Mana Circuits, Connected

2 AM.

Sitting cross-legged on my bedroom floor, my body burned like I was running a high fever.

Thump, thump. My heart pounded like an alarm bell.

But my focus wasn't on the beating in my chest.

It was on the Mana Core in my dantian, below my navel. And the sealed Mana Circuit extending from there to my right arm.

Over the past several days, I'd cut back on sleep, crammed in food, and pushed my physical muscles to their limits.

The same had been true when I filed down the rebar. Back then, my circuits weren't connected yet, so I'd forced it into shape using only technique and raw muscle from my past life.

But that too had reached its limit.

To survive the coming X-Day, I absolutely needed power that transcended physical laws.

(… Preparations are complete. The fuel has accumulated. All that's left is to open the pathway.)

I closed my eyes and sharpened my awareness of my body's interior.

I imagined a thin pipe clogged with mud.

Rusted nerves that hadn't been used once in sixteen years. I pressed the maso I'd refined in my dantian against them like a high-pressure washer.

Throbbing phantom pain shot through me.

My cells screamed, rejecting the foreign intrusion.

But I showed no mercy. I severed my awareness of pain and forced the energy through by will alone.

"… Open."

A curse-like voice leaked through my gritted teeth.

Just a little more. If I could break through just one thin membrane…

Snap.

Deep in my ear, I heard the sound of something tearing.

The next instant, the heat pooled in my dantian burst through like a broken dam, flowing from my right shoulder down my arm.

"Gu, ah…!"

I doubled over, clutching my right arm.

Hot.

It was like having molten lead poured through my veins.

Through the elbow, past the wrist, to all five fingertips.

The surging energy roughly awakened sleeping cells.

The intense pain lasted only a moment.

It quickly transformed into a tingling sense of omnipotence, as if a single line now ran all the way to my fingertips.

"… Hah, hah…"

Breathing raggedly, I held my right hand up before my face.

In the dark room.

I focused my consciousness on the trembling tip of my index finger.

Using the circuit that had just opened, I gathered maso to a single point.

Imagine it.

Friction heat. Ignition.

The moment when the world responds to my will.

Flash.

A small, truly small light was born at my fingertip.

It was a faint, pale blue glow.

Dimmer than an LED nightlight, flickering unreliably like a candle in the wind.

The light of pure mana produced when maso combusts.

In my former life, I could have illuminated a night forest as bright as midday with just a fingertip. Compared to that, this didn't even match the dying embers of a sparkler.

But.

"… Haha."

I twisted my dry lips into a smile.

Magic.

In this modern society where science reigned supreme, a "mystery" defying physical laws had undeniably manifested.

Not electricity, not chemical reaction. A supernatural light born from my soul and life force.

A miracle that all the world's scientists combined couldn't replicate now resided in the fingertip of a grimy high school boy.

This wasn't the "visualization" from when I filed the rebar. Real mana was materializing at my fingertip.

"It's pretty pathetic… A hundred-yen lighter would be brighter."

I muttered with self-deprecation.

Estimated output coefficient: 0.02.

Even an F-rank goblin would scoff at such feeble mana.

Given the current environment's maso concentration and my body's specs, this was probably the limit.

However, what welled up in my chest wasn't disappointment.

It was certainty.

The theory was correct. Even under this world's physical laws, as long as the circuits were connected, magic could be activated.

Right now it was a mere "point" of light, but if I strengthened the circuits, it would eventually become a "line," then a "plane," and finally an "inferno" that burns everything to ash.

"… Alright."

I blew gently, extinguishing the light at my fingertip.

The afterimage was burned into my retina.

A heavy wave of fatigue hit me, but I didn't feel bad.

Rather, the heat dwelling in my right arm was making my brain tingle.

The main circuit was connected.

Now I could move to the next step.

Not mere light emission. A practical combat technique that wraps energy around muscles and explosively enhances physical ability.

Body Strengthening.

When I processed the rebar, I'd compensated with "technique" through body control. But from now on, I could add raw "output" to the mix.

Once I master this, I'll have physical abilities that even a group of armed police officers couldn't match.

The bare minimum ticket to facing an armed military with nothing but an iron pipe.

"Tonight… I can still keep going."

I stripped off my sweat-soaked shirt and changed into a fresh T-shirt.

No time to rest.

I couldn't be satisfied with just lighting a flame.

I had to transform it into "power," or I wouldn't survive the coming X-Day.

I opened the window and filled my lungs with the night's cold air.

In the distance, I could hear sirens.

Somewhere, another unexplained incident might be occurring.

The world was definitely beginning to crumble.

But the gears inside me had also begun to turn powerfully.

"Wait for me, world… I'll blow your mind soon enough."

I quietly clenched my fist toward the darkness.

A faint heat still lingered in my fingertips.

It was the first spark, the signal flare that would mark humanity's counterattack.