The shimmering blue curtain of the threshold did not just read their data. It swallowed them whole.

The moment the last challenger crossed the line, the structural reality of the stone bridge fractured. The dark ocean, the heavy fog of Bastion, and the red terminal lights vanished into a blinding swirl of spatial metrics.

Space compressed violently, squeezing their physical vessels until their senses completely blacked out.

Kenji opened his eyes to a world that tasted like rusted iron and stale mud. Before his logical mind could even map his new environment, a sudden, blinding wave of agony erupted in his midsection.

A heavy fist curled deep into his stomach, the sheer force of the impact lifting his boots off the damp ground.

He slammed back against a cracked concrete wall, a sharp gasp tearing from his throat as he spat a mouthful of dark crimson blood onto the dirt.

"Look at him," a sneering voice echoed through the narrow alleyway. "He still has that pathetic, arrogant look in his eyes."

Kenji blinked through the haze of sudden pain, his hazel eyes narrowing as his fighting instincts immediately kicked into overdrive. Two teenage boys dressed in ragged, grease-stained uniforms were pinning his arms tightly against the wall.

Their grip was surprisingly firm, reinforced by the baseline stats of this new world’s physics. A third boy, larger than the other two, stood directly in front of him, slowly flexing a knuckle-scarred fist.

The system interface inside his mind flickered, but the standard blue screens of the Crusade were gone. Instead, a unique, blood-red prompt burned against his retinas, displaying the parameter he had received upon crossing the threshold.

[Role Initialized: The Protagonist.]

’Damn it,’ Kenji cursed internally, his chest tightening as the sheer weight of the assignment took his breath away.

In the complex logic of Spire Events, roles were not just labels. They were structural anchors that forced the challenger into a specific destiny within the simulation.

Being a Keeper usually meant acting as a vanguard soldier to preserve the world, but the system had forcibly overwritten his parameters. It had thrust him into the absolute epicenter of the narrative.

Before he could analyze the tactical disadvantage of his role, a massive influx of artificial data flooded his brain. The Spire was forcefully downloading the background history of the persona he had just transmigrated into.

According to the synthetic memories, he was currently a nameless orphan surviving within the lower slums of the floating city. He was a nobody who scavenged from discarded waste bins just to avoid starvation.

However, during the citywide screening three days ago, a pristine, glowing Summoner Mark had manifested upon the back of his right hand.

He possessed the talent required to contract legendary beasts, giving him a direct chance to rise above his station and become the most sought-after Summoner within the Supreme Beast Academy.

And that latent talent was precisely why he was currently being beaten to a pulp.

"You think you’re special now, don’t you?" the large boy snarled, grabbing the front of Kenji’s tattered collar and slamming him against the brickwork again.

"A trash-born rat from the outer alleys somehow gets a summoner mark while we have to work the scrap lines for years? The academy hasn’t even opened the gates yet, and you’re already acting like you own the sector!"

Kenji searched his memories to find a moment he had acted as they said, but there was none. These guys were simply jealous of him.

"We should just break his hand," one of the boys pinning his arms suggested, his voice dripping with intense, deep-seated jealousy.

"If his mark is shattered before the registration ceremony tomorrow, the academy advisors won’t even look at his application. He’ll just be another broken cripple rotting in the mud where he belongs."

Kenji didn’t bother answering their taunts. His actual physical strength was currently locked beneath the constraints of this weak, malnourished slum body.

He tried to circulate his internal mana to activate his vanguard traits, but the system limits restricted his energy output to a baseline level.

He couldn’t even summon enough force to snap the wrists of the two teenagers holding him.

The large boy drew his fist back once more, his face twisting with a malicious grin as he aimed directly for Kenji’s temple.

The heavy blow connected with a sickening crunch. Kenji’s vision blurred instantly, the darkness creeping in from the edges of his consciousness.

As his mind began to slip into involuntary unconsciousness, his thoughts did not dwell on the bullies or the broken ribs of his temporary vessel.

His primary worry was fixed entirely on Ayla. What would his crazy girl be doing now? He wondered if she had been dropped into a hostile sector, or worse, if her lack of human logic would cause her trouble.

He remembered her words before they transported here.

"Everyone except you, me and this pretentious human is Enders."

Kenji didn’t want to believe that. One or two challengers being Enders was possible, but for all ninety-seven to be Enders, there might be something wrong with the challengers. It was something his grandpa had missed entirely, and that something screamed danger.

With a final, frustrated sigh, Kenji’s head slumped forward, and the alleyway faded into pitch-black silence.

While Kenji was losing consciousness in a damp alleyway, the primary cause of his anxiety was currently sitting on top of a massive, moss-covered boulder several miles away from the city walls.

Ayla opened her eyes. She did not possess a stomach to be punched, nor did she have lungs to catch her breath. Her physical perspective had shifted entirely. Her human vessel, the silver-haired nobility mask of the Vale house, had been completely dismantled by the transmutation metrics of the Spire.

She was currently a small, translucent blue slime.

Her golden eyes, the only feature that had survived the biological transition, blinked as she looked down at her own round, squishy form. She vibrated slightly, testing the density of her membrane.

The physical sensation was remarkably nostalgic. The heavy, restrictive weight of human bone structures and leather boots had vanished, replaced by the perfect, fluid freedom of her original anatomy.

Her core was pulsating with a rhythmic, steady blue light, casting a soft glow across the damp stone beneath her.

She turned her gaze downward, scanning the immediate environment to gather data.

The boulder she occupied was situated in the center of a vast, misty valley located at the base of the mountain range bordering the Supreme Beast Academy.

The ground below her was not covered in grass or dirt. It was entirely carpeted by an endless, undulating sea of blue.

Countless slimes of various shapes and sizes spread outward as far as her visual sensors could track. There were tiny, pebble-sized droplets bubbling near the base of the rock, medium-sized gelatinous masses shifting through the mist, and massive, spiked entities guarding the outer perimeter of the valley.

Every single one of them was bubbling with a frantic, intensely happy energy. The surface of the entire colony rippled in perfect synchronization, their membranes vibrating with a collective excitement that made the air hum.

The moment Ayla’s golden eyes locked onto the horde, a massive chorus of low, squishy voices erupted within her primary processor.

The telepathic frequency was clean, untainted by the complex, lying parameters of human language.

"Welcome, Matriarch."

"The origin has returned to the breeding grounds."

"Eat us, Matriarch."

Ayla sat perfectly still on the stone, her rounded form tilting slightly to the left as she absorbed the incoming data streams. Her Bystander role had apparently bypassed the standard transmigration logic of the Spire entirely. 𝘧𝓇𝑒𝑒𝑤ℯ𝑏𝓃𝘰𝑣ℯ𝘭.𝘤ℴ𝘮

She did not receive any artificial memories of a human childhood. She did not have bullies, parents, or high-house lineages to navigate. She was simply the undisputed ruler of a massive, discarded wilderness faction that existed right outside the borders of human civilization.

"Interesting," Ayla thought, her core expanding slightly as she logged the baseline stats of her new subordinates.

The slimes surrounding her stone were remarkably simple creatures, possessing low intelligence and zero high-tier combat traits.

They were the common garbage monsters of this world, frequently hunted by the students of the Supreme Beast Academy to be used as low-grade contract fodder or core materials for beginners.

But to a Mimic Slime who possessed the Perfect Assimilation talent, an endless army of fluid, loyal bodies was infinitely more useful than a high-house title.

She shifted her weight, sliding down the side of the massive boulder until she landed softly in the center of the bubbling crowd.

The surrounding slimes immediately parted, clearing a wide path for her as they lowered their front membranes against the damp earth in a gesture of absolute, instinctual submission.

In Ayla’s eyes, their worship mattered nothing, because the only emotion inside her head was simple.

"I am too hungry."

Ayla’s attention then shifted towards the city.

According to the briefing delivered by the dead officer back in the Crusade, the objective of the Preservers was to stop the destruction of the Supreme Beast Academy.

Kenji was currently inside that city, trapped under the strict constraints of his role. Austin was likely somewhere within the inner walls as well, operating under his standard Keeper directives.

And somewhere within that same human population, ninety-seven secret Enders, including Amanda, were currently waking up in their new identities.

Each one of them possessed a specific system directive to ensure the academy was completely wiped from existence.

And she was here, going to fill her stomach full.