Erix paled in nervousness the very moment he heard his name.
He started moving towards the test area with Shota tailing him closely, and with two other students behind his back.
One was a black-haired boy who looked quite grumpy, and a girl with a cold expression. The girl had long red hair tied up into a ponytail that went down her waist. She wore an expensive-looking black dress with a long nape that covered her back. From her actions and expression, she seemed like the strong, talented, and confident rich type.
She was really pretty compared to most girls, which even further boosted her ego.
The test they needed to do was in this order; Strength, Agility, and lastly, Reflex.
"Okay, you four, follow me," Leo said the moment the group arrived in the test area and the group compiled.
He took them a little further into the field, though not away from the whole group. They followed Leo until they were standing not too far from multiple machines.
Leo stopped suddenly and did a 180-degree turn. He then said, "We will begin with Ambry Carto. Please step forward."
Ambry was the grumpy boy. Even with his black hair, he had no pretty features, be it in his face or body.
"Age, seventeen. Height, 1.6 meters. Ability, ice. Is it correct?" Leo read out loud his data about him as Ambry answered with 'Yes' each time he said something.
"Very well then, we will begin with the strength test and finish off with the reflex test."
Ambry quickly went where the strength machine was.
"You saw me do this once, so I believe you can do the same, right?"
"Yeah. Anyway, is the use of ability allowed?" He asked.
"Sure. You can go on and use it in every single test."
"Good." Ambry made out a fist and punched them together. Then, ice began to form around them until they were completely covered in ice.
He then stepped back a little to gather as much momentum as possible. Once he was at a good range, he swung his fist and punched the red point at the center of the machine. Upon impact, a little noise was heard.
'Wow, he looks quite strong.' Erix thought, seeing him.
The number on the machine began to skyrocket until it eventually stopped at 1001 points, showing his power level as 1001.
"What? Only one thousand and one points?!" He didn't know if it was actually loud or not, but he just wanted to annoy other people, so he shouted as much as he could.
"Please continue with the test," Leo said with concealed anger, trying hard not to react to the boy's rudeness.
"Tsk." Ambry then moved over to the next test which was the test based on agility.
In this test, Ambry needed to dodge the hologram spikes fired by drum-like machines there.
During the test, he struggled to keep up in the first few seconds before he got knocked out. He lasted for 49 seconds only.
After that, he went to the reflex test where he needed to stand in one place and dodge the hologram of spikes, unlike the agility test where he was free to run around and dodge.
For this one, he did worse than the last one. He lasted only 15 seconds.
"Good. Now you can go back to your place. Natasha Heley. Please step forward."
Natasha was the girl with the cold expression.
"Age, seventeen. Height, 1.72. Ability, fire. Is it correct?" Leo read out loud and Natasha answered with a nod.
She then went to the test area and scored 9951 power level in the strength test, lasted 4 minutes 5 seconds in the agility test, and 4 minutes in the reflex test.
Before she came back to the group, Shota whispered something in Erix's ear, "Too bad she's stiff and expressionless, else, you would have made a great couple together." He joked as Erix went red in the ear.
Seeing Erix's reaction, Shota chuckled once more and then stepped forward since it was his turn.
"Age, seventeen. Height, 1.7 meters. Ability, confidential. Is that correct?" Shota answered 'yes' to every question.
Hearing that, Erix was confused. He expected to hear an ability, not something confidential. And because of that, his little curiosity about Shota grew.
Ambry was so pissed off with his score that he couldn't keep his mouth to himself. He threw bad comments at others in the group, saying they didn't do well in their test when it was quite obvious he was saying the complete opposite.
And since the two other boys have yet to carry out their test, all of his verbal attacks went to Natasha.
He said she was bad and that she was a bitch.
Even though Natasha didn't reply, she was clearly irritated by his bad words.
At the end of Shota's test, he got a 13579 power level in strength and lasted 7 minutes in both agility and reflex tests.
Since Shota was friendly, Erix wanted to congratulate him.
"You did awes…." Erix was still talking when Ambry pushed him aside and went to Shota. He even put his hand on Shota's neck.
"You're strong, man. You know, I thought all of us would screw up this test but you proved me wrong. Whoa! Good job buddy. You won't mind if we hang out later with some flashy girls here, do you?" When Ambry said that, Erix was rubbing his arm. He had pushed him with quite some force, and it was hurting.
Looking at Ambry, Shota had a disgusted expression on his face. First, he was detestable, and second, he pushed the boy that genuinely wanted to praise him. Well, even at that, he still managed to act friendly.
"Thanks for the offer. But I will disappoint you by declining."
Saying that he put off Ambry's hand from his neck and went towards Erix. He then asked, "Are you okay? It must have hurt a lot. That bitch! First your palm and now your arm."
"No, no, it's okay. Thanks for your concern. it's a lot better now." Erix forced a smile and looked directly at Shota's face. 'Who the hell is this bitch deceiving? Wait, let's see if you will act all kind and caring after seeing my performance.'
However, they couldn't stay like that for long because Leo called for Erix next.
"Age, Seventeen. Height, 1.65. Ability, none. correct?"
In this type of society, those who didn't have abilities were seen as disposable people. They were at the bottom of the food chain and were frequently bullied by the strong. So when Leo said Erix didn't have any ability, the reaction of the group was mixed. Some had a disgusted look while some showed no visible reaction at all. Erix gulped down his saliva and stepped forward towards the test arena with a slightly lowered face to avoid seeing the look on other people's faces. However, even with his head low, he could still hear sneer sounds coming from the students standing not too far from their group. "Who the hell is this filthy trash?." "I think maybe he is one of those kids that became orphans after the war." "I won't be surprised if he scores below 50 points, haha." Ambry also began to laugh and trash-talk Erix. He was already doing it before, but for fear that he might be someone with strong ability, he managed to hold back. But now that he knew he didn't have any abili
Going through a teleportal was something strange for someone like Erix. This was the first time he had gone through an actual teleportal. It wasn't like the one he took when he was on the bus. The process wasn't painful, instead, he felt dizzy once he came to the other side. It was as if his body was decomposing and recomposing itself immediately after. The academy was situated at the center of a special city where those in the military could live. Like this, they could be able to do other stuff that wasn't fight-related, other things like running convenience stores and health care operations. The war was quite traumatizing for a lot of people so many wished to have a somewhat peaceful and normal life where they wouldn't have to bother about their safety. Because of this, the city was built to be large to accommodate such people. But before he could admire the futuristic city a little more, Erix needed to catch up with his group. They had already walked a lot when he was dayd
They both left the school and entered the city. It was a lot bigger than Erix's old city. The buildings there were at least 3 times the size of a normal building in his place and the street was a lot more crowded. As they explored the city, Erix noticed Shota was always looking around the place in shock like something he once knew but had changed. 'Wait, he said he knew the city more. How come? Has he been here before?' Erix thought. "Wow, this place has gotten a lot more developed than last time," Shota finally said, eyes still roaming the whole place. "Ehmm, if I may ask, how come you have been here before? I never knew some students managed to come here before now." Erix asked, even though he wasn't sure Shota would reply... Shota didn't answer immediately, he first let out a deep long breath before saying. "Trust me, I really hate babbling about my family's name but I will say they were the reason I was here in the past. My family is one of the powerful low-key Original no
Having heard the boy, the first thing Erix did was to check his level. His prior worries evolved into fear when he realized the boy was a level 4. The boy had blonde hair that fell past his collarbone. His blue eyes looked completely void with terrible black bags under them. He had a pair of headphones hung around his neck. "Hi, there? Why were you standing out there for so long?...... Anyway, I'm Ronin Shin, but you can call me Rin, and nice to meet you." Rin said as he pulled out his hand for a shake. Erix quickly accepted the handshake. He didn't want to make a bad first impression. Who knows, the boy might bully him more if he does. "Oh my God, I'm so sorry, please enter." Rin apologized as soon as he realized his wrongdoing. He quickly stepped aside to let Erix in. For the second time that day, Erix was shocked beyond measure. He had a mixed reaction. One was surprised and the other was amused. 'What the f**k is wrong with the high levels here? First was Shota and
"There is no need for that, Rin. I will always be there for him," Shota said with a straight emotionless face. His countenance changed the very moment he realized Rin was from Norxus clan. Why? Nobody knew. Erix was flabbergasted by their strong reaction. He did not expect his story to resonate with them so deeply. "Fine guys, I can take care of myself. You don't have to worry about me," Erix said, trying to calm them down. "If you ever get into a problem, and Shota isn't there, please do let me know. We are roommates now, or maybe friends if you don't mind," Rin said, wiping off invisible tears from his eyes. In Erix's mind, he was thinking the word friends was a huge stretch. He would consider them as on the 'not gonna bite soon' list at most. He'd yet to grasp if they were being truthful or not. For now, he will try to stay on their good side and see how things play out, never letting his guard down a bit. "I once said it, don't worry about him, I will always be there f
The canteen was a large hall that was quite plain. It was filled with large tables that could seat four people on each side. There was no set of seats in the canteen meaning students were free to sit wherever they liked. However, that doesn't mean the high-level wouldn't set their own rules. Erix noticed that low levels sat next to other low levels while the high levels sat with the high levels. School had barely resumed, yet the social norms appeared to have already been established, just like they had been in his old school. Erix stood at the back of the last person in the queue. However, while waiting patiently for his turn, a boy came late into the queue. He nonchalantly nudged Erix out of line, and smuggled himself into the line. Erix was surprised by that abrupt push, and because he wasn't expecting something like that, he lost his footing and butt-kissed the floor. If it wasn't for the 1 point he added to his agility, he would have smooched the ground entirely. "Oh,
Erix's eyes widened the moment he saw the quest on the green screen. He's never hurt a fly before, let alone a human. 'This must be a joke, right?' Erix said to himself. 'What do you mean I have to kill him? How on earth am I gonna do that?' He asked the system but it didn't answer him. The system didn't give him any further information besides the killing quest. To confirm he wasn't seeing things, he decided to review it again and it turned out to be the same. As much as he was dying to pay back Bones for all he did to him, he'd never thought of killing him. Erix was someone with no ability, unlike Bones who had a blink ability, so that made him worried. But if the system really instructed him to kill Bones, then it must have ways of enabling him with it, Erix thought. 'Since it's the system's quest, I must do my best to accomplish it?' He mentally resolved. "Are you afraid? Come on, it's just a little time together like buddies. Alright, could you at least pay me your w
"What are you talking about, bro? Yours is way cooler. Spatial ability is very much impressive and I think it goes very well with combats at far range," Rin said as Shota went forward to finish off the last member that was still held prone by Rin's gravity. After a moment, the entire group was down, and people were now talking about what had happened a while ago. "Let's go check how Erix is," Shota said with a scrunched-up face. He was pissed at his recklessness. He blamed himself for what happened to Erix. Perhaps after seeing him hang out with Erix, the high levels got angry and wanted to prey on the poor level one. One thing was making friends with a low level and the other was protecting him to avoid getting intimidated by the boisterous high levels. Many hierarchy hassles came along with being friends with low levels. Though he promised he would protect him, he couldn't be there at all times. "Sure, but we should grab some burger for him because I doubt he had eaten much