The sun beat down on the Academy's outer courtyard, but Kaelen Vance felt a strange, artificial chill.
The blue translucent window still hovered in the corner of his eye, refusing to vanish. It wasn't a hallucination. It wasn't a dream. It was a bridge—a bridge between the physical world everyone else lived in and the digital skeleton that actually held reality together.
Structural Resonance, he thought, the words tasting like copper in his mouth.
He walked toward the "Training Grounds," a massive arena where students tested their newly awakened powers. He wasn't supposed to be there. As an F-Grade Librarian, his place was in the Archive, dusting scrolls and cataloging the achievements of his "betters."
But Kaelen wasn't heading to the library. He was heading to the Testing Golem.
The Testing Golem was a massive, three-meter-tall construct made of enchanted iron and reinforced oak. It was designed to withstand the spells of B-Rank Mages and the strikes of Knight-class students. To a Librarian, it was an immovable mountain.
"Look who it is," a voice sneered.
Kaelen didn't need to turn around to know who it was.
Marcus Thorne, the newly crowned Flame Knight, stood with a group of his followers. His red-and-gold cape billowed in the wind, and his hand rested casually on the hilt of a training sword.
"Shouldn't you be organizing the alphabet somewhere, Vance?" Marcus laughed, his sycophants joining in. "The Training Grounds are for those with a future. Not for F-Grade paper-pushers."
Kaelen stopped. He didn't look angry. He didn't look hurt. He looked... focused.
"I'm just here to check the equipment," Kaelen said, his voice calm and leveled.
Marcus stepped closer, his aura flaring. A faint heat radiated from his body—the power of an A-Grade class.
"The equipment is for warriors. If you touch that Golem, you might break a fingernail. Or worse, you might realize just how pathetic you really are."
Kaelen ignored him. He turned his gaze toward the Golem.
Analyze, he commanded in his mind.
Suddenly, the world drained of color. The Golem was no longer a statue of iron; it was a wireframe model glowing with pulsing gold lines. To Marcus and the others, the Golem was a solid, perfect machine. To Kaelen, it was a mess of "Code Errors."
[Analyzing Object: Combat Golem Model-7]
[Material: High-Grade Iron (Corrupted)]
[Logic Source: Mana Core (Level 1 Encryption)]
[Critical Error Found: Mana-Flow Bottleneck at Central Pivot.]
The "Structural Resonance" skill highlighted a tiny, flickering red dot located just behind the Golem's left knee. It was a micro-fracture in the mana-circuitry, likely caused by years of repetitive impacts. No mage could see it. No blacksmith could detect it.
"Marcus," Kaelen said, still staring at the red dot. "You think this Golem is strong because it's big. But big things are just more complicated ways to fail."
Marcus barked a laugh. "Is that Librarian wisdom? Why don't you show us, then? Give it your best shot, 'Architect'."
The crowd gathered. They expected a comedy. They expected Kaelen to punch the iron and break his hand, providing them with a story to laugh about over dinner.
Kaelen walked up to the Golem. Compared to the massive construct, he looked fragile. He didn't take a combat stance. He didn't gather mana. He simply reached out a single finger.
If I push 5 units of Mana into the 'Oxidation Glitch'...
Kaelen closed his eyes. He didn't strike the Golem. He "synced" with it. He felt the vibration of the mana flowing through the iron, and he felt the exact moment that flow hit the bottleneck.
He tapped the red dot.
Ting.
The sound was tiny. It was the sound of a pebble hitting a glass jar.
For a second, nothing happened. Marcus began to open his mouth to deliver a killing insult.
Then, the world screamed.
A high-pitched, metallic whine erupted from the Golem. The golden lines Kaelen saw began to turn blood-red. The "bottleneck" he had tapped didn't just break—it cascaded. The mana inside the Golem had nowhere to go, and under Kaelen's guidance, it turned inward.
CRACK-SHATTER!
The three-meter-tall iron giant didn't just fall. It disintegrated.
Starting from the knee, the iron turned to grey dust. The failure spread upward like a virus, "deleting" the structure of the Golem in real-time. Within three seconds, the "indestructible" training tool was nothing but a pile of scrap metal and fine powder at Kaelen's feet.
The silence that followed was absolute.
Even the wind seemed to stop.
Marcus Thorne's jaw dropped. The training sword slipped from his hand, clattering against the stone. The students who had been laughing were now pale, their eyes bulging as they looked at the pile of dust that used to be a Grade-B construct.
Kaelen turned around. He wiped a stray bit of iron dust from his sleeve.
"The logic was flawed," Kaelen said quietly, his eyes meeting Marcus's terrified gaze. "It didn't belong in my world anymore."
Kaelen walked past them. They parted like the Red Sea, no one daring to even breathe in his direction.
As he walked, a new notification pinged in his vision.
[Combat Experience Synchronized...]
[Error Detected in User Level: Recalculating...]
[Level 1 ---> Level 5]
[New Skill Unlocked: Deletion Stroke (Rank 1)]
[Description: One touch to the 'Void Point' can erase 5% of any non-living object's mass instantly.]
Kaelen felt a surge of cold, dark energy settle into his marrow. He wasn't just a Librarian who could see the world. He was the Auditor. He was the one who decided what was allowed to exist.
This is only the beginning, he thought as he headed toward the Academy gates. They gave me an F-Grade because they couldn't measure a power that doesn't follow their rules.
He looked up at the sky. He could see the "System" flickering in the clouds—a giant, invisible web of code that controlled the weather, the monsters, and the people.
One day, he would reach up and delete that, too.
But first, he needed a weapon that could handle his "data." And he knew exactly which "Forbidden Archive" held the blueprint.