[ a comment or rating would be nice]

"For now, sleep. If I am not mistaken, tomorrow you should have university," the voice said.

"What? No, there is a two-day holiday this time," Alexander said with a chuckle.

"I know, but look outside," the voice sighed.

Alexander was shocked to see the golden light outside and quickly scrambled to look at his phone, where he found it was already 8 am in the morning.

"Hey, how did you know I had two days off? I never told you?"

"You did, you must have forgotten. Anyway, go to sleep. Not only do you need the sleep mentally, but also your body needs to adapt to the changes and recover after the hell you put it through," the voice chided.

Alexander was grumpy, but he did listen to the voice.

When he woke up, it was already night, and looking at his phone, which was more of an uncontrollable hobby at this point, he saw it was 4 am already. He told his parents beforehand so nobody actually disturbed him.

"Oh, I actually slept for this long. I must really have been banged up bad!"

"Well, it's actually a lot less than I thought you would need. A healthy man needs 8 hours of sleep a day. Considering you canned in two days of sleep in one, plus all that extra work you put in and the changes your body went through from the system, not to mention you destroying your cultivation, considering all that, you took way less time to recover. If I had to guess, it's because your constitution has 2 points in it. But that does not mean you are fully recovered yet. That will still take some time."

To be honest, Alexander wanted to go back to sleep, but just for good measure, he opted to ask the voice for any activities he must do.

"Don’t worry, not today. We will start from tomorrow," but fortunately for him, the voice stated before he asked.

Though he knew it was not right to be late, a relief washed over him as he smiled. He moved his hand, and he could feel it, he could feel the raw force coursing through them as he clenched them. The feeling was, in a sense, dreamy.

"Feels good, doesn’t it?"

"Yeah."

"Well, get ready, your bus will be here."

"Bus, how did you know about…."

"Come on, boy, for once get ready early."

Having ample time, for the first time in a while, Alexander decided to take his time while getting ready. He took a refreshing bath after having a satisfying dump, brushed his teeth thoroughly, and even ironed the clothes he decided to wear.

Even his mother was kind of awed when she saw Alexander at the table in time for breakfast. Even though she wanted to ask something, seeing her baby going to university with a full belly was more important to her, so she quickly gave him food.

As a mother, she could feel it, something was different about her son today, but the radiance in her son was enough for her. She did not ask any unnecessary questions. She felt peace after what felt like an eternity.

Alexander reached the uni bus without any rush. For some reason, Michel did not come today. Come to think of it, he did not contact him at all these days.

On the other hand, seeing Ana and Chase sitting in front of him, he felt an ache in his heart which he hid under his ugly smile as he sat three rows behind them. The pain only intensified when Ana tried to rest her head on Chase's shoulder.

And no matter how hard he tried, Alexander could not keep his eyes off of them for more than 10 or 20 seconds. Thus, the whole bus ride was kind of a torture to him.

Love this novel? Read it on Royal Road to ensure the author gets credit.

As soon as the bus reached the university, he got off quickly, unwilling to come face to face with Ana or Chase. And to prevent any chance encounter, he immediately fled the vicinity with hasty steps.

He knew the couples would most likely go to the cafeteria, so he took a roundabout path to class.

With 15 minutes to class, he had time. This was a hallway through the garden, and it had a carved ceiling. With the garden full of white flowers on both sides and this old-style hallway in the middle, this looked like a castle from the old eras, a perfect place for couples. And true to its nature, there were some couples here, even in the morning. Alexander soon questioned himself why he chose this path. But getting rid of these thoughts, he increased his pace.

Not far away from him, there was a group of boys who were messing around with each other as they discreetly ogled the beautiful girls making their way to the classrooms. Some in a hurry, some taking in the beautiful flowers, and some even enjoying the attention they were getting from discreet and open sources, courtesy of the seniors.

"Hi, look at that, she is at least an 8."

"Don’t look, that will be your sister-in-law soon."

Another spat, "Hm! It's all makeup."

"Hi, look at that, it's Kaly from the architecture department. Man, I wish I was that dog in her bosom."

"She is already taken, I saw her coming out of Taylor's room yesterday, all ragged and disheveled."

"Taylor, the senior from the engineering department."

"Yeah."

"Oh! Man, why are the good ones always taken?"

"Hey look, it's your Ritu from computer engineering," one of them nudged his companion, mostly the leader of the group.

The leader was a tall, well-dressed man. To be honest, he looked good except for the bulging belly that jutted out like a pod.

"You have a crush on her, right?"

With a smile, he answered, "What do you think?"

"We need to catch her attention and quick."

Suddenly, this boy's eyes fell on Alexander, "Hi, it's this Alexander?"

"Yeah, what the heck is this clown doing here? Don’t tell me this fool has a girlfriend," the boss said with ridicule.

"Nice joke, Taker. That’s not possible. He might be just wandering around?"

"Hi, I have got an idea," another one said, the boss's bosom buddy, Nathen.

Alexander was walking just fine when he suddenly heard quarreling, but his eyes widened the next moment as it rapidly approached him. Just as Alexander looked back, he saw one of his classmates, a tall one, crash right into him, followed by the rest of the group as at least 8 people crashed into him with full force.

Though the force should have knocked him away, Alexander did not move an inch. To be honest, he barely even felt it.

Crack!

In the next moment, there was a cracking sound as the ground beneath Alexander’s feet cracked, although thinly.

The cacophony was stopped abruptly, and so did the surrounding. As if swallowed by the defining silence, his classmates had only one expression: shock, with a bit of fear and disbelief mixed in. Well, all except one. Taker, the leader, he was pissed. He wanted attention and he got it, but all on Alexander, including the girl he wanted the attention of.

But Alexander did not take in his lunatic expression as he moved on, without saying anything, which was perceived as cool, but in reality, even he himself was stunned.

He repeatedly checked his hands as he moved away from the location. What was that? Did he just stop 8 people? This was crazy.

“Hey, it's your leg that did the work, why are you looking at your hands?” the voice chuckled.

But Alexander did not mind it. He was thinking of the incident now. Of course, he knew all of them; they were his classmates after all. The tall one, who crashed into him first was Matthew, a friend, or rather a lackey of Taker, the leader of their group.

He knew these attention seekers, and he also knew why they might have pulled this stunt. It's most likely the idea of the skinny one, Nathen, Taker’s right-hand man, so to speak. Most of the time, their relation is limited to hi and hello. He knew Taker was a trust fund baby, and the annoying one at that. And also, this guy did anything to get attention, even in class. All in all, an annoying guy that Alexander did not want anything to do with.

But he shook all these thoughts aside as he approached the class.

Though he knew it, he still felt the pain in his heart when he saw both Chase and Ana missing from the ongoing class.

After the first glance, the teacher did not give any attention toward him.

He attempted to pay attention to the class, but it was harder. The teacher was mostly talking about cultivation, the common ways of cultivation, some newfound methods, and so on.

He finished by giving an assignment on the importance of the meridian, and they were to showcase the common ways of meridian distribution.

Alexander did not care; the extensive research he did on this subject for his own inquiries, he could finish the assignment with his eyes closed. Ashamed, all of that would be useless to him now.

“Yeah. All the conventional way is useless to you,” before Alexander had the chance to ask any meaningless question, the voice nonchalantly stated.

But it is the next words of the professor that completely drew him in, which were about the upcoming exam. And if they did exceptionally well in their cultivation, they would have a chance to apply for a transfer to the capital.

But the teacher followed it up by saying, “But let's face it. None of you are actually qualified for it. So focus on getting a pass mark and do well in subjects so that you can join a good organization in the future.”

The students did not seem very interested either. After all, they knew how hard it is to get into the capital. Not only did you need to get exceptional results in every subject, you also needed to have exceptional cultivation. Only the seven wonders of each year in the city were qualified for that. And it's been that way for a long time.

“Only those of the 7 wonders had a chance.”

“It's not like they will bother with us.”

This murmur permeated the classroom.

Everyone had the same mentality. In their opinion, only the 7 wonders were worthy to think about it. Everyone except one. Alexander. A few days earlier, and he would never even have entertain this thought, but now, now that he had the system.

“Do not worry about these minor blemishes, what are the 7, what not. You will be far, far more powerful than them,” before Alexander could entertain any negative thoughts, the voice nonchalantly said.

Though it seemed far from assuring, Alexander's ever-persistent lifeless eyes had a flicker of hope in them.

The teacher went out, as usual, with a sour face. Even without the teacher, the class did not make any sound. Even Chase and Ana made their way back with haste.

A middle-aged stern-looking man entered the class, and somehow the still class got quieter. The man calmly sat on the teacher's seat as he took out the attendance sheet.