CHAPTER 3: SS FLAME

RO….. RO…. The name sounds awfully silly, but I wanted to keep it short and simple. A name that people wouldn’t have trouble pronouncing or typing, it was convenient.

Immediately entering the class, I already faced a dozen faces shift towards my direction. I kept my posture and head low, I didn’t want to divert attention to myself. I think I’ll just remain inconspicuous for the year.

I took a seat in the back row, there weren’t many students that were sitting near me. However, there was one student in particular who sat right next to me. He glanced over at me before returning his attention to his phone.

This was awkward, I wasn’t sure what to do.

Should I try to initiate a conversation? The person looked older than I was, not to mention, he was taller as well. He didn’t really seem approachable from the presence I felt from him.

It took a while, but after a couple of minutes, he decided to talk to me.

“Yo.” He said, turning his head over to me. His voice was low-pitched and he had this stern-expression on him.

I turned my head over to him, raising my posture up so I could look a bit more presentable. “O-Oh.. hey.” I stuttered on my words, damn it. The first words that come out of your mouth basically set up most of your persona, so I wasn’t doing a good job at this.

“What’s up?” He asked.

“Uhh, nothing much... Just waiting for class to begin... What’s your name?”

“Flame.”

“Cool name, my name’s Ro.” Flame sounds like a name that a fourth-grader would pick, wonder what was going through his head when he made that name. Maybe usernames can be changed though, who knows? Though, in the gymnasium they made it clear that once you select a username, it cannot be changed.

I’m not sure why.. But ok.

“Ahh, cool name bro.” He then proceeded to turn to his phone again. I didn’t respond, I wasn’t sure what to say.

Shortly after, the bell rang. The students turned their attention over to the front of the classroom. It gave off an eerie vibe for some reason.

Our teacher walked in, she was a beautiful young woman who seemed to be of French origin. She had long, silky brown hair and a gorgeous face and a well-endowed body. She was wearing a pink dress with cauliflowers imprinted all over it and beautiful red heels. a good summer-aesthetic, she has a good taste of fashion. The male students were stunned and in love with her already, you could tell just by looking at their faces.

Flame had an erection that I could see with my peripheral vision, oh boy.

The teacher walked to the front of the room, right in the center. Everyone’s eyes followed.

“Good morning class, I will be your homeroom teacher for English. Pleasure to meet you! My name is Agnès Estelle, but you can just call me Ms.Estelle. I’m 24 years old, and I was recently admitted to teach talented students such as yourselves.” She had an awfully lovable-vibe that I just couldn’t seem to explain, she was cheerful and didn’t stumble on any words. Not to mention, her beauty complemented her even more.

Flame gently touched his crotch to relieve some of his pressure, yikes. He made a gentle moan that most students in the back row were able to hear, they let out a small chuckle and proceeded to listen. I was tempted to do the same, but for the sake of my reputation, I won’t.

“We’ll begin with a little game so we get to know a bit about each other.” She grabbed a small plastic ball that was on the counter. “Here’s how the game works. You throw a random classmate the ball, and then that person will have to say their username, age, their interests, and their dislikes. I’ll start with myself, I love reading, writing, and I despise people who pick on others.” She then threw the ball to a random classmate in the back row.

“My name’s Raysen and I am 14 years old, I love playing video games and I hate horny people!” He turned over, smirking towards Flame and throwing the ball to him.

Flame was unable to catch the ball, it almost seemed like Raysen missed him intentionally. Flame got up from his seat, and then proceeded to grab the ball. He faced the class’s direction, and looked slightly awkward. He wasn’t in a good position here, the students at the back row were trying to hide their laughter. Ms.Estelle looked confused.

“Uhh, so my name is Flame. I like playing video games, and I hate losing.” He then tossed the ball towards me, sitting down on his chair and hiding an embarrassed expression.

“Hello, uhh.. My name’s Ro. I’m awesome at sports, but I will only play with you sometimes because uh.. I am really busy usually. I also love anything related to Math and Science, and I am very talented at these subjects. I hate bullies.” I threw the ball to a random person, I think I nailed it.

These were all blatant lies though, in reality, I’m nothing.

The class continued to play the game, and then we proceeded to do some basic grammar overview from last year.

Class was over.

In case you’re wondering, this school does not have many periods. There are 4 in total. 1 for your homeroom class where you’ll learn about the subject you registered for. Before entering the school, you can select 1 course you’re primarily interested in. The class will teach you the majority of that content, while it covers a small amount of the other courses. It may seem like a stupid idea, but remember, most of these students are extraordinarily-gifted. In the end, these students are learning much more content than an average high schooler. Also, based on your FSIQ, you’re assigned to a specific class that suits your abilities. I didn’t take the test so I was automatically placed in the 130-135 pair. There are roughly 6 rankings in total:

ENHANCED 130-135 The lowest of the bunch, don’t get me wrong though, these students are still in the top 2 percentile of intelligence. TALENTED 135-140 Exceptionally bright, a good percentage of the school would be placed in this category. ELITE 140-145 About 20% of the school’s population would be placed here or higher. PROFOUND 145-150 Less than 10% NEAR-ABSOLUTE 150-160 Less than 5% ABSOLUTE 160+ Less than 1%

I’m not sure how many students are enrolled at this school, but if I were to guess, probably 2,500 or so. If that’s the case then 125 students would be considered near-absolute or absolute. These students are the ones who run the school, and even if you’re some sort of weirdo like me, you’d be able to gain immense popularity just by having the status of near-absolute or absolute next to your name.

There’s a large list online on the school registry that displays all the names of the students, if you look right next to their name, you can tell what their status is. If you’re a near-absolute or absolute student, it wouldn’t take very long for you to become popular. You could practically get any girl you want, assuming that their status was lower of course. Vice-versa applies. It’s not just girls though, let’s say you want to start a school club, your club would easily be able to gain recognition if you were a near-absolute student as compared to an enhanced student. The staff also takes your status into account when creating clubs, or well, just in general.

This tale has been pilfered from Royal Road. If found on Amazon, kindly file a report.

To sum it up, your status is a good predictor of how successful you will be in this school. Almost everything correlates to your status in some way, that being said, it’ll be very difficult for enhanced students to become popular. It’s not like I’m interested in becoming popular anyway though.

Period 2 is lunch, I walked into the massive cafeteria.

Holy fucking shit…

There was a large stadium, 4K flat TV screens near every table, an arcade, a scoreboard that displayed the scores of live school games, over 30 different fast-food chains, restaurants, and other facilities that were built in the cafeteria. Heck, was this even a cafeteria? How much did they spend on this academy?

There was a live performance that was going on as I walked in, a beautiful orchestra with the cafeteria being completely dark, the light was radiating from the restaurants.

I noticed Flame was sitting alone with some blue-haired teen with pale skin and acne, he looked slim and frail, and his hair looked like a bowl, they seemed like they were the same age. I’m assuming they must’ve known each other. I decided to walk towards them.

“Fuck that nigga bro, he missed the ball on purpose, wallah!” Flame seemed to be venting his frustrations, his use of language though, even for a teen, it was inappropriate. I was younger and I knew better!

He saw me walk towards his direction, immediately he had shut up.

“Yo, you want something?” It was apparent to me that he was irritated from my presence.

“Uh, nah.. I just wanted somewhere to sit.” I placed my lunchbag on the table, pulling out a small bag of Cheerios. It wasn’t as delicate or exquisite as the other foods that the students were eating, but I didn’t really care. They were all eating from plates though so I am guessing it was purchased. There were massive lines around the fast food shops.

“So uh, who’s your friend?” I asked, rolling my eyes towards the blue-haired teen.

“His name is Saike.”

Saike kept quiet, it didn’t seem like he wanted me here either. I probably should have just left, but my intuition was telling me to stay.

“Nice name, sounds pretty badass.” I tried to compliment him to enlighten the mood, though he didn’t seem to like the remark.

I noticed that there were a bunch of cards on the table, they looked hand-made and the drawings were rubbish, the dim-light made it difficult to see what was labeled on the cards.

“Nice cards, are they bought or-”

“We made them together.” Flame jumped in.

“Cool hobby, I think the artstyle could use some work though.”

Instantly, Saike jumped up and had left the cafeteria.

“Shit, did I say something wrong? I really didn’t mean to. My bad bro.”

“Nah, it’s all good. No worries.”

“What are these cards for?” Surprisingly, I was doing okay.. Somehow.

“Nothing, we just make monsters and shit and we battle.” It sounded like a fun hobby, you could pretty much make your own deck and there would be endless possibilities.

“So basically like Yu-Gi-Oh and Pokemon, I would love to try that. By the way, I overheard your conversation from earlier, I’m really sorry about the people who laughed at you for no reason.”

“Nah, it’s chill. Dude’s a dumbass.” He laughed it off.

“Oh alright, mind if I make some cards with you?”

“Nope, not at all.” He chuckled.

We began sketching the artwork for our monsters, we weren’t artists but they looked okay. Though, while we were making the cards.. The bell had rung.

I guess it’s time for orientation to begin.

All students gathered in the gymnasium, we were required to stand still for the entire orientation. For such a prestigious academy, not a good way of presenting your orientation. Me and Flame talked about our hobbies while walking to the gymnasium, surprisingly, we had similar interests. We both stood next to each other amongst the crowd.

A south-asian man appeared on the stage, a well-shaved beard with a strong masculine look, his jawline was developed and his posture was firm and intimidating. He seemed pretty handsome.

“Good afternoon everyone, my name is Mr.Abraham and I shall be your principal for this year. For those of you who came to this academy last year, you are well-aware of who I am. I look forward to being your principal, newcomers and seniors. It’s my job to provide you all with a quality education, and support you in your pursuing your dreams. It’s obvious that all of you have the potential to do so, and it is our job as educators to help you unleash that potential.” He took a short pause, catching his breath and drinking his bottle of water before continuing, there were a few murmurs that I could hear around me.

“This academy has a strict set of guidelines that must be followed, if you fail to cooperate, you may be expelled from the school, depending on the severity of your consequences. I’ll keep it short and simple. First, there is absolutely no bullying of any sort allowed. Secondly, there must be no sexual intercourse on campus. These are all basic guidelines that all of you should know, most schools employ these rules.

However, there’s one particular thing that sets this academy apart from the rest.. And no it’s not the status roles. Soon enough, you’ll find out that this academy has a peculiar way of doing things and assessing it’s students. Every day, a new challenge shall arise that you must all surpass.. Based on your ability-level, aka your status, you’ll be assigned challenges that we think suit your intellectual abilities. Our challenges have been deemed so difficult that many students have attempted to drop out, kill themselves, break school guidelines and fail on purpose. Do keep in mind that we're here to support you in your academic career, our guidance counsellors are here to support you. I promise the benefits of graduating will outweigh your temporary difficulties, rest assure, everything will be alright.”

Instantly, the expressions of the students next to me have changed into utter horror. Just how difficult were these challenges? Shouldn’t the routine be the same everyday? No, I think most students must’ve realized this when I saw their expressions change. 

“These challenges will be extremely-difficult, students. But if you work hard enough, you’ll be able to survive, and if you do make it.. All colleges and universities across the world will take you in, depending on how well you do of course.

That is all, good luck.” Mr.Abraham proceeded to the exit, the gymnasium quickly sprung into panic. I looked over to Flame, and he looked just as worried as the others, no, he looked terrified. His pupils were dilated and his legs were trembling.

“Sorry bro.. I-I have to go.” He walked to the exit of the gymnasium, I couldn’t help but feel bad. But this wasn’t the time to be worried, I had to strategize and somehow get myself out of here. After all, I don’t belong here.

Shortly after, the bells had rung, and it was time for the students to head home.

My, my, what will tomorrow hold?

CHAPTER 3 END