GameDev Reincarnated into His Own Creation

Vol 2 - Chapter 32.5B: R & D

With reverent hands, Moana opened the box.

Moana slowly pulled out the crystalline device—just as Vel remembered from entrance day. The artifact caught the room's light, its faceted surface gleaming. Even sitting still on the table, it seemed to pulse with latent energy.

With careful hands, Moana placed it on a velvet cloth spread across the table. The deep purple fabric made the crystal's clarity stand out even more dramatically.

"So. Let's see if what you said is true," Moana said quietly.

Vel's heart thumped against his ribcage. There it was—the object that had revealed his anomalous nature to the entire Academy. He already knew what should happen, yet he still felt nervous. What if it didn't behave like last time? Either way, he needed to be extremely cautious, unlike during the entrance examination when he'd been caught off guard.

With a mental command, Vel toggled on his interface, careful to keep his expression neutral so Moana wouldn't notice anything unusual about his behavior. He needed to gather every bit of information he could during this rare opportunity.

The familiar translucent display appeared in his vision, overlaying his perception of reality without obscuring it. Vel focused his attention on the crystal, and information began to populate his view:

[Affinity Detector]

Category: ItemClass: ArtifactStatus: Inactive

Moana watched Vel with a keen, almost hungry gaze. His weathered hands hovered near the artifact, fingers twitching slightly with anticipation.

"Go on," he urged, nodding toward the crystal. "Let's see this phenomenon for ourselves."

Vel took a deep breath and stepped closer to the table. He extended his hand slowly, fingers trembling slightly as they approached the gleaming surface. The moment his fingertips made contact with the cool crystal, he braced himself.

For a split second, nothing happened.

Then chaos erupted.

The artifact flashed wildly—red, blue, green, yellow, white, black—each color appearing for just an instant before being replaced by another. The crystal hummed, its pitch rising unnaturally as the colors began cycling faster.

But this time, with his interface active, Vel noticed something he'd missed during the entrance ceremony. A new detail appeared in his vision:

[Affinity Detector]

Category: ItemClass: ArtifactStatus: Malfunctioning

The device continued its frantic display for several more seconds before eventually settling into a compromised state. A bright white cloud filled the crystal, pulsing gently like a heartbeat.

Vel's interface updated:

[Affinity Detector]

Status: Analyzing

Wait. It was still analyzing something?

Vel hadn't known—he'd never activated his interface during the entrance ceremony. Without it, he wouldn't have seen any of this information. He decided to keep his hand still for a few more moments, curious what would happen.

After a moment, something new appeared.

The device projected a faint magical circle above itself, unlike anything Vel had seen during the standard readings. The circle contained detailed patterns and sigils that shifted and reorganized themselves, as if the artifact was trying to communicate. Not a reading—a debug message about the error it had encountered.