The dormitory common room buzzed with the usual chaos of a weekday evening — the clash of video games on the big TV, laughter from card games at the side tables, and the faint hiss of a microwave reheating ramen in the corner. It was the sort of noisy, aimless energy that drained most students but gave him an opportunity.
He sat quietly in the corner, book open, eyes moving lazily across the page. To anyone glancing his way, he looked like a tired, average student trying to drown out the noise. But beneath his calm exterior, calculations ticked away with cold precision.
He wasn't here for the noise. He was here for Ryan.
Ryan Cooper was easy to read. Loud when in a group, desperate for approval, but brittle underneath. The type of boy who feared being forgotten, who masked insecurity with overconfidence. The perfect clay to be molded.
Ryan spotted him and swaggered over, wearing his usual cocky grin.
"Hey, man. You were brutal in the library earlier. Derek looked like he swallowed a brick. Didn't know you had that in you."
The MC glanced up, expression unreadable. "Derek embarrassed himself. That's all."
Ryan laughed, plopping down in the chair across from him. "Still, dude, you were ice-cold. I swear, half the campus is talking about it. People are saying you're some kind of genius hiding in plain sight."
A flicker of amusement tugged at the MC's lips. Half right, he thought.
"People exaggerate," he said evenly, eyes drifting back to his book. "I'm just… observant."
Ryan leaned forward eagerly. "Yeah, but observant doesn't make a hologram appear out of thin air. What was that thing anyway? Some kind of prototype?"
The MC let silence stretch, letting Ryan squirm under the weight of his unreadable expression. Then he closed the book softly and met Ryan's eyes.
"What do you think it was?"
Ryan blinked. "Uh… some crazy tech? Like military grade or something?"
"Good guess." The MC's tone was low, conspiratorial. "But not military. Not yet, anyway."
Ryan's curiosity lit up like a flame. "So you've got access to stuff like that? Man, that's… that's insane. You could, like, rule this place if you wanted."
The MC's gaze sharpened. "Rule this place? That's child's play. I think on larger scales."
Ryan whistled, grinning nervously. "You're serious, aren't you? You're really planning something."
The MC leaned back, his voice steady, each word deliberate.
"Ryan. Tell me. Do you want to keep being Derek's shadow? His errand boy? Or do you want people to look at you differently?"
Ryan stiffened, eyes narrowing. "I'm not his errand boy."
"You are," the MC said bluntly. "Everyone sees it. He throws scraps, you fetch them. That's not respect, Ryan. That's pity disguised as friendship."
The words hit their mark. Ryan's jaw tightened, his grin faltering. For the first time, the MC saw the raw frustration hiding beneath the boy's usual bravado.
"What are you saying?" Ryan asked cautiously.
"I'm saying you don't have to stay that way. You have potential, if you stop wasting it following people who'll never value you."
Ryan's eyes lit with a dangerous mix of hurt pride and desperate hope. "And you're the one who's gonna help me, huh?"
The MC allowed himself the faintest smile. "Only if you're willing to listen."
Over the next hour, the MC wove his web. He spoke of influence, of strategy, of controlling narratives instead of being controlled by them. He didn't promise Ryan power outright — that would have been too suspicious, too much. Instead, he planted the seeds carefully, making Ryan believe the initiative was his own.
Every nod, every question Ryan asked, only tangled him deeper into the threads. The boy was hooked, eager for validation, hungry for direction.
At the end of their conversation, Ryan leaned back, eyes shining with a mix of awe and excitement.
"You really are on another level," he said. "Fine. Tell me what you need me to do."
The MC's expression remained calm, but inside, his thoughts were razor-sharp.
And the puppet offers its strings.
That night, back in his dorm room, he opened his logbook again. The lamplight cast sharp shadows as he wrote with meticulous strokes.
Experiment Log – Phase Four:
Target D (Ryan Cooper): Personality analysis confirmed — insecure, approval-seeking, highly manipulable.
Strategy: Establish reliance on guidance, escalate tasks gradually. Reward with validation sparingly.
Outcome: Target now considers himself "allied" voluntarily.
Conclusion: Control without chains is control most absolute.
He set the pen down, staring at the words.
The Celestial Inventory could give him infinite weapons, infinite tools. But sometimes, the most effective weapons were people. Not the strong, but the weak. The ones who craved purpose.
And Ryan Cooper had just stepped willingly into his role.
The MC's lips curved into a faint, cold smile.
Every empire begins with pawns. And I intend to build mine flawlessly.