.
"System. Open that 'LootBox'. And make it something useful.
If I find a 'Wooden Sword' in there, I'm deleting your audio files permanently."
AN:-
SO HOW DID YOU GUYS LIKE IT TILL NOW.
ANYWAYS SUPPORT WITH PRECIOUS POWER STONES AND FEEDBACKS.