The campus buzzed like a hive on fire the morning after the Gala. Rumors, lies, livestreams dissecting every second of the scandalous night. Expulsions were rumored. Careers had ended. Reputations had died.
But Elias?
Elias walked through it all like a shadow passing through fog—unbothered, unreadable, untouchable.
---
9:45 AM – Westwood Campus Grounds
The students parted like waves as he strolled across the lawn. Some stared, some whispered. A few girls who once ignored him now watched him with hungry eyes. A few boys watched with hatred.
Mila trailed behind him silently, still unsure why she hadn't gone home.
And then came a voice.
"ELIAS!"
He turned.
Principal Damon. Clean suit, fake smile. Behind him stood two security guards and a woman in a gray blazer with a badge.
Campus Intelligence Unit.
"We need to speak to you privately."
Elias didn't resist. He simply nodded.
---
10:10 AM – Administrative Basement
They took him to a place most students didn't know existed. A dusty hallway below the old lecture wing. Faint echoes from old pipes. One flickering bulb.
Room "B-00."
They pushed the door open.
Inside? A massive digital wall filled with live feeds—classrooms, dorms, bathrooms, the gala last night, even the mall parking lot.
"This," Damon said coldly, "is the Core. Every secret, every file, every life… is catalogued here."
"You hacked it last night," the woman added.
"I didn't hack it," Elias replied calmly. "I unlocked it."
They stared.
The woman narrowed her eyes. "How?"
Elias raised his wrist.
The watch pulsed again.
And then, as if obeying a silent command, the wall lit up.
A new path emerged—a blinking portal file labeled DOOR-B00-TIER03.
"Impossible…" Damon whispered.
The woman stepped back.
And Elias walked forward.
---
10:16 AM – Digital Core Gateway
As his fingers touched the blinking symbol, the room changed.
Lights dimmed. The wall split.
A hidden door opened behind the main screen.
Inside was a dark corridor with stairs spiraling downward—beyond the basement, beyond the university's official blueprints.
A mechanical voice whispered in Elias' mind:
> "Welcome to Tier Three. Magic Task Chain 12 initiated.
Objective: Discover the Room of Forgotten Agreements.
Task Risk: Red Level.
Reward: Forbidden Skill – Memory Bender."
Mila, still at the entrance, called out. "Elias! Where are you going?!"
He looked back at her once. Just once.
"You don't have to follow."
But she did anyway.
---
10:23 AM – Under the Campus
The air was colder down here. The scent of wet concrete and burnt wires.
They passed locked vaults with flickering labels:
CLASSIFIED EXPERIMENTAL FILES
EXPELLED SOULS RECORDING
LOST MEMORY VAULT – DO NOT OPEN
The deeper they went, the more reality twisted. Walls pulsed. Shadows whispered. Time felt slower.
Mila trembled. "This place… it's alive."
"Not alive," Elias murmured. "Watched."
Then they reached it.
A massive black door.
No handle. No keyhole.
Just a single indentation.
Elias placed the watch into the slot.
It fit.
The door hissed open.
---
The room wasn't empty. It was filled with mirrors. Each reflected a moment in Elias' life—beatings, mockery, girls laughing as they left him, fake friends setting him up, teachers bribed to fail him.
But there was one mirror that didn't reflect Elias at all.
It reflected someone else.
A man in a long trench coat. Burnt face. Silver eyes.
He raised his hand.
"You've made it to Tier Three," the figure said from inside the mirror. "But you're still just a pawn. Want to become a player?"
Elias stepped closer.
"What do I have to do?"
The figure grinned.
> "Destroy the system that feeds them all.
Burn the walls between school and corruption, love and greed, power and pretense.
Start with your next class."
The mirror shattered.
The watch burned his wrist.
---
11:01 AM – Economics Lecture Hall
Elias walked in. Late.
Everyone stared.
Professor Luwanda was already mid-rant. "We are discussing capital power structures and elite influence on corporate behavior—"
"Maybe talk about your night with Ava's mother," Elias said coolly.
The room went silent.
Luwanda froze.
Someone gasped.
Elias sat down slowly.
The war had begun.