Webnovel's Extra: Reincarnated With a Copy Ability-Chapter 194: The Wrong Place to Look

Lucas expected the next break to come from somewhere subtle.

That had been the pattern. Small shifts. Slight delays. Tiny mistakes that spread outward if no one caught them early enough.

So he adjusted.

He watched the edges more carefully. Paid attention to the quiet gaps in movement, the spots where things tended to drift first. Even when he stepped into formation, part of his focus stayed outward, tracking the places most people ignored.

It worked.

For a while.

The morning block ran clean.

Not perfect, but controlled in a way that didn’t feel fragile anymore. The edges held better. People corrected faster, not snapping into place, just adjusting enough to keep things from collapsing.

Lucas stepped through his rotations without issue, moving with the flow instead of trying to shape it.

Tomas was keeping up easily now.

That alone was a sign of how much things had changed.

"You’re not babysitting me anymore," Tomas said during a break.

Lucas glanced at him.

"I never was."

Tomas snorted.

"Yeah, sure."

Lucas smirked.

"You just stopped needing it."

Tomas nodded once.

"...That feels better."

Lucas didn’t argue.

The second block pushed a little harder.

Not in speed.

In complexity.

The projections started layering movement, small overlapping paths that forced people to track more than one shift at a time.

Lucas adjusted without thinking too much about it.

He’d been here before.

This wasn’t new.

That was the first warning.

He ignored it.

It happened in the third rotation.

Right in the middle.

Lucas didn’t see it at first.

Because he wasn’t looking there.

The formation was tight.

Controlled.

Everyone moving in sync, small adjustments keeping the structure flexible without losing shape.

Lucas tracked the edge out of habit.

Everything looked fine.

No delay.

No hesitation.

He let his attention drift back inward.

That was when it slipped.

The center shifted.

Not the projection.

The person.

A slight misalignment in timing, barely noticeable unless you were watching closely. One step came a fraction too soon, not enough to break anything, just enough to throw off the spacing.

Lucas felt it before he saw it.

The rhythm changed.

He turned.

Too late.

The mistake didn’t spread outward.

It folded inward.

The formation tightened around the center, people adjusting instinctively, trying to keep everything aligned.

But that created pressure.

Too much.

The projection responded.

The path narrowed.

The space disappeared.

Lucas stepped in, trying to release it, but the correction came from the wrong angle.

The center didn’t expand.

It compressed further.

Then it broke.

Not a full collapse.

But enough.

One of the students in the middle stumbled back, forced out of position to avoid taking the hit directly.

The grid cut.

Silence dropped hard across the hall.

Lucas stood still, staring at the center.

"...That’s new."

Tomas exhaled beside him.

"That didn’t come from the edge."

"No," Lucas said.

"It didn’t."

The student at the center looked up, confusion clear on their face.

"I didn’t—"

Lucas stepped forward, stopping just short of the formation.

"You moved early," he said.

The student frowned.

"I thought it was shifting."

Lucas nodded.

"It was."

The student blinked.

"Then what’s the problem?"

Lucas hesitated.

Because that was the problem.

"They weren’t wrong."

Dreyden’s voice cut through the quiet.

Lucas glanced back.

"They read the shift," Dreyden continued. "Correctly."

Lucas frowned.

"...Then why did it break?"

Dreyden stepped closer, gaze steady.

"Because everyone else followed."

Lucas felt it click.

Not all at once.

But enough.

Raisel joined them, looking toward the center.

"They reacted to the person," he said.

"Not the projection," Arden added.

Lucas exhaled slowly.

"...Yeah."

That was it.

The student at the center looked between them.

"So what was I supposed to do?"

Lucas shook his head.

"You didn’t do anything wrong." 𝒇𝒓𝒆𝒆𝙬𝒆𝒃𝓷𝒐𝓿𝙚𝙡.𝒄𝓸𝒎

The student’s expression didn’t ease.

"Then why did it break?"

Lucas glanced at the rest of the group.

"Because they trusted you more than what they saw."

That landed harder than anything else.

The room shifted.

Not physically.

Mentally.

Lucas felt it.

People replaying the moment, not just their own movements, but how they responded to someone else.

How quickly they adjusted.

How much they trusted that adjustment.

"That’s worse."

Tomas said it quietly, but Lucas heard it.

"Yeah," Lucas replied.

"Because now we can’t just watch the edges."

Lucas nodded.

"Yeah."

The next rotation started without delay.

No one spoke.

No one needed to.

Lucas stepped back into position, this time closer to the center.

Not because he wanted to lead.

Because he wanted to see it.

The grid activated.

First sequence.

Clean.

Lucas didn’t focus on the edges.

He watched the center.

Every movement.

Every adjustment.

Every small shift in timing.

The projection changed.

The center responded.

Lucas didn’t follow immediately.

He waited.

Just enough to confirm the source.

Then he moved.

The formation held.

Second sequence.

Faster.

Tighter.

One of the students in the center adjusted early again.

Lucas saw it.

Didn’t react.

Not yet.

The projection shifted.

Matched it.

Then Lucas moved.

The others followed the projection, not the person.

The formation stayed aligned.

Clean.

"That’s it."

Lucas said it under his breath.

They ran it again.

Same pattern.

Same pressure.

The center shifted early.

Lucas didn’t react to it.

He tracked the projection instead.

So did Tomas.

So did the others.

The early movement didn’t pull them.

It corrected itself.

The formation held.

By the end of the rotation, the difference was obvious.

Not in how they moved.

In what they followed.

Lucas stepped out, letting out a slow breath.

"...Okay."

Arden stepped beside him.

"You see it now."

Lucas nodded.

"Yeah."

"It’s not just about reading the system," she said.

Lucas glanced at her.

"It’s about not getting pulled by each other."

Arden didn’t respond.

She didn’t need to.

Raisel looked toward the center.

"That’s harder."

Lucas huffed.

"Yeah."

"Because it means not trusting the first correct move."

Lucas smirked faintly.

"Or at least not trusting it blindly."

The final block reinforced it.

More layered projections.

More overlapping movement.

More chances for someone to move correctly at the wrong time.

Lucas adjusted.

Not ignoring people.

Not ignoring the system.

Just... separating the two.

Watching both.

Choosing which one to follow.

That was the difference.

When the session ended, the room felt sharper again.

Not tighter.

More aware.

Lucas stepped out into the courtyard, the air cooler now as the sun dipped lower.

Tomas walked beside him.

"That’s messed up."

Lucas nodded.

"Yeah."

"So now we can’t trust each other either?"

Lucas shook his head.

"That’s not it."

Tomas frowned.

"Then what is it?"

Lucas thought about it.

"...You trust them," he said. "Just not more than what’s actually happening."

Tomas let that sit.

"...That’s complicated."

Lucas smirked.

"Yeah."

They slowed near the steps.

Tomas leaned against the railing again.

"So what breaks next?"

Lucas exhaled slowly.

He looked back toward the training hall.

Then out across the courtyard.

People were still moving.

Still talking.

Still adjusting.

But now there was something else in it.

A layer of hesitation.

Not the bad kind.

The aware kind.

Lucas shook his head slightly.

"...Not sure," he said.

Tomas sighed.

"You hate not knowing."

Lucas smirked faintly.

"Yeah."

He pushed off the railing.

"Come on," he said.

Tomas followed.

"Where to?"

Lucas glanced back one last time.

Because now he understood something new.

It wasn’t just where it broke.

It was why.

And sometimes—

The reason wasn’t the system.

It was the people inside it.

Lucas looked forward again.

"Doesn’t matter," he said.

Because whatever came next—

It wasn’t going to be simple.