Cain was still angry as he watched the movie. The worst thing wasn’t even the act, it was what Arthur said afterward. That stupid, idiotic argument irritated him to no end. Arthur had no right to say it was too harsh a reaction. In truth, it wasn’t Cain’s place to get involved either, or he knew it, but he sure as hell wasn’t going to heal the guy. If Abigail or Sarah had asked, he would’ve considered it, but they seemed just as furious as he was. Well, they had twenty minutes ago.

Now, Abigail hid behind Sarah whenever anything remotely suspenseful happened in the movie. She was one of those people who was bad with horror, really bad with it He had seen her close her eyes whenever a jump scare was about to happen, and she was glued to Sarah’s side permanently. Sarah’s butler outfit was incredibly striking considering how tall and slender she was. However, it did make Abigail seem even smaller and more childish in comparison. The oversized pink sweatshirt with the comic cat on the front was childish. The way she clung and hid behind Sarah reminded him of his own sister. That in turn made him even angrier about the situation earlier.

He wasn’t really even watching the movie. Not because it wasn’t interesting, but because he had seen it three times already. One of which had been on the ride here. He loved the vampire movies in the series since the actors were impossibly beautiful. The movie even played it up a lot, so that the horror in the later parts would be even more disturbing. Abigail’s attitude now wasn’t a good sign for the later parts. Those two weren’t the only people at their table though.

There were five of them standing around a circular table and watching the movie at the far end of the room. The whole wall was actually a screen, so a tiny part at the bottom was hard to see. He knew how to adjust the screen, so it fit better. A year working in a theater taught those kinds of things, not that he planned on helping Arthur at the moment. Was it petty? Yes. He knew it too.

His eyes drifted from the screen to Sabrina and Maya. The flashy all-pink girl that was Maya and the sophisticated scholar of Sabrina didn’t match, but he learned that they were friends for a long time. They were talking about something, and he overheard Clo’s name being mentioned. Now, that was something or someone, he wanted to talk about. It would help get his mind off things too. How would he jump into the conversation though?

“Uh, I wonder if Clo will show up?”

He whispered a little, but there was a general din of noise in the room already. Most tables still had quiet conversations despite the movie. The only people that weren’t speaking were the ones actually watching it. The others at the table, not including Abigail who was focused on the film turned to him. Sarah raised her eyebrow at him, and he flushed a little. It sounded a lot more natural in his head. He realized that he was now the third wheel to two different pairs. How had that happened? Maybe he should find another table, but after his argument with Arthur, he wondered if he could join one. That thought made him feel like an idiot. He really was bad at this whole being social thing. Maya saved him from his embarrassment.

“I doubt it, I sent him an email, but he has not responded.”

Clo blinked a few times at her statement. Everyone except Sarah gaped at her for a moment, but even her eyes widened a fraction. The universal exclamation ‘what’ came across and Maya blushed a little as she responded.

“I figured no one told him, and he doesn’t seem like the type to check the forum. And everyone’s emails are public information, so I thought why not. It wouldn’t hurt to make a good impression, right?”

More silence. That was all the response Maya got and looked around a little too quickly. Her face reddened deeper.

“Okay, and he’s hot. Is that a good enough reason?”

Everyone was silent for a moment longer, but he and Sabrina nodded at that. That just meant her crazy vs. hot barrier was a bit further than his. Or maybe not. He had considered approaching Clo himself but decided against it. Clo didn’t exactly hand around after class or in public areas. Cain would know too since there was always a bubble of space around the guy. It was pretty easy to notice him. Maya seemed relieved to see the nods. Sabrina, who was nodding paused.

“Maya, I told you he was dangerous. I specifically said to stay away, didn’t I? I distinctly remember you promising that you weren’t a part of, nor the creator of his fan club.”

Maya gulped hard at the venomous tone in Sabrina’s voice.

“Now wait a second. I didn’t do those things. The fan club has very strict rules on how to even talk to Clo anyways.”

“And you know that, how?”

Sabrina was not letting her friend off that easily, so Cain decided to offer some help.

“There’s a fan club? Like a real club for him?”

Maya spun toward him so quickly that he had to lean back to avoid her hair. She sighed in relief as she looked at him.

“It’s not just him. There is a list of like thirty people who are being worshipped for one reason or another. Although they are all hot. Here, I can invite you to their stalker forum. I mean their picture forum, which is totally legal under school rules.”

Cain stared at Maya as she glanced back at Sabrina. Cain glanced at Sabrina, whose expression told him it was better to not get involved here. On the other hand, he was interested in those pictures. He decided the best way to respond was to lie.

“Nope, I’m not interested at all. You definitely should not send me an invite to the forum.”

He didn’t say the words sarcastically since everyone could hear, but he nodded his head furiously. Maya and Sarah were the only ones actually looking at him. Abigail was back in the movie when a suspenseful moment arrived, and Sabrina was glaring at Maya’s back. He saw the invite in his ocular implant. It appeared just kind of appeared. He flinched a little when it arrived. He still wasn’t used to the thing. Then he opened up the forum and scanned through it. There was a list of the thirty people, and it was a ranked list. It wasn’t based on their rankings since Clo was in the top ten. Abigail was actually on that list too, although she was near the bottom at 28. Arthur was down there with her just one place ahead. He was surprised to see that Sarah wasn’t there. He guessed that was because she was intimidating, and he knew that most guys didn’t like that.

Everyone also had a title to go with their position. Abigail’s nickname was a little mean as she was dubbed the ‘Disney Princess’. Arthur was ironically just given his full name along with the king prefix. It fit him for as strange as that was. Clo’s was weird though, as he was named the ‘Devil Delinquent’. He wasn’t a delinquent as far as Cain could tell. He didn’t skip class and was one of the few people that looked like they were paying attention. Beyond that, other than the incident a few days ago, it wasn’t like he had done anything. They had had three classes, and if anything, he seemed to excel in them. If not for his attitude and appearance, he would probably be the opposite of a delinquent. Devil fit him just fine though.

“What do you think he’s up to?”

Maya broke his focus, and he quickly closed out of the forums. The pictures were very distracting. They weren’t inappropriate in any way, but everyone in it looked stunning. Most pictures were just of their faces, and it had shown a group of people that could rival the best actors. He was more than a little jealous. Hiding his blush, he responded to Maya.

“What? Oh, you mean Clo. I have no idea. Brooding?”

“Training.”

Sarah’s response was both unexpected and curt. It was so surprising, that Abigail literally jumped like a startled cat. Maya stared at Sarah with a little hostile curiosity and spoke.

“You sound pretty confident. Are you in the fan club?”

“If you mean the forum, that you invited healer Cain to, then yes. Beyond that, I am in no external club. I know he is training because of his public status. He had updated it to get into some of the more advanced elective classes.”

Sarah spoke flatly to Abigail. For some reason, Abigail was giving Sarah a very pointed glare. He somehow felt the word ‘never’ radiating from her. Srah just sighed, and Cain checked Clo’s public records himself.

Name: Clo Vilnius

Home World: Atreus Academy World 3

Grade: E

Rank: 77

Physical Grade: 1.5

  Strength: 1.4

  Dexterity: 1.5

  Speed: 1.6

Mental Grade: 1.6

  Reflexes: 1.4

  Intuition: 1.4

  Fortitude: 2.0

Gift Grade: E

Gift (E): Personal Vault (Upgradable)

Gift (F): The Brittle Blade (Upgradable)

Recognitions: None

Cain actually hadn’t checked anyone’s entire public record yet and stared at the numbers in amazement. He had known that Clo was good, but that was just unfair. Those attributes plus 2 gifts, one of which was E-grade. Those were incredible but didn’t explain how Sarah knew about the training. He eyed Sarah and curiously asked.

“I mean it’s impressive, but how do you know about the training?”

Sarah rolled her eyes at him, but she replied politely.

This story is posted elsewhere by the author. Help them out by reading the authentic version.

“I had checked his records when I first saw him. His numbers were far lower, although those had been four months old now since they would have been from when he first registered for the academy. Either way, his improvements would be impossible without constant training.”

“Do you have the old ones? Can I see them?”

Cain looked at her curiously and spoke. She sighed but nodded and sent him a different screen. He looked at the new information and just stared dumbly at them for a moment. Those improvements were insane. Clo had nearly improved in every category, and his intuition went up by a lot. Cain glanced at his own status and stared at the lack of similar improvements. A person’s ‘screens, as they were commonly called, could actually check and see what improvements he had managed.

Name: Cain Wolfe

Home World: Atreus Academy World 3

Grade: F

Rank: 1285

Physical Grade: 1.40

  Strength: 1.4 (1.3)

  Dexterity: 1.4 (1.3)

  Speed: 1.4 (1.3)

Mental Grade: 1.33

  Reflexes: 1.3 (1.2)

  Intuition: 1.5

  Fortitude: 1.2

Gift Grade: F

Gift (F): Cellular Regeneration

He found that he could alter his screens a little bit, at least how they presented information. The old numbers were displayed right beside the new ones now. His improvements were marginal in comparison to Clo, although he had been higher on average than Clo before. Still, it showed the difference in their effort clearly. It was a very clear indicator that he just hadn’t been trying. He guessed that was the difference between four months of effort vs. laziness. Cain had exercised, but he had done the bare minimum. The consequences of that laziness were made evident. Then, out of pure curiosity, he checked the others at the table. He shouldn’t have checked, because now Sarah was way more intimidating.

_____________________________________________________________________________________

Clo P.O.V

Clo climbed to his feet. His knees shook a little, and he brushed at the sand marring the back of his pants. He glanced around the empty training and wondered if he should run another simulation. It might be enough to improve his reflexes if he did it again. Then he glanced at some vomit in the corner and decided against it. Training until he vomited was about as fun as it sounded. Thankfully the training ground was empty, so no one saw him throw up. This training ground was his personal one. Everyone in the top 100 got one. His was simple, bare of anything but sand. Everything he needed came from the semi-physical simulations that the room could create.

His training thus far had involved fighting a group of three simulated opponents. They had random weapons and styles but didn’t have any special gifts. Even still, it was hard, and he lost more often than not. That being said, the teacher’s advice worked. It was easier to improve when in a fight, even a simulated one. Still, he felt like he was improving too slowly. His mental attributes were mostly easy to improve, but his physical stats felt low. Strength had been a particular struggle for him, and he couldn’t understand why. He had sent the teacher an email about it earlier and wondered if he got a reply.

He walked toward the entrance of the room, where a bench and his backpack lay. He practically fell onto the bench and pulled out his tablet. Idly, he longed for one of those optical implants everyone was using. He would prefer the contacts, but he would take the glasses if they were available. Sadly, the school didn’t provide those for free. They just gave out tablets instead. He touched his thumb to the screen, and only then did the screen flash to life. Ignoring the notes, he had pulled up, he clicked on the email notification and saw two new emails. One from his teacher, and another from a student. What? There hadn’t been a single student who actually talked to him, and yet he had an email from one. He clicked it, more out of curiosity than anything else.

Hello Clo,

This is Maya speaking. I’m a student in your class, I sat beside Sabrina if you remember her. She was one of the people who ran for the class leader thing. Also, I have pretty amazing pink hair. Anyways, I don’t know if anyone told you, but we are having a movie night tonight. I’ll put the theater’s location at the bottom. There was actually an open invite on the forum, but I didn’t know if you would check it, you seem like the type who wouldn’t. Not that that’s a bad thing, and I’m rambling. Anyways I just wanted to let you know.

From,

Maya Winters

P.S. I wrote this via speech and didn’t edit it, though you can probably tell.

Location: 47 W Retro St.

Clo stared at the entire message for an entire minute after he finished reading. Did people really talk like that? More importantly, who wrote things like that? The weirdest part of it all, he felt somewhat pleased by the message. Maya had talked to him like another student. He would never claim to be lonely, but It couldn’t hurt to speak to someone else. Over the past few days, he had relaxed significantly. He no longer felt as hostile toward the other students. Some of them were annoying, but most just ignored him. They watched him, but nobody really bothered him. Now, he kind of wished some people had.

His mind made, he decided to respond to the email. The next ten minutes went by without him so much as typing a single letter. He couldn’t even figure out how to address it, let alone how to respond. It wasn’t that he had no idea, rather everything he thought of felt rude or fake. Then he had to wonder when was the last time he had a real conversation with someone. The trial didn’t count, he wasn’t even himself in that. Although, if he considered how long he had been stuck in there, it had been a long time. Another five minutes had passed, and he realized it had already been over since the message was sent. He decided it was best to start, and not care about how it sounded too much.

Hey Maya,

Thanks for the invite, but I don’t know about a movie night…

He paused and wondered why he was rejecting the invitation. This wasn’t the trial. He could make actual friends here. He told himself that, unable to accept that the people in the trial could be real. Images of the dead flashed in his mind, and his gaze grew distant. Blank, empty of any emotion. It lasted a moment, and he shook his head to banish the lingering pictures. It wasn’t real! He screamed the words silently, his mouth moved along with the thought. He forcibly dragged his attention away by clicking on the teacher’s email.

Hello Clo,

I am glad to see that you are improving so quickly. It is a mark of effort that you have already reached one of the barriers I was going to speak about in class. When you feel like the numbers aren’t changing anymore, that is likely because you haven’t rested enough. Sleep Is the fastest way to rectify this, but simply taking it easy for a couple of days would work just as well.

Essentially, your body needs to adjust. The muscles, nerves, and everything else need to grow. Right now, your stats are at the limits of what your body can handle. Once you sleep or rest for a few days, your body will adjust to the changes. Normalizing them in a sense. Then you can start training again.

From,

A Teacher of Great Wisdom and Power, Mr. A

ALSO, I WILL BE BANNING YOU FROM THE TRAINING ARENA UNTIL THURSDAY. GET SOME SLEEP!

Clo frowned at the message and wanted to disregard it. Even after all his improvements he still felt inadequate. Too many students surpassed his attributes. His physical ability felt especially poor. No matter what other people thought of him, he knew that his rank was carried by his gifts and recognition. Neither of which were things he could fully utilize without getting himself killed. Those thoughts actually made him calm down. Why was he panicking over a reply to an email? If his secrets came out, he would be hunted like a pest within the hour, and here he was, worried about an email. It was laughable, and he turned back to his draft.

Thanks, I’ll be there in half an hour.

Clo

It was undoubtedly a terrible email. It would be worked better as a text, but the school didn’t share students' phone numbers. Now he just needed to take a shower and wash off some of the dirt. Rolling around in the sand for several hours left him dirty and sweaty. He started walking toward the shower rooms and clicked on the location in Maya’s email. The theater was twenty minutes away. Well, that didn’t give him a whole lot of time. He needed the shower though, so that meant he would be running to the place.

Clo arrived five minutes later than he had indicated. It was bad form, but again, it wasn’t something that mattered when compared to everything else in his life. No one would say anything to him about his late arrival either way. In fact, now that he was outside the building in question, he wondered if this was still a good idea. His reputation was in a weird place. He liked the solitude and freedom it provided, but it was growing excessive now.

Fuck it.

He strolled into the building, the thought buzzing in his head as the doors slid open. The interior of the building was weird. He had never been inside a movie theater before, and he stared at the computers laid into a section of the walls. He walked over to one and stared at the screen. Different movies and times flashed across the screen. It was cycling between movie posters and discounts on foods and drinks. That was probably where he would buy a ticket. Now was not the time to stare at a ticket dispenser.

He moved past them and saw several darkened hallways. Numbers were listed on the walls, and he had to open the door labeled one to find out what was inside. He actually had to press a physical button to make the door open. The noise of which echoed through the movie theater. Inside were empty flat rooms with a single enormous screen on one of the walls. The entire wall was a screen. This was what a movie theater was? It was pretty bland. His training ground was grander this, and he was fairly certain he could play movies in there. Why would someone pay for this? He shook his head at the notion and turned to find the room with people.

There was only one room that had any sound coming from it, so it wasn’t that hard to find. With that being said, it had taken him an extra five minutes to find it. Again, it didn’t matter to him. He was confident he could beat most people if a fight broke out, and he didn’t think much worse than that could happen.

The room was hidden behind a single metal door. It rose up into the ceiling as he pressed a button on the right side of it, and it was loud. He hadn’t considered the noise. Every single head in the room turned to him in alarm, and he wondered if they were doing drugs or something. Clo didn’t know Maya, nor did he know what slang people used here. Movie night, as Maya had put it, could be anything. It could be as literal as it sounded, or it could be a drugged-up orgy. He wouldn’t know either way, and, only now, did he consider it. Thankfully, no one was naked, though he might be with how much they were staring at him. Nearly everyone in the room seemed frozen. The exceptions he saw were Sarah, Arthur, and Maya. He could identify her by the pink hair she had mentioned. As for the other two, Sarah seemed unimpressed, and Arthur was approaching him directly.

The door closed behind him, as Clo walked up to Arthur. The man smiled, although it was clearly strained. Clo began to wonder if he had been intentionally excluded from the event, and that maybe, Maya hadn’t known. Alternatively, this could be a prank, or they were about to murder him. He put even odds on any of those possibilities and shifted his weight in case he needed to fight. He would kill at least ten of them if they tried anything. He nodded at the thought, but Arthur took the nod differently. He must have interpreted it as a greeting because he nodded back and spoke loud enough for others to hear.

“I’m glad you could make it. We got pizza on every table, and drinks are in that corner. I didn’t think you would come, what changed your mind?”

He was being friendly and familiar, and Clo noticed several people relax at the tone. Arthur was not as dense or direct as he pretended. That significantly raised Clo’s opinion of him. Despite that, Clo didn’t reply politely.

“I finished training.”

His words were said flatly, and they were accompanied by a shrug of the shoulders. Arthur continued to smile, though now it looked more like he was baring his teeth. Kind of like a rabid dog. Clo didn’t know why exactly he was antagonizing the guy, but his instincts told him it was the right move. He wouldn’t doubt those instincts, not after. His eyes flashed with a different image. A friend’s head slowly rolled across a battlefield. Clo felt his heart quicken, and he resisted the sudden urge to kill Arthur. His hand twitched, but he covered it by holding it out to shake Arthur's hand. That gesture only confused the man, but he nodded and shook it firmly.

“I don’t know why you’re really here, but don’t start anything.”

Arthur whispered those words, and Clo rolled his eyes at him. He knew from experience how stupid that type of warning was. In most cases, it would cause an incident in itself. Was Arthur secretly hoping for a fight? Clo wouldn’t give to him either way. Mostly, because he was exhausted. He had trained the entire day, and his muscles ached even now. He walked past Arthur after and didn’t have to search for the very noticeable pink hair.

Maya was at a table with four others, and he recognized all of them. The maid he wanted to turn into one of his people. The naïve princess who the maid currently worked for. Sabrina, the nerd, who he thought would also make for a good servant. And finally, the healer, who he wanted more than anyone else. A healing gift was more than a castle to someone without it, and Clo knew that he would be competing with every major family for them. They were staring at him as he approached the table, and some of the looks were definitely hostile. He still approached and spoke with a wave of his hand.

“Hey, Maya.”