Nathan shrugged his shoulders and looked at the student he had been hitting, who was lying on the ground unconscious.
He looked at him coldly for a moment, then turned his face and smiled at Stephen.
"So, shall we go collect points?"
Stephen was silent for a moment, then nodded in agreement.
Nathan spoke,
"That's good. I want to do missions."
David nodded in agreement with Nathan's words, and the three left the place.
During the period Nathan spent inside the academy, his reputation improved a little. This was because he didn't deliberately cause many problems, especially after meeting Stephen. He had calmed down a lot—so much so that Ira was able to notice it as well.
Also, after cooperating with David and the students to eliminate the monsters, his reputation improved as well.
The students thought that the mad dog of the Anderson family had begun to improve, so some students saw an opportunity to improve their relationship with him. A few students even took the step of joining the group he was in, but—
Because of this incident just minutes ago, his bad reputation returned to what it was before, and the students began avoiding even looking at him.
On the way to the mission hall, Nathan smiled at Stephen and David and spoke,
"Do you think I'm crazy too for doing that?"
Stephen and David stopped walking and looked at Nathan.
Stephen could hear the whispers of the students around them, but he felt strange. Nathan didn't seem like someone who would care about people's gossip. Why was he asking this question?
David frowned and spoke,
"Who told you that you're not crazy?"
"But from knowing you now, I know you won't do anything unless others do something to you first."
"So let them bear the outbreak of your madness since they tried to play with it."
Stephen admired what David said. He didn't think someone like David would say such words.
Stephen nodded and also spoke to Nathan,
"I'm not you, and I don't know what's happening with you, but I think you know what you're doing. Even if what you did seems wrong to the whole world, I trust that what you're doing isn't wrong… maybe."
Nathan was stunned by their words. He lowered his head, covered his face with his hand, and began laughing.
"Hahaha, you guys are really amazing."
David crossed his arms in annoyance and spoke,
"Come on, I want to do missions. Let's go, and don't ask obvious questions again."
Nathan laughed and nodded his head.
The three arrived at the mission complex. It didn't seem crowded with students like the first time they visited it. Of course, unusual things become normal with time.
At first, everything in the academy was unusual for students who had just entered, but with these things present daily, they got used to them and didn't feel an urgent need to try them, so student gatherings around them became lighter.
The complex was very spacious and elegantly organized inside. There were even seats inside, and several boards were hanging on the walls with papers attached to them.
The three stood in front of the boards and began looking at the posted missions.
There were different types of missions, and all of them were useful for training students.
Some required stealth, some strength, some speed, and some intellect.
The entire academy was designed as a suitable place to train students.
After looking at the missions, the three chose a suitable one. The contents of the paper were as follows:
[
Mission Title: Paper Butterflies
Story: A magical book exploded in one corner of the library, and its pages separated, each page turning into a paper butterfly. The paper butterflies spread throughout the entire northern section of the academy.
Duration: One day
Tasks:
1. Capture all the paper butterflies, totaling 200 butterflies.
2. Arrange the pages in order and return them to the book.
Important Information:
The paper butterflies are very fast and may hide in strange places or be difficult to find.
Mission Completion Reward: 300 academy points
]
Stephen felt a bad feeling because of the information in the mission.
'This mission is strange.'
The three went to the employee who registers students and registered their names and the type of mission they had taken.
The employee spoke with a professional smile,
"Now you can place a drop of your blood on the paper, and after completing the mission, the paper will return to the mission board and you will be automatically recorded as successful."
"As for the academy points, they will be divided equally and transferred directly to your charts."
The three nodded, pricked their fingers, and placed drops of their blood on the paper.
Suddenly, the paper disappeared from in front of them, and in its place appeared three rods with hunting nets.
The mechanism of these missions relied entirely on illusion. Since illusion skills are common in the world, they are used in many tools, including these illusion papers.
These papers display an illusion to the people who placed their blood on them, and other people cannot see or even touch this illusion.
Nathan grabbed the hunting net in his hand and looked at it curiously. After examining it a little, he swung it toward David's head.
David's head got caught inside the net.
"Hey, what are you doing?!"
David was surprised at first, then felt angry.
Nathan removed the net from David and replied with an innocent face,
"What? I just wanted to see if it would pass through you."
David clenched his teeth.
"If you want to know, how about I show you my net too?"
Then David swung the net toward Nathan, but Nathan dodged it quickly.
Nathan dodging the net only increased David's anger toward him.
David didn't calm down until his net managed to reach Nathan.
Stephen looked at them, then shook his head. A small smile appeared on his lips, barely noticeable, then disappeared when he noticed a white paper butterfly flying in front of him.
"That's enough. We should start catching the butterflies now. This is the first one."
Nathan removed the net from his head and looked at David with a smile.
"Let's return to our original goals now."
David removed the net, then looked at the small butterfly that was about to leave their sight.
The three followed it quickly, and it led them outside the academy.
They stopped running and widened their eyes, looking at a pile of butterflies spreading in all directions.
Stephen felt like he had chosen an extremely annoying mission and spoke to the three,
"Let's split up and meet every three hours in front of the mission complex to know how many butterflies we've collected."
David and Nathan nodded their heads, then David lifted his head proudly.
"Yes, I'll get more than both of you."
Nathan raised his eyebrows, then smiled.
"You won't."
David looked at him in annoyance.
"We'll see."
He turned and went north, while Nathan shrugged and went west, and Stephen went west as well.
After Stephen managed to find and catch ten butterflies flying in the air, he began facing a dilemma with the places where the butterflies were hiding.
Now, one was standing on the ear of a girl with vivid, beautiful green hair.
Stephen silently looked at the girl, then approached her.
"Excuse me."
The girl looked at Stephen in shock. What was happening? Why was a beautiful boy talking to her?
Many questions were spinning in her head as she was about to ask him if he wanted something.
Suddenly, the beautiful boy raised his hand and touched the tip of her ear with his little finger, and her body trembled from the touch.
She looked into the boy's eyes that shone like rubies. His face was extremely close and extremely beautiful. The girl completely blushed.
Then Stephen spoke,
"There's something stuck in your ear."
After saying this, Stephen turned and left quickly.
The girl's legs couldn't support her, and she fell to the ground, her nose bleeding a little.
Stephen placed the butterfly he caught in his hand into the net, and the butterfly immediately turned into a page after being placed inside.
The other places where the butterflies hid were no less strange. He found one under a teacher's desk, one in a chandelier hanging in one of the corridors, one in the academy cafeteria kitchen, and other strange places.
But now he stood silently in front of the girls' bathrooms.
He had seen with his own eyes a butterfly enter the girls' bathroom. Stephen silently looked at the bathroom door, then turned to leave.
'I'll leave it for last.'
After three hours, the three gathered.
David looked extremely tired, while Nathan had a naturally smiling expression.
Nathan asked David with a smile,
"How many did you collect?"
David was silent for a moment, then answered,
"Forty-five butterflies."
Nathan laughed loudly.
"Hahaha, I'm higher than you! I collected fifty-three."
David clenched his teeth, suppressing his anger, then asked Stephen.
There was no doubt that Stephen had a lower number than him, since he was the weakest among them.
Stephen spoke,
"Fifty-five butterflies."
David widened his eyes and pointed at Stephen.
"Liar! Let's see."
Stephen shrugged and handed the net containing the pages to David.
David counted them with a frowning face. When he found the number exactly as Stephen said, he clenched his teeth.
Nathan looked at David's expression with amusement, then finally burst out laughing.
"Hahaha, this means you have the lowest number among us! Hahahaha!"
David frowned and spoke in annoyance,
"But the places of these butterflies were really strange."
Nathan nodded and smiled.
"Yes, these butterflies are mischievous."
Stephen spoke,
"Have you both finished your areas?"
David and Nathan nodded, as they hadn't found any more butterflies in the areas they searched.
Meanwhile, Stephen had left that butterfly for last to catch, not even mentioning it.
Then he spoke,
"Now only the southern section remains, and only forty-seven butterflies are left."
Nathan spoke,
"Let's catch them together this time."
Stephen and David nodded their heads.