The Royal Awakening Academy was exactly as Caelum remembered—arrogant, cold, and divided by rank. As he walked through the stone corridors, the familiar whispers followed him like a plague.
"Look, it's the F-Rank trash," someone snickered.
Caelum didn't even turn his head. In his past life, these insults would have stung. Now, they were just background noise. He had seen gods bleed; the barking of children meant nothing to him.
He stood before the 'Mana Testing Pillar' in the center of the training hall. Around him, students were flexing their mana, trying to impress the instructors.
[NOTICE: SCANNING ENVIRONMENT...]
[DETECTION: 142 WEAK MANA SIGNATURES. 1 SYSTEM ADMINISTRATOR (LEVEL 45).]
Caelum closed his eyes. He didn't focus on the mana in his veins. Instead, he looked at the world through the 'Cracked System' interface. The air wasn't just air; it was lines of code. The testing pillar wasn't just stone; it was a data receiver.
"Caelum! Step up or get out!" Instructor Kael barked, his eyes full of disdain.
Caelum stepped forward and placed his hand on the cold surface of the pillar. Normally, an F-Rank would barely make the stone flicker.
But Caelum saw the [HIDDEN BACKDOOR].
If I give it too much, the System will flag me. If I give too little, I stay trash, he thought. Let's try a small exploit.
He reached into the 'Source Code' of the pillar and executed a command: [OVERRIDE: SENSOR_LIMIT_01].
Suddenly, the pillar didn't just glow. It screamed. A hum of intense, violet electricity erupted from the base, shaking the very floor of the hall. The light was so bright that students had to shield their eyes.
[WARNING: DATA OVERFLOW!]
[SIMULATING RANK... CALIBRATING...]
[RESULT: S-RANK MANA DENSITY DETECTED]
The entire hall went silent. The snickering stopped. Instructor Kael dropped his clipboard, his jaw hanging open.
"S... S-Rank?" the instructor stammered. "But the files said... you were an F-Rank failure!"
Caelum pulled his hand back, his face calm. He could see his mana bar. It hadn't even dropped by 1%. The 'Infinite Mana' bug was working perfectly.
"The files must have had a... glitch," Caelum said, a cold smirk playing on his lips.
He walked away, leaving the entire academy in a state of shock. He didn't need their approval, but he definitely enjoyed their fear. This was just the beginning.