Morning broke like a malfunctioning alarm.
The first thing I noticed was noise shouts echoing through the dorm halls, doors slamming, the buzz of hundreds of wrist-bands updating at once.
The entire academy was re-sorting itself.
Leo burst into the room before I could stand. “Kyle, what did you do? Half the Combat Division jumped twenty places overnight!”
I blinked at my display.
Rank 821.
Yesterday it had been 1 521.
“Nothing,” I said. “That’s the problem.”
Kira’s voice crackled through my comm bead. “Meet me at the east courtyard. Now.”
---
The courtyard looked like a battlefield.
Groups of students argued over rankings projected above their heads; some demanded retests, others accused the system of fraud.
At the centre, instructors barked orders, trying to contain the chaos.
