Chapter 5: System FailureThe Royal Capital of the Clover Kingdom was a monument to excess. To a normal person, it was a breathtaking display of white stone, floating gardens, and shimmering mana-lights. But to me, through the Rikugan, it was a chaotic, neon nightmare. Every noble walking the streets radiated a distinct frequency of mana—some felt like stagnant pond water, others like sharp, jagged glass. Behind my black blindfold, my brain was processing millions of data points a second, filtering out the "trash" magic of the elite."Look at the size of that castle!" Asta screamed, his voice echoing off the high-arched gateway of the Exam Arena. "I bet the Wizard King eats giant steaks every single day! One day, I'm gonna eat those steaks too!""Asta, shut up. You're embarrassing the entire village of Hage," Yuno muttered, though his own eyes were wide, taking in the sheer scale of the arena. He looked at me, noticing how relaxed I was—hands in my pockets, leaning against a pillar like I was waiting for a bus. "Gojo, aren't you even a little nervous? These are the Magic Knight Captains we're talking about.""Nervous?" I let out a small, huffed laugh. "Yuno, I've spent the last twelve years drinking liquid starlight and sparring with an Elemental Emperor. These guys are just big fish in a very small pond. I'm more worried about where I'm going to find a decent snack after this."As we entered the arena, the atmosphere changed. The "Commoner" section was packed with desperate-looking mages, while the "Noble" section was a sea of silk and condescending smirks. High above, on a velvet-lined balcony, the nine Captains took their seats.I felt them immediately. Nozel Silva's mana was like a cold, silver rain. Fuegoleon Vermillion'swas a steady, roaring furnace. But it was the man in the center—Yami Sukehiro—who caught my attention. His Ki was wild, dark, and thick with the scent of tobacco. When his gaze swept over the crowd, it stopped on me for a fraction of a second. He squinted, his instincts as a foreigner and a Dark Magic user sensing the "void" where my mana should have been."Welcome, examinees!" William Vangeance announced, his voice magically amplified to reach every corner of the stone stadium. "The first test is the Measurement of Essence. Step forward and place your hand upon the Orb of Revelation. This artifact has served the Clover Kingdom for three hundred years. It does not lie."One by one, the mages stepped up. The orbs would glow green for Wind, red for Fire, or blue for Water. The brightness determined the capacity. When a noble stepped up, the orb shone like a streetlamp, drawing applause.Then, it was Yuno's turn.He walked up with a calm grace that silenced the crowd. When his hand touched the glass, the orb didn't just glow—it erupted. A blinding, emerald light shot into the sky, taking the shape of a swirling vortex."A four-leaf clover and the mana of a High Noble!" the proctors cried out. "He's a once-in-a-generation talent!"Next was Asta. He gripped the orb so hard his knuckles turned white. Silence. Not a spark. Not a flicker. The crowd erupted in laughter, mocking the "magicless peasant." Asta stood there, his jaw set, refusing to look down."Next," the proctor sighed. "Examinee 166. Satoru Gojo."I walked up to the pedestal. The whispers followed me. "Another one from Hage? Look at that hair... and the blindfold? Is he even awake?"I stood before the Orb of Revelation. Inside my mind, Aether was laughing. "Master, if you give this toy even a drop of your true essence, it will cease to exist. I suggest you hold back.""I am holding back," I thought. "I'll give it 0.01% of my well. Just enough to pass."I reached out and tapped the glass with the tip of my index finger.[SYSTEM ALERT: Artifact Conflict.]
[The 'Orb of Revelation' is attempting to categorize 'Primordial Elemental' mana... Error. Capacity Exceeded. Purity Index: Infinity.]For a heartbeat, nothing happened. Then, the orb turned a deep, obsidian black. Then a blinding, solar white. It began to vibrate so violently that the stone pedestal beneath it started to crumble. A high-pitched, screaming sound filled the arena, causing the mages in the front row to cover their ears."What is happening?!" Nozel Silva stood up, his hand hovering over his grimoire. "Is he cursed?!"K-BOOM.The orb didn't shatter into shards; it atomized. A wave of pure, transparent pressure exploded from the point of contact, rushing outward in a perfect circle. It snuffed out every other testing orb in the arena like candles in a hurricane. When the dust settled, the pedestal was a stump, and the artifact was gone—reduced to a fine, shimmering powder that coated my boots."Mana-pool... zero," the proctor stammered, staring at his detection sheet, which had also caught fire. "The orb produced no light. It... it simply broke. He has no magic! He must have used a physical shockwave!""A defect," Nozel sneered, his voice carrying through the quiet arena. "A commoner who breaks tools he cannot understand. To have no light from the Orb of Revelation is to be a void. Dismiss him."I shrugged, walking back to my spot. "My bad. I guess I don't know my own strength."High above, Yami Sukehiro was leaning so far over the railing he almost fell off. He wasn't looking at the dust. He was looking at the air around me. Through his Ki sensing, he saw the truth: the orb didn't break because I hit it. It broke because it was rejected by a power it couldn't comprehend."The Duel!" Vangeance called out, his eyes lingering on me with suspicion. "Prove your worth in combat!"I was paired with a noble named Salis, a man with a peacock-feathered hat and a smirk that made me want to go back to sleep. "You broke the orb with a trick, peasant! But you can't trick my Bronze Magic!"He opened his grimoire, and dozens of sharpened bronze spears manifested in the air. "Bronze Rain of the Aristocrat!"The spears rained down with lethal intent. The crowd gasped, thinking the "blindfolded boy" was about to be turned into a pincushion. I didn't move. I didn't reach for my Tang Dao. I didn't even take my hands out of my pockets.[Primordial Art: Neutral Infinity.]The spears accelerated toward me, but as they reached the space around my body, they appeared to slow down. Then, they stopped. They hovered an inch from my skin, vibrating against an invisible wall. No matter how much mana Salis pumped into them, they could not bridge the "Infinite Gap.""Why... why won't they hit?!" Salis screamed, his face turning purple."The closer they get, the slower they go," I explained calmly, walking toward him. The spears simply fell to the floor as I passed them, clattering harmlessly like scrap metal. "There's an infinite amount of space between me and you, buddy. You'll be a grandfather before your magic reaches my jacket."I reached him and gave him a light tap on the chest. I didn't use a spell; I just used a tiny flicker of Air Magic to create a localized vacuum. Salis was sucked off his feet and tossed twenty feet back, landing in a heap of feathers and bruised pride."Victory: Gojo," the proctor said, though his voice was full of confusion. There was no fireball, no flashy lightning—just a boy who walked through an attack like it wasn't there.The selection ceremony was the final humiliation for the "elite."Yuno received a hand from every single Captain. He chose the Golden Dawn.
Asta, after a terrifying display of anti-magic that only Yami appreciated, was dragged into the Black Bulls.Then, I stepped into the center of the arena."Examinee 166. Satoru Gojo."The silence was deafening. Nozel Silva looked away. Charlotte Roselei ignored me. To the "proper" knights, I was a freak with a broken orb and a defensive spell they didn't understand. I was a "Zero-Mana Failure." No hands went up."Welp," I said, turning to leave. "Guess I'm going back to Hage to take a nap.""Hold it, brat."A shadow fell over me. Yami Sukehiro jumped from the balcony, landing with a heavy thud that cracked the stone. He blew a cloud of smoke directly into my blindfold."The other Captains are idiots," Yami grunted. "They see a guy with no flashy mana and think 'useless.' But I've spent my whole life looking at things people say shouldn't exist. That 'Infinite Gap' of yours... it isn't a defensive tool. It's a middle finger to the laws of the world, isn't it?"I smirked. "Something like that.""Good," Yami laughed, grabbing the back of my collar. "You're weird, you're lazy, and you break things. You'll fit right in with my squad of losers. Welcome to the Black Bulls, blindfold. Don't make me regret it, or I'll kill you."