As always, I'm going home with Luna. Since we left the school building, she has been deep in thought. I don't want to interrupt, so I haven't said anything. I don't have anything to talk about anyway.

"Just as I thought, you're different," she suddenly said.

"What?" I asked.

"I mean the way you think," Luna continued. "No matter how hard I try, I don't think I can guess what the club leader is thinking."

"Oh," I replied.

Is she bothered by what I said before? Maybe I shouldn't have said she didn't do anything.

"I mean, I guess it's because our way of thinking was just too different, huh?" Luna looked disappointed. "But still... I'm not satisfied with just that explanation."

"It's not such a big deal," I said. "I just read some articles about it. I think you will get the idea too if you read them."

She stared at me.

"What?" I said, feeling uncomfortable.

"As I thought, it was weird!" She said. "You're smart, and you read too. So why are you even cheating then?"

"Where did that come from?" I asked. "And just because I can do it doesn't mean I will do it."

"But why?" She said.

"I hate studying," I said. "Is it hard to understand?"

"Is that all?" Luna insisted.

"I'm lazy," I replied. "And maybe you'll disagree, but to me, the lessons we learn in school are useless. All the theories and formulas we learn, we can't use them in real life. Even if I don't know anything about them, my life will still go on. So, why bother? At most, the motivation I might have is to get good grades."

"Maybe so," Luna said. "But what's wrong with that?"

"There's nothing wrong with it," I said. "We do a lot of pointless stuff in life, so I guess it's fine. But I had an easier way to get good grades, so even that didn't motivate me."

"But what you did was cheating," Luna said.

"No, if nobody knows," I said.

This content has been misappropriated from Royal Road; report any instances of this story if found elsewhere.

"But I know!" Luna said.

"Okay," I said. "So why don't you try to stop me?" I smiled at her, but she looked at me with weak eyes.

She sighed and said, "But I think you've wasted your potential."

"It's not a big deal," I replied. "Everyone does it."

"I'm not!" Luna said.

"Okay, but just you," I said.

"The glasses guy?" Luna asked.

"Okay, him too," I said. "The point is, for me, I don't mind doing something a little bad if it means making my life a little easier. If you don't like it, then give me a good reason to stop."

Luna hung her head, looking defeated. For some reason, her expression looked uneasy too.

"Did I... just make you annoyed with how I act?" Luna said, looking sad. "I know this wasn't my business but..."

"Not really," I said. "It's not like I completely disagree with you. People like me need someone like you so I won't cross the line."

I smiled at her. And Luna, a little embarrassed, smiled too.

***

I entered my home and saw a message on a piece of paper on the table. Beside it was a black flash drive. I picked up the paper and read it. It was from my father.

He said, [Your friend left this for you.]

Friend? Who?

I picked up the flash drive and walked to my room. Turning on my laptop, I pulled out the cap from the black flash drive and put it into my laptop.

This might not be a good idea. I once saw a video talking about illegal items that look like normal flash drives but are actually some sort of virus that can damage your laptop if you insert it.

I didn't really know how that actually works, but the lesson is to not just randomly insert unknown flash drives into your laptop or PC. But obviously, my curiosity was winning.

Thankfully, it turned out to be just a normal flash drive. I clicked on the flash drive folder and found only one video file inside it.

Just staring at it won't make me understand what actually happened, so I played the video. The video player program appeared, and then the video started playing. But it showed me nothing but black.

[Hello, Geo.]

A voice came from the video. The voice was garbled and distorted, obviously using a voice changer.

[You don't know me, but who I am is not important.]

The voice continued.

[What you need to know is that we have the same enemy.]

Enemy?

The video suddenly showed me a photo of a guy with glasses. His hair was black, his eyes were sharp, smirking arrogantly. He wore a black necklace. He reminding me of the glasses guy from my class, Ariel, if he were older, his hair longer, and generally more hostile.

[This guy's name is Orion. You might never have met him, but he was the one who helped Mars escape from prison,]

The voice continued.

I gulped. I had expected as much, but this was still quite shocking information.

Who is this guy? Why is he telling me this? And why does he know me? How much does he know about me?

But these questions were less important because I had a bigger question the moment the voice from the video said his next line.

[And like you, he can see other people's memories using objects too.]

What...?

Reflexively, I stood up. He even knows that?

My whole body started to feel cold. Not only does he know where I live, he knows about Mars' case, Orion, and even my ability?

This is really bad.

How? What happened here? This is starting to spook me.

[Orion is starting to get interested in you, but obviously not in a good way as you can see from him freeing Mars.]

So, does that mean not only the guy who sent me the flash drive knows a lot about me, but also Orion? If what this video said can be trusted, Orion had the same ability as me. Then I guess it's not impossible for him to figure out about me using Memory Gazer.

But this whole thing is making me feel so defenseless. They all know about me but I know nothing about them? This is the worst possibility.

[You might have already guessed, Orion is really dangerous. Especially because now he has gained two allies.]

Allies?

[The first one is obviously Mars.]

The video is showing me photos of Mars. The familiar bald guy is there, but something has changed. Now he has a black star tattoo on his bald head.

[He was highly indebted to Orion so I believe he will do anything Orion says.]

I guess so. That's why he's suddenly hiding so well. Most likely following Orion's orders.

[With Orion as the brain, he will be 100 times more dangerous than before.]

I know. I can tell.

[And the second ally he got was...]

I was startled. The video showed me another photo of a familiar face, a guy with a beanie hat. I stared at the screen in disbelief.

[This guy's name was Pluto.]

I was stunned in place. Pluto, why...?

[I can't tell you much about him. The information I have on him is limited. But what I can say is that he joined forces with Orion because he has a grudge against you.]

The screen showed me another photo of Pluto.

[So I guess you know more about it than I do. That's all I can say about him.]

The screen turned black.

[Anyway, that's all I can say for now. And I have one final message for you: they're all dangerous, so please be careful. And don't die.]

The video ended. I continued to stare at the screen, trying to process all the sudden information I had just received.

***