The sound was like a jet engine spinning down.
Vwooom.
The crushing weight on my back didn't just lift; it was sucked away. The blue light of Seraphina's gravity spell swirled into a vortex, spiraling directly into my hand.
[CONSUMING DATA...]14Please respect copyright.ＰＥＮＡＮＡ17i63VJxis
[MANA RESTORED.]14Please respect copyright.ＰＥＮＡＮＡEgrb3A8DFi
[TEMPORARY BUFF: GRAVITY RESISTANCE.]
I gasped, sucking in a lungful of air. The pressure was gone.
I scrambled to my feet, staggering slightly. The energy I had just swallowed was spicy, electric, and volatile. It buzzed in my veins like too much caffeine.
Seraphina stumbled back. For the first time, her composure cracked. Her eyes went wide, the silver data streams flickering into static.
"Impossible," she breathed. "You... you consumed an Admin Priviledge? That’s not a skill. That’s a debug tool!"
"It's all just data to me, Princess," I spat, wiping the blood from my nose. "Mana, HP, gravity. If it has a value, I can eat it."
I took a step toward her. She flinched. She actually flinched.
"Stay back!" She raised her hand again, trying to summon a wall, a bolt, anything.
But the code sputtered. Her interface was lagging. My [Devour] skill hadn't just eaten the spell; it had momentarily destabilized her connection to the local server.
"You're glitching," I observed, my voice regaining its cold edge. "Your ping just spiked to four digits. You can't cast."
I walked right up to her. I was dirty, bloody, and wearing a torn uniform, but right now, I was the one holding the controller.
I grabbed her wrist. She tried to pull away, but I held firm. Not to hurt her, but to ground her.
"Listen to me," I hissed, leaning in close. "You want to delete me? Fine. Take a ticket. But right now, look at the sky."
She blinked, confused by the sudden shift. "What?"
"Look up!"
She looked.
Above the school, the purple clouds were parting. A massive, golden airship was descending through the smog. It was shaped like a coiled serpent, its hull plated in gold and shifting LED screens.
The Ouroboros Flagship.
And standing on the prow, magnified by a holographic projection that filled the sky, was a man.
He wore a suit that shimmered like oil on water. His eyes were digital slits of green light. He held a glass of red wine in one hand and a cane topped with a golden skull in the other.
Viper Shen.
His voice boomed across the entire district, overriding every speaker, every phone, every eardrum.
"Greetings, students of District 9!" Viper's voice was smooth, cultured, and dripping with poison. "I apologize for the interruption of your studies. But I'm looking for a lost item."
The projection zoomed in on his face. He smiled, and I felt a phantom pain in my spine where he had stabbed me in my past life.
"There is a... bug in the system," Viper purred. "A little glitch that ate one of my pets. If you hand him over, I will sponsor this entire school. Free potions. Gold tier memberships. Scholarships for everyone."
He paused for dramatic effect.
"But if you hide him... well, I'll just have to burn the server down to find the error."
ns216.73.216.10da2
and then Add to home screen.