The high-frequency hum of the scanning machine shook the marble floor of Astra University's Central Hall. The dense smell of ozone and burnt metal settled in the air, mingling with the cold sweat of hundreds of closely lined-up freshmen. Floating dimly above the main stage was a two-meter black crystal cube—the Resonance Pillar, a device that determined a person's life destiny in seconds."Next!" shouted an officer in tactical armor, his heavy voice distorted by the speaker on his chest.A young man at the front stepped forward with trembling knees. He pressed his palm against the crystal's surface. A bright blue light shot upward, illuminating the entire hall.[Talent Detected] [Name: Swift Blade] [Rank: B-Class]Boisterous cheers echoed from the right corner of the hall. Breathing a sigh of relief, the young man's tense shoulders instantly relaxed as he walked toward the elite class section. In a world where dimensional rift invasions were a daily reality, Talent rank was a guarante

The smell of engine oil and dull dust stung Arka's nose as he sat in a secluded corner of the basement cafeteria. In front of him lay a sheet of note paper filled with rows of formulas and logic diagrams. His thin-framed glasses slid down the bridge of his nose as his fingers moved quickly, spinning a five-hundred-rupiah copper coin on the wooden table.Clink. Clink. Clack.The coin came to a stop, showing the number side."This coin will land on heads," Arka said in the most convincing tone he could muster. He spun the coin again.Tails.Arka tried again, this time raising his volume. Still tails. He then whispered the same sentence to himself in his mind, focusing all his concentration and the remaining mana in his chest. The coin spun, then fell—once again on tails. He had tried fourteen times on his own, and the results relied purely on the ordinary laws of probability.Arka leaned his back against the chair's headrest, letting out a long breath. His gaze drifted toward a group of

Midday sunlight cut through the thin smoke rising from the ruins of Campus III. The sirens of ambulances and the Hunter Guild's tactical fleet wailed outside the perimeter, parting the tightly drawn yellow-and-black police tape. On the parking lot pavement, a dozen students sat limply on emergency folding cots, draped in silver heat-reflective foil blankets.Arka stood near an ambulance, letting a paramedic dab alcohol onto a small scratch on his arm. The cold, stinging sensation from the wound was the only thing anchoring him to reality after the sudden mana fatigue that clouded his head.Around him, the silence gave way to a turbulent wave of whispers. Student phone screens glowed brightly, displaying short, covertly recorded video clips taken from inside the hall during the incident. The video had already spread rapidly across the campus internal forum and local social media, with hashtags quickly trending toward the top."Did you see the video? Did that F-Class guy, Arka, really m

Iron-shod footsteps echoed coldly down the underground corridor of Aegis Sector 4 Headquarters. The air inside this specialized containment and testing facility was sterile, filled with the sharp scent of liquid ozone and bone-chilling air conditioning. The walls were lined with special steel plates designed to suppress mana fluctuations, capable of dampening even an S-Rank Hunter's rampage.Arka walked amidst the tight escort of four soldiers in tactical armor. His thin-framed glasses reflected the rigid glow of the white neon lights. Before him, a thick hydraulic sliding door opened with a drawn-out hiss of air, revealing an isolation testing laboratory worth trillions of rupiah.Floating in the center of the room was a latest-generation scanning machine—the Aegis Soul Core Analyzer v8. Unlike the university's Resonance Pillar, which only read the surface of soul waves, this machine could dissect down to the molecular structure of mana and map out the genetic code of a person's Tale

The liquid-cooled archive room fell completely silent, leaving only the rushing wind from the server cooling fans chilling the concrete walls. Outside, heavy rain slammed against the Aegis underground facility, but none of the three shifted their focus from Arka’s hovering, dimly lit system screen.The porcelain-masked man pulled his hand back from thin air, letting Arka’s interface slowly fade. He reached back into his black cloak, halting the subtle motion of mana spores in the room."Who are you people, really?" Elena pressed, taking half a step forward. The protective magic in her palm radiated a strong golden glow, attempting to pierce the invisible veil surrounding the intruder. "This attack... this forced system hacking... it's no ordinary Hunter operation. Are you dimensional rift terrorists?"The masked man let out a low chuckle, his raspy voice sounding like old sheets of paper scraping together. "Terrorists? A narrow label from the perspective of a shallow system."He flick