"What does a night guard do exactly?" one of the students asked, voicing the exact question John had in mind.
"Don't tell me you're aiming for the lowest spot right from the start!" the teacher joked, once again pulling the blue potion from his bag and twirling it between his fingers.
"You should all be aiming for this beauty. But to answer your question: that unlucky student will stay up all night, patrolling three buildings. He'll be making sure no one stays out too late or hangs around outside their dorms."
'I like it!' John thought, barely restraining himself from laughing out loud. For a moment, it felt as though fate itself was conspiring to assist him. Being a night guard was effectively a legal pass to wander the administrative building under the guise of patrol. It was the perfect cover for his infiltration mission.
However, John still had a target to investigate. Since he had the right to challenge anyone, he decided to test the waters with the most mysterious variable in the room: Ricky.
The teacher scanned the crowd before adding, "Let's start the game, shall we? Start challenging your first opponents. Sparring will happen five battles at a time..."
As his words landed, the teacher began organising the chaos. He brought several red cones out of nowhere, placing them around the hall to mark five wide sparring arenas, leaving plenty of space for the rest of the class to stand back and watch.
John prepared to step toward Ricky, but before he could take a single step, a familiar blur flashed in front of him.
"I challenge you!"
Cissel stood directly in his path. She raised the same finger at his face, her eyes burning with an intensity that seemed to vibrate.
"Didn't you tell me to stay the fck away from you?" John asked, momentarily speechless. Even though she was one of his targets, he hadn't planned on confronting her this early, especially with her aggressive nature.
"Some idiots don't learn the lesson unless it's hammered hard into their heads with fists," she said, slamming her two fists together with a heavy thud. "Say your prayers, boy. I won't go easy on you."
John sighed. He didn't know how to respond to her "unique" way of communicating. But as she had pointed out, some people really didn't learn until they faced a hard reality. He intended to be that reality for her today.
As if the other students sensed a dangerous pressure radiating from the pair, they instinctively cleared a path. Even the two students who had been preparing to use the nearest arena hurried away without a word, sensing that this wasn't a match they wanted to be caught in the crossfire of.
"Don't think you can fluke your way around me. I'm not like that loser Alfred," she barked the moment they both stepped inside the red cones.
John didn't bother replying. He instantly activated his Frame Recognition ability, his vision snapping into the familiar world of green wireframes and pulsing codes. He was ready.
Through his sight, he spotted her special white codes beginning to glow. They started humming in a sharp rhythm, and he knew she was about to activate her superpower right from the kickstart.
"I'm coming! Best to use all the tricks you have, because nothing will work against me!" she shouted in a weird, excited tone. Her personality seemed to shift instantly; the isolated, cold girl was gone, replaced by a battle-hungry warrior who appeared to enjoy the prospect of violence to a terrifying extent.
'Something isn't right,' John thought.
As she lunged toward him, he analysed her structure. Her white codes were brightening and vibrating in perfect synchronisation, powering her speed and strength. Yet, his eyes caught something else. One specific code remained dimly lit and perfectly still, isolated from the rhythm of the others.
Yet he didn't linger for too long over this discovery. She was moving fast towards him, and he could easily see where she was aiming.
'A headshot right from the start, she is quite ferocious indeed,' he inwardly smirked, preparing to easily evade her attack. He shifted his weight, anticipating a standard physical dash, before the unexpected happened!
Out of the blue, her speed suddenly tripled! In the blink of an eye, she vanished from his direct sight. Luckily, his Frame Recognition provided a panoramic view, so he easily spotted her the moment she reappeared with the corner of his eye.
She had crossed several meters in a single breath, manifesting at his flank while jumping into the air. She twisted her body with predatory experience, landing a fierce, horizontal kick aimed directly at his neck.
"Not this easily!" John bellowed back.
He hurriedly raised his arm to intercept the hit, bracing for the impact of a physical blow. Yet, when their bodies touched, something entirely new happened.
As he moved to block her attack, he saw a glimpse of her internal structure at the point of contact. That single, previously isolated code suddenly flared, shining brighter than any of the others. It began moving in a frantic rhythm that looked totally different from the steady hum of other codes.
In the next second, an unexpected series of system notifications flared up in front of his eyes, making his pupils dilate with shock!
[Ding! Warning! A collision with a "Suction Force" has been detected!]
[Ding! Comparison Analysis: As your Intelligence and Strength stats are similar to the enemy's, you will not be sucked dry!]
[Ding! You have lost five Mental Points!]
John's mind spun hard as he processed the notifications. He instantly linked the sudden drain to that weird code that had only activated the moment she made physical contact with him.
'Dammit, girl! You have two types of superpowers?! Are you a monster or what?!!' John couldn't help but scream inside his head.
He had been looking for a weak point to teach her a lesson, but he had stumbled upon a hidden secret instead. Before he could even recover his stance, a final notification popped up, changing his expression entirely.
[Ding! Warning! You will lose more points if you are hit again!]
The system's warning came just in time. Cissel pushed off his arm, her feet skidding across the reinforced floor as she coiled her muscles, preparing herself for a second round. He was already low on points from his earlier experiments, and he couldn't afford to let this "vampire" touch him again.
"Screw it! I forfeit!"
Without flinching or showing a hint of shame, John raised his hand high and withdrew from the clash, announcing his loss to the entire room.
"I don't give a damn! I will teach you a lesson today, no matter what!" Cissel shouted, her eyes wide with battle lust. She ignored his surrender, launching herself forward for another strike.
John braced himself, accepting the inescapable fate of losing more Mental Points. But if so, then he intended to return the favour doubled, and prepared his fists for a barrage of punches once she'd hit him.
"Who said you can break my rules?"
Like a cheetah, the teacher appeared in the centre of the ring, accompanied by a sudden gale of wind. With terrifying precision, he caught John's arm and Cissel's flying leg simultaneously, halting both of them mid-motion.
"You heard him; he admitted his defeat," the teacher said, his voice dropping to a dangerous, low frequency. "Take your win with pride and don't tarnish it by breaking my rules!"
The teacher didn't just speak; he projected a layer of threatening aura that felt like heavy lead in the air. John saw it clearly: the teacher's blue codes were slowly humming, glowing slightly brighter than their dormant state. He was ready to teach Cissel a very painful lesson if she remained stubborn.
"Fine," Cissel spat, shrugging herself free from the teacher's iron grasp. She landed on her feet and threw a look at John—the kind of look that could kill. "Consider yourself lucky today, pretty boy!"
John didn't say a word back. He focused on stabilising his breathing and checking his status. He had lost five points in a single second. If he had stayed in that fight, he would have hit another Mental Burnout within a minute or even less.
He freed himself from the teacher's grip, nodding respectfully to the man before stepping out of the ring. The teacher watched them both, his eyes moving with pure interest between the two.
"It seems this year's cubs aren't half bad," the instructor muttered in a low tone, a small, amused smile playing on his lips. He had accidentally found two explosive gems in a single class, and he seemed eager to see them collide again.