Shortly after, Mrs. Watson re-entered the cafeteria, her eyes alight with mischief. "Sorry for the hold-up. Thank you, Anna."
Anna, spatula in hand, waved it off. "No worries, Carol." She grinned, lowering her voice, "So, how did it go?"
Mrs. Watson leaned closer, a sly grin on her face. "Let's just say he's not going anywhere for a while."
The two of them began laughing maniacally. They laughed louder and louder, and finally, with one last laugh, the lunch ladies strutted back to the kitchen in good ol’ lunch-lady style.
A short while later, Steven cleaned up, returned his tray to a lunch lady, and walked out to use the restroom. When he came back, he noticed Jack wasn’t around anymore. He looked at Mayo for an explanation, who revealed that Jack had left for some academic hold.
Before long, the bell rang.
["Lunch concluded. EXP gained: 400." X]
Steven blinked, reading the pop-up. His eyebrows creased in confusion. "EXP?”
"Unlocked Title: Freshman Glutton.”
“Glutton + 5”
H-Hey! Unfair character assessment, much?
He grumbled, while Mayo suggested that they head to their next class, which happened to be in a separate building altogether.
LOADING…
INITIALIZING: Landscapes... RENDERING: Architecture... GENERATING: 3D Meshes... TIP: Tap 'X' near surfaces to run into walls... INTEGRATING: NPC Profiles…
As the three approached the area, they noticed that the building was a mishmash of floors and subsections. There were hovering platforms at different levels, with students flying onto them using various objects: from sword-handle umbrellas to mech-piloted drones. Every second, students would make new cracks onto the ground and nearby walls. Yet, as soon as cracks appeared, the rubble would slowly move back together.
Interesting. He had a hunch the school came up with these self-repairing walls after one too many students said: "oops, I did it again…”
The three squeezed through a swarm of other students, passed a waiting area and walked in through the glass doors.
And there it was, the gym. Just a gym. No fire-breathing mechs or secret weight-loss equipment. Just basketball hoops and the smell of old sneakers.
Finally, a whistle blew.
"ALRIGHT, SOLDIERS!" A middle-aged man shouted. "Call me Captain Baker! I am your GYM teacher! Alright, anyone wanna know a COOL fact about me?"
Before anyone could speak, he continued:
"A COOL fact was that I was once a Captain!”
Before ANYONE could speak, he continued:
"Do I have QUALIFICATIONS to be a gym teacher? Obviously, HA!” (He didn’t.)
"...as you already know, I am your gym teacher.” Captain Baker continued. “And I will be here to teach you about farming!”
Before anyone COULD speak, he continued:
"What? You-Young-Whipper-Snappers!" He wagged his finger. “How do you NOT know what cultivation is?"
Before anyone could SPEAK, he continued:
"Well..." He looked down at his book, which looked awfully tiny in his hands. "Let's see..." He flipped a page. "Cultivation is an art. To sprout potential from a seed. To grow and blossom into something better."
Steven squinted at the book.
The book, aptly titled /Cultivation 101: A Pea Size Guide to Garden Green Success/ was in fact, about cultivation. It was a good thing that their teacher was well-equipped to teach them!
He looked at Mayo and Zero next to him. Mayo’s lips were quivering, like she was trying not to laugh. What was that about?
Before ANYONE could speak, the CAPTAIN continued:
"Okay, CULTIVATION is pretty EASY." He stared up proudly at the glaring gym lights. "AS LONG AS YOU DO WHAT I SAY!”
"But..." Calum called out.
"NO BUTS. What did I say about INTERRUPTING?" The Captain roared. "Anyways," He grinned crookedly. "Give your plants adequate space to grow, and they'll sprout in no time!"
Captain looked at the book again… and then again. He shuffled back into his closet.
The students stared at his every step. As soon as the captain was out of sight, the classes burst into noise.
“I’m calling my mother so we can fire this teacher,” Steven gathered from the chatter nearby. “Yeah, this is so not right. My dad donated so much money to this school,” and “...we deserve better, we’re R-I-C-H, spell it, and we own summer homes!”
Steven nodded in agreement. (He didn’t own a summer home, why was he nodding?)
Shortly after, the captain walked out with a book in his hand. This time, the right one. He read two lines and then closed the book.
Stolen content alert: this content belongs on Royal Road. Report any occurrences.
“One sec,” Cptn. Baker said, pulling out a pair of sunglasses. “Alright, let me continue…”
The students watched as their teacher plopped down on a vacation chair. They watched as he took a sip of red punch. They watched as he snored… wait.
The students, unfazed, decided to cultivate earnestly.
Steven looked to the side, watching a student get chomped on by a serpent. ChOmp - ”ACk!” - chomp. He sighed. Everyone else seemed to know what they were doing.
[Dieze: “Look to your right.” X]
Steven turned his head, only to get whacked on the head by a human body. His head plunked down. Dieze… why.
“Ahhh, give it back!” The girl beside him got up and screamed.
Steven, rubbed his head. It felt like he had dislocated his one and only neck.
“Hey, you can help me, right?” The girl looked at Steven. “Ugh, we all know those people from the Shang sect are the absolute worst!”
“We’re the worst? You come from a backwater sect.”
“It-it was not a backwater sect until you guys stole FROM US! WE HELPED YOU OUT AND THIS IS HOW You repay us?”
[Dieze: “This girl is about to die.” X]
What.
The girl in front of the two guys smirked and walked over. “You can’t blame us. Honestly, it's been us constantly doing your Xia sect a favor. After all…”
“T-that doesn’t even make any sense.” The Xia girl angrily said. “"You people have no idea what it means to fight, to sacrifice. You only know how to take advantage of others." the girl accused, her eyes burning with a mix of rage and desperation.
She was shaking, whether from anger or sadness, Steven couldn't tell.
"Oh, I know exactly what it means to fight," the Shang girl retorted, her voice cold as ice. She began to circle them like a predator, looking the other girl up and down in a way that made Steven's skin crawl. "But fighting isn't about dying a hero's death. It's about surviving, and that's exactly what we did. Look at your Xia sect."
The Xia girl clenched her fists, barely able to contain her rage. "You...you stole from us! You took everything we had! You left us to die!"
The Shang girl merely laughed, a cruel, biting sound. "And yet here you are, Xia Li Hua, still alive, still begging for scraps. How pathetic."
“Y-you!” Xia Li Hua jumped ahead, lunging at the Shang sect girl.
Her hands glimmered with rosy clouds, as she punched straight ahead.
The Shang girl sidestepped, chuckling. "You'll need to do better than that." From the folds of her robe, she produced a barrage of tiny, sharp, silver needles that she cast toward the Xia girl, who nimbly dodged them, their metallic bodies glinting ominously in the light.
The two guys beside Shang girl rushed to her side. “SEREN!”
"Don’t interfere," Seren sneered. "I got this." As she said this, she flung her hand forward, revealing a thin, bladed whip which sliced through the air with a menacing hiss. The whip was fast and unexpectedly flexible, wrapping around the Xia girl's wrist and yanking her off balance.
But Xia Li Hua was far from defeated. She twisted her body mid-air, a desperate contortion that unwrapped the whip from her wrist. With a soft thud, she landed on her feet, her gaze never leaving Seren. “Give it back… Please, Seren…”
Her gaze softened, “It’s dangerous!”
Seren could scoff in response, smirking, her hand idly toying with something Steven couldn’t quite make out, "Oh please, as if your family could have anything that poses a danger to me. Honestly, if you did, you wouldn’t have sold so many of your heirlooms for cheap."
“But I do have to admit,” Seren gave her a cold, calculating smile. "You're so flexible! Do you practice stretching on other people’s beds often?”
Xia Li Hua glared at her, anger burning in her eyes. "Seriously, I'm not as weak as you think, Seren Hawke!” Her words seemed to vibrate in the air between them, charged with defiance. “And for the record, I don’t slither into people’s beds, you SLIMY snake."
With a swift movement, she drew several tiny darts from her sleeve, each one glowing with the same rosy hue that her fists had shone with before. With a powerful flick of her wrist, the darts launched towards Seren, tracing luminous arcs in the air.
Reacting instantly, Seren swung her whip in a broad arc, knocking the incoming darts aside. Woosh. Ping! Clang. She then retaliated with a flurry of movements, her whip snaking and snapping, aiming to bind Xia Li Hua.
Suddenly, Li Hua punched her fist into the ground, and a beautiful, swirling cloud of rosy mist exploded upwards.
“You really think that can stop me?” Seren smirked, closing her eyes, “I know all about your ‘Xia Sect Techniques’.”
The air grew still for a moment as Seren stood there motionless, eyes closed. Then, without warning, her eyes snapped open. With eagle-eyes precision, she struck her whip to the side, landing a harsh blow on an unsuspecting Xia Li Hua.
Li Hua yelped in surprise.
“See-" Seren smirked. "You could never-”
Suddenly, she gasped, finding herself her vision blacking out, before appearing in an ethereal landscape filled with rosy clouds. She looked around, disoriented.
"Damn it…" Seren muttered. A moment later, she felt a force on her shoulders and found herself thrown downwards. She looked up, shocked to see the Xia girl hovering above her, her hands glowing with the same rosy light.
[“Illusion Technique: Rosy Cloud Mirage! [Upgraded]” X]
“You think we’re so weak?” Xia Li Hua cried out, her fists pummeling the Shang girl's face in rapid succession. “Guess what? I also trained hard.” Seren cried out in pain as each punch landed brutally.
The two Shang henchmen rushed forward, trying to pull the Xia girl off their leader, but she persisted, shrugging them off. She was winning, she could feel it.
“This is for my father.” Li Hua screamed.
“Stop it,” Seren shrieked.
But just as Xia girl was about to deliver the finishing blow, she felt a sharp pain rip through her side. She looked down, her eyes widening as she saw the gleaming blade of a hidden knife protruding from her side.
"You..." Li Hua gasped, stumbling back as Seren pushed her off.
"I-" Seren blinked, as she wiped the blood off her knife. “There. I gave it back.”
“Seren Hawke!” Xia Li Hua murmured, desperately trying to breathe. “You are… one MAJOR…”
“Oh, come on. It’s not even that bad. You can heal from it.” Seren rolled her eyes. “It's not even that deep.”
“No, you…” Li Hua gasped. “Y-You… don’t understand. That blade…” She almost choked the last words out: “...is made of…”
Seren raised her eyes, as she dropped down. She looked at the blade and her eyes widened. “No… no, no, this was banned centuries ago…”
Li Hua’s colors grew paler and paler. Her skin quickly took on an ashen color as her breathing died out slowly.
Seren touched Li Hua’s wrists. Her face paled.
[Dieze: “She’s dead.” X]
Steven:
He glanced ahead. It didn’t look like there was much he could do… so maybe he should just back away slowly from the scene…
[Dieze: “Seriously.” X]
Steven:
[Dieze: “Look at the netting, can you see it?” X]
Steven looked… ahead. He honestly didn’t see much.
Although there was this tiny number floating in the air.
He slowly touched it, but where his fingers touched, two more numbers trailed out.
“Huh…” He poked it again, and more numbers trailed out. Wherever his hands went...
[Dieze “Not like that.” X]
Then what?
[“Try feeling for it and moving it back.” X] Dieze started giving him a bunch of instructions, which went on for such a long time, it was like being instructed to make coffee except the steps were out of order.
Finally, with one accidental brush of the finger, a hole opened, and his arm almost went through.
Oh great, not again…
[“Careful,” Dieze warned. “Next step, please do exactly what I tell you.” X]
Dieze told him to walk in. Steven did not want to walk in. Dieze told him to walk in… Steven walked in.
[Inside… LOCKED… ERROR 403: ACCESS DENIED…. LOADING NEW SCENE…]
When he stepped out, he blinked, a sudden wave of exhaustion hitting him.
[Dieze: “Look to your right.” X]
Steven turned his head, only to get whacked on the head by a human body. His head plunked down. Dieze… why.
Wait…
And at the top of his vision, his augmented contacts displayed a relentless timer:
5:00….
4:59…
4:58…