Chapter 349: Getting the Silver Owl

The Grandmaster clapped his hands together, and immediately, a polished silver owl flew gracefully through the open window, hovering directly in front of Solomon’s face.

The drone projected a grid of blue light, scanning his irises and biometric signature. Once the verification sequence was complete, the mechanical bird fluttered down and perched comfortably on his right shoulder.

Solomon reached over his back and pulled Eden’s Penance from the standard academy-issued scabbard with a loud scrape of steel.

The silver owl immediately reacted to the drawn weapon. It launched itself off his shoulder, flying high up toward the vaulted ceiling, and perched securely on top of a bookshelf to broadcast the impending ’combat’ from a safe, tactical distance.

Solomon sheathed the greatsword. The owl waited for exactly three seconds to ensure the area was clear before fluttering back down to his shoulder.

The Grandmaster leaned forward over his desk, looking at Solomon with a wide, eager smile, clearly waiting for the teenager to shower the new, advanced silver owl with enthusiastic praise.

Solomon simply stared back at the elderly administrator in utter confusion.

"Is everything alright, Solomon?" the Grandmaster asked, his smile faltering slightly.

"I am not live yet," Solomon responded, tapping his finger against the side of the drone’s head. "The lens is dark, and my interface hasn’t popped up. I cannot see my chat."

The Grandmaster furrowed his bushy brows. He tapped his glowing crystal console to check the academy’s broadcasting network.

Solomon was telling the truth and his channel was completely offline.

The Grandmaster stood up, walked around his desk, and initiated a few manual settings on the silver drone. He pressed a sequence of hidden runes on the owl’s wings, attempting a hard reboot. The bird’s eyes flashed green, then immediately died back to dull silver.

It still wasn’t broadcasting.

"Is the drone broken or damaged?" Solomon asked casually, crossing his arms. "Or did you guys just hand me a defective product?" He paused for a few seconds before adding a final jab. "Or perhaps... it is a refurbished model?"

"It is a brand new, custom-forged device!" the Grandmaster defended immediately, his pride wounded. "It cannot possibly be a defective product. This must be some kind of internal software-related glitch. Or perhaps, because your last live stream ended so abruptly when your bronze owl was destroyed in the dungeon, your personal data packet might be severely corrupted within the network."

"What should I do now, then?" Solomon asked. "Is all my progress and my streaming achievements permanently lost?"

He shrugged his shoulders dismissively. "Although, I already cashed out my entire balance of a million points at the bank, so I do not have any points left to lose. I am not really worried about that. And as for my followers and fans, they will just follow me again once I go back live. So it doesn’t really matter."

"If your core data was actually corrupted, you would not have been able to cash out your points or use any of the academy’s banking services in the first place," the Grandmaster pointed out, rubbing his temples.

"You were the one who literally just said my data might be corrupted," Solomon shot back smoothly.

"I said that could be a reason, but it clearly isn’t," the Grandmaster corrected, his frustration growing. He tried a few more complex troubleshooting methods, tapping various runes on his console, but nothing worked. The silver owl remained completely offline.

Solomon watched the elderly man struggle with the technology. "Is this a normal occurrence for second-year students?"

"This error has not happened in the last few decades," the Grandmaster muttered, wiping sweat from his brow. "So, no. It is not normal."

The Grandmaster finally gave up and let out a heavy sigh. "I will let the Technomantic Network Division handle it."

He pressed a button on his desk, summoning a staff member who arrived immediately at the door. "Summon the entire Technomantic Network Division team to my office right now. Tell them it is an absolute emergency."

The Grandmaster turned to Solomon, offering a strained, reassuring smile. "Please, just sit down and relax. Do not panic. Everything will be completely taken care of."

’I am not panicking at all,’ Solomon thought to himself, taking a seat on the plush couch. ’You are clearly panicking way more than I am. I honestly don’t care about the solution, but I am indeed missing my fans. They probably saw me in Maximus’ stream just now when I went to my dorm room. Or maybe not since I don’t expect them to stick around in a stream they don’t want to. And Maximus would have let me know if my fans were in his stream.’

A few minutes later, the heavy oak doors opened. Only a team of two technicians walked into the office, wearing silver-lined lab coats bearing the Technomantic Division crest.

The Grandmaster frowned deeply. "I asked for the full division team. Why are there only two of you?"

"The Division Head sent us to quickly check the query and report the diagnostic error back to the main lab so the entire team can work on a patch faster," the lead technician responded efficiently. The second technician pulled out a glowing crystal diagnostic tablet. "What seems to be the issue, Grandmaster?"

The Grandmaster quickly briefed them on the entire situation, detailing the offline silver owl, the failed hard reboots, and the potential data corruption from the destroyed bronze drone.

The second technician nodded, stepping closer to Solomon. He ran the glowing tablet over the silver owl perched on the boy’s shoulder, initiating a deep-dive diagnostic scan.

The tablet chimed twice.

"The hardware is perfectly fine and all functions are working and operating as they should be," the technician reported, looking at the screen. "We cannot detect any software related issue either. With this, we have confirmed that the issue is with Solomon’s student profile. The network is rejecting the connection because Solomon is currently not registered on the official student roster within our division’s broadcasting mainframe."