As soon as the classes for the day ended, Leonard packed his bag. Unlike most of his classmates, he didn’t have a cellphone, thus making it impossible for him to send a message to Susan.
But as they needed to meet to study together for an hour, Leonard stalled for time, allowing most of the students to clear out.
“Leonard, how about we start studying tomorrow? I have yet to inform my family and our driver would be waiting outside already,” Susan explained as soon as the class emptied out.
Looking at how worried she really seemed, Leonard shrugged, not minding if they started today or not.
“I would start work on the project tonight and then share whatever progress I have made with you tomorrow,”
Susan let out a sigh of relief upon hearing his words and her face lit up with a smile.
Still grinning, she added, “I just knew that working with you would be so easy!”
“Let’s share our numbers so that we can talk more when we get home,” she added and pulled out her phone from the pocket of their high school uniform.
Leonard’s face flushed a little with embarrassment. After all, in a school like theirs, having a phone wasn’t even an accessory and was just a simple item that everyone had.
However, as he had never been one to lie, “I don’t have a phone,” he told her, rubbing the back of his head a little awkwardly.
Susan’s face flashed with a little surprise before she nodded in understanding.
“Okay, then come to school early tomorrow. I’ll pass you what I work on while you pass yours, that way, when we meet after school, we will know what we want to talk about better,”
Leonard agreed with her suggestion, and the both of them bid each other farewell. As soon as she left, he packed his bag also and made his way out of the school.
Usually, he used to work in about two to three places after school and during the weekends, but now, he had lost his job on two of them because of the time he had to spend in school.
For the last one, which was a small restaurant, Leonard planned to go there first so he could get some money that would be enough for them to eat tonight.
Slinging his backpack over his shoulder, Leonard hummed as he walked out of the school gates. His entire mind was on the national competition that the teacher had announced earlier today.
As someone that could barely manage to survive, Leonard had always enrolled in as many competitions as he could. That way, he would be able to get some money from the award and prizes.
This time was no different, and he had every intention to enrol in the national mathematics competition.
As he was planning on how to make his schedule fit in with their project and his studying for the competition, Leonard had already walked out of the school.
His mind was occupied, so he didn’t see the movements that were happening around him even up until he entered the alley right beside their school.
“You sure do have the guts of a bastard,” a familiar voice rang out as more than ten figures rushed out of the dark.
Leonard’s eyes widened with shock for a moment as he thought that he had been attacked by a wild gang. Upon seeing Edgar, his face relaxed a little as he looked at the familiar faces of his classmates.
All of these kids were children with parents that would have drivers picking them up, but sometimes, they would skip and run off to do some matters.
Coupled with the fact that he could smell some smoke in the air, it was not hard to figure out they were hanging here previously.
“I’m only passing here to go to work. You guys can continue your thing,” he raised his hands up in mock surrender and then turned to leave.
Passing the alley was a shortcut, but if it wasn’t usable, using the normal road to his workplace was not a problem too.
“What do you mean, little poor Leonard? We are waiting right here for you.” Edgar said with a sly smile.
The other guys with him burst into laughter at his words.
“You have crossed your boundaries by daring to lay your eyes on Susan. She belongs to me and not some wretched boy like you,” with each word, Edgar closed the gap between them step by step.
Leonard stepped back subconsciously, his natural instincts kicking in.
“T..there’s nothing between us,” he struggled to explain, his raised hands going up a little higher.
Edgar sneered, clearly not believing him. “You say you don’t do it, and you are free to go?”
“You have messed with the wrong person!” Edgar roared, and with his hand signal, everyone in the group closed the gap between them and surrounded Leonard.
“Kneel!” Edgar commanded as he closed in on Leonard, who was already shaken by what was happening here.
Despite not having any money, Leonard was someone that had his own willpower, so his brows frowned slightly as he heard Edgar’s words.
To kneel for his own classmate?
Edgar didn’t give him the chance to think well as he scoffed.
“I knew you were the proud type. Our parent’s money pays your fees, and you dare to look at us in the eye?” Edgar scolded, and with a twist of his body, he rushed at Leonard and gave him a quick punch in the stomach.
With him making the first move, the group of over ten guys immediately followed his lead and sent punch after punch at him.
Leonard’s fists clenched as several fists met with his body. Not bothering to plead, he allowed them to beat him up without fighting back.
Even though he wasn’t weak, it was impossible to beat a group of ten guys.
More importantly, if he hit them without any backing, he was going to end up harming himself instead.
Just the thought of that made him give up any thought of beating them up.
At some point, he lost consciousness from the pain and internal helplessness.
“Perhaps, someday, I would be able to raise my head tall also?” He thought in his mind as he blanked out.
Upon seeing that they had beaten him to an unconscious state, all of them backed off, and Edgar threw a final kick at him.
“If I hear a word about this incident, everyone here is in trouble!” Edgar instructed before walking away.
Although everyone there had a similar age range and class. The major determinant was their background, and Edgar’s family had the biggest influence in their group.
As for the people that came from higher families in their class, even Edgar wouldn’t dare to offend them.
He was the typical type to bully the people beneath while respecting the ones above.
Very quickly, the entire alley became empty leaving only Leonard’s badly bruised body.
If they had waited a little more, the group of them would have seen a light burst out from the chest pocket of Leonard’s uniform and enter his body just as quickly as it appeared.
Leonard’s body remained as still, however, after this moment, his life was going to change forever.
“Ugh,” Leonard groaned as he struggled to open his eyes. The first thing he did was to try and move, but pain wracked through his body immediately.As he had a job that didn’t even allow them to miss a day, he didn’t give up and tried to stand up again. This time, he had a better result than before and was able to sit up on the floor of the dark alley.“Host bonding completed. Welcome to the world domination system!” A mechanical voice rang out.Leonard looked around, wondering where the voice had come from.Although the area surrounding their school was naturally safe. It was also still an alley. Thinking that someone out there could be watching him, Leonard’s already weak body was fueled up with adrenaline, and he rushed to stand up.Up until he ran out of the alley and into the normal road, he didn’t see anyone or hear anything again.He checked the watch on his left wrist and saw that he was already about ten minutes late for his work.“Think of Mother,” he encouraged himself as h
“Host is expected to get up at the crack of dawn for physical training.” The already familiar voice of the system rang out, waking Leonard up.Leonard peered outside and confirmed that it was still dark outside. However, he stood up and headed outside his room.He opened the door carefully, making sure that he didn’t wake his mother up before heading outside.“Before considering martial arts, the most important thing is to build the physical body to an optimal condition using strength training….”Leonard listened attentively to all the instructions the guardian gave. Very quickly, he ran several laps around their neighbourhood until he was panting and dripping with sweat, and even when he felt like he was going to drop dead from lack of breath, the guardian’s instructions didn’t ring out.After running and lifting objects up the hill for about an hour, the system's guardian finally said he could stop.“Mental strength +2!”“Physical strength +0.5!”Although it wasn’t anything importan
Susan’s eyes dulled while her face flushed with embarrassment. “I’m sorry,” she mumbled with her head bowed and her fingers interlocked.Seeing her reaction, Leonard felt a little guilty, but he had not planned to get a phone anytime soon. After all, the most important person to him was his mother.If he needed a phone to communicate with her, it would mean that she would also need a phone also.Their finances couldn’t handle that kind of luxury and, most especially not a brand that was this expensive.He sighed as he looked at Susan’s already dull expression.“Although I don’t have the money now, I’ll work hard to pay you back. So let’s see this as if you are giving me a loan.”As he talked, he tore out a page from his jotting book and started to draft an IOU between them. Since she had used her savings for it, it was only appropriate to pay her back, but as the phone itself was probably more expensive than his entire net worth, this was the best solution.Susan nodded as her eyes r
Leonard and Daniel listened attentively as he briefed them on what was required. As soon as Mr. Reeves was done with the briefing, each person was given the form to fill out so that they could return back to their classes.They filled it out and went back to class.“Aren’t the interested people a lot? Even people that have never attempted to join a competition are there,” Daniel said as soon as they were alone.“You weren’t here, Mr. Reeves said the top fifteen would be given an express admission into the top five universities.”Daniel cursed out in excitement as his eyes bulged widely.Even for students in this school that had influence and money, getting into the top five universities in their country wasn’t a joke at all!“It’s going to be intense. Do you think we should study together?” Daniel asked. To him, he knew for sure that Leonard was a genius.Most of their schoolmates had no idea that Leonard would only read for an hour a day or sometimes skip out on it completely so that
Ignoring the gossip around school, Leonard left as soon as the first bell rang. Unlike before, he now had a mobile phone and he felt that communicating with Susan would be easier.He wanted to find some odd works to do when he got home and then begin studying for the competition.As he crossed the street, the robotic voice of the system rang out in his mind.[First task assigned to host! Completing this task would award a cash bonus of $1000 and +10 domination points which can be used by the host]Leonard stopped, his legs becoming heavy in the middle of the road from pure shock.Even though he had decided that the system was a bonus trainer this morning when he did the training, there was a little bit of fear left from what happened earlier with the system.But now he heard, $1000?For someone like him, a thousand dollars was an amount that he would spend about a month or two to save up to that amount because they still had things that they couldn’t avoid spending now.But one task w
After all, that running around during the day, Leonard had fallen asleep the moment he got back home.When he finally woke up, he took up time to set up the phone he had ‘loaned’ from Susan.The first thing he saw when he placed his SIM card in was the alert that showed the money he had won.Leonard sat, stupefied at the reality in front of him. Even if he had worked for it, it still felt a little unbelievable to be able to get the money.Also, how had the system gotten all the information needed to pay the money to him, the more he thought about it, the more questions he had.[As the host, our fates have become one and the system has everything linked to the host. As for the vast wealth of the World Domination System, only by completing tasks can the host win it….]One more time, the system went into a long-winded explanation. This time, however, Leonard felt like he understood more than the first time. He could also see that the system’s guardian seemed a lot nicer than when he had
After dinner ended, Leonard went back inside, his mind full with several thoughts. He had always been determined to make money and take care of his mother. Only that, up until today, he had always imagined that he had to climb up the ladder by gradually working. But with the World Dominating system, he felt that things were different and the heavens were giving him a chance. Now that his mother wanted to work with Susan’s family, he swore to himself not to let that happen for more than two months.He couldn’t convince her now. After all, he didn’t have much, and she was determined to help him out. Leonard sighed at his current helplessness but was also determined to work hard in the next two to three months so that he could at least make them comfortable. After making up his mind and feeling better, he picked up his books, ready to study. He had barely read for half an hour when he remembered that Susan had asked him to send a message so that they could talk about their project
After school the next day, Leonard took the bus that would head deep into the city instead of his usual route. He had left home with his mother this morning and promised her countless amount of times to stop at Madame Diane’s house. In the bus, he leaned his head back and closed his eyes. To anyone, he was sleeping. However, since the World Dominating System was already in his body, the two skills he had picked could play out in his head. It was a trance like situation where he felt like he was watching himself watch the course that was playing out. There was also an option of playing it on a screen but he didn’t have any Bluetooth device and so he decided to use this method to save time. Since their school was at the edge of the city center, the bus ride took about an hour and Leonard got down. He glanced down at the paper that contained the new address that his mother had given him one more time to confirm he was at the right street. After confirming, he scoffed.This area w
Leonard and Daniel stood side by side, their nervous anticipation palpable as they approached the head of the education office in their city. They had endured countless hardships, from the relentless bullying by Edgar and his cohorts to the seemingly endless indifference of the school administration. But today was different. Today, they had taken a stand.As they entered the office, the man behind the desk looked up from his paperwork and smiled warmly at them. "You two have been very brave throughout all of this," he said, his voice filled with admiration. "I'm proud of you."Leonard and Daniel exchanged glances, their chests swelling with pride. They had faced their fears, and spoke up for themselves, and now they were finally being recognized for their courage.The man leaned forward, his expression growing serious. "I want you to know that this is the end of the road for both Edgar and his parents. We take issues of bullying very seriously, and your bravery in coming forward will
After a particularly grueling day at school, Leonard and Daniel decided it was finally time to confront their long-standing tormentor, Edgar once and for all. His relentless bullying had taken a toll on them both, and they couldn't endure it any longer. With newfound determination, they made their way to Andrew's house after school. When they arrived at Andrew's house, they found him sitting in his room, engrossed in a book. They exchanged greetings before Leonard hesitated, then took a deep breath and finally spoke up. "Andrew," he began, "we need your help with something."Daniel nodded in agreement, and together, they explained the ongoing nightmare they endured at the hands of Edgar, detailing the cruel taunts, the physical threats, and the constant anxiety they felt.Andrew listened attentively, his expression growing increasingly grave. After Leonard and Daniel had finished recounting their experiences, he sighed and said, "I've had my suspicions about Edgar for a while now. He
Leonard had always been resourceful when it came to finding quiet corners within the bustling school campus. Today was no exception. He wandered through the labyrinthine hallways until he stumbled upon a seldom-used storage room on the third floor of the engineering building. The room was dimly lit, with dusty shelves of forgotten equipment, and it was blessedly free of the usual chatter and footfalls echoing through the school's corridors.Taking a seat on an upturned crate, Leonard pulled out his sleek, portable computer. He had received an anonymous message, cryptic and enigmatic, urging him to come to this very place and log into the school's restricted system software. His curiosity had driven him to this obscure location, far from prying eyes.As he connected to the system, Leonard couldn't help but feel a shiver of anticipation. The instructions he found on the screen were unlike anything he had encountered before. They were written in a code only he and a few others could deci
The next day at school, Leonard and Daniel found themselves sitting nervously in the uncomfortable plastic chairs outside the principal's office. They had been summoned, but neither of them had any idea why. Anxiety gnawed at them as they exchanged uncertain glances, wondering what could be so important.After what felt like an eternity, the door to the principal's office swung open, and they were ushered inside. The principal, always a stern and imposing figure, was sitting behind his desk with his hands folded, his eyes red and puffy. The sight of their usually composed principal on the verge of tears sent a shiver down their spines.As Leonard and Daniel took their seats, Principal Anderson cleared his throat, struggling to compose himself. His voice wavered as he began to speak, "I... I don't know where to begin. I owe both of you an immense debt of gratitude." His voice cracked as he continued, "You see, you exposed something that was far more sinister than I ever imagined."Leon
Leonard's footsteps echoed urgently down the dimly lit alley, his jacket billowing behind him like a cape. Daniel hurriedly chased after him, his voice strained with concern."Leonard! Wait up! Where are you off to in such a hurry?" Daniel called out as he finally caught up to Leonard, who was panting with a mix of worry and determination.Leonard glanced over at Daniel, his eyes filled with urgency. "We need to find Susan, and we need to find her fast," he replied, his voice tense. "I have this feeling that with Edgar being arrested, he might come after Susan and... and harm her. I can't let that happen."Daniel's eyes widened with realization as he processed Leonard's words. The threat to Susan's safety was real, and they both knew it. Without another word, they continued down the bustling city streets, their pace quickening as they embarked on a race against time to ensure their friend's safety.Later on, the boys finally stumbled upon her, standing at the edge of a small clearing,
The sun had barely begun its ascent on the horizon, casting a gentle glow over the quiet school campus. Students were trickling in, their backpacks slung over their shoulders, oblivious to the impending chaos. It was a crisp, ordinary morning at the boy's High School until it wasn't.At precisely 8:15 AM, the serene atmosphere was shattered as an entourage of police cars screeched to a halt outside the school's imposing main doors. Uniformed officers spilled out of the vehicles, their stern expressions a stark contrast to the typically serene surroundings. Right at the forefront, the head of education for the city, Mr. Hugo Harrington, emerged from a sleek black sedan. He was a formidable man known for his strict policies and no-nonsense attitude, and he was not alone. Armed policemen flanked him on either side, creating an intimidating presence that sent shock waves through the school.Inside the school building, the principal had been going about his morning routine when the commoti
As Daniel and Leonard hurriedly approached the main buildings of their school, the bell chimed its final warning, signaling that they were, once again, late for their first class. The sun had already risen high in the sky, casting long shadows on the pavement as they quickened their pace.Their footsteps echoed in the empty corridor as they reached the entrance, their heavy backpacks bouncing with every step. Just as they were about to step inside, the stern and imposing figure of the schoolkeeper, came into view. He was a tall, burly man with a perpetually furrowed brow, known for his strict adherence to school rules.The older man's eyes narrowed his eyes as he saw the two boys approaching. With a determined stride, he closed the gap between them and crossed his arms, blocking their path."Why are you two late again?" he barked, his voice filled with irritation.Leonard, who had been nervously glancing around, now stifled a chuckle. Daniel shot him a puzzled look, wondering why his
On a chilly Monday morning, the sun had yet to fully rise, casting a faint, silvery glow over the city. Instead of the typical hustle and bustle of students heading to school, Leonard and Daniel, embarked on an unusual journey. They had a mission that weighed heavy on their heartsLeonard, with determination in his eyes and a sense of responsibility beyond his years, led the way through the quiet streets, with Daniel trailing close behind. The brisk morning air nipped at their faces as they walked, but the fire of purpose warmed their souls.Their destination was not the familiar schoolyard, but the imposing building that housed the office of the head of education in the city. They had made a pact to confront the authorities, for they had seen and heard things at their own school that troubled them deeply.As they approached the government building, Daniel's nerves began to get the better of him. He fidgeted and muttered under his breath, his anxiety evident in every jittery step. Leo
On that crisp Saturday afternoon in the cozy suburban neighborhood, Daniel pulled his car into Leonard's driveway. The vibrant autumn leaves painted a picturesque scene, as the two friends had planned to spend the day together. As Daniel approached Leonard's front door, he couldn't help but feel a sense of excitement, knowing he was about to share some thrilling news.With a warm smile, Leonard greeted his friend at the door and welcomed him inside. They settled into Leonard's cozy living room, surrounded by shelves filled with books and photographs that captured their shared memories over the years.As they caught up on life and exchanged stories, Daniel couldn't contain his excitement any longer. He reached into his pocket and pulled out his phone. "Hey, Leonard, guess what?" he exclaimed.Leonard looked curious. "What's got you so excited, Daniel?"With a mischievous grin, Daniel showed Leonard his phone. "Elsie just texted me!" he announced, his eyes shining with delight. "She sai