The bus smelled like synthetic leather, cheap cologne, and academic ambition.
Takeru Isora had the window seat because no one fought him for it.
Outside, the mountains rolled past in orderly layers of green and stone. Inside, Class 2-B was loud enough to qualify as environmental pollution.
"This is pointless," Haruto Kagami declared from two rows up. "If we're gonna learn geology, at least let us blow something up."
"You'd fail even at blowing something up," someone shot back.
Haruto grinned. "Not if I had powers."
Takeru rested his forehead against the glass.
Powers.
Everyone liked to joke about that. Isekai memes, ranking systems, S-tier awakenings. It was safe fantasy. Controlled delusion.
The bus entered the tunnel.
Darkness swallowed the chatter mid-sentence.
The overhead lights flickered.
Once.
Twice.
Then the engine noise stretched unnaturally, like audio pulled thin across a warped cassette tape.
Takeru frowned.
The tunnel walls rippled.
Not metaphorically.
The concrete peeled back in long strips, revealing blinding white beneath—like the world was a sticker being removed.
Someone screamed.
The bus didn't slow.
It drove straight through the light.
—
Impact.
Metal shrieked. Backpacks flew. A few students crashed into seats.
Takeru slammed forward, vision bursting with static.
Wind rushed in through cracked windows.
Not tunnel wind.
Open sky wind.
He lifted his head slowly.
The bus was sitting in the middle of an endless golden plain under a vast blue sky.
Floating islands drifted overhead.
Actual floating islands.
Silence suffocated the bus.
Then the doors hissed open on their own.
A translucent blue screen materialized in front of Takeru's face.
It didn't look polished like a video game interface.
It looked… sketched.
Hand-drawn borders.
Uneven lines.
A loading circle that wobbled as it spun.
White letters scratched themselves into place.
> SUMMONING COMPLETE.
SYSTEM ASSIGNMENT IN PROGRESS…
Please remain calm. Or don't. It won't help.
All around him, gasps erupted.
"I have a screen!"
"No way—this is real!"
"Mine says initializing!"
Students stumbled off the bus, staring at glowing blue and gold interfaces hovering in front of them.
Takeru stepped down onto the grass.
It shimmered faintly, as if light lived inside it.
His screen flickered.
The loading circle froze.
The text jittered.
> …
…
That's unfortunate.
New text slammed onto the display in bold, slightly crooked letters.
> RANK ASSIGNED: FFFF20
SYSTEM QUALITY: FFFF20
AFFINITY: None
Congratulations. You are statistically unimpressive.
He stared at it.
"None?" he muttered.
Around him, the air filled with cheers.
"I got A20!"
"AAA3!"
"S5! I got S5!"
Haruto pumped his fist. "A20, baby!"
Several students' interfaces gleamed with elegant, symmetrical layouts.
Takeru's UI blinked again.
> Since you appear confused, here is your full diagnostic.
The screen expanded.
A full status sheet unfolded like paper.
---
> STATUS — TAKERU ISORA
Rank: FFFF20
Affinity: None
Title: Statistical Anomaly
— Physical Parameters —
Strength: FFFF20
Agility: FFFF19
Endurance: FFFF20
Vitality: FFFF18
— Magical Parameters —
Mana Capacity: FFFF17
Mana Regeneration: FFFF20
Mana Control: FFFF15
Casting Speed: FFFF20
Spell Stability: FFFF18
— Irregular Parameters —
Toon Distortion: FFFF20
Elastic Reality: Passive (Unstable)
Narrative Resistance: Locked
Adaptability Index: ???
Assessment: You are not built for talent.
You are built for survival through irritation.
---
He blinked.
"Irritation?"
> Clarification: You will not overpower opponents.
You will inconvenience them.
A shadow fell across him.
Haruto leaned in, squinting at the screen.
"…FFFF20?" Haruto said slowly.
Takeru didn't answer.
A few nearby students leaned closer.
"Is that even possible?"
"Four Fs?"
"Bro, that's trash tier."
One girl snorted. "Affinity none? That's hilarious."
The screen zoomed in on "Affinity: None."
> Elemental Resonance: 0
Translation: You are magically tone-deaf.
Upside: You may attempt all elements.
Downside: You will be bad at all of them.
Haruto awkwardly straightened. "Well. Uh. Good luck, man."
He walked away.
Groups began forming almost instantly.
S-ranks gravitated toward each other like magnets.
A-ranks consolidated.
Healers were recruited immediately.
Takeru remained exactly where he stood.
Alone.
> Group Invitations: 0
Popularity Projection: Declining
Recommended Action: Acquire competence.
Before he could respond, the sky distorted.
Nine massive magic circles ignited above the plains.
Layered.
Perfect.
Geometric precision beyond anything he had ever imagined.
Each circle rotated in synchronized harmony—glyphs flowing like liquid mathematics.
Nine figures descended within them.
Robed.
Imposing.
One stepped forward—a silver-haired woman whose presence compressed the air.
"Welcome, Summoned," she said, voice carrying effortlessly across the plains. "You stand in Aetheris."
No one spoke.
"You have been granted Systems. Those Systems define your growth potential."
Her gaze sharpened.
"There are Nine Sages. We are the pinnacle of this world."
The circles beneath them flared.
"Your objective is simple. Surpass us."
Murmurs spread.
"If you fail," she continued calmly, "you will die."
The wind seemed colder.
"You are being deployed into an active calibration event. Four Dragons approach this region—Fire, Water, Earth, and Air."
As if summoned by her words, the horizon darkened.
"You have one hour before engagement."
And then—
They vanished.
Silence.
Then panic.
"Form teams!"
"High ranks here!"
"Healers in the middle!"
Haruto's voice rang out, already positioning himself within an A-rank core.
Takeru stared at his stat sheet again.
FFFF20.
Casting Speed: FFFF20.
Mana Regeneration: FFFF20.
He swallowed.
"How do I use magic?" he asked quietly.
The interface shifted.
A rough diagram sketched itself in the air before him.
Five concentric rings.
> Magic operates via Circle Construction.
Standard casters auto-resonate with their Affinity.
You will manually construct all five structural layers.
Try not to explode.
He exhaled slowly.
"Element. Fire."
Nothing happened.
> Visualize Core Element Ring.
He concentrated.
A faint red circle flickered into existence.
It was uneven.
Like it had been drawn by a distracted child.
Nearby, a student with S5 Fire Affinity conjured a blazing, perfectly symmetrical circle in under a second.
His looked sick.
"Directional glyphs," he whispered.
Symbols appeared around the ring.
One tilted sideways.
The circle wobbled.
Mana prickled painfully through his fingers.
> Spell Stability: FFFF18
This will be unpleasant.
He added a second ring.
It rotated unevenly.
Sweat dripped down his temple.
"Activation."
The circle detonated in a soft puff.
Smoke exploded into his face.
He coughed violently.
Laughter erupted nearby.
"Did he just backfire?"
The screen blinked.
> Damage Sustained: Minor
Dignity Sustained: Catastrophic
Recommendation: Improve Mana Control (FFFF15 is doing its best).
He wiped soot from his face.
"Again."
Layer by layer.
Slower.
More deliberate.
Mana Control mattered more than raw capacity.
He felt it now—the flow of energy through glyph channels.
Uneven.
Chaotic.
But there.
It took him nearly three minutes.
Three full minutes.
Finally—
A small fireball formed.
Weak.
Barely larger than a baseball.
It floated forward ten feet—
And fizzled out.
> Fireball Lv.1
Damage Output: Mild inconvenience
Cast Time: Embarrassingly slow
Efficiency: Questionable
The ground trembled.
Every head turned.
On the horizon, a colossal shape rose into view.
The Fire Dragon.
Its wings stretched across the sky like a moving inferno.
Heat hit them seconds later.
Students panicked.
"Positions!"
Advanced circles flared to life.
Water spells launched.
Air blades cut the sky.
Haruto's fire blast slammed into the dragon—and dissolved uselessly.
"Immune!" someone shouted.
The dragon inhaled.
Flames erupted outward in a tidal wave.
Takeru froze.
His half-formed circle faltered.
A glyph slipped—
Instead of collapsing—
It stretched.
Like rubber.
Snapped back into place.
The interface glitched.
> Toon Distortion: Micro-Activation
Elastic Reality engaged.
Do not depend on this. It lacks reliability.
The fire wave struck him.
Instead of incineration—
He was launched backward dramatically, leaving a blackened silhouette on the grass where he'd stood.
He skidded fifty feet.
Unburned.
> Damage converted to kinetic displacement.
You have been spared through narrative inconvenience.
He groaned, pushing himself up.
"Fine," he muttered. "No affinity. No resonance. Manual build."
The dragon landed.
Earth shook.
S-ranks struggled to penetrate its scales.
Takeru stared at his stats again.
Mana Control: FFFF15.
Better than the rest.
Barely.
"Can I combine elements?" he asked.
> You lack affinity restrictions.
Instability probability: High.
Survival probability: Acceptable.
He began building two core rings.
Water and Earth.
They overlapped imperfectly.
Mana surged painfully.
Glyphs sparked.
Students stared.
"Is he insane?" someone shouted.
The dragon inhaled again.
He reinforced the Stability Anchors.
Compressed the amplification matrix slightly.
Sweat burned his eyes.
"Activate!"
The circle discharged.
A massive glob of superheated mud launched forward like artillery.
It struck the dragon's face.
Silence.
The dragon's claw slipped.
On mud.
The colossal beast lost footing and crashed sideways.
The ground shook violently.
Students froze.
The interface updated.
> Improvised Spell Created: Mud Steam Burst
Damage: Low
Tactical Disruption: Significant
You accidentally achieved utility.
The dragon roared in fury.
Air mages capitalized.
Water users surged.
Combined attacks hammered its exposed flank.
Minutes later, the Fire Dragon collapsed, defeated through cumulative assault.
Takeru dropped to one knee, breathing hard.
His arms trembled from mana strain.
His stats flickered.
---
> LEVEL UP
Strength: FFFF20 → FFFF19
Mana Control: FFFF15 → FFFF14
Spell Stability: FFFF18 → FFFF17
Rank remains: FFFF20
Progress detected.
You are marginally less pathetic than before.
---
He let out a shaky laugh.
Around him, classmates who had laughed earlier looked uncertain now.
Not impressed.
Not respectful.
But recalibrating.
He wasn't powerful.
He wasn't fast.
But he had forced a dragon to slip.
Far above, unseen, one of the Nine Sages observed from a floating island.
Her perfect magic circle rotated beneath her feet.
"An irregular construct," she murmured.
Below, Takeru Isora straightened.
FFFF20.
Affinity: None.
Alone on a battlefield of prodigies.
And somewhere within the elastic lines of his unstable, sarcastic system—
A crooked progress bar filled just a little more.