Chapter 18

Yet that boy had been able to stay so close to Beixing, relaxed and at ease, and had subconsciously moved to protect Beixing when faced with Atas's attack.

There was only one explanation:

Beixing was a terrifying presence in the eyes of other Esper Ability Users. In the white-haired boy's eyes, he was a weakling who needed his protection.

Having analyzed the situation this far, there was only one possible truth.

Whether in terms of abilities or mental power, the white-haired boy was not only stronger than Beixing, but stronger than an S-rank ability user as well.

Through rigorous analysis, Atas reached a conclusion.

Atas: "..."

Was this the kind of strength a Class F student should have?

Or had the Seventh Hunter Academy turned the natural order on its head, with Class F actually being the strongest?

No, no, no...

His assignment was to "investigate the truth behind the Esper Ability Crystal Ball's shattering." What was the point of analyzing all this? Realizing it belatedly, Atas took a deep breath and furiously raked both hands through his blond hair.

He hadn't washed it in six days, and the hair wax he'd applied on the first day of the exchange was still in it. Atas's hands came away greasy and disgusting. But he had no time to be disgusted by them now.

The bus jerked to a stop, a black car blocking its path. The car sent to take him back had arrived.

He hadn't found anything out. How was he supposed to explain himself when he got back?

Sitting in the black sedan taking him back, Atas couldn't sit still.

...Why not just pin the blame for the crystal ball's shattering on that white-haired boy...? Whatever the case, the crystal ball had shattered in Class F.

And the white-haired boy, whose ability and mental power surpassed those of an S-rank ability user...

Was also in Class F.

It was a perfect fit, wasn't it?

Seventh Hunter Academy.

A student from the Class F cafeteria had been sent to the infirmary. Qi Yue had prepared an explanation in advance and waited for his homeroom teacher, Liao Yuanliang, to question him. Yet by Saturday, when word spread that the exchange students from the Sixth Academy had been sent away, his homeroom teacher still hadn't come looking for him.

Yes, Qi Yue had only learned after the incident, through the gossip circulating in his class, that the emotionally unstable student who had played with fire at the slightest disagreement in the cafeteria that day was a fellow named Atas Fu'aoqi, an exchange student from the Sixth Hunter Academy assigned to Class A.

Qi Yue: "..."

As expected of an academy for "battle-loving hunter Esper Ability Users." An exchange student ending up in the infirmary was just an ordinary incident, "not worth caring about or wasting time questioning the people involved to learn the truth."

Thinking about it that way, the Hunter Academy seemed even more dangerous.

After the F cafeteria incident, the panel hadn't issued a judgment. That accidental "duel" hadn't fallen within the scope recognized by "copy," so he hadn't obtained the cool fire ability of the blond exchange student who was in Class A rather than "love Class E." He didn't meet the conditions for obtaining a forum account.

Given the current state of his ability, he absolutely couldn't go up against anyone whose ability strength he didn't know. He could only stick to his original plan, advance to Class E through the monthly assessment, and obtain an ability there. He needed to improve steadily, not blindly raise his upper limit.

Since things had come to this, he might as well start by stuffing all the teachers' knowledge into his brain.

As long as stuffing it in didn't kill him, he'd keep stuffing it in for all he was worth. It was all fate.

With no certainty that his ability would be useful, this was the best choice he could make.

With the matter settled for now, Qi Yue put it out of his mind and threw himself into a more intensive "private" training and knowledge-stuffing plan.

The Seventh Hunter Academy held five classes a week.

They were:

Monday, physical combat.

Tuesday, magic.

Wednesday, Superpower Potential Activation Class.

Thursday, dissection of Aberrant species.

Friday, humanity and nature.

From the perspective of his ability, which had so far been completely useless, Qi Yue categorized the classes as follows:

Jian Haosen—physical combat = a course on maximizing physical attacks.

Bai Yening—magic = a course on maxing out defense.

Liao Yuanliang—Superpower Potential Activation Class = practice time for other courses, depending on the circumstances.

Yan Feichen—dissection of Aberrant species = a course on learning the bodily structures and weaknesses of Aberrant species.

Tang Xuefeng—humanity and nature = a course on using nature's gifts, including but not limited to landscapes, disasters, and other phenomena, to achieve the desired objective or result.

Although Teacher Tang's teaching philosophy was to help students learn to live in harmony with nature, Qi Yue thought that making use of each other was also a way to coexist "harmoniously," wasn't it?

Qi Yue's guiding principle was to make use of everything he could to maintain the persona that made others wary of him, while ensuring his own safety in the dangerous Hunter Academy.

To avoid being disturbed and for safety, Qi Yue and Beixing stayed together every class.

Not only did Qi Yue pay complete attention during class, but afterward, he actively avoided the other students and sought out the teachers in private.

The teachers' treasured personal textbooks, knowledge they hadn't shared in class, unique items they had made in private, and so on—Qi Yue wouldn't pass up any opportunity to learn ways to stay alive.

Even on Saturday, Qi Yue didn't stop working to grow stronger.

"Teacher Bai, the book you're holding wouldn't happen to be one Qi Yue borrowed from you too, would it?" Tang Xuefeng was holding two books she had written and drawn in herself.

Qi Yue had asked to borrow them. No teacher disliked a student who was eager to learn and ask questions, so she had readily agreed. But she hadn't expected this. Tang Xuefeng looked at the exceptionally thick book Bai Yening called "black magic."

Qi Yue had borrowed quite a lot.

"That's right." Bai Yening nodded.

"You two are here too." Jian Haosen held up nine books in one hand. "Here, the seven on the bottom are Teacher Yan's dissection records of Aberrant species. The two on top are my own illustrated compendium of physical training for Esper Ability Users."

Jian Haosen bounced the nine books in his hand. "Qi Yue told me, 'If it's convenient, I'll take them all.' It's more than convenient for me! Oh, right, another Aberrant corpse was found. Teacher Yan went to dissect it and asked me to bring these to Qi Yue."

Such an eager Class F student, and he was studying physical combat, the very subject Class F looked down on most. As the physical combat teacher, Jian Haosen was delighted.

The three Class F subject teachers gathered in a corridor where sunlight spilled through gaps in the vines. They looked at the books in one another's hands, then exchanged glances.

Tang Xuefeng: "...Qi Yue didn't borrow 'quite a lot.' He borrowed just a hundred-million little bit too many."

"Agreed." Jian Haosen emphatically nodded.

Bai Yening raised an eyebrow, appreciation in her eyes. "As expected, the reason the strong are..."

"Good morning, teachers." The boy's voice rose slightly, his steps unhurried.

Qi Yue carried five bags, containing gifts for the five subject teachers. Although he refused to see his homeroom teacher, Liao Yuanliang, who taught Superpower Potential Activation Class, because of his ability, he could ask Teacher Jian to deliver the gift for him.

A perfect person wouldn't play favorites when dealing with people who, as far as he was concerned, had no major flaws.

After exchanging greetings, Qi Yue first took the textbooks from the teachers and put them away. Then he presented the gift bags to them one by one with both hands, offering an explanation without being asked.

"Teacher Tang, these are samples I made based on your descriptions in class. I hope you like them."

"Teacher Bai, this is a 'magic array' I made following your guidance. I hope I haven't let your guidance go to waste."

"Teacher Jian, Beixing said you like eating this. He and I made it together for you."

To make these gifts—nothing overly grand, but things the teachers truly needed, gifts that weren't merely superficial and would make them happy—and thereby cultivate his persona as an "omnipotent all-around genius," Qi Yue hadn't slept a wink the night before.

Behind his perfect smile and alert appearance was a desire to drop off to sleep... Wait.

Footsteps behind him—

Qi Yue's pupils contracted slightly. The next moment, he heard the voice he'd deliberately been avoiding behind him.

"Why are they the only ones getting gifts, and not me?"

Liao Yuanliang's voice was faint and plaintive. "As your homeroom teacher, and my Superpower Potential Activation Class—what exactly do we amount to in your eyes?"

Chapter 18

"..."

Qi Yue didn't know what his homeroom teacher and his class amounted to, but he knew very well that his ability amounted to "copying nothing but loneliness." Having it was no different from not having it. What he feared had truly come to pass. Murphy's law never disappointed.

"They're all classes just the same. You ought to treat them equally, Student Qi Yue." Qi Yue's silence hadn't produced the result he wanted. Liao Yuanliang kept pressing as he drew closer.

Qi Yue: "..."

Was it that he didn't want to? No, he simply couldn't.

Qi Yue was miserable, but he couldn't say any of those things that would ruin his persona. Secretly taking a deep breath, he turned around and let his lips curl naturally into a smile.

As it turned out, people could still smile when they were at a loss for words over themselves.

"Teacher Liao." Qi Yue's tone carried a timely hint of helplessness.

To avoid having the truth judged a lie, Qi Yue dressed it up with some careful wording. "No one knows better than you what consequences Beixing's ability can cause, do they?"

Qi Yue first used a verbal trap to imply that his ability was connected to Beixing's, and therefore—

He couldn't use it "as he pleased."

Because his ability was similar to Beixing's, it would hurt others. Naturally, he refrained from using it for everyone's safety.

The logic held up.

Having set his verbal trap, Qi Yue shrugged and calmly stated it as a matter of fact. "I don't want what happened in the F cafeteria to happen a second time."

Qi Yue was glad that, back in the Class F cafeteria, he had deliberately let slip that his ability was similar to Beixing's in order to prevent incidents like the one with the blond student.

In a context where logic and facts reinforced each other, combined with his homeroom teacher's prior intention of deliberately using words to force him to admit to his "ability," those three stacked buffs all lent greater credibility to his answer now.

Using his ability was something the current Qi Yue absolutely couldn't do. He could only use a "reason" his homeroom teacher couldn't reject, along with the "answer" his homeroom teacher had anticipated after hearing the rumors, to shut him up. The first time was unfamiliar, the second came easily, and Qi Yue handled it with practiced ease. Along the way, he also fleeced his homeroom teacher of a little something called "guilt."