Mo Bai's Department Assignment

After coming to Star Torch Academy, defeating the Voidworm, and making two good friends in Lynae and Rover, Mo Bai's life had almost settled into the peace he'd always wanted.

At least, that was before Star Torch Academy officially assigned him to a department.

"What?! The Label Development Department?!"

Mo Bai huddled with Rover and Lynae around the notice that had arrived on his terminal. It felt as if the sky were falling.

"Wow! That department of all places..."

Even Lynae, usually so carefree, recoiled from the timetable displayed on Mo Bai's tape.

Apart from the final evening study period on Wednesday, every slot across the other six days was full!

Mo Bai thought he'd misread it at first.

Oh god! This was nothing like the college life he knew!

"Lynae! I need your truancy tips!"

Mo Bai immediately turned to Lynae for advice.

Seeing that expression on the face of the once-lifeless Mo Bai, Lynae couldn't help grinning.

This was fun.

"Still, this is a good thing in a way," Rover said.

"The Label Development Department trains qualified candidates to become Tunnelers, so it has more educational resources than the other departments."

Rover explained it to Mo Bai.

Her words sounded reasonable, but Mo Bai's eyes were full of resentment as he looked at her.

"But whenever Rover's had free time these past two days, she's driven out of the Academy. She doesn't have to worry about classes at all," Mo Bai grumbled.

Rover scratched her head awkwardly.

The gesture made Lynae and Mo Bai pound the floor in their minds.

Damn it! So this was the power of special privileges?! Being able to skip class whenever you wanted, without even asking, sounded amazing!

Over the past two days, Mo Bai had visited the library and asked I.R.IS. for details about the Black Shores.

It was Solaris's foremost organization in the fight against the Threnodians, and its word carried enormous weight in this world. Even the construction of Star Torch Academy had required its approval.

The Threnodians were people within the Black Shores capable of standing on their own—elites among elites.

And judging by Doctor Lu's farewell to Rover in the Medical Room, she was one of them.

Rover had gotten him, someone with no legal identity, straight into the academy. She had to be exceptional even among the Threnodians.

All right, so he had one piece of good news and one piece of bad news.

The good news: his friend had serious connections. If he worked hard and graduated, maybe he could rely on her.

The bad news: Rover was strict about some things. At least for now, he couldn't count on her to help him skip class.

"Hehe. You could always talk your troubles over with your other friend."

Lynae slung one arm around Mo Bai's shoulders and pointed her other thumb at herself.

But with that smug look on her face, she seemed less interested in helping Mo Bai than in laughing at him.

After all, she wasn't the one facing a nearly full timetable six days a week.

"Tch! I'm going for a drive. My dear friend, you can enjoy your lonely life in the prep class all by yourself!"

With that, Mo Bai sank into the shadows and vanished from the bench, leaving Lynae to topple sideways as she lost her support.

Oof.

But Rover was beside her, so Lynae didn't fall onto the cold, empty stretch of bench.

"That jerk! He nearly made me fall, and then he had the nerve to say he was going for a drive right to my face!" Lynae fumed, leaning against Rover.

Rover could only give a wry smile and try to smooth things over.

"Mo Bai didn't mean it. He knew I was here to catch you. And... he was probably in a hurry because he had something to do. Yeah."

Rover didn't believe that last part herself.

Mo Bai had practically ground out the words "dear friend," then deliberately mentioned going for a drive to rile Lynae up.

He knew Lynae was still grounded and couldn't take part in her favorite activity: street racing.

Rover wasn't worried that this would damage Mo Bai and Lynae's friendship, though.

The fact that they could squabble so freely was proof of how close they were.

Vroom!

Mo Bai emerged from a shadow by the Academy gates with his Motorcycle.

The shadow storage space of the Ten Shadows Technique should, in theory, have no spatial limit. What limited how much it could hold was the technique's wielder.

Everything stored in the shadow space added its weight to the wielder's body.

In other words, if the wielder was strong enough, storing an entire building wouldn't be impossible.

Mo Bai certainly couldn't do that yet.

With his old physique, he couldn't have carried a building—or even one of Star Torch Academy's high-tech Motorcycles.

Fortunately, Cursed Energy bolstered him and gradually reshaped his body. He was far stronger now than he used to be.

Screech!

The Motorcycle's brakes shrieked across a patch of grass outside the Academy, and Mo Bai jumped off.

"Time to begin..."

Murmuring to himself, Mo Bai formed the hand sign to summon a Shikigami.