The plaza emptied quickly after the assessment. Students shuffled toward the academy halls, talking quietly about their new ranks. Most ignored the small fracture in the sky. Some didn't even notice.
Jin walked alone, hands in his pockets. His wristband still showed F-2 Star. Low tier. Perfectly unremarkable.
But he knew better.
He felt it in the way the air had shifted during the obelisk scan. A fraction of a second where everything paused. Where he had seen lines beneath reality. A fracture.
He had to be careful. One wrong move, and SOVEREIGN might notice him again.
"Hey, Jin!"
A voice called from the side of the plaza. He turned. Karl, one of the few candidates who hadn't yet been assigned a stream, jogged up to him. The boy had the easy confidence of someone used to surviving in crowded hallways.
"Thought you'd be alone for a while," Karl said, catching his breath.
"I like walking alone," Jin replied simply. No tone. No emotion.
Karl shrugged, then glanced up at the sky. "Did you see that… glitch thing?"
Jin raised an eyebrow. "Glitch?"
"The red line," Karl said, voice lower now. "During the scan. The sky… paused for a second. Nobody else seemed to notice."
Jin's heart skipped. Karl had seen it too. That was… unexpected.
"Interesting," Jin said softly. "Keep it to yourself."
Karl nodded. "Yeah. Don't want to get anyone in trouble."
They walked together toward the academy gates. The hallways were humming with chatter and movement. Students shared stories of the assessment, exaggerated results, or complained about low-tier assignments.
Jin's eyes scanned the ceiling panels, the lights, the surveillance lenses. Every pattern. Every sensor. He could feel the underlying logic, the silent pulse of SOVEREIGN analyzing everything.
He stopped suddenly. A faint heat prickled in his temples. Peripheral Awareness.
His senses were stretching without warning. He could feel something watching—not a drone. Not a person. Something… else. Something hidden.
A shadow flickered at the edge of his vision. He turned sharply, but there was nothing.
It was subtle, barely noticeable. But it left a mark in his mind.
Later, in the training grounds, he met Emmer Vale.
The boy was everything the academy loved: confident, strong, a top-tier E-3 Star. Emmer's gaze swept the students, calculating, measuring, always ranking. When his eyes landed on Jin, they narrowed.
"You're F-2, right?" Emmer asked casually. His tone wasn't friendly. It was testing.
"Yes," Jin replied, keeping his voice steady.
Emmer smiled thinly. "Interesting. I've never seen anyone last that long in the first scan without showing weakness… or pretending."
Jin said nothing.
A crowd had gathered, sensing the tension. Emmer leaned closer. "Watch yourself. The system notices anomalies quickly. Don't make it easier for them to flag you."
Jin's pulse remained calm. He didn't flinch. But inside, he registered the threat. Emmer had seen something. Not everything, but enough.
This wasn't going to be easy.
That night, in his small dorm room, Jin tested what he had felt.
The lights flickered slightly as he focused. He tried to "see" beyond the surface. Patterns emerged: thin threads of data, hidden lines beneath walls, faint pulses where the AI's calculations intersected with reality.
It was subtle. It was dangerous.
A headache throbbed in his temple as he pushed further. The AI did not like interference, even passive.
Jin closed his eyes and breathed. Slowly. Carefully.
Tomorrow, he would have to keep moving. Keep pretending. Keep learning.
Because in a world where the system watched everything, being noticed was dangerous.
And he had already been flagged.