News of Silas's defeat spread through the Sector 7 Academy like a digital virus. By the time Ray walked into his first class—'Advanced Robotics and Neural Integration'—every eye was on him. But they weren't looking at him with respect; they were looking at him like a bug in a program.
"Ray? Is that really you?" a girl's voice whispered.
Ray turned to see a girl with silver-rimmed glasses and a tablet in her hand. Elara. Memories of her surfaced—the only person who hadn't treated 'the old Ray' like trash.
"I'm fine, Elara," Ray said, his voice calmer and deeper than she remembered.
The class began as a holographic professor flickered into existence at the front of the room. "Today, we will be testing your neural synchronization. Everyone, connect your Link-Watches to the terminal."
Ray looked at the empty wrist where his Link-Watch should have been. The 'old Ray' had broken his months ago, and he couldn't afford a new one.
"Problem, subject 402?" the professor's hologram flickered red. "Without a neural link, you cannot access the academy's network. You are a zero, Ray. A literal zero in a world of ones and twos."
The class erupted in laughter. But Ray just walked toward the central terminal—the heart of the classroom's power.
"I don't need a watch to talk to a machine," Ray muttered.
He placed his bare palm on the cold metal surface of the terminal. Instead of trying to 'hack' it with code, he sent a microscopic pulse of Mana directly into the silicon chips. He wasn't just connecting; he was possessing the hardware.
Suddenly, every screen in the room turned violet. The professor's hologram froze, its eyes glowing with the same eerie light as Ray's.
"System override," a mechanical voice boomed, but it sounded like Ray's own subconscious. "Neural link unnecessary. Source Magic detected."
The classroom went dead silent. Elara dropped her tablet, her jaw hitting the floor. Ray wasn't just a student anymore; he was a 'Glitch' that the entire Science City was now terrified of.
"The lesson is over," Ray said, pulling his hand back as the lights returned to normal. "I think I've learned enough for today."
As he walked out, he felt the first real 'ping' of danger. Somewhere, in the upper levels of the city, a high-ranking official had just received an alert. The Forbidden Mage was no longer a secret.