The corridor was sealed.
Blood-stained floor.
Broken walls.
Three dead assassins.
The academy guards stood tense, weapons drawn.
I sat on a chair, back straight, eyes calm.
Too calm for someone who had just survived an assassination.
An instructor stepped forward.
"Explain," he said.
"They entered my room," I replied evenly.
"They tried to kill me. I responded."
Silence followed.
One guard swallowed.
"These men… are not students."
Of course they weren't.
Hours later, I stood in a circular chamber.
Seven elders sat around a stone table.
Power pressed down on me like a mountain.
One wrong word could end everything.
"Rank Seven," an elder said coldly,
"do you understand what you've done?"
"I defended myself," I replied.
Another elder leaned forward.
"These assassins belong to a private faction," he said.
"They don't act without backing."
My eyes narrowed.
"Then someone inside the academy wants me dead."
No one denied it.
The old man in the cloak finally spoke.
"Enough."
The pressure vanished.
"He is under my observation," he said calmly.
"Touch him again… and I will personally intervene."
The elders stiffened.
So he really was powerful.
After the meeting, the old man walked beside me.
"You handled yourself well," he said.
"This academy," he continued, "is not just a place of learning. It's a battlefield."
I nodded.
"I figured."
That night, the system activated.
[Crisis Survived.]
[System Synchronization Increased.]
[Growth Allocation Efficiency +15%]
I lay on my bed, staring at the ceiling.
Enemies outside.
Enemies inside.
My fingers tightened.
"If they're afraid enough to send assassins," I whispered,
"then I'm already a threat."
Far above the academy, in a sealed chamber, a crystal glowed.
A distant voice echoed.
"Observe the boy carefully."
"He may become… uncontrollable.