"The Proving Grounds," Corvin thought back, keeping his mouth shut so he didn’t look like a crazy person talking to himself. "As a Junior Administrator, I have to pass the Entrance Exams every time I return from a field assignment to prove my code hasn’t been corrupted by the baseline servers."

So, it’s a pop quiz, Sebastian mused.

Fascinating. Just head toward the main administrative building. I need to find the central database.

Corvin started walking across the pristine courtyard. There were dozens of other Admin candidates milling about, all dressed in similar flowing, white and gold robes. They spoke in hushed, arrogant tones, discussing localized physics edits and complaining about the smell of the lower-tier planets.

Sebastian wanted to punch all of them.

Before they could reach the grand staircase leading into the main facility, a tall, broad-shouldered man stepped into Corvin’s path.

The man wore an incredibly ornate suit of armor made from condensed starlight, and his face was twisted into a perpetual, mocking sneer.

[Entity Identified: Lance] [Class: Elite Administrator Candidate] [Level: 68]

"Well, well. If it isn’t little Corvin," Lance drawled, crossing his arms. He was flanked by two other cronies who immediately started snickering. "Back from the mud-pits of the Outer Rim? You smell like dirt."

Corvin instinctively shrank back, his programmed subservience kicking in.

"Lance. I’m just passing through. I have to report to the evaluation hall." 𝗳𝚛𝗲𝕖𝕨𝕖𝗯𝚗𝚘𝕧𝕖𝗹.𝗰𝗼𝕞

"Not so fast," Lance said, holding out an open, demanding hand. "You know the rules, Corvin. The toll. You’ve been out collecting taxes from those pathetic little player guilds.

Hand over thirty percent of your Soul Shards, or I’ll make sure your Entrance Exam accidentally spawns a Level 80 Void Beast."

Corvin panicked. "I can’t! If I don’t submit the full quota, the Archons will demote me!"

"That sounds like a ’you’ problem," Lance laughed cruelly. "Hand it over, rat."

Inside Corvin’s head, Sebastian let out a long, deeply irritated sigh.

Are you kidding me? Sebastian whispered.

Even in the literal capital of the universe, there’s a schoolyard bully stealing lunch money? I think I’m beginning to miss Viper.

He’s an Elite! Corvin thought frantically. I have to give it to him! If he attacks me, my physical vessel will be shattered!

No. Tell him to screw off, Sebastian commanded flatly.

I can’t!

Do it, Corvin, or I’ll scramble your frontal lobe right now.

Corvin swallowed hard. He looked at Lance’s outstretched hand. He looked at the arrogant sneer.

"S-screw off, Lance," Corvin stammered, his voice shaking terribly.

The courtyard went dead silent. The cronies stopped laughing. Lance’s smug smile vanished, replaced by a look of sheer, unadulterated fury.

"Excuse me?" Lance hissed, his Level 68 aura flaring. The air around him grew heavy, practically crushing Corvin beneath the pressure. "You little glitch. I’m going to rip your jaw off."

Lance raised his right hand. His fingers glowed with a terrifying, destructive purple light, entirely prepared to cave Corvin’s chest in right there in the middle of the courtyard.

He’s going to kill me! Corvin shrieked internally.

Relax, Sebastian murmured. I’m taking the wheel for a second.

Sebastian didn’t fully un-render himself. He stayed compressed inside the UI. But he reached out with his own localized, Demigod-tier authority and forcefully bypassed Corvin’s motor functions.

Corvin’s body suddenly stopped trembling.

The terrified slouch vanished. His spine snapped perfectly straight, and his eyes—just for a fraction of a second—flashed a brilliant, terrifying silver.

Lance swung his glowing fist downward.

Sebastian just accessed his [Concept of Mass] from the background cache and pointed Corvin’s eyes directly at Lance’s legs.

He didn’t need to crush the guy into a marble.

He just needed to make a point.

Kneecaps, Sebastian ran the math instantly.

Five hundred pounds each.

Lance’s fist was an inch away from Corvin’s face when the edit applied.

CRACK! SNAP!

The sound was like two gunshots going off simultaneously.

Lance’s forward momentum was violently, catastrophically arrested. The localized gravity edit hit his patellas with the weight of an anvil dropping from a skyscraper.

The human knee joint is not designed to support five hundred pounds of isolated, downward force.

Lance’s legs violently buckled. The bones were completely shattered backward, folding his legs into a horrific, unnatural inverted ’V’ shape.

"GAAAAAAAH!" Lance shrieked, collapsing face-first onto the pristine marble floor.

His glowing starlight armor didn’t protect him.

Armor didn’t stop a foundational physics edit.

He thrashed on the ground, clutching his ruined, backward-bending legs, sobbing in absolute, mind-breaking agony.

The two cronies scrambled backward, staring in sheer horror at their leader. They hadn’t seen Corvin cast a spell. They hadn’t seen him move. One second Lance was attacking, and the next, his legs had exploded.

Sebastian released his hold on Corvin’s motor functions, letting the terrified bureaucrat take control again.

Walk away, Sebastian ordered smoothly.

Don’t look back. Just walk.

Corvin was practically vibrating with terror, but he didn’t dare disobey the monster in his head. He stepped over the screaming, thrashing Elite candidate, adjusted the collar of his white suit, and calmly walked toward the administration building.

The entire courtyard of untouchable Hub elites parted for him like the Red Sea, staring at the low-level tax collector with newfound, absolute terror.

See? Sebastian chuckled darkly inside Corvin’s mind. Bullies are all the same. They always fold under a little pressure.

The interior of the main administrative building was a sprawling, dizzying labyrinth of raw data processing. It looked like the inside of a server tower designed by a futuristic god.

Massive pillars of glowing code stretched from the floor to the vaulted ceilings, and thousands of translucent blue screens hovered in the air, actively tracking the status of millions of Ethereal Plane players.

Corvin walked briskly down the pristine hallways, doing his absolute best to ignore the terrifying, overpowered hitchhiker currently residing in his digital nervous system.

Take a left, Sebastian’s voice scraped against Corvin’s mind. There’s a secure terminal room ahead. I can feel the data density.

Corvin obeyed, turning down a quiet, secluded corridor that ended in a heavy, biometric-locked door. He swiped his Admin-in-training badge over the scanner.

The door hissed open, revealing a dark, circular room dominated by a single, massive holographic war table. It was empty.