Webnovel's Extra: Reincarnated With a Copy Ability-Chapter 149: After the Demonstration

The corridor outside Amphitheater 2 stayed crowded long after the session ended.

Students moved through it in clusters that formed and dissolved every few steps. Some were arguing in low voices. Others spoke quietly while replaying pieces of the demonstration from memory, as if saying the words out loud might help them understand what they had just seen.

Lucas leaned against the wall near a tall window and watched the hallway fill and empty in uneven waves.

Nobody approached him directly.

They glanced at him. Some looked impressed. A few looked uncertain. A handful looked irritated in that specific way people did when they wanted to convince themselves they had seen something ordinary.

Lucas had been in the academy long enough to recognize the pattern.

They were deciding what his performance meant.

Raisel stepped out of the amphitheater a few minutes later, moving through the crowd without seeming to notice it. He stopped beside Lucas but didn’t greet him right away. Instead he watched the flow of students the same way Lucas had been.

"Your group handled the pressure better than most expected," Raisel said finally.

Lucas shrugged.

"That’s not what people are talking about."

"No," Raisel agreed. "It isn’t."

Lucas shifted his weight.

"They’re comparing it."

"Of course they are."

Lucas glanced at him.

"And?"

Raisel’s expression remained neutral. "Your formation relied on decisive corrections. Dreyden’s relied on distributed awareness."

Lucas snorted softly.

"That’s a polite way of saying I forced it and he didn’t."

Raisel turned his head slightly.

"You didn’t force it."

Lucas lifted an eyebrow.

"You pushed pressure inward and controlled it before it broke the structure," Raisel continued. "That’s different."

Lucas didn’t answer right away.

He kept watching the hallway while groups of students passed them, still arguing quietly.

Across the corridor someone was explaining the second rotation with sweeping hand gestures, describing how the hazard lanes shifted. Another group debated whether Dreyden’s slower response time was a weakness or deliberate restraint.

Lucas rubbed the back of his neck.

"Feels strange," he admitted.

"What does?"

Lucas gestured toward the corridor.

"They’re talking about it like it matters."

Raisel gave him a short look.

"It does."

Lucas laughed under his breath.

"I meant to them."

Raisel didn’t respond immediately.

The two of them stood there in silence for a moment while the crowd thinned. Eventually he said, "You’re still thinking about the test itself."

Lucas frowned.

"What else would I think about?"

Raisel’s gaze shifted toward the amphitheater doors.

"The response."

Lucas followed his eyes.

The corridor wasn’t as crowded now, but conversations continued in small pockets. Some students leaned against the walls debating quietly. Others had already started replaying the formations on their tablets.

Lucas let out a slow breath.

"Yeah," he said. "I noticed."

They fell quiet again.

After a minute Lucas straightened and pushed off the wall.

"Where’s Dreyden?"

Raisel nodded toward the far end of the corridor.

"He left."

Lucas blinked.

"Just left?"

"Yes."

Lucas frowned.

That didn’t surprise him exactly, but it still felt strange. Most students would have stayed to hear the discussions, or to answer questions, or simply to enjoy the attention.

Dreyden never seemed interested in any of that.

Lucas started walking down the corridor, weaving past the remaining clusters of students. Raisel didn’t follow him, but he didn’t need to.

Lucas already knew where he’d find him.

The training wing was quieter than the amphitheater.

A few students were still practicing in the outer circles, but the main hall had returned to its usual rhythm. Metal rang softly against reinforced surfaces. Someone shouted a correction from the far end of the room.

Lucas spotted Dreyden near one of the smaller practice grids.

He wasn’t training.

He stood with his hands in his pockets, watching two lower-tier students attempt a formation exercise. They kept collapsing the left side of their structure whenever the projection grid shifted.

Lucas stopped a few steps away.

"You’re skipping the part where people ask you questions."

Dreyden glanced at him.

"They weren’t asking questions."

Lucas tilted his head.

"They were arguing."

"Yes."

"And you didn’t want to be part of it."

"No."

Lucas leaned against the barrier rail.

The two students inside the practice grid tried the formation again. This time they corrected the left side slightly earlier, and the structure held long enough for the projection wave to disperse.

Dreyden nodded once, almost to himself.

Lucas noticed.

"You’re studying them."

"Yes."

"Why?"

Dreyden kept watching the grid.

"Because this is where the real result appears."

Lucas frowned.

"What do you mean?"

Dreyden gestured lightly toward the practice circle.

"They watched the demonstration. Now they’re trying to replicate parts of it."

Lucas watched the two students run the formation again.

One of them widened the spacing between anchors before the projection shift. The other adjusted suppression timing a fraction earlier than before.

Lucas’s brow furrowed.

"Oh."

"Yes."

Lucas folded his arms.

"So the demonstration wasn’t really about us."

Dreyden finally turned toward him.

"No."

Lucas sighed.

"Figures."

The two students in the practice grid finished their exercise and stepped out, talking quietly to each other about timing adjustments. One of them glanced at Lucas as he passed, then quickly looked away.

Lucas watched them leave.

"They’re copying pieces," he said.

"Yes."

Lucas scratched his jaw.

"That’s weird."

Dreyden didn’t respond.

Lucas shifted his stance.

"Back in the amphitheater you said they were watching the audience."

"Yes."

Lucas leaned forward slightly.

"So what did they learn?"

Dreyden thought for a moment.

"They learned the academy is divided."

Lucas blinked.

"Already?"

Dreyden nodded.

"Some students prefer decisive control. Others prefer distributed stability."

Lucas considered that.

"Compression versus distribution."

"Yes."

Lucas rubbed his neck again.

"That sounds like a strategy debate."

"It is."

Lucas looked back toward the training circles.

"That can’t be what Oversight wanted."

Dreyden’s expression didn’t change.

"It’s exactly what they wanted."

Lucas stared at him.

"Why would they want that?"

Dreyden rested his forearms on the rail.

"Because disagreement forces adaptation."

Lucas opened his mouth, then closed it again.

After a moment he laughed softly.

"Of course it does."

They stood there for a while watching the training hall.

More students drifted into the practice grids. Some tried wider spacing in their formations. Others tightened their structures and focused on faster correction timing.

Two different philosophies beginning to spread across the floor.

Lucas felt the strange pressure in his chest again. Not the unstable surge from earlier. Something quieter.

Something thoughtful.

"You know what this means," he said slowly.

Dreyden glanced at him.

"What?"

Lucas nodded toward the training circles.

"They’re going to start choosing sides."

Dreyden watched the students practicing below.

"Yes."

Lucas exhaled.

"That’s going to get messy."

"Eventually."

Lucas gave him a skeptical look.

"You say that like you’re not worried."

Dreyden met his gaze.

"I’m interested."

Lucas shook his head with a small laugh.

"You’re unbelievable."

"Frequently."

Lucas straightened and stretched his shoulders.

"So what happens next?"

Dreyden looked back toward the practice circles where students continued experimenting with their formations.

"Now we see which ideas survive contact with reality."

Lucas watched a group of students attempt a wider formation near the far wall. The structure held for a moment, then collapsed when one of them misjudged the timing.

Another group tried a tighter configuration and managed to stabilize their projection longer than expected.

Lucas smiled faintly.

"Guess the academy just turned into a giant experiment."

Dreyden nodded.

"Yes."

Lucas pushed off the rail.

"Well," he said, "if everyone’s experimenting, we might as well keep training."

Dreyden stepped away from the barrier.

"That would be logical."

Lucas headed toward one of the open practice grids.

Halfway there he glanced back.

"Hey."

Dreyden paused.

"Yeah?"

Lucas hesitated for a second.

"You did good up there."

Dreyden didn’t react much. Just a small nod.

"You too."

Lucas turned away before the moment could get awkward.

The two of them stepped into the practice grid together while the training hall continued buzzing around them.

Above the floor, observation windows remained dark.

But somewhere behind those dark panels, people were already updating their conclusions.