Chapter 3

As expected of ability awakeners who were eager for a fight.

Qi Yue: "..."

The situation was more than just bad. It was a disastrous start.

He had to do something to turn things around.

"Good morning, everyone." Qi Yue tried to ignore the clusters of creepy Mosaic features and offered a gentle smile with a trace of aloofness.

He couldn't let people get too close to him. That would increase the risk of their discovering he was an "ordinary person." So he could show goodwill, but he had to keep them at a moderate distance. Whether through his actions or his words, he had to remain "ambiguous" while maintaining an appropriate distance.

"My name is—"

Qi Yue turned and wrote his name on the blackboard. "Qi Yue."

When he turned back around, Qi Yue was smiling, but his voice was flat. "I'm glad to be your classmate."

Qi Yue had only introduced himself by name and expressed a degree of friendliness. As for the rest, if they didn't ask, he wouldn't tell. Even if they did ask, he might not answer, and even if he did, what they ultimately understood might not match what he had meant.

In short, he couldn't let his strength be easily assessed, lest it bring a deadly disaster upon him. Still less could he lie.

The Class F students: "..."

The room was deathly silent.

On the platform, the red-eyed, white-haired young

man held his

chin slightly raised. Though he was smiling, his voice was cold. His introduction sounded more like an arrogant announcement.

The truth behind that perfect smiling mask became even harder for them to discern.

They had to admit that, without them noticing, the mysterious transfer student named Qi Yue had taken control of the atmosphere in the Class F classroom.

Liao Yuanliang's smiling eyes wandered between Qi Yue and the students before he abruptly began to applaud.

Clap, clap, clap.

"Ha ha ha, welcome to Class F, Qi Yue!"

Aside from Homeroom Teacher Liao, who was trying to liven things up, no one responded.

Qi Yue: "..."

Tsk, things are worse than I imagined.

It seemed his little show of goodwill meant nothing to these battle-hungry Esper Ability Users. They didn't even deign to maintain a show of friendliness and peace with him.

Qi Yue sighed deeply to himself.

"Qi Yue, please choose your seat." Though the locations for most classes weren't fixed, each of the seven grades, from S to F, had a dedicated classroom.

They were currently in Class F's dedicated classroom.

The classroom was large, with desks connected in an arc and one chair for each person.

But there were quite a few people in Class F, and they occupied almost the entire room. Only the back row and the seats closest to the front remained empty. The front row was empty because no one wanted to be too close to the teachers, and the back row... was because of Beixing.

Hearing this, Qi Yue looked at the student still lying motionless in the left-hand corner.

He had noticed the seat in the back corner the moment he entered the classroom.

The seats all around him were empty.

The panel hadn't told him why the Class F students had health bars above their heads. Qi Yue guessed on his own that the length of the bars might represent their strength.

The other student was probably the strongest in Class F. There was no doubt that, with his Schrödinger Ability currently at zero, he was the weaker one against someone with an ability. That satisfied one of the panel's conditions: "the stronger the opponent, the stronger he becomes."

So, according to the panel's description of his ability buff, if he wanted to establish himself in Class F, his ultimate opponent would certainly be its strongest student. That was the student in the corner with the longest health bar.

Know yourself and your enemy, and you'll win every battle. Although he still didn't know the conditions for copying the other student's ability, it couldn't hurt to get closer and observe him first.

Whether because of the other student's strength, or because it was an ideal location to secretly observe him and everyone else in Class F,

or because he wanted to avoid getting too close to the crowd and maintain an air of mystery and distance, the seat behind the sleeping student was his best choice.

"Teacher Liao, I've chosen."

Qi Yue raised a hand and pointed to the farthest corner of Class F. "There."

"What?"

Seeing the direction Qi Yue had indicated in a calm voice, Liao Yuanliang's smile stiffened for a moment. "Qi Yue, are you sure? Would you like to choose another seat?"

Qi Yue refused. "No need."

The young man's refusal was calm and brooked no argument.

The Class F students sucked in a breath.

The more casually he acted, the more it proved he had absolute confidence and certainty in his own strength.

Liao Yuanliang reminded him again, "Qi Yue, do you know what it means to sit behind Beixing?"

Beixing?

So his name is Beixing.

Qi Yue put the thought aside. It meant he could observe the strongest person in Class F's every move, and use everyone's wariness of Beixing to keep them from approaching him and keep himself safe. Two birds with one stone.

The curve of Qi Yue's smile didn't change. "Of course."

His guess had been right after all. The health bars above the students' heads really did represent their respective strength. Beixing truly was the strongest person in Class F. Even the homeroom teacher was starting to worry that he, a transfer student, would be bullied if he sat behind Beixing.

Despite the homeroom teacher's thick eyebrows and small eyes, he really was a wonderful person.

The Class F students: "..."

What an arrogant, confident attitude. This transfer student named Qi Yue really was no ordinary person.

From Qi Yue's perspective, all he saw were human bodies with Mosaic faces turning in unison toward the spot he had pointed out.

Qi Yue: "..."

Even so... watching all those human bodies with Mosaic faces turn in unison is really creepy.

Liao Yuanliang adjusted the black-framed glasses on his nose, his expression returning to normal. "In that case, never mind."

The transfer student had chosen that seat despite knowing what it meant to be within a meter of Beixing. He had to have his reasons.

Challenging the strongest person in the class on his first day as a transfer student. Was he trying to show the other Class F students how powerful he was? Or... did he have some other designs on Beixing?

In any case, he surely had a way to deal with Beixing's contamination. Otherwise...

A faint glint flashed in Liao Yuanliang's eyes behind his thick lenses.

Why else would he be so determined to choose a seat within a meter of Beixing?

Everyone at the Seventh Hunter Academy knew, apart from the Old Humans without abilities... Of course, aside from Jian Haosen, Class F's physical combat teacher, the entrance screening would never admit an Old Human who hadn't awakened an ability. Naturally, there couldn't be a student without an ability at an Esper Hunter Academy.

In short, every ability user who came within a meter of Class F's Beixing would, at best, suffer a mental breakdown and, at worst, melt into a puddle of... minced meat.

The area around Beixing was always empty.

Qi Yue looked away, nodded slightly to the homeroom teacher, and walked toward the corner seat he had chosen.

Led by Homeroom Teacher Liao Yuanliang, nearly all the students fixed their eyes on Qi Yue.

Ten steps... three steps...

Only one final step remained.

Would he overestimate himself and turn into minced meat? Or would they witness a miracle?

"..."

Why is everyone staring at me?

Qi Yue didn't understand. He strode forward, taking the final step from outside the one-meter range...

Chapter 3

Even Mosaic couldn't stop him from feeling his classmates' burning gazes.

Qi Yue couldn't ignore them.

It was too strange.

Whether it was the homeroom teacher or his classmates.

No matter how he looked at it, the seat he'd chosen was perfectly ordinary.

With everyone watching, the foot in the combat boot, carrying all their expectations, suddenly withdrew.

Clear disappointment appeared on the faces of the Class F students.

"...?"

What the hell! He did that on purpose, didn't he?

Qi Yue turned around. Unfortunately, no one could make out expressions on Mosaic faces.

But the Mosaics were all looking at him in unison. Anyone with a brain could guess they meant no good.

"Everyone."

To make everyone less wary of him, Qi Yue did his best to make his expression look

relaxed

, raising his eyebrows slightly and letting his tone rise.

He couldn't ask them "What are you looking at?" or "Why are you looking?"

"Like what you see?"

It was both a rhetorical question and a genuine one. It depended entirely on how they understood it.

It neither exposed the weakness of his knowing nothing nor kept him from stopping himself, appropriately, from taking a step that might lead him into a trap, buying him time.

If he was lucky, perhaps he could get some information about their unusual behavior out of his classmates or the homeroom teacher.

The students: "..."

He hadn't stopped earlier or later. The transfer student had suddenly pulled his foot back right as the outcome was about to be revealed.

After deliberately interrupting the scene they wanted to see, he turned toward them with a gentle, harmless smile on his face, and his tone was gentlemanly.

Yet they sensed a hint of malicious, playful wickedness hidden beneath that smile. His curved brows and eyes seemed to be admiring the overly tense expressions on their faces as they waited to witness a miracle—or a disappointing scene.

His slightly raised, cheerful tone seemed to say, "Is a little thing like this worth making such a fuss over?" They were being utterly uncouth.

Of course, such crude words could never come out of his mouth.

Those nobles who called themselves highborn and always kept power and money in their hands were always like this. They used approachable warmth as a disguise, calling it the innate gentlemanly bearing expected of nobles.

It was nothing more than a trick to make manipulating people easier.

The white-haired, red-eyed young man before them illustrated this perfectly.

They might be the inferior Class F, but they weren't stupid fools. They were certain that was what transfer student Qi Yue's expression was saying.

He knew perfectly well what they were looking forward to, yet deliberately kept them in suspense, teasing and fooling them for his own amusement.

That damned mutation had created new humans, so why had it included the filthy Old Nobles in its scope too?

Qi Yue: "..."

Why isn't anyone saying anything?

They're really good at keeping their cool. I need to keep talking...

"Old Liao, what are you dawdling for? We've been waiting forever, and no one's come to class!"