MY DEVOURER SYSTEM

008. The Scoreboard Climax

The Obsidian Plaza at the exit of the Tier-2 Shadow Rift was packed with thousands of spectators. Holographic screens hovered in the sky, flashing the crests of the Vanguard Academy’s elite noble factions.

The three-day Wilderness Selection Exam was officially over.

A heavy, tense murmur rippled through the crowd of instructors and high-ranking military officials waiting at the primary retrieval gate. On the main stage sat the Vanguard High Council—a panel of battle-hardened Tier-7 generals who ran the academy like a strategic war room.

"The extraction is ninety-eight percent complete," a logistics officer reported, tapping a tablet. "The Halvern family faction secured a top-five placement, led by Valeria Halvern. However... we have a critical anomaly regarding the Iron Fang disciplinary squad."

"An anomaly?" General Vance, a scarred High Council member with a cybernetic eye, grunted. "Speak plainly."

"Senior Corbin Reyes was recovered near the rift center," the officer stammered, his face pale. "His core... it's completely ruptured. Every ounce of his Beast-Soul mana has been hollowed out. He is biologically alive, but his cultivation is permanently destroyed. The rest of his platoon was found tied up in an amphitheater, stripped of all their points."

Before the General could slam his fist onto the table, a blinding flash of blue light erupted from the extraction gate.

The final group of cadets stepped through the portal.

At the front was Valeria Halvern, her face a complex mask of exhaustion and lingering shock. But the crowd didn't look at her. Their eyes were drawn to the solitary figure walking several paces behind her squad.

Ren Kestrel.

His Vanguard uniform was singed, his face wore a few superficial scrapes, and his posture was relaxed—completely unbothered by the gravity of the room. Beneath his shirt, the ruined Revenhall suit was gone, but his newly integrated Primal Reflexes allowed him to feel the exact positioning of every sniper and guard in the plaza.

"Cadets! Submit your gathered point tokens to the central matrix scanner!" the head instructor bellowed through a megaphone.

One by one, the elite cadets stepped up to the massive, glowing crystal obelisk at the center of the plaza.

Dean Halvern (via proxy): 450 points. Rank 12.

Valeria Halvern: 1,200 points. Rank 4.

The crowd cheered for Valeria’s impressive score. She stepped down from the platform, but instead of returning to her family’s pavilion, she stopped. Her violet eyes locked onto Ren as he calmly stepped up to the crystal obelisk.

"What is that Zero even doing?" a lower-year cadet mocked from the crowd. "He probably hid under a rock for three days. His score will be a flat zero."

Ren didn't say a word. He reached into his deep combat pockets and pulled out a massive, tangled mass of high-tier tokens—including the dark-purple, blood-stained commander tokens belonging to Corbin Reyes and the entire Iron Fang leadership.

He dropped them into the scanner's receptacle.

The crystal obelisk hummed. Then, it vibrated violently. The blue light inside the stone turned a deep, volatile crimson as the system calculated the sheer volume of high-rank tokens.

BEEP. BEEP. BEEP.

The holographic leaderboard in the sky glitched for a fraction of a second before the numbers locked into place, glowing in massive, fiery letters that could be seen from miles away:

[RANK 1: REN KESTREL — 8,450 POINTS]

The entire plaza went utterly, blindingly dead silent.

Thousands of students froze. The murmuring instructors stopped breathing. On the high council stage, General Vance stood up so fast his chair flipped backward, crashing against the floor.

"Eight thousand...?" a cadet in the front row whispered, his voice cracking. "That’s more than the top five squads combined! An F-rank Zero took the first place?!"

"Cheating!" a voice screamed from the Halvern pavilion. "He's a Zero! He must have stolen those tokens or used illegal external weapons! Reset the board!"

"Silence!" General Vance’s voice boomed across the plaza, infused with a Tier-7 pressure that instantly crushed the brewing riot. He locked his cybernetic eye onto Ren, his face dark with suspicion. "Cadet Kestrel. Step forward."

Ren walked to the edge of the stage, looking up at the terrifying general without a single flinch.

"Explain this score," General Vance demanded, his energy flaring, putting an immense physical weight on Ren’s shoulders to force a confession. "Corbin Reyes is ruined. His squad is dismantled. And you, a student with a zero percent genetic aptitude, are holding their commander tokens. Who gave you the weapons to accomplish this?"

Before Ren could speak, a cold, elegant applause echoed from the VIP deck.

Isolde Revenhall walked down the steps, a beautiful, smug smile playing on her lips. She stopped right beside Ren, crossing her arms as she looked up at the High Council.

"There is nothing to explain, General," Isolde said smoothly, her voice carrying across the entire silent plaza. "Cadet Kestrel is a registered contract operative of House Revenhall. If he utilized specialized, high-density gravity armaments provided by my family to lay traps for predatory factions who tried to ambush him... that is perfectly within the rules of the Wilderness Selection."

She turned her gaze to the crowd, her voice dripping with subtle warning. "Unless, of course, the High Council is implying that House Revenhall's technology isn't permitted to shine within these walls?"

General Vance's jaw tightened. The political weight of House Revenhall was immense. If they claimed Ren was just a proxy using their hyper-advanced, secret gravity tech to defend himself against Corbin's ambush, the academy couldn't legally penalize him without starting a noble feud.

"Very well," General Vance spat through gritted teeth, his eye flashing dangerously as he looked back at Ren. "The score stands. Ren Kestrel is the Champion of the Wilderness Selection. But know this, Cadet... the Inter-Academy Tournament is in two months. External noble gear is heavily restricted there. Let's see if your 'luck' holds when you stand truly alone on the global stage."

As the council dismissed the crowd, the plaza erupted into a frenzy of whispering students. Ren turned to leave, but Valeria Halvern stepped directly into his path.

Her platinum hair shielded her face from the cameras, but her eyes were burning with an intense, furious curiosity.

"Isolde is lying to protect you," Valeria whispered fiercely, her fists clenched at her sides. "I saw you in that amphitheater, Ren. You didn't use gravity runes to lift that senior by his throat. You used pure, terrifying raw muscle. You're hiding something monstrous under that uniform."

Ren took a slow step forward, forcing Valeria to step back into the shadow of the pillar.

"Then you better hope," Ren murmured, his voice a low, chilling whisper that made her phantom aura tremble, "that your brother learns to keep his remaining wrist to himself. Because the next time a Halvern gets in my way... I won't just break a bone. I'll swallow the whole family."

He walked past her, blending into the crowd of shocked students, leaving the top-tier elite frozen in his wake.

Inside his mind, the Devourer System flashed a final, ominous text:

[Public Prestige Maximum: Global Exposure Avoided.]

[Information Gap Maintained. Current Status: Untouchable.]

[New Arc Unlocked: The Inter-Academy Selection.]

[System Notice: The hunger meter will deplete fifty percent faster as your newly integrated Tier-4 skills settle. Prepare for the next feed.]